Marvel V DC - THE PRIZE IS BILLIONS - Let the battle begin.

With Batman and the Avengers raking in mega money, it seems that the superhero movie is now considered a sure thing at the Box Office. Marvel currently rule the roost with several successful franchises on the go, while DC this month saw the end of their most profitable superhero franchise with The Dark Knight Rises. DC, who practically invented the superhero genre when Action Comics set Superman on the world, are pinning their hopes on yet another Superman reboot with The Man of Steel, but Variety reported this week that the studio have now kick started The Flash, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Lobo, The Suicide Squad, and Shazam into production.

Warners who own the DC rights have named Christopher Nolan as the man in charge of their superhero line, and he'll act as producer on most of them and, it is hoped, direct several titles himself. Nolan already has a producers credit for the forthcoming, Man of Steel, and it will be interesting to see if he'll accept control of the DC universe from Warners. This will guarantee him big bucks but will limit him from other projects.

Whatever happens it is a sure thing that Marvel and DC will be battling it out on the big screen, and although DC have Batman, arguably the greatest superhero of them all, it is Marvel who have the stronger characters. Marvel's superhero comics have traditionally been edgier and that little bit cooler than DC. The geeks know it and Aquaman, one the characters DC are pinning their hopes on, sucks! Remember the Big Bang Theory episode - DUDE, AQUAMAN SUCKS! - and there is even an Aquaman Sucks Facebook page HERE.

Marvel on the other hand are sitting on sure things with - Iron Man 3, Captain America 2, Thor 2, Spider-Man 2 and the big one Avengers 2, and that's not to mention the possibilities of the Hulk now that the Avengers movie invented a successful version of the character. It seems DC needs Man of Steel to be a success. I saw the teaser trailer just before The Dark Knight rises at my local multiplex, and it looked darker than we are used to with Supes. It's interesting sure enough but can dark work with Superman?

The battle though has already begun and Marvel are way out front - recent years have seen a string of mediocre DC movies, Jonah Hex, Green Lantern, while Marvel seem to be on a roll , ahh not including the Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four flicks of course.

Round one to Marvel then, while the second round seems to be wide open...BIFF, BASH, POW


An interesting side point is that although Marvel seem to be doing better in the live action stakes, it is DC who are the kings of the animated movie, and several excellent animated movies have come from DC characters over recent years, and these animated flicks may point the way to how DC should handle a Justice League movie. Justice League: The New Frontier, a 2008 direct-to-video animated movie was excellent, and showed how the characters can work in relation to each other. And guess what - Aquaman didn't suck.

 Though for the best in animated movies you're back to Batman and Christopher Nolan's finished the character off, in terms of live action movies...for the moment, at least.