MARVEL VS DC

Hello, everyone!

How are you?

Since tomorrow Netflix is going to release Marvel’s the Punisher and I am kind of fixated with superheroes, I thought: why not doing a comparison between Marvel’s and DC’s TV shows?
Therefore, I decided to do this review and.. Here I am!
Of course, I did not want to claim that I am an expert – because I am not, I have just seen a lot of their shows.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN KNOWING SOMETHING ABOUT PLOTS, AT THE END, YOU WILL FIND SOMETHING ABOUT: The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

But let’s cut to the chase!

Both DC and Marvel have specific features that you can find in almost each show.

Let’s begin from the beginning: the opening.
Marvel loves doing “refined” ones. They are long openings with unique musics and graphics. The first time, they actually impress you, but, in the long run, they become quite annoying and boring.
DC’s openings, instead, are very simple: black background and the superhero’s logo.
But DC has the annoying fixation with always starting with a little recapitulatory monologue by the hero that sounds like:

“My name is Barry Allen and I’m the fastest man alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother killed by something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder.
Then an accident made me the impossible.
To the outside world, I’m just an ordinary forensic scientist, but secretly I use my speed to fight crime and find others like me, and one day I’ll find who killed my mother and get justice for my father.
I am The Flash!”

One of the first things you might notice is also that Marvel’s shows are way darker and more serious than the cheerful ones by DC. This is probably the main reason why I tend to prefer the second ones.
DC’s shows are fun, make your day better making you laugh hard, although (or maybe precisely because of that) they are also quite “trash” (starting from the special effects), while Marvel’s take themselves a little too much seriously for my liking.
But this “taking itself seriously” means that Marvel has special effects, actors, direction, script and photography definitely better.
Let’s say that Marvel is technically superior to DC.

DC, for its part, has the advantage of being much more captivating at the level of stories: they are famous superheroes, with interesting stories (which are explained way better than Marvel’s) and the “rhythm” is speeder.

Instead, Marvel’s shows are more “psychological” and, as a consequence, they are extremely slower and sometimes terribly boring (any reference to Luke Cage is purely coincidental).

Other important factor is, indeed, the superheroes.

DC’s ones are very optimistic and definitely good, moreover, usually, they have a “support team”, they work in team.

Marvel’s, instead, are lonely heroes, always on the edge between “good and evil”. They are ambiguous, pessimistic and evil and good are mixed up because the world is not black or white: grey exist and it is about that Marvel is talking.

The two superheroes, who maybe are in the middle, are Arrow (darker and with a propensity for drastic solutions) and Iron Fist (more fast-moving and with a more “positive” hero, relatively less “broken” and, especially, the show takes itself a little less seriously).
Not for nothing, Arrow‘s and Iron Fist‘s stories, in a way, look alike.

Something that really amazed me watching Marvel’s shows is that, anytime there is a foreigner, his/her original language is kept. As a consequence, you attend complete dialogues in Russian, for example, or in Chinese or something.

I do not know the reason why they made this decision. Anyway, in my case, as foreign language lover, it is lovely, but I realize that, if you are not interested in other languages, these scenes make the rhythm even slower and, sometimes, they seem never-ending.

But there is also a feature in common between the two titans: connection between superheroes.

On the one hand, we have the “Defenders” (Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil e Iron Fist), all linked to Hell’s Kitchen and everybody’s paths end up crossing everybody else’s.
On the other hand, DC makes a lot of “cross-overs”. Both superheroes and super-villains just sometimes bump into each other and fight together and so on. Legends of Tomorrow is, in a way, the “cross-over king” since its main characters come from The Flash and Arrow.

Summing up, if you want a show which is technical good, serious, talking about the rotten parts of society, with superheroes willing to do anything and with villains that can get inside your mind, Marvel is for you.

If you like “comic-looking like” superheroes, a cheerful show, with iconic characters and villains, a rapid pace and with a positive message (and if you do not exactly care about the technical parts of the show), DC is for you.

I do not deny being part of the second category, but, what do you want to do?, I do have a thing for “fables”. I like the serenity, laughing while watching something and, as you have probably realized through other reviews, I do not mind trash shows at all.

 

SINGLE TV SERIES
 
DC

Arrow (6 seasons)

Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), a playboy billionaire, comes back home after five years during which people thought he died in a shipwreck. Back to his beloved Star City, he decides to disguise himself as a hooded vigilante, Green Arrow, in order to fight the corruption that overflows in the city. Standing with him, there are plenty of characters who are revealed during the seasons.

Oliver will fight against iconic villains such as Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) and the Suicide Squad.

The Flash (4 seasons)

Barry Allen (Grant Gastin) is a forensic scientist. After the explosion of a particle accelerator at S.T.A.R. LAB, he is struck by a lightning who modifies his DNA. After a 9-months coma, indeed, Barry discovers to have super-speed. With Harrison Wells (Thomas Cavanagh), Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) – and also thanks to Oliver Queen – he will learn how to control his new powers to fight the crime in Central City.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (3 seasons)
Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) is a time-traveller who decides to go back in time till the 2016 to reclute a team of heroes and villains “not-relevant for the timeline” who will help him to defeat Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) in the past so that the future Rip knows will never come true.

 

Supergirl (3 seasons)

Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) has been sent to Earth in order to protect her cousin, Clark (Tyler Hoechlin), but her ship is deflected and, when she arrives on Earth, Clark is grown and he became Superman. Therefore, Kara decides to live her life as a normal human being and starts working at C.A.T.C.O. WorldWide Media. But one day, because of a plane crash, she is forced to reveal her powers to the world to save the people on the plane. So, she becomes Supergirl, heroine loved by National City inhabitants. From this moment forward, she will join D.E.O. to fight aliens who threat the Earth.

P.S. Do not decide not to watch it just because you do not like Superman. If you like another DC’s show like, for example, The Flash, this series might surprise you positively.

MARVEL

Daredevil (2 seasons)

The lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), got blind as child because of a radioactive accident, has super-developed senses and uses them to fight crime in the city. He is called “Hell’s Kitchen Devil” and he decides to use an appropriate “suit” becoming Daredevil.

 

Jessica Jones (1 season)

Jessica (Krysten Ritter) is a former-superheroine who, after being mentally controlled by Kilgrave (David Tennant) for a not-specified time, becomes a private detective to help people and defeat Kilgrave once and for all.

 

Luke Cage (1 season)
After a sabotaged experiment that gives him super strength and unbreakable skin, Luke (Mike Colter) runs away and tries to start over a normal life in Harlem. He just want to live peacefully, but people need a hero and, like it or not, he ends up becoming one.

 

Iron Fist (1 season)

Missing – and left for dead – for fifteen years, Danny Rand (Finn Jones) comes back to New York City, resolute in taking back the control of his family’s company and ready to fight the crime thanks to his kung-fu mastery and his ability in evoking the incredible power of the Iron Fist.
But the welcome he receives is not the one he hoped.

Guys, of course there are many other TV series both by Marvel and by DC or that are inspired by their comic characters.
To mention some of them: Lucifer, Costantine, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Gotham, Vixen, Agent Carter…
I have simply decided to talk about the most emblematic, according to me.

If you read till here, I truly thank you for your patience and your attention and for giving me all this time.

Let me know what you think about all these shows,

So long!