One of the questions that I’m always asked is he who is better, DC or Marvel. During the 90’s I would say DC but since the release of the first iron man leading into the Avengers, and the Man of Steel leading into the Justice League, I can say for certainty that like Superman, the answer is in the sky. We certainly got a lot of representations and adaptations of these heroes. Some have been spot-on while others have greatly lacked. I can personally say that there are some DC movies that no matter how old it gets, I will always take a look back and then there are some at which I can say I’m done after the first watch. Here are some of the movies and tv shows from marvel that I consider the cream of the crop. I’m staying on the live shows cause we all know how amazing the animated shows and movies are and that deserves its own article.
Superman The Movie: 1978
This movie is timeless. No matter how many have come after, Christopher Reeve was the best Superman. Along with Gene Hackman playing Lex Luthor, this movie was a mirror image of the golden age of comics. The feats that this Superman did are incomparable. He literally changed the rotation of the earth, rewinding time. That’s insane. What other Superman has done that? But it wasn’t just the feats this Superman did that made this movie so great. All the characters portrayed in this movie seem to have just jumped off the comic strips right down to Perry White’s catchphrase, “Great Caeser’s Ghost!” This movie is fun, it’s human, and was all around best superhero movies ever made.
Batman: 1989
There was no way I couldn’t include this movie. Tim Burton’s, Batman was my introduction, and I have been a Batman fan ever since. Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson were the perfect pair to bring this hero and his arch enemy, The Joker, to the big screen. When this movie came out, there were hardly any seats in the theater and to this day is still considered the best Batman with Christian Bale’s Dark Knight coming in hot at second. Although this is arguable, I personally think that this adaptation is way more brooding and honest to the source material. The world build looks like nowhere you have ever been, and you could feel the crime from your seat happening in Gotham. This is the most gothic style of Batman ever and hasn’t been compared to yet.
The Watchmen
When this movie came out a lot of people didn’t know that this was DC. So let me give some context before I explain why this one is on my list. Heroes like The Watchmen, Constantine, Hell Boy, The Sandman all comes from Vertigo Comics, an imprint of DC comics. Vertigo was a more mature and grittier evil twin of DC and the stories here were not for the faint of heart. Basically, this was the comics growing up with you. The Watchmen was a very unique story with the most unique heroes. Only one had any real superpowers and everyone is a moral flaw. These aren’t the truth, and justice heroes at all. These are the heroes that on sight and a bad day might send someone to the hospital. Yes, they are considered heroes and not antiheroes because they are shaped by what the world thinks, and the world influences them. This is counter cultured from the main DC heroes who shape the world based their influence on it. This movie hits home honestly in a lot of ways, but one in particular. How long is a hero a hero until that hero becomes a villain, and does a person need to become a villain to be the hero? This movie is film noir at its best and also worth a re-watch.
Everyone growing up in the early 2k years were relating to at least one of these characters. Nobody who was into it missed one single episode of Smallville. It was the most consist of and the most beautiful tale of Clark Kent ever on tv. Notice I said Clark Kent and not Superman. David Carridine said it best when on Kill Bill Vol.2, he said Superman wakes up Superman and goes to bed Superman. Clark Kent is the mask he puts on as reflection of what he thinks about us. This coming-of-age story gives us a lot of insight about the mindset of Superman as he goes through his adolescence and into man hood. This show was the catalyst for the arrow verse which I still believe should have been called the Smallville verse. It was that good and ran for 10 seasons. Even the end wasn’t crappy. This is easily one of the best DC live shows ever made.
2005 brought us Keanu Reeves as the Hell blazer himself. So now we didn’t get the British accent but all the same this is a cult classic. I honestly hope he comes back for a sequel cause this Constantine has not yet been matched. Even the tv show wasn’t as good, if at all, then this movie. DC Vertigo fans were buzzing when this title came out, and who better to play the cynical wise cracking Dr Strange of DC than Keanu. While the accent was all that was lacking, he really was the embodiment of Constantine. There were a few things I had against it as a DC Vertigo fan, however. I had hoped they would focus on his fight with Nergal, the demon who gave Constantine his first cigarette. However, the focus on Constantine’s redemption after trying to commit suicide during his youth, all the while battling the son of the devil which worked. And we got Papa Midnight which was just icing on already good cake. This movie is worth a re-watch and should be on everyone’s list of top superhero movies.
I’ll bet y’all didn’t know this was also DC. Now not all heroes wear capes and fight aliens and super bads. You still don’t want to cross them. Yes, they are retired but still extremely dangerous hence the term, R.E.D. This movie did not get the notice that it should have but I will say it was probably done for the true DC fans out there. To give some context, this was a miniseries centered around a retired CIA agent, MI6 agent, a Russian KGB veteran, and two very high skilled assassins. Simply put they were Task Force X before Task Force X. The premise is that Paul Moses, played by Bruce Willis is trying to figure out who’s trying to kill him, which turns out to be the CIA. Since his R.E.D label and his time in the CIA makes him a threat in the civilian world, they opt to try to eliminate that threat. They should have left him alone. This action comedy is worth the time it took to make and is entertaining all the way to the end. This is a much watch for DC fans.
The Dark Knight
No true DC fan would let me live it down if I didn’t include this one. The Dark Knight is a masterpiece. This is why I said earlier, this Batman is a hot second and that’s arguable. Watching this movie made me feel I could see all the events play out on the news. It felt real world. Heath Ledger did such an amazing job with the joker character that the Joker became a study case. Seriously, he nailed it. But it wasn’t just the bat and the clown that made this movie work. Aaron Eckhart playing Harvey Dent/Two Face felt so right. There was no denying he looked exactly like the comic book counterpart. It was amazing. I also loved the balance between action and drama. The absolute madness of the Joker was not only accurate, but terrifying. One of the most iconic things about him was, and I don’t think this is talked about, how he was able to get so many people to agree with him or be under his authority. I mean the guy is absolutely unhinged, and yet so relatable. If you have never seen this movie, I highly suggest it, but don’t skip Batman Begins. And once you got those two movies under your belt, you might as well watch Dark Knight Rises, your deep in the bat cave by then.
The Justice League: Snyder Cut
We can hang and burn that Whedon crap to the ground and say this version is the one and only version of this movie. Mandela effect that garbage. This was way better and plugged a lot of plot holes. The characters were way better represented and Snyder deserves flowers. Now why is it on my list? Cause I watched this more than once and it’s just as good as the first time. Yes, it was long, but it was what we needed in those Covid months. We weren’t doing anything anyway. I will say that the movie was more focused on the Cyborg origin than on any other character but that was ok seeing that everybody else got their own movie, except Batman. To be honest, I didn’t mind Batman didn’t get a movie in this verse. It was good enough they got a Dark Knight Returns accurate actor to play this version. The story with Snyder made so much more sense than with Whedon and we got to see Darkseid. I mean an accurate not over the top Darkseid, omega beams and all. Who could deny this cut its place among the greatest superhero movies made? Powers were on full display here and there were some cameos from the DC comic landscape that I did not see coming and was pleasantly surprised. If you haven’t watched this movie yet, please don’t let that Whedon version run you away. Rest assured that Snyder fixed it.