Spider-Man Vs. Batman

     As the semester is running to an end I am running out of things to talk about so now I'm posting about who is a better superhero, Spider-Man or Batman.
     Spider-Man is a teenage high school student named Peter Parker that receives his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. He's lived with his aunt and uncle since a young age ever since his parents died. Peter's powers give him the ability to cling to walls, and have the proportionate strength and speed of a spider. Along with that he gets a "Spider Sense" which allows him to detect danger and avoid it making it nearly impossible to hit him. Peter is also naturally very intelligent which is how he invented "Web Shooters" that allow him to swing from buildings and trap foes.
     Batman is Bruce Wayne the worlds best detective and also a billionaire. The origin story of Batman changes very often, but one thing usually agreed upon is that a young age little Bruce saw both of his patents murdered which makes him want to put an end to crime in Gotham city. The most interesting thing about Bruce is that he doesn't actually have super powers. He is a normal person that is a master of stealth, extremely intelligent. He can also afford to create a seemingly endless supply of cool gadgets.
     But who would win in a fight? This is an argument that I have gotten into on countless occasions with a surprising number of people. Spider-Man has always been my favorite superhero ever since I was a young lad so obviously I think he would beat Batman. However most people I come across do not agree with me. I attribute that to the movie portrayals of the two heroes. Batman's recent movies have been excellently done and are extremely popular, whereas pretty much every Spider-Man movie hasn't been too great.
      Thanks to the internet questions like "Which fictional character would win in a fight" can be easily answered by people with more than me. Fortunately there is a youtube channel called ScrewAttack that does just that. The team takes the two characters makes stats for them and decides a winner. Afterwards they create an animation to show the outcome.

 

The Fourth Wall

     The fourth wall is a term that comes from the theater. Typically on a stage set there are three visible walls, one in the back and one on the left and the right. The fourth wall is an imaginary wall at the front that is left open so the audience can see into the room and watch the action. This "wall" is used to separate the audience from the action and keep a sense of realism about the story. Television and movies also have their own version of the fourth wall. Although there is no actual wall in those media the camera creates its own. So what happens when some one acknowledges the wall?
      Talking to the audience directly, noticing the camera, or talking about being in a show/movie/book is all called "breaking the fourth wall". Why would someone break the illusion and the reality that is created in their medium? Originally it started out as a comical action. It was funny to see a character realize that they are in some work of fiction and see how they react to it. A character that commonly breaks the fourth wall for comedic purposes is Marvel's Deadpool.

     

     Unlike Deadpool comics some shows will only do it once and awhile for a quick joke. Such as in an episode of "30 Rock" the Character Liz Lemon is talking about how great Verizon phones are and then asks "Can we get our money now please?"

     

     Breaking the fourth wall doesn't always have to be a used in a comedic way some serious dramas break the fourth wall and it at first seems jarring and uncomfortable, but that is the perfect feel to fit a show like "House of Cards". In both the American and the British version the main character Francis will look into the camera and have a one sided conversation with the audience. This makes the character feel even more all knowing and intimidating.

                                   

Bring Our Heroes Home

I've always had a particular affinity for super-hero flicks. Spiderman was one of my first "favorite movies" outside of Disney animated films. I had read some comic books prior to the release of the film, and there was something special about watching the ink leap off the page and onto the big screen. Although I love the Nolan Batman, throughout my life, I've always been an ardent Marvel fan. There haven't been too many "duds" in the Marvel cinematic line-up, save a few, particularly those coming from 20th Century Fox. Recently, Marvel Studios has done a spectacular job under the tutelage of Joss Whedon and Disney. I think they've stuck a chord with the general public, a chord that reflects the nature of the Marvel Comics themselves. However, there is still an incomplete feeling in the total Marvel Universe, stemming from property rights.

In 2012, "The Avengers" became the 3rd highest grossing film of all time, and the highest grossing super-hero film. Although these summer blockbusters usually tend to do really well, there was something special about this film. I think the success of the film derives from the fact that this is essentially a crossover. It takes six heroes, four of whom had modern film adaptions, and pitted them against a common enemy. In each of the previous films based on only one hero, the hero struggles to save the world against a single enemy. If we assume that the badder the villain, the more action there will be, then a villain must be really really bad to warrant six super-heroes, and therefore the film will have a ton of action. In another sense, the very idea that some of a fan's favorite characters will be featured in the same movie is a big enough draw in itself.

"The Avengers" did not reinvent the wheel when it comes to crossovers. Crossovers have been a particularly good way to increase viewership in almost every medium in the past century. Successful video games such as Supersmash Bros. and Marvel vs. Capcom pit different characters in battle. Cartoons like "Scooby Doo" often featured notable celebrities and characters in episodes such as Scooby Doo Meets Batman and Bravo Dooby Doo. There were also numerous Flinstones and Jetsons crossovers. This trend doesn't apply only to cartoons and video games, successful television shows, geared toward adults, share characters, or feature characters from other shows for brief periods of time. There have been numerous CSI crossovers between "CSI: New York", "CSI", and "CSI: Miami". In comedy, the show "Friends" shared the character Ursula Buffay with "Mad About You".


The crossover has been an important tool throughout Marvel's history. There have been 86 official Marvel Comics crossovers to date, as well as an innumerable amount of brief, one issue cameos. Perhaps most recently and notably are Marvel's critically acclaimed Civil War comics, which pit nearly every super-hero in the Marvel Universe against each other in spectacular fashion. Featuring multiple heroes together has been at the roots of Marvel's success, success that the "The Avengers" was able to tap into.

As of right now, Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, still has control of the rights to a majority of the heroes in the Marvel canon. However, the heroes they don't own are integral parts of the the Marvel Universe. Twentieth Century Fox has the rights to the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Elektra. Sony Pictures owns both Spiderman and Ghost-Rider. Lionsgate owns Punisher, and New- Line Cinema owns Blade.

Now, I'm not saying that the fact that the Marvel properties are scattered leads to inherently bad films. This wouldn't be either fair or true. Movies such as X-Men : First Class, have been spectacular. The Spiderman films, both in the early 2000's and recently, have been a consistent hit. However, they seem very one dimensional, being trapped in a microcosm of the larger Marvel Universe. I'm sure it's frustrating for the people working on the projects as well. There was recently a story about how Hugh Jackman was supposed to make a cameo in the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies as Wolverine, but was unfortunately not able to because of legal issues. That's so unfortunate because the Wolverine- Spiderman dynamic is one of the most fun in the entire Marvel Universe. There so many things that can be done with a complete set of heroes, and it's unfortunate that there are things standing in the way of creating the best product possible. The reason phase one of Marvel's plan of movies was so successful was because the creators realized that each individual story played into a larger one, and gave little nods  to the fans here and there to get that point across.

So, I'm making a plea to Disney. Your buying powers are simply amazing. You flexed your muscle last year by purchasing Lucasfilm for a whopping 4.6 Billion. Bring your stranded super-heroes home. It's in your best interest. Your current model is working. It's what I want, and it's what you should want. Make the Marvel cinematic universe whole.

Nolan In The Deep

As I lie in my bedroom, my eyes slowly, slowly closing, checking Facebook right before I pass out into my first full night of sleep in God knows how long... I SEE THIS:

Christopher Nolan Taking Over Justice League, Bringing Bale Back As Batman

And then I explode and die at the same time.

The idea of Christopher Nolan running the entire DC Universe is an exciting one for me, considering that Joss Whedon (another critically acclaimed writer/director) has more or less taken charge of the Marvel Universe, and these two opposing viewpoints bring a very interesting contrast in tone to the table.

The movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have very much adopted the tone of comic books, with larger-than-life characters, bright colors and snappy repartee. Conversely, Nolan's Batman universe is filled with steely grays and muted blues, telling the story of the Caped Crusader in a gritty, down-to-earth way. He has furthered this vision by producing DC's new Superman movie, Man of Steel, with one of the main questions during production being "how would the world react if Superman existed?"

Over the course of the past year, there have been abundant rumors regarding a possible DC Justice League movie to combat Marvel's immense success with the Avengers, which has scared me as a massive fan of the direction of Christopher Nolan and Zak Snyder's DC superhero movies. But more importantly, I think that DC would lose their biggest weapon: their unique voice and tone. The Dark Knight trilogy was an entirely different entity than the Marvel movies, and as Green Lantern demonstrated, DC can't beat Marvel at their own game.

If the DC universe (including the Justice League) can be united under Christopher Nolan's vision, they have a chance of continuing to combat Marvel's movie dominance. Otherwise, they will be poorly imitating, in typical Hollywood fashion, and they will lose.

Also, as a continuity junkie, the prospect of Christian Bale returning as Batman in the Justice League, alongside Henry Cavill as Superman, makes me happy all over.