The springs big comic-book movies feature the superhero trend du jour of good guys fighting one other: Batman takes on Superman, Team Captain America versus Team Iron Man. But these all-star team-ups specifically, Warners/DC Comics Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Marvel/Disneys Captain America: Civil War are in a fight of their own, and not just to see who can come up with the more unwieldy title.
For years, DC had the prolific, and sometimes even Oscar-nominated comic book franchises, while its chief competitors characters were in cut-rate movies that were less than stellar (or in the case of that infamous Roger Corman production of Fantastic Four, were literally unreleasable). But the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 with Iron Man, and the end of Christopher Nolans Dark Knight trilogy, turned the tables: Suddenly Marvel was running the table and DC was playing catch-up. The latters creation of its own multistrand, multi-movie universe, which begins in earnest with BvS, is a blatant attempt to follow in its opponents footsteps. Worse, that precipitous drop-off at the box office after its opening weekend suggested an eager audience was deeply dissatisfied with what they saw, and not necessarily eager to come back for more. Meanwhile, Civil War posted the fifth-biggest opening weekend in history. You win this round, Cap.
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Theres no way around comparing Civil War to Dawn of Justice, and not just because the proximity of their release dates is close enough to hold the attention span of the Thinkpiece Industrial Complex. Its not even because their plots, both of which center around attempts to hold super-powered heroes accountable for the civilian casualties of their world-saving, are eerily similar on the surface. In addition to the larger issues they at least pretend to wrestle with, both movies can be seen as part of an ongoing attempt to deal with the fact that their title characters (or, in the case of BvS, the second character in its title) are how to put this delicately? kinda dorky. In his cultural history, Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, Glen Weldon says that, at his core, Superman is kind, caring, and endearingly square; in a (since-retracted) 2014 essay calledWhy Captain America Is Only Interesting If Hes a Prick, Vultures Abraham Riesman argued that Cap remains a fundamentally dull character on screen and in the comics: He only grips us because of his place in a larger story, not because his character is inherently fascinating.
Superman and Captain America, born of the Great Depression and World War II, respectively, were both created when the borders between good and evil were drawn in thick, black ink. Superman was dreamed up by two Jews from Cleveland, an American answer to the Nietzschean bermensch; on the cover of his first issue, Captain America gives Adolf Hitler a sock in the jaw. In the following three-quarters of a century, both characters have been reimagined innumerable times, but theyve both stayed true to the fundamental decency at their core. And decency, as admirable a quality it may be, can be pretty boring.
It doesnt have to be that way: For a long time, comic-book do-gooders and their movie counterparts were unambiguously heroic superheroic, even. Christopher Reeves Superman struggled with the burden of his awesome responsibility and his loneliness as the last survivor of an obliterated race, even the ability to form a coherent sentence in the presence of Lois Lane, but he was never tempted to use his powers for anything but good. Hes like a Sunday School Christ, benevolent and all-forgiving, with none of that nasty Old Testament wrath.
Frank Millers The Dark Knight Returns, which turns 30 this year, changed all that. His Batman was, to use the now-clichd terms, dark and gritty, an angry avenger in the vein of Clint Eastwoods Dirty Harry. In the storys climax, he engineers a fight with a weakened Superman, using his human cunning and advanced technology to gain a tactical edge over the Man of Steel. (Snyder drew heavily very heavily on Millers imagery for the final battle in Batman v Superman.) But in the wroter-artists telling, the Caped Crusaders real advantage is his anger, which gives him a focus and a strength of purpose his goody-two-shoes opponent lacks. You always says yes, to anyone with a badge, or a flag, Bruce Wayne sneers as he rains haymakers on his opponents once-invincible chin. Its way past time you learned what it means to be a man.
Along with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Watchmen, whose first issues were published in the same year, The Dark Knight had a seismic effect on the world of comics and especially how they were perceived from the outside. Mainstream media outlets published innumerable articles on comic books embrace of adult themes, all headlined with some variation on Bam! Pow! Comics Arent Just For Kids Anymore. In 1989, Tim Burtons Goth-tinged Batman cemented the triumph of the tortured vigilante hero, and although that series, like the Superman movies before it, soon devolved into camp, its influence held. While Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight took the character to even darker, grittier depths, the man defending truth, justice and the American way languished in development hell, with five attempts to revive the character for the screen withering on the vine, and 2006s Superman Returns failing to reboot the franchise.
Thats the MCUs blessing and its curse. Its now so big that its created its own rules. Critics call Civil War the best Marvel movie yet without addressing whether that means its actually, you know, good.
Captain America fared even worse. Before finding his place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his only previous big-screen outing was a 1990 movie so bad it still hasnt been released in the U.S. (It survives mainly as a trivia owing to the fact that the lead was played by J.D. Salingers son, Matt.) The failure of Marvels pre-MCU attempts had many roots, but the guy with the red, white and blue shield presented a special problem: How do you make the embodiment of American values, you know, cool?
The MCUs answer: Essentially, you dont. Chris Evans Cap is a literal throwback, a freeze-dried remnant of an earlier, simpler age. Rather than trying to soften his squareness, the movies poke fun at it: A canny cut-in from The Winter Soldier shows him eying a to-do list of pop culture catch-up that includes disco, the history of the Berlin Wall, and Nirvana (Band). Hes surrounded by cynics, including Scarlett Johanssons Black Widow and Robert Downey, Jrs Iron Man, but hes steadfast, defending his ideals even if, as becomes increasingly the case, that means standing against the very authorities who created him. Civil War makes Cap a rogue agent, hunted by his own government, and yet hes still the good guy.
The Superman of Zack Snyders universe has been, in a word, Batman-ized.Man of Steel gives Henry Cavills Kal-El a thorough grounding in Midwestern values: Im from Kansas, he says at one point. Im about as American as you can get. But his is a post-9/11 America, where principles are negotiable and ideals only get in the way. He seems blithely unaware of the cataclysmic consequences to Metropolis during the movies climactic battle, which ends with him snapping his opponents neck. In Batman v Superman, hes memorialized as the citys savior, but Bruce Wayne is the one whos concerned with counting the bodies.
In essence, Marvel and DC were faced with a similar problem, but their solutions are almost mirror images of each other. Snyder, whod previously adapted DCs Watchmen, made the Caped Crusader an antihero, or something close to it: The job of saving the world, at least, looks a lot less fun than it used to. But the Marvel movies Captain America is an anti-antihero, a person who, confronted with a world riven by corruption and split by political interests, still chooses to be who hes always been. Its easy to confuse complexity with dourness, but in a world where theres so much to feel down about, holding to your ideals is truly complicated.
One thing possibly the only thing Batman v Superman does better is to take stock of the damage. Civil War gives us a quick montage of the wreackage left in the Avengers wake, and adds a few more to the balance sheet when Scarlet Witch allows a bomb to detonate inside a diplomatic enclave. But the movies only real outside perspective is provided by its villain, who lost his family during the Sokovia battle at the end of Age of Ultron. BvS actually restages its predecessors climax, only this time we see it from ground level, with Bruce Wayne watching helplessly as his office towers are decimated while Superman and Zod fight each other in the sky. The monument to Metropolis dead pointedly evokes the Vietnam memorial, with each name chiseled into stone.
And then it largely fumbles the ball from there, with issues of morality and responsibility getting lost in a blizzard of incomprehensible plot turns and unexplained motivations. Batman and Superman end up fighting each other not out of principle but because theyve been manipulated into doing so by Lex Luthor, whose primary goal is to treat the worlds most powerful heroes the way a child treats action figures. It doesnt help that a movie built around mano-a-mano conflict was also drafted to be the cornerstone of DCs late-to-the-game expanded universe, with Gal Godots Wonder Woman shoved into the final fight and the Justice Leagues other eventual members given fleeting, pointless cameos. Its trying to stuff a dozen movies worth of world-building into the cracks, and to say its an awkward fit would be too kind.
Marvels cast of characters, by contrast, has gotten so big that you almost dont notice the new faces at the party. Civil War introduces Chadwick Bosemans Black Panther and Tom Hollands Spider-Man, both slated to be the stars of their own movies in the near future, to the extent that Cap almost becomes a supporting player in his own movie: If it had been called Avengers 3, no one would have blinked an eye. Thats the MCUs blessing and its curse. Its now so big Civil War is its 13th movie, with another nine planned in the next four years that its created its own rules. Critics call Civil War the best Marvel movie yet without addressing whether that means its actually, you know, good.
DCs movies have longer shadows to outrun: Richard Donners Superman, both Nolans Batman and Tim Burtons. But theyre also too closely tied to Snyders own style, which isnt something other directors can, or should, ape. His over-the-top grandiosity has a crude poetry to it, but its a welcome sign that David Ayers forthcoming Suicide Squad has gone back for multiple rounds of reshoots, reportedly to add more humor in contravention of DCs unwritten no jokes policy. The Marvel movies are lighter, both tonally and visually: The difference between BvS and Civil War is literally night and day. But theyre also more self-aware, cracking in-jokes about how Peter Parkers Aunt May has been changed from a wizened old woman to a sexy Marisa Tomei.
Its impossible to imagine the DC equivalent of, say, Guardians of the Galaxy, although the companys TV outposts, especially The Flash, artfully balance heightened emotions and goofy fun. Snyders big-screen universe is a grimmer one, and thats not necessarily bad but its definitely more monotonous, and feels like its painted itself into a corner after only a couple of films. What makes the MCU work is that every principle character has not only their own personality but their own style, distinctive enough to make their standalone movies feel self-contained (or at least semi-contained), but not so disparate that they cant play in the same sandbox. It isnt just size that makes a universe: Its variety, and DC needs to find some more crayons in the box if they want to keep coloring.
You need a scorecard to keep up with the superheroes in Captain America: Civil War. Watch here for your whos-who-in-the-MCU guide.