Marvel and DC are fighting a war that no one is talking about

Pa Chris Snellgrove
| Published 32 seconds ago

It’s been a rough few years for DC fans. The DCEU has its fans (Snyder Bros, are you still pretending? Rebel Moon was good?), but that failed cinematic universe basically knocked the MCU’s teeth out every year. However, fans of heroes like Batman and Superman can take solace in one thing when arguing with Marvel fans: DC has always had the best animation, from groundbreaking TV shows to consistently great cartoons. However, the war is changing, and so is the quality X-Men ’97 as is the noise around Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man means that Marvel could be the new king of cartoons.

How the Marvel DC Animation War Began

You could say that the rivalry between Marvel and the creators of DC animation reached its peak back in the 90s. The two companies have produced some excellent cartoons in the past (eg Spider-Man and his amazing friends for Marvel and Super friends for DC), but the 90s gave us X-Men: The Animated Serieslegendary cartoon that eventually led to great X-Men ’97. This show and Spider-Man: The Animated Series would have helped Marvel animators dominate for an entire decade if not for a little show called Batman: Cartoon series.

This Batman series was based on Tim Burton’s excellent live-action series and was so popular that we had several spinoffs, including Superman: The Animated Series, Justice Leagueand Batman Beyond. All of these series existed in the shared DC animated universe, and the DCAU, ironically, ended up a lot a more successful cinematic universe than the later DCEU. For now Marvel continued to produce some interesting material (including by fans of fans) over the next few years X-Men: Evolution), DC has maintained its reputation as the undisputed master of animation with shows like Teen Titans and Young justice as well as a number of excellent direct-to-video animated films.

How the Marvel DC Animation War Goes

Considering that Marvel has been taking hits from rival DC animation divisions for decades, why do we think the house Stan Lee built is going to take this cartoon crown? On the one hand, X-Men ’97 was better than anyone ever was hoped it might be, quickly establishing itself as the best animated superhero show since Batman: The Animated Series. And so far we’ve only seen the trailer, Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man aims to continue Marvel’s dominance of animation by telling clever, modernized stories using an animation style that harkens back to Web-Head’s earliest designs.

Although Marvel animators are starting to come into their own, DC animation can’t make the impact it once did. For example, the last “original” film was a two-part adaptation The guards it didn’t resonate with fans, and even the film’s biggest defenders are reluctant to admit that it’s yet another pointless adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic comic that fails to capture its original magic. The biggest mistake, however, may actually be Batman: Caped Crusaderan Amazon exclusive show that everyone thought would be a monster.

The performance is created Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm, which takes place in the 30s, and caused a great sensation among critics: on Rotten tomatoesThe Caped Crusader has a critical rating of 94 percent with critics. Notably, however, Popcornmeter shows that audiences give the show a much more dismal 55 percent, with some fans not liking the major changes the series is making to characters like Harley Quinn and even Bruce Wayne. Others have taken exception to the poor animation, and it’s hard to deny that this show isn’t as great as Tim’s previous work.

Meanwhile, Marvel’s X-Men ’97 was a hit across the board, sparking strong rumors of a new interconnected animated universe that threatens to completely leave DC’s current animation efforts in the dust. Meanwhile, DC’s top animator is back to try and recreate the magic Batman: The Animated Series and fell well short of the mark. This is the year that will determine whether the live-action DCU will be a hit with moviegoers, but when it comes to cartoons, audiences already have the old cry for the new year: “make me Marvel.”