By Chris Snellgrove | Published
It’s been a tough few years for DC fans. The DCEU has its fans (Snyder Bros, are you still pretending? Rebel Moon was good?), but this failed film universe was brought to its knees every year by the MCU. Still, fans of heroes like Batman and Superman might take comfort in one thing when arguing with Marvel fans: that DC has always had better animation, from groundbreaking TV shows to consistently great animated films. However, the war and the quality changes X Men ’97 as well as the hustle and bustle all around Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man means Marvel could become the new king of cartoons.
How the Marvel DC Animation War Began
The rivalry between Marvel and the animation developers at DC probably reached its peak in the 90s. The two companies had previously produced some outstanding cartoons (e.g Spider-Man and his amazing friends for Marvel and Super friends for DC), but the 90s gave us X-Men: The Animated Seriesthe legendary cartoon that eventually led to Excellent X Men ’97. This show and Spider-Man: The Animated Series would have helped Marvel’s animators dominate the entire decade if it hadn’t been for one little show Batman: The Animated Series.
This Batman series built on the momentum of Tim Burton’s excellent live-action films and was so popular that we got several spin-offs including Superman: The Animated Series, Justice LeagueAnd Batman Beyond. These series all existed in the shared DC Animated Universe, and the DCAU ironically turned out to be one much more successful film universe than the later DCEU. While Marvel continued to produce some fun stuff over the next few years (including the fan favorite X Men: Evolution), DC maintained its reputation as the undisputed masters of animation with shows like Teen Titans And Young Justice as well as a number of great direct-to-video animated films.
How the Marvel DC animation war is going
Considering Marvel has spent decades getting its ass kicked by rival animation divisions at DC, why do we think the house that Stan Lee built will take that cartoon crown? On the one hand, X Men ’97 was better than anyone else hoped It may quickly establish itself as the best animated superhero series since then Batman: The Animated Series. And even though we’ve only seen a trailer so far, Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man seeks to continue Marvel’s dominance in animation by telling clever, modernized stories with an animation style reminiscent of the web-head’s earliest designs.
Even as Marvel’s animators begin to come into their own, DC’s animations no longer have the impact they once did. For example, the most recent “original” film was a two-part adaptation of Guardian This failed to resonate with fans, and even the film’s biggest supporters will begrudgingly admit that it is yet another meaningless adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic comic that fails to capture its original magic. However, the biggest misstep may actually be Batman: Caped Crusaderan Amazon exclusive show that everyone thought would be a monster hit.
The show is created by Batman: The Animated Series Creator Bruce Timm and is set in the 1930s and caused quite a stir among critics: Caped Crusader has a critical rating of 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Remarkably, however, Popcorn Meter shows that audiences rate the show at a much darker 55 percent, with some fans disliking the major changes the series makes to characters like Harley Quinn and even Bruce Wayne. Others were bothered by the poor animation, and it’s hard to deny that this show isn’t nearly as great as Timm’s previous work.
Meanwhile Marvel’s X Men ’97 was a hit across the board, sparking intense rumors of a new interconnected cartoon universe that threatens to completely overshadow DC’s modern animation efforts. Meanwhile, DC’s best animator came back to try and recreate the magic of Batman: The Animated Series and fell far short of the mark. This year will determine whether the live-action DCU is a hit with film lovers, but when it comes to animated films, viewers already have an old motto for a new year: “Make my Marvel.”