With summer only a few months away, countless moviegoers anticipate going to the cinema and watching the next blockbusters. Yet for many comic book fans, the wait cannot be fast enough. This summer, two of the most major comic book series are butting heads with their respective movies.
The Avengers produced by Marvel Comics and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises have become the two of the most anticipated comic based movies of 2012. Yet which will come out on top?
The Dark Knight Rises‘s prequels, The Dark Knight and Batman Begins boost the popularity and promise of Batman’s bleak world in Nolan’s final Batman movie. The film takes place in the corrupt, crime-ridden Gotham, continuing the story of Bruce Wayne and his secret identity as the superhero Batman. In the film, Batman returns to city after eight years, taking the blame for the death of Gotham’s District Attorney. While he is being chased down by the Gotham City Police Department, Batman also has to stop the new supervillain, Bane (played by Tom Hardy), who wants nothing more than to destroy Gotham. The film’s released trailer has shown that Nolan’s new Batman movie is more dark, grim, and action-packed than the previous, showing Bruce Wayne’s guilt for the deaths that he has caused and his harsh job as Gotham’s champion.
In contrast, The Avengers has built acclaim through a series of seemingly disconnected Marvel movies. Starting from “Iron Man” to “Captain America,” the movie combines Marvel’s major heroes into a powerful group. The film has Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, along with Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow. Each of the heroes (except for Black Widow and Hawkeye) in The Avengers has appeared in their own movies and have their own fully explained backgrounds. In the film, Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) recruits superheroes to save the world from Loki, who is played by Tom Hiddleston. The film’s complex plot and amazing action sequences show Marvel’s mastery of their comic book series and each actor’s skills.
According to many fans, it is a tough choice between the two, especially since the opposing movies are from Marvel and DC. Batman is an iconic hero while the Avengers is a mass group of great superheroes, each with their own title.
But Danielle Cuen, a senior at Santa Fe High School and big fan of comic books, puts it quite clearly, “I’m more of a fan of the Batman franchise than the Avengers franchise but from the commercials and advertising The Avengers movie has me the most intrigued. I think Marvel has done a great job advertising by giving each Avenger their won movie opportunity on top of including a sneak preview in the latest Marvel movie, Captain America.” She adds, “Marvel also has a history of being more sucessful in the box office than DC but this Batman series is considered one of the best DC movies so far. I personally am a fan of how Marvel portrays characterization on the big screen but this Batman movie may have upperhand in the overall dramatics of the film. While I am marking my calendar for both of these films I would have to say the Avengers has the best chance of being the superior movie.”
It is clear that both movies have an equal chance of hitting it big in the box office. Yet the hype and fame of each movie makes it unclear which is more waited for. The grim The Dark Knight Rises? Or the hard hitting The Avengers? The question of which will win over the other will not be unanswered for long as The Avengers hits theaters on May 4, 2012 and The Dark Knight Rises will be released on July 20, 2012.
