And as The Avengers appears to solidify the characters’ continued cinematic success, the ever present elephant in the room just got a bit bigger and louder – and its name is DC/Warner Bros. Although they have been making comic book movies for decades longer than Marvel, with the exceptions of the first couple Superman movies (1978 and 1980) and Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), none of them have been much good and none made an especially positive impression of the genre.
Ever since X-Men premiered in 2000 comic book fans have been reeling from a consistent and exponentially growing surge in the popularity of comic book properties and it’s due entirely to the success of their film adaptations. However, with the exception of Christopher Nolan’s extraordinary renditions of Batman, Marvel characters have dominated this trend and DC have been unable to start their own franchise like The Avengers.