So who's your favorite group of superheroes? Yeah, that's not always the easiest question to answer, but that's not due to quantity, more from the quality to choose from; X-Men might be some people's go-to answer, but more often than not most will pick either DC's all-star line-up of Justice League or Marvel's assembly of earth's mightiest heroes, The Avengers.
Which one is better has been an age-old argument amongst comic fans, almost as old as the medium itself. The fact that this argument has only become more widespread and opinionated over the years is due to the surge of superheroes prevalent across your cinema screens; whereas these kinds of debates where segregated to a niche audience, now it's a blatant pop-culture debate.
No matter where your opinion falls, there's no denying a good opportunity to poke fun a the concept with internet memes. The selection in this list pulls some pretty valid arguments on both sides of the scale. Either way, these pieces of internet gold pull no punches and get downright nasty at some points; still, it's all done in good fun, so no hard feelings?
And for those thinking this is an easy one-sided argument due to the massive plaudits Avengers: Infinity War has been receiving? Marvel may have been winning at the movie box office but there's one thing they'll always seriously lack, and that's the Batman. And who can argue with that?
25 Real Heroes Don't Do Collateral Damage
Well, Superman doesn’t have much of an argument against old Tony there. The massive level of unwanted destruction in Man Of Steel has always been a sore point against the DC cinematic output.
Superman was always a hero that put the safety of others before anyone and everyone, and his complete inability to contain his massive showdown between him and Zorg left a lot of fans baffled. Sure, it was a reinvention of the character (let’s not forget Supes actually offs Zorg at its culmination), and it made for a piece of spectacle that was missing from the character's former attempt at a reboot (Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns).
Still, it felt a little irresponsible for our great hero to be so unaware of the epic destruction and possible casualties he left throughout Metropolis.
It was even such an oft-discussed point of contention that they actually made it a the catalyst for why Batman wants to take out Superman in the follow-up Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice.
In 2012's Avengers movie, it certainly took a large number of superheroes to fight back a threat against New York - something Clark Kent could deal with solo and without breaking a sweat - yet they did it strategically and with the populations safety in mind; as Thor and Hulk worked as brute force, whilst the rest of the team contained the damage and keep the public alive.
24 The Odd Man Out
Marvel and DC have always been quite consistent with the types of heroes that reside in their individual super-groups, and that there are blatant differences between the companies take on the similar concept.
Sure, they both are gangs of ultra-powered do-gooders fighting together for the greater good of man, but if you take a minute and examine both, you’ll realize that there are clear things that separate one company's star characters from the others.
Looking at the Avengers roster, all of the heroes are grounded as humans. Captain America has just been injected by a super-serum to make him a stronger human. Iron Man can fly and do all kinds of crazy stuff, but its a human controlling a suit. Black Widow and Hawkeye don’t even have any extra-abilities, they're just really good at combat.
With DC’s Justice League, you’re playing on another level since Superman was born on another planet and is a god in comparison to regular society. Wonder Woman is a superior piece of humanity as well, belonging to the Amazon race. Same could be said about Aquaman, etc.
Yet, weirdly enough both contain one member that's really would be more suited to the other team; Thor from Avengers is literally a god. Batman from Justice League is basically just a human with a cool suit, loads of gadgets, and stellar combat and intelligence skill.
23 A Difference Of Opinion
So, in 2016 Marvel and DC literally went head-to-head when both of their big tentpole releases featured everyone's favorite superheroes going to war against each other.
In the case of Captain America: Civil War, it was former friends Tony Stark and Cap going head to head over their principles of hero registration, which later turned into Cap protecting Bucky from Stark’s uncontrolled need for revenge. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice featured the introduction of Batman to the main continuity of the DC Extended Universe, where he goes after Superman and his (accidentally) destructive nature.
Of course, nefarious villains were behind the whole thing all along, but also the catalysts and resolutions to both conflicts were kind of… simple?
Once Batman finds out Superman shares the same name is his mum, he basically refrains from impaling the dude with Kryptonite spear. On the other hand, in Civil War, none of the reasons people are throwing down are really that justified, aside from maybe the final battle between Cap & Bucky vs Iron Man.
In all fairness, though, good people battling each other for completely flimsy reasons is basically an age-old tradition in comic books. Everyone wants to see who would win in a fight, so some half-thought reason is cooked up to have the heroes punch each other in the face; all in name of entertainment.
22 It's All About Those YouTube Hits
So, in 2017, DC’s big one (the first live-action Justice League adaptation) came out. Certainly, there was the taint of major behind-the-scenes difficulties; long reshoots were underway to alter the tone of the movie, director Zack Snyder left the production due to a family tragedy, there was last minute shuffling to fit the originally planned two-part story into one, etc. Those things didn’t help it within the social media, but regardless people were still excited due to the fact, well... we were finally going to get the Justice League on the big screen!
Then the movie dropped and whilst it wasn't a clear flop, in the context that this was the massive tentpole super-hero team-up for DC’s cinematic universe, the results were pretty disappointing. In comparison, it barely pulled in half the worldwide gross that Marvel’s first Avengers movie did in 2012, with even other DC solo efforts easily outgrossing it.
So what? It's not just all about the numbers in the end, is it? Well, yes, according to Marvel fans who were enjoyed driving the point home when the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War dropped soon after and basically broke the record of being the most watched video on YouTube within three hours of its release.
What better way to celebrate this then by re-enacting the opening scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier where Steve Rogers is literally running lighting fast laps around Falcon?
21 Who's Being Biased?
So once Man Of Steel dropped in 2013 and effectively started the DC Extended Universe, the movies coming out seriously polarised fans down the middle, with even DC fans turning against the specific creative choices made with the characters and the universe.
During that same time, Marvel was running on a high after their gamble of creating a cinematic universe starting with 2008’s Iron Man, had paid off big time both critically and commercially with 2012’s Avengers.
This is where most people's mentality was at during the period, with DC supporters getting tired of the constant and biased treatment their movies were getting, where absolutely every creative choice, however minor, was scrutinized and lambasted.
Whilst Marvel seemingly could do no wrong with whatever they did, with plenty of plaudits and excitement following.
Was it all biased? DC had come out with a risky stance that their movies were going to be dark and mature compared to the all-family entertainment of Marvel’s output, yet because of the controversial backlash, they eventually backtracked a lot of that direction, going a more family-friendly route.
Marvel, on the other hand, have been consistently going at it, yet could we call Infinity War family entertainment? The film goes dark and pretty grim by its final reel, yet in their case, they were applauded for it.
20 To Mask, Or Not To Mask...
So as with all superhero stories, there's plenty of silly and just plain nonsensical things about their worlds and mythos. None more so then the blatant concept of masks in either Marvel or DC cinematic worlds.
In Marvel, as established with the first Iron Man movie (where Tony Stark pretty much revealed to the world that he is the robotic do-gooder) all the other heroes have mostly been upfront about who and what they are (with the exception of Spider-Man). Especially all the members of the Avengers, who become celebrities after the events of the New York invasion.
Well, the goofy thing with DC is, in the case of Wonder Woman and especially Superman, is that they don’t wear any sort of face shrouding device, yet no one is ever able to put two-and-two together and realize that the Henry Cavill-looking Clark Kent is the Henry Cavill-looking Superman.
This was always going to be a problem the live-action movies would face over its comic counterparts, but at least say with the original 1978 Christopher Reeves version of Supes, the actor portrayed Kent as a bumbling inadequate doofus. This ruse threw people off his scent despite his physical similarities; not so with Cavill who basically throws on a pair of specs and no one is ever the wiser.
19 Let's Consider All Venues
It’s kind of strange when you think about it, but the most passionate and fevered arguments concerning Avengers vs Justice League nowadays all comes from their cinematic output. It’s not a big surprise, considering how the superhero movie genre is currently the most profitable and present in multiplexes, not to mention it’s also how several of mainstream audiences discovered most of the characters for the first time. But let’s not forget, movies are only one aspect of a much bigger piece of the pie.
When examining all forms of media that the Marvel and the DC universes cover, this meme is pretty close to being spot-on, at least in general terms.
In the comic world, they're both pretty even at the moment. Both put out strong series yet also have stumbled with the same missteps (e.g. over-reliance on annual events, universe reboots that went nowhere).
Yet, when it comes to animated and video game output, DC utterly wipes the floor with Marvel. The Batman Arkham series is one of the best video game series (let alone superhero game) ever made. Of course, that’s all they’ve got at this point but it’s more than enough considering its been close to a decade since Marvel put out anything decent; although this year’s Spider-Man PS4 game is attempting to turn that around.
Also, the DC animated original films and TV shows have been stellar going in for decades years now, whereas Marvel’s animated department is little less than an afterthought, and more kiddie orientated.
18 It's All About The Point Of View
It’s no secret that the Marvel movies get smattered with the perspective that it’s basically all colorful, family-friendly stuff that’s attempting to appeal to the little kiddies as much the comic fans. Being owned by Disney certainly doesn’t help matters when speaking against that argument either.
DC, on the other hand, gets blamed (at least before the Wonder Woman movie came out) for basically being the Superman and Batman show. Superman was the first major superhero franchise to break the bank in the late 70s. Batman became a major franchise throughout the 90s and rebooted successfully in the noughts.
This meme above, perfectly captures what the most biased fan sees their other group as looking like, although in the following years that argument doesn’t hold a lot of salt anymore; Wonder Woman’s first live-action feature film trounced the box-office and became a major critical success, becoming the most championed film from DC’s extended universe, as well as snuffing out any notion that it only relies on Bats and Supes.
Avengers: Infinity War has also turned around a lot of perspectives on the family-friendly angle. Sure, it’s a big fun and humor-filled blockbuster, but the movie went to some pretty dark and dire places, featured a grim and shocking finale, not to mention some seriously tragic high-stakes drama.
17 Late To The Party
Wherever you fall on your preference of Marvel or DC’s cinematic output, there’s no denying that the latter kind of was playing catch-up from 2013 and onwards after Marvel had ground-breaking success with the first Avengers movie.
Warner Brother’s studios have owned DC Comics since the late 80s, meaning they’ve held onto the rights of every single DC comic character, location, and property for close to thirty years.
Marvel, on the other hand, had its characters' individual copyrights in an utter mess due to them selling off the rights several years before that had different studios held onto to different distribution rights etc. Even once they got the ball rolling on their cinematic universe, there were still several rights hiccups that have only recently begun to clear up and pan out.
What does that mean? Well, in simple terms, DC could’ve pulled this whole connected universe thing off going back to the 90s.
Yet they never did, and once Marvel managed to have enormous success with the concept, DC attempted to do their own version.
It sad but true; when it came to DC finally launching their massive superhero team-up movie, they kind of felt like Johnny-come-lately, as they attempted to scramble and speed-up exactly what Marvel did when they could have been far in the lead decades ago.
16 Too Fast, Too Furious
The introduction of Quicksilver to the big screen was a little bit of a complex issue as he emerged in both X-Men: Days Of Future Past, as well as Avengers: Age Of Ultron in unconnected and different iterations. With all the complex issues between Fox owning the X-Men rights, and Marvel Studios owning almost all the other characters, how did this work?
Well, since Quicksilver (and Scarlet Witch is also included in this fine print) was officially an Avenger in the comics, yet was also the child of Magneto (the infamous X-Men villain) he was able to share the rights in both cinematic universes.
Still, whatever all the hubbub is around the character, there’s really only one super-speedster that everyone knows and loves, and that is DC’s Flash.
His adaptation in Justice League was a polarising one; with people either feeling he stole the show or finding him incredibly punchable. Regardless, the character has been absolutely at the top of his game with the CW TV show, while also having a fantastic run in an overlooked 90s series too. Heck, even the best DC animated movie, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, is centered around his character and intricate to his origins and backstory.
Quicksilver arrived on the big screen first with a handful of hype, but we all know who’s true top dog in the speedster department.
15 By Odin's Beard... He's Batman!
Thor is an all-powerful god within the Marvel universe; born in Asgard and wielding his super hammer Mjolnir; a tool that enables him to fly and knock enemies out with adamant ease. It’s also a weapon that only he is worthy to wield since his father Odin infused it with a spell to become unbearably heavy and impossible to pick up if your worth was lacking.
Batman, on the other hand, is just plain cool - that’s more than a good reason for him to be able to catch Thor’s hammer and decimate it, right?
Well, that’s the pure logic this amusing meme is going for, as it re-enacts a the pivotal scene in Thor: Ragnarok as Hela catches Mjolnir to the thundergod’s horror, and then proceeds to crush it. Here, of course, Batman takes her place and makes for a much cooler substitute!
And therein lies the summary for several Avengers vs Justice League arguments; sure, the Avengers are powerful, well balanced and have a stronger movie universe... but Batman? Well, he’s just Batman, and that in most cases, that’s just plain good enough. Who needs logic with that argument?
14 Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
This simple but effective piece of fan-art created by thebritwriter pretty much owns DC when it comes down to the movies Justice League vs Avengers: Infinity War.
Superman cracks a cheerful smile that looks wonky and awkward as heck. A bearded no-nonsense looking Steve Rogers throws him back a look that’s deadpan and completely unimpressed. It was a sentiment shared by many who saw Superman’s weird visage in the Justice League movie.
What’s the story behind this? Well, the major stumbles the Justice League live-action adaptation was hit with was many and several, yet none was a bigger sore spot then Henry Cavill’s computer-generated chin. This was due to the fact that Justice League had wrapped filming and the actor had gone to star in Mission: Impossible: Fallout, where he grew a 70s style mustache for the part and was contractually obliged to keep his facial hair during the filming.
Unfortunately, during a break in his schedule on that movie, Warner Bros/DC came calling and needed him to do extensive reshoots on League, yet Superman would be forced to be sporting a Magnum P.I. mustache for the filming? The only legal option the company could pursue was to film Cavill with the facial hair and computerize it off in post-production. This lead to a Superman that looked plain odd for most of the movie.
13 Avengers: Age Of.. Superman?
Avengers: Age Of Ultron was a bit of a misstep for Marvel. Sure, it was a better movie than most of its adamant haters are willing to admit, but truth be told it's a mess; with too much set-up for Phase 3, CGI overload, and unable to live up to the hype of the first movie (as if anything could). For many Marvel fans Captain America: Civil War really felt like the proper follow-up to the 2012 team-up movie.
Also, there’s no denying that Ultron himself was an underwhelming villain; sure, James Spader brought some nice gravitas to the character via voice acting, but he boiled down to being a snarky, one-note cyborg that wasn’t very interesting. Regardless, he still gave the supergroup a true run for their money, raising the stakes even higher then the adversaries (Loki and Chitauri goons) of the first movie.
Alright, but what if DC’s Superman took this guy on? In simple terms, good old Kal-El would quite easily mope the floor with Marvel’s little tin man. It wouldn’t even be funny to picture how fast the entire plot for Age Of Ultron could’ve been wrapped up if it had gone down in Metropolis.
12 What If Marvel Took A Few Pointers From DC?
Everyone sure loves poking fun at DC's Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice resolution, don't they? Yep, but not for unnecessary reasoning. The fact that Batman was adamant to not just defeat Superman, but actually off him from this mortal coil meant that Bruce Wayne was serious about going through with his plan. Heck, he even went out of his to get a Kryptonite spear and everything. Yet, when he finds out that Clark Kent's mother's name was also Martha... suddenly he tosses out that entire plan out the window.
Here, the same point of hilarious non-sensical logic is applied to the very similar conflict that went down in Captain America: Civil War.
As Captain America and Iron Man got into a devastatingly serious conflict between each other due to superhero registration laws, and well, the fact that Cap's childhood buddy Bucky (a.k.a. Winter Soldier) offed Starks parents back when he was a brainwashed Russian terminator.
Well, who knew the two characters actually had something in common; the formerly mentioned Bucky's birth name was actually James Barnes, and guess what? Tony Stark's best friend happens to be James Rhodes (a.k.a. War Machine).
By the logic of the DC movie, if Stark and Rogers had found out this information, certainly their conflict could have been as easily wrapped up in a neat fashion as Bats and Supes did.
11 Doing Your Homework Vs Doing Your Gym Work
Say what you want about director Zack Snyder, but ever since he adapted Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300, he sure doesn’t mess about when it comes to getting his actings into ridiculously chiseled shape for his movies.
None more impressive than Henry Cavill, who holds the honor of being the first actor playing Superman who is actually built like a Superman. Or Gal Gadot, who was incredibly thin before Wonder Woman filled her out into the athletic shape necessary to play the powerful Amazon warrior. This meme sure makes a big deal about the fitness regime those guys go on; here it depicts Cavill and Aquaman’s Jason Momoa training into shape for the upcoming Justice League production shoot.
Down below we have the Marvel version; Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Doctor Strange, is prepping for his role how? By reading comics, of course. Brie Larson, who will be the super powerful heroine Captain Marvel in the upcoming 2019 movie, is seen doing a similar work-out regime, with the added bonus of doing it cuddled up on her couch.
Still, the meme conveniently excludes the excessive training fellow actors Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, or Chris Pratt do for their Avengers roles, but yeah; that would sort of make the meme a little less funny, wouldn't it?
10 What's That Smell?
When it comes to ultra-villains in the Marvel universe there’s little denying that Thanos (who properly arrived on screens with Avengers: Infinity War) really takes the cake as the big cheese. In his opening scene, he sends one of Marvel’s toughest heroes running away with his tail between his legs, without even breaking a sweat. He really puts our favorite Avengers through the wringer to a serious extent that makes him, without a doubt, the greatest adversary the MCU has ever come across.
The DC Extended Universe, on the other hand, has been absolutely decimated over and over again by their toughest adversary; rottentomatoes.com.
That’s correct: the popular website that summarises the general critical conscience on a movie into a fresh rating, has really been harsh on DC’s film output since their extended universe took off. Man Of Steel holds at a passable 55%, but all the other movies, aside from the unanimous critical darling Wonder Woman, have taken plain ugly scores when it comes to the freshness ratings. Heck, Suicide Squad has even dropped down to 27% since this meme has been created.
It sure makes for a better adversary than Lex Luthor ever did.
9 Well, When You Put It That Way...
This meme paints a pretty interesting picture; for all the faults of Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice had, the match between the two titans did definitely feel like a big deal and made for an exciting match. Director Zack Snyder has his flaws as a storyteller, but he can sure bring it when it comes to action, and that sequence didn’t disappoint.
Captain America: Civil War, on the other hand, if you boil it down, yes, it was really just a bunch of heroes punching each other in an airport (not a parking lot, mind you). With that said, the meme artist did miss out the point that the sequence was incredibly fun, did feature the introduction of fully suited Spider-Man to the MCU, as well as had Ant-Man go full Giant-Man in a fan-favorite sequence.
Both were very good scenes and the meme is funny yet a little biased. Still, DC at least the level of tragedy of these two heroes duking it out, a silly resolution hampered it slightly. With Civil War, there was plenty of fun spectacle going on, but it was done a little popcorn, lacking the gravitas and bittersweet nature of the smash-up that its comic inspiration portrayed so well.
8 How To Wrap Your Team-Up Movie
This meme really shows the difference in tonality between these two different comic book movie-verses, even just looking at the picture; its night and day.
How did Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice wrap-up its team-up of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman? In a solemn and overly serious manner were Bruce Wayne delivers a monologue about how "there is still good in men" etc. In all fairness, poor Bats was actually at a pretty depressing funeral, but hey... would it be that hard for anyone to have a modicum of fun here? This is not Death Of A Salesman, after all.
How did Avengers wrap-up its post-New York alien invasion smash-up? In a definitive touch of director Joss Whedon; the glorious heroes go together to try out some shawarma down the road, with them all hungry and exhausted after a hard day's work. It's a pretty random and hilarious post-credit scene, but one that also makes a valid plot-point; these different heroes all had varied motives and alliances throughout the movie, but finally are here together as one unit.
Which scene is superior? It really comes down to how you like superheroes served up, although which one is more fun? That answer is easy.
7 Don't Be A Scumbag
Hey, it's everyone's favorite meme, Scumbag Steve! And what does Steve have to say for himself? Oh yeah, an often used argument point between Justice League and Avengers fans that'll drive most DC fans into full-blown rage mode.
By this point, we can validly say Marvel's movies are overall a higher quality than DC's.
This is due to a clear one-track vision for a connected cinematic universe with one man (Kevin Feige) in charge of steering the ship. It's resulted in some quality films, as well as some sleeper hits, and a rare misfire or two, although they've never a straight-up terrible movie (although Thor: Dark World came close).
That's a lot of factors set over DC's expanded universe, one that has seen numerous regime changes, backtracking on tonality, and now is sort of up-in-the-air about what direction it's going to take going forward. And although all their output has its fans, Wonder Woman is really the only one they that's unanimously considered a fantastic film across the board.
So Marvel trumps them with movies, but wait... what about comics? It's funny that in this modern age that so many people attach themselves to the cinematic output as opposed to the source material. Still, the meme has a vacant point; comics-wise, both companies are matched pretty evenly in this day-and-age.
6 What's In A Name?
So this meme reads pretty deep in between the lines, but that doesn't make it any less hilarious. It's an argument that can't really be argued with.
Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rogers, is played by Chris Evans. What happens to poor old Cap at the end of his premier solo movie Captain America: The First Avenger? Well, after chasing the Red Skull down in the movies rip-roaring finale, poor Steve ends up running out of fuel over the Atlantic and sacrificing himself for the good of the people.
In Wonder Woman, Chris Pine plays Steve Trevor, the Amazon warriors love interest and partner-in-combat. How does he and Miss Wonder end up meeting each other? Well, he's in the midst of an exciting bit of espionage against the Germans (this WW1, mind you), when he's on the run and his plane is going out of fuels, and... hey, he discovers a secret Amazonian island with a gorgeous super-heroine on it.
Well, the similarities are definitely on-point, not to mention the retro war settings of each movie. Still, no one can be accused of copying the other, considering both are these events are quite an intricate part of the comic book.