Marvel and DC have a war no one is talking about

The author Chris Snellgrove
| Published 32 seconds ago

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 that failed cinematic universe has been mostly trounced by the MCU every year. However, fans of heroes like Batman and Superman could take solace in one thing when arguing with Marvel fans: DC has always had better animation, from groundbreaking TV shows to consistently awesome cartoons. However, war changes and so does its quality X-Men '97 as well as the bustle around Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man means that Marvel may become the new king of cartoons.

How the Marvel DC Animation War Began

The rivalry between Marvel and DC animators may have hit its stride in the 1990s. Both companies had produced some excellent cartoons in the past (such as Spider-Man and his amazing friends about Marvel and Super friends for DC), but the 90s gave us X-Men: The Animated Seriesthe legendary cartoon that eventually led to the great X-Men '97. This show and Spider-Man: The Animated Series would have helped Marvel animators dominate the entire decade if not for a small showing Batman: Animated series.

This Batman series sparked the momentum of Tim Burton's excellent live-action movies and was popular enough that we got several spin-offs including Superman: The Animated Series, Justice Leagueand Batman on. All of these series existed in the shared DC Animated Universe, and the DCAU ironically turned out to be a lot a more successful cinematic universe than the later DCEU. While Marvel went on to create some fun stuff over the next few years (including fan favorites X-Men: Evolution), DC maintained its reputation as the undisputed master of animation with shows like Teen Titans and The new judge as well as a series of stunning live-action films.

How the Marvel DC animation war is going

Given that Marvel has spent decades kicking DC's rival animation divisions, why do we think the house Stan Lee celts is going to take that cartoon crown? Firstly, X-Men '97 was better than ever hoped it might be, quickly becoming the best animated superhero show since Batman: The Animated Series. And while we've only seen a trailer so far, Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man wants to continue Marvel's animation dominance by telling clever, modernized stories using an animation style that harkens back to Web-Head's earlier designs.

Even as Marvel's animators come into their own, DC's animation fails to make the impact it once did. For example, the most recent “original” movie was a two-part adaptation Guards that didn't resonate with fans, and even the film's biggest defenders will begrudgingly admit that this is yet another trashy adaptation of Alan Moore's classic comic that fails to capture its original magic. However, the biggest mistake may actually be Batman: The Caped CrusaderThe Amazon exclusive show that everyone thought would be a monster hit.

The show is made Batman: The Animated Series created by Bruce Timm and set in the 1930s, it garnered much critical attention: Rotten tomatoesThe Caped Crusader has a 94 percent critic rating. In particular, however, the Popcornmeter shows that viewers 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 took exception to the poor animation, and it's hard to deny that this show isn't as great as Timm's earlier work.

Meanwhile, Marvel's X-Men '97 was a hit across the board, sparking strong rumors of a new interconnected cartoon universe that threatens to completely leave DC's current animated efforts in the dust. Meanwhile, DC's top animator returned 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 win over movie fans, but when it comes to cartoons, audiences already have an age-old appeal for the new year: “make my own Marvel.”