Well, it looks like Hollywood keeps it continual pot of
revenue filled with, guess what, comic book heroes. Batman
Begins and The Fantastic Four have been duking it out on
Hollywood and Vine. An age-old comic book company rivalry
is yet renewing the heat this year. I guess all of us comic
book aficionados always wonder who would win the battle
between such and such superheroes.
Well at least in the next few months one way to keep score
is to watch the revenues generated between the recently
released “Batman Begins” and “Fantastic Four”, which were
both childhood fascinations of mine. Not only are there
superhero “what ifs” going on here, but which comic book
company will stand to gain the most economic
substantiation? Batman Begins punches the daily time clock
at DC Comics and the Fantastic Four was the brainchild of
Stan Lee and crew at Marvel Comics.
And don”t tell me there is a small comic book hero market.
Batman Begins claimed the number one spot in gross revenue
on its opening weekend. Hollywood is definitely increasing
the thickness of its silver lining these days with comic
book hero movies. Batman Begins took in almost $49 million
it”s opening weekend. How many mint condition old comic
books would you have to sell to make that kind of dough?
Are we in the wrong end of the comic book world (ha ha)?
The rivalry between Marvel and DC used to be a major
dividing line amongst the tight knit group of comic book
collectors. When comic book interest started to decline in
the 1970s, this issue became largely irrelevant. But now as
video games, online role-playing games and major motion
picture productions are spreading across the globe, the
classic Marvel-DC conflict is springing back to life.
Superman is coming back to life on the big screen as well
as Wonder Woman. Marvel has been riding high off their
major successes with the X-men and Spiderman. They are now
digging deep into their catalog of characters and are
working on screen adaptations of Iron Man, the Submariner,
Thor and Silver Surfer, among others. Have we entered a new
comic book age that will have to be defined around major
motion pictures? Maybe it could be call the “Greenback
Age”. Do you have another definition?
And as computer literate as so many are these days, Marvel
and DC will have to start developing more online games and
virtual universes of all their characters that you and I
will be willing to pay a monthly fee to access through our
computers and game consoles. Ka-ching, Ka-ching. DC has
already announced a deal with Sony Online Entertainment and
Marvel is working with Vivendi Universal Games. With the
massive successes of the X-Men and Spiderman movies, this
has proven that the Marvel characters still have life and
relevance in today”s pop culture.
While DC may be playing a bit of catch up, they are quick
to point out that they and Warner Bro. have been more
successful on the small screen with TV shows like
“Smallville” and several animated cartoon series. And
further since their TV and film projects are filmed and
aired by the Warner Bro. conglomerate, DC gets to keep more
of the profit than Marvel does on their projects.
What do we, the consumer public, get out of all this? Well,
for one, we get to see our heroes in a more realistic light
than ever before. We can grab that popcorn and maybe an
extra drink and watch our comic book heroes and characters
come to life in a real world setting, at least for a few
hours, and walk out with a little more joy in our hearts.
Go out and get immersed in Batman Begins and hold your
breath for the Fantastic Four. And besides, this new
revelation in Hollywood may just increase the value of our
old mint condition comics. We can only wait and see.
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