DC is on the redemption arc of the century, with all its releases being met well critically and commercially, such as Superman. The question is: will DC finally topple Marvel and come out as king of comic book media?
DC has had a very inconsistent reputation for the last 20 years. After Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, DC scrambled to come up with the next big movie, and it didn’t help that their biggest competitor, Marvel, was breaking into pop culture with its newly launched Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
This led to DC producing many films that were hated both critically and by fans; Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League (2017) all fell into this category. While DC was losing both fans and money, Marvel was making billions at the box office, with movies based on more obscure and unknown heroes compared to someone like Superman.
James Gunn took on the role of Co-CEO and Co-Chairman of the newly formed DC Studios in late 2022, putting him in charge of all creative decisions going forward. James Gunn is most famous for directing the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as the 2025 Superman movie, all receiving praise for their uniqueness in visuals and storytelling.
It seems that Marvel and DC have switched roles. Marvel has been slowly losing fans and money throughout the last half-decade. After dominating the 2010s, creating some of the highest-grossing movies of all time and ending a decade-long storyline, you would think that Marvel would slow down a bit and come up with a new storyline, but instead they decided to push out dozens of movies and TV shows, all varying in quality.
Both Marvel and DC were in the same position in the early 2020s, but DC might have an edge over Marvel. Marvel has lost fans: before, any movie it released would gross close to a billion dollars, but now most of them struggle to break even. Even if a movie is praised, it is not guaranteed to make money. A recent example would be The Thunderbolts*, which did well critically but failed to make any money at the box office.
This year is a very big year for both companies, because it will make or break them. The newly created DC Studios has three major releases this year: Supergirl, Clay Face, and Lanterns, all promising enough for fans. The new regime has steadily built up a very positive reaction to their films, unlike Marvel.
Marvel has not built up a strong foundation in the last five years, prioritizing quantity over quality. Many of their more recent films have crashed and burned, whether it be at the box office or critically. This struggling foundation shows that even some of their better films released in 2025 either lost money or barely scraped by, like The Marvels and The Thunderbolts*.
Marvel is desperate at this point; if they fail this year, then it could mean overall dominance of DC. Their most acclaimed TV show was released with absolutely no marketing, leading to low viewership and limited online discourse. The upcoming Spider-Man movie has also had almost no marketing, and it’s only five months away. And probably Marvel’s biggest gamble is bringing back Robert Downey Jr. for the upcoming Avengers movie, but as the villain. This move is extremely desperate and looks like it was only made to win back fans.
DC also has much more creative freedom than Marvel, with James Gunn allowing directors greater creative vision and control. This is in stark contrast to Marvel, which is well known for being more formulaic and corporate, often compromising directors’ visions.
“DC is creating more… honestly, I agree it’s kind of better than the ones in the 2010s” (movies) Cami Walker’ 27 said. More and more people are agreeing that DC has a brighter future than Marvel.
“Yeah, lowkey that James Gunn’s Superman movie was pretty good, had a lot of buzz going for it,” Antonio Falco’ 26 said. “I don’t remember anything that’s happened recently with Marvel… there’s not a lot of hope it’s getting better. DC, there’s at least hope that James Gunn is going to make it cool.”
DC definitely has the backing of fans, crippling any future success of Marvel. They have proven themselves to make good movies frequently, giving people more hope for the future. “I just have more faith in DC because they haven’t shown themselves to be as terrible,” said Dante Camarda’ 26.
