The 'Versus' phenomena

Movies based on comic books have come a long way since Adam West's 'Batman', and in the current century ever since 'Spiderman' swung his way into the box office, there has been a huge blockbuster war between the two big comic giants: Marvel and DC.



It was one thing when Marvel upped its game and left its mark by bringing in an Assemble of superheroes in 'Avengers', which until this year DC hasn't been able to bring to the market, but now Marvel has increased the stakes by putting them against each other. Now, this is where DC might have fallen behind, if they hadn't thought ahead. The very first assemble from DCs side actually sees the superheroes against each other. Well, DC had to keep up with Marvel, and actually their movie releases a good one month before Marvel's too.

2016 is the year where major comic sequels are interested in the 'Versus'-war. DC on March 25th will pit 'Batman vs Superman'. The 'BvS-Dawn of Justice' introduces Ben Affleck as the new avatar of Batman, Henry Cavill reprises his role from the almost average 'Man of Steel', the Superman reboot. Along with them DC will be assembling Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and maybe a few other heroes of the DC world trying to save the world from a certain 'Villain'. The 'Versus'-war will be between Batman and Superman, and I dont think the others will take any sides for now. Watch it here.



In the Marvel camp, but the war is going to be between teams of Superheroes led by Captain America and Iron Man. This stand off will begin with a disagreement about something important between the two mega heroes, and the others will take sides. The good thing in this movie is that unlike DC, Marvel has been setting stage to this even from the past 7-8 years, ever since Samuel Jackson's Fury visited Iron Man in his individual movie. Therefore, we know all these characters very well, and we understand each one's motivations to join the particular team. At least, you will when the movie releases on May 5th. Watch its trailer here.



Now, it doesn't end here. There is yet another blockbuster series that's running parallelly to these two mega movies, and it is the X-Men series. Ofcourse, I think this is the first actual superhero assemble franchise and long before Avengers, these mutants have been fighting one another. But, since at that time 'Versus' phenomenon wasn't a thing, we will introduce it now. The X-Men series has been going strong with a couple of huge hits and a couple of average ones, but the interest has remained seriously high for these heroes. Again here a new villain will be fighting the X-Men; it's 'Apocalyspe' Vs 'X-Men'. Our favorites Professor Charles and Magneto will also face off each other once again. Stakes were high in 'Days of Future Past' with the extinction of human race, but since everything went back to normal in that movie and none of those disasters happened, the same plot could be re used with another strong destructive force in play. That's just what they have decided to do in yet another human extinction story in 'Apocalypse'. Watch the trailer for the May 27 release.


It would seem like all the Super Hero genre movies has reached its summit, having saved the world many times from possible extinction. Where does these stories go from here?

Well, I can only talk about Marvel, since I have no idea what DC and Fox have got in their kitty, as they have lesser build ups to their current films. After the huge assemble in 'Avengers', Marvel send its heroes on individual tasks again in IronMan 3, Cap 2 and Thor 2. After 'Age of Ultron', they introduced a new Avenger in 'Ant-Man' who will be recast in the 'Civil War'. So what will happen after yet another assemble in the 'Civil War'. Well, we know what Marvel has planned next. It is 'Doctor Strange', yet another new introduction into the Avengers universe. It could be a totally out of the current universe origin story, or there could be a possibility that Dr.Strange comes forth after the events in 'Civil War' and that could be a strong story arc for the 'Avenger' series to move towards the epic climax in 'Infinity Stones'.  Similarly, we know that DC is looking forward to a huge assemble in the 'Justice League' movie. But, DC too will now focus on individual heroes for a while with both Wonder Woman and Batman, along with Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg getting their own movies.

Anyway, 2016 seems promising on all fronts for comic lovers, and action lovers alike. Hoping for the best for all these movies.

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