The views expressed in this article belong to the reporter, and do not reflect the views held by Rockbridge County High School, the Prowler Staff, and its members.

Your heart is racing. The almost-silent pitter patter of rain on your car lingers in the back of your mind as a city looms over you. Looking up, you notice something hidden in the monstrous storm clouds: A symbol. You had made your way not to the vibrant city of New York, but to the ruinous city of Gotham.

Detective Comics, aka DC, has always been a monumental part of my life. The borrowing of one movie is all it took to start my love for the cinematic universe of DC.

You may be thinking that Marvel’s cinematic universe is better, and I would not blame you. I acknowledge the well put together cinematic universe that Marvel has created, as I have watched every Marvel movie in chronological order.

Visually, Marvel takes the lead in popularity and I am also not here to say that DC characters would win in a fight against Marvel characters. Truthfully, I am a fanatic of both DC and Marvel. I just simply believe that DC has a more emotional vibe about it. 

Marvel is a universe that I definitely fangirl over and get way too excited about, whereas, DC is a universe that inspires me – a universe that I can spend hours thinking about.

Delving into the amount of emotion, there is something about DC that Marvel just does not have: character depth. DC thrives in the sense of dread as Marvel relies more heavily on humor. Yes, Marvel does give their characters backstories, but they are not always as tragic as DC’s can be.

Let’s look at Jason Todd, the second Robin, as an example. During my childhood, I was fascinated by Batman and was never really interested in looking outside of his character. Though when I hit my pre-teen/mid-teenage years, I dove further into DC to look outside of Batman. I eventually played the “Arkham” video game series numerous times, watched more of the animated movies, and read a few comics, specifically the “Arkham Knight” series, only to come to the conclusion that I do not like Batman. All because of one profoundly intricate backstory, I gained a love-hate relationship with Batman. 

Another backstory I cannot leave out is Joker’s. With all of the new, impressive movies coming out I have been going to the theatres more often. My instant thought after seeing “The Joker” was that I had been impressed. Instead of throwing Joker into a vat of chemicals, he was thrown into a society filled with hatred. The movie gave the villain a more realistic touch and overall added onto the complexity DC has given its villains.

Next up, do I even have to mention that the heroes do not always win in DC? Even though Marvel’s heroes did not technically win in “Infinity War,” they still won the war at the end of the series. 

In DC, when a hero does not win, they typically stay at a loss. Take Flash, for example. In every single reality he created he is destined to die. Even though he wins a lot of battles, he will not win the war.

DC is perfectly capable of having happily-ever-after endings, I am not saying they aren’t. It is simply more typical for DC to have a bitter, or even a bitter-sweet ending to their stories. Having these types of endings in a story are thought-provoking for me and leave me yearning to find out more. With Marvel, I get excited to uncover bits and pieces of lore but not to the extent of my yearning to learn about DC.

Marvel and DC’s war can be compared to light versus dark. Marvel brings on optimism and any tone perceiving light, whereas DC brings on pessimism and the ominous tone of darkness. The tone of darkness enhances the realism and intensity DC brings. What’s better than a universe based on vigilantes that has a touch of realism?