Recently, the movie ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ was enormously successful in South Korea. Hero movies, which are stories about heroes, are usually hits in Korea. The two industry leaders are DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Why is the latter more famous than the former? -Ed.



  Last April 25th, the Avengers movie, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, recorded more than ten million viewers. In addition, ‘Black Panther’, which was made by the same production company, Marvel Comics, recorded about 5.4 million viewers, and it succeeded in Korea. When Marvel releases new movies, many people watch them, so they succeed in the movie industry. However, DC Comics’ ‘Justice League’ was a box office failure, and it had a deficit of 100 million dollars last year. Let’s find out why Marvel was a success and DC Comics wasn’t.

Promotion and marketing focusing on the Korean movie industry

  During a movie premiere, the actors of a movie visit countries and promote their movie in person. When the latest Marvel movie, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, was released, the actors visited Korea and publicized it. Marvel releases some movies in Korea 2 days earlier than in North America. In the latest one by Marvel, ‘Black Panther’, the main actors also came to Korea and promoted it. In addition, this movie shot some scenes in Busan. They directly focused on Korea and Koreans consuming the movies. ‘Justice League’, which was made by DC Comics, used K-pop singer Black Pink’s music video ‘As If It’s Your Last’. However, it was only used in Asia countries. On other continents like North America, another singer’s video was substituted. Thus, DC Comics did not give a more powerful impression than Marvel did. Marvel Comics not only made movies but also created various other contents and character merchandise. This targeted movie maniacs. CGV sold an Avengers popcorn set, and in the CGV Cine Shop, it sold Avengers’ goods. Therefore, they stirred up mania among movie fans and fans of the Marvel brand.
  Kim Hyo-sik (’16, Dept. of English Language and Literature) said, “I love not only the movie but the character merchandise. I can get a cup or souvenir if I buy popcorn sets in a theater. I can buy those types of things in many shops. Last year, for example, Baskin Robbins sold Spiderman ice cream, and in Seoul, there were pop-up stores which sold stationery.” Creating movie mania makes people love the brand and not just the movie. DC Comics’ characters have a 70-year history. They needed to change the old style that targeted children to a modern style. That’s why many characters were changed and why it was difficult to make people love the characters. Marvel’s heroes were more desirable than DC’s because of the mania.

Lacking background for the character development and frequent actor changes

  When Marvel planned to film ‘Iron Man’, who was not of interest yet, everyone said it would fail. However, Robert Downey Jr. took the role and digested his character perfectly. Therefore, it became massively popular. After that, Marvel connected every movie to the ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. They gave each character a movie and wrote robust storylines. Lee So-min (’15, Dept. of English Language and Literature) said, “The saddest thing when the main characters visited Korea was Robert (Iron Man). He didn’t come. Iron Man is the godfather of the Marvel series. I watch every movie, not only the ‘Iron Man’ series but all the other Marvel series. I always wait for the new films, and I always watch the credit scenes. What will be the next one and what will be the next story.” On the other hand, the main characters of DC Comics, Batman and Superman, were continuously remade. In the ‘Dark Night’ series, Christian Bale succeeded as Batman, but when it changed to Benjamin Affleck, it was hard to keep fans interested. In addition, the same story plot was one of the reasons for the failure. ‘Justice League’ did not fail totally though, due to success of ‘Wonder Woman’. However, in the film, there were absences of the backgrounds of the new heroes, such as Aqua Man, Flash, and Cyborg. Many people anticipated ‘Suicide Squad’, but the deletion of the Joker’s scenes and a focus on Harley Quinn screwed up the balance of the movie. The poor storyline didn’t help.

The content of the movies

  According to people’s evaluations, Marvel Comics is character-oriented, and DC Comics is story-oriented. In the case of Marvel Comics, the stories are based on the character’s complexities and flaws, while DC Comics focuses more on the symbolism of the characters and adversity. When the DC Comics movies are expressed well, like ‘Batman’ produced by Tim Burton, ‘Dark Knight’, and ‘Wonder Woman’, they are highly praised by professional critics. Kim Hyun-soo, a film critic, wrote in Cine 21, a Korean movie magazine, “The movie ‘Wonder Woman’ was the last pride of DC Comics. This film preserved the pride of DC Comics. ‘Wonder Woman’ also became a movie that overwhelmed the many male heroes that many have seen so far.” However, if DC Comics doesn’t express the stories well, the movies don’t become hits, such as the ‘Green Lantern’ and ‘Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice’. Kim Jong Chul, another film critic from Cine 21, wrote, “There is no moving drama in the movie ‘Green Lantern’. Carol, the original progressive female character, has lost her individuality, and her romance with Hal Jordan is boring. The only remaining aspect is action, and this one is worth watching. However, the green visuals are better suited for games than movies.”

  Marvel Comics movies are always popular, but DC Comics are often failures. The difference can be attributed to various factors. As many people are interested in hero movies, they are putting attention on the heroes that will be released in the future by Marvel Comics and DC Comics. With high expectations, many people are wondering what method DC Comics will use to overcome its sluggish popularity.

By Jung Jun-hoe l jjh38@cbnu.ac.kr
By Lim Chae-won l cw39@cbnu.ac.kr