Mark Millar Explains His Theory On Why Marvel Movies Work Better Than DC Movies

Mark Millar is getting his own universe up and running at Netflix, but he also has a theory of why Marvel is being DC at the box office.

Millar has had a hand in crafting memorable stories for Marvel in the past, including Civil War, which also made a huge impact at the box office. He also happens to be a huge fan of DC’s characters, and in an interview with Yahoo Movies revealed why he thinks the DC characters aren’t taking off in the movies.

“I think it’s really simple the characters aren’t cinematic and I say this as a massive DC fan who much prefers their characters to Marvel’s,” Millar said. “Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are some of my favorites but I think these characters, with the exception of Batman, they aren’t based around their secret identity they are based around their super power.”

“Whereas the Marvel characters tend to be based around the personality of Matt Murdock or Peter Parker or the individual X-Men, it’s all about the character,” Millar said. “DC, outside of Batman, is not about the character. With Batman, you can understand him and you can worry about him but someone like Green Lantern, he has this ring that allows him to create 3D physical manifestations and green plasma with the thoughts in his head but he’s allergic to the color yellow! How do you make a movie with that? In 1952 that made perfect sense but now the audience have no idea what that’s all about.”

To be fair, Green Lantern hasn’t been “allergic” to the color yellow in awhile, but that’s neither here nor there.

Millar also feels that the talent has been there to make these characters work and that there must be another reason that they aren’t working.

“People will slam me for this but I think the evidence is there,” Millar said. “We’ve seen great directors, great writers and great actors, tonnes of money thrown at them, but these films aren’t working. I think they are all too far away from when they were created. Something feels a little old about them, kids look at these characters and they don’t feel that cool. Even Superman, I love Superman, but he belongs to an America that doesn’t exist anymore. He represents 20th Century America and I think he peaked then.”

Well, there’s a lot to unpack there, but we’ll leave that up to you in the comments. DC has proven that the right combination can work on the big screen, as Wonder Woman was an all-out success for the studio. Hopes are high for Aquaman as well, but time will tell if Millar’s theory pans out.