I'm a huge fan of Superhero movies. The technology the film industry uses nowadays is tremendous compared to what was available and used only ten years ago. The thing for me though, is storytelling. From a young age, I gravitated towards Marvel and it took me a long time to figure out why.
I thought at first it was because of powers and abilities. DC's heroes seemed to me to be overpowered. Superman is the epitome of the power structure for DC. From the Marvel set, you have the Hulk. A little further investigation on my part revealed something interesting. Superman had a tragic flaw in his power, the ever-so-hideous Kryptonite. A little of that and he was useless. Kind of interesting, but looking at the Hulk, the tragic flaw is the all-consuming rage. Hulk's flaw is internal and Supe's is external.
So, I dug a little deeper. My favorite hero as a young'un was Spider-Man. Straight up, danger sense, strength, agility, and the ability to stick to walls. His alter-ego, Peter Parker is a science whiz and creates webbing and a delivery system. So, this new angle showed me that DC's heroes are seemingly always in costume battling bad guys, while Marvel had a glimpse into the regular daily life of the heroes. I liked that. It was the glimpse that eventually led me to my conclusion.
I got my hands on quite a few issues of Legion of Super Heroes from DC and read them all. I collected comic books, but I collected them to read them. I think collecting comic books, just to have them is a little defeatist, but that's just me. Anyway, even though I liked all the characters, the story was lacking a little something. Earth, our world, was not the focus of the story. Granted, the scope of the duties of the Legion were far grander, but I felt like I didn't care as much as I could have, since the setting was far removed from my reality.
The final piece took longer. Marvel's characters seemed so much more real to me because the problems they had were more than just which bad guy to punch in any given issue. Example, Peter Parker's world always seems on the verge of collapse as Spider-Man has his place and keeping the secret of who he is and the dedication to his founding principle (with great power comes great responsibility) wears him down. I didn't notice it much though since the DC issues I was reading at the time had The Flash (my favorite DC guy) sacrificing himself to save everything.
When I finally put those things together and really thought about it, plus being a budding author, I reached the conclusion that the story being told by Marvel's books eclipsed that of DC's. The only books I found from DC that came close were the Batman books, but they still lagged a bit behind.
Then, when the movies started coming out, I was hugely disappointed with the original Batman franchise. I did not like, at all, the campy presentation, especially later with the Clooney Batman or the Kilmer Batman. The original Spider-Man series hit the screen and all I could say was, "Wow." Willem Defoe as the Green Goblin was a terrific choice in casting. The Iron Man series was tremendous and of course, the first Avengers movie. Great storytelling across multiple franchise movies.
The Dark Knight series, on the other hand, showed me that DC had started learning something. First off, they took it seriously and added a darkness to the character that the other campy movies completely missed. The sets were still a little campy, but I could accept that. The Dark Knight Rises was a tremendous film, the best DC put out so far.
Lately, Gotham began airing. This is an interesting viewpoint into the Batman story and I like what they're doing with it so far. However, some of the story is starting to suffer a little bit in my opinion. Its nothing major so far and it might be attributed to the type of storytelling that goes into a series versus a movie.
I've seen all of Arrow and I like it so far. Finally, DC has presented a hero whose only thing holding him back is himself. This version of Oliver Queen is well developed. I also like the Malcolm Merlyn character with the actor from Dr Who, John Barrowman. The Flash is okay, but its got a way to go yet for me. It has a good cast and the crossovers with Arrow are a nice touch. However, there's a bit of campiness creeping in, though it might be just first season jitters.
Point being, DC's catching up. This is good because it will force Marvel to get better too. I feel a little let down with the second Avengers movie, I think they had way too many things going on and lost their story thread, but the latter half of the movie was great. I was a little disappointed by both Thor films, but again the focus on our world versus Asgard may have been a issue for me there.
I think both companies have a lot more to give, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.