I grew up with the same set of superheroes that everyone else grew up with. This was probably because back in the day, the playing field was a lot more level. Marvel wasn't a titan film industry and DC was still putting good stuff out on to TV and theaters. Nowadays, it's like no one's even heard of DC comics. Yet, I loyally stand with the unpopular side. I am a bigger fan of DC than I am of Marvel even though the latter is wildly more successful than the former. These are my thoughts on preferring the underdog.

Yes, yes, we've all heard of Marvel. In the last decade or so, Marvel Studios has just about left this earth and transcended its characters into a whole pantheon of icons that we hear and see about all the time now. This success also had to do with the Disney acquiring Marvel in 2009. The conglomerate's deep pockets basically made sure the potential of every single superhero was met in full, and in return, the reception by children, parents, and everyone in between and beyond was phenomenal. I remember my dad asking me a decade ago when I was about to turn 10 years old if I wanted to go see "Iron Man" for my birthday. When I left the theater after that movie, I was absolutely speechless. 10 years and 17 movies later, we're here now.

It's really gotten to a point where I just yield and say, "Yup. Marvel movies are just better." Just a couple of days ago, the recent "Black Panther" movie reached a ridiculously high grossing $1 billion landmark. Almost doubling DC's flop of a response to Marvel's "Avengers," the mildly anticipated "Justice League" movie, which earned only about $600 million in the same time frame. DC has had some good hits in the past dozen or so years with the release of the "Dark Knight" trilogy with Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the iconic Joker, or maybe you preferred the amazing performance by Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, but in all seriousness, they never could seem to quite stack up to the success of Marvel movies.

Honestly, I believe that it's all fair in war. Marvel has just done a better job of moving forward than DC. What does DC expect when all they've done are reboots of the same two characters over and over again? Instead of another Batman movie, perhaps we should see expansion into the less popular characters and broaden the spectrum if you will. Marvel's success with "Guardians of the Galaxy" is proof that making movies on not well-known characters can still work out really well. We saw a little bit of that magic with the release of "Suicide Squad," though that movie's writing fell short of the anticipation. I just want to see more of that. I want DC to let things go and really bring in the deep cut characters. DC needs to focus on quality films before they can really nail the other stuff like merchandising and TV.

Another important thing they need to let go and leave in the past is the dark, intense aura that they have around all of their movies. If you were to take an average of all of the colors in the recent DC movies, you'd find that the color palette is just full of pale tans and dark moody blues. There's no warmth there. I understand that they are trying to diversify from Marvel's lighthearted nature, but they should really step back and realize that things aren't working for them and that they should try something new.

I grew up loving DC characters my whole life. It really all started with watching the animated Batman series. Then came "Teen Titans" and that led to me reading the comics, and so on. It pains me to see such awesome characters go to such a waste, and I want them to do better. Hopefully, they'll take in some lessons learned from Marvel and really shift gears in the near future. That way Marvel can be rid of their monopoly on superhero entertainment, and I can be a happy boy again seeing my favorite characters up on the big screens in full majestic nostalgic regalia. A boy can dream, right?