It takes me back to my days on the schoolyard in the early 1990s. We didn’t have brand loyalty to DC or Marvel as we all just read any comics we could get our hands on, but there was a distinct war between Sega and Nintendo. While Nintendo dominated the video game market in the mid-to-late 1980s with the NES, Sega suddenly gained traction with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog and subsequent re-launch of the Genesis/Mega Drive. Suddenly, the video game market became a two-horse race as gamers who couldn’t afford both consoles purchased either Sega’s Genesis/Mega Drive or Nintendo’s SNES, which created a sense of brand loyalty. You were either Sonic or Mario. You were Streets of Rage or Final Fight. You were bloody Mortal Kombat or non-bloody Mortal Kombat.
Personally, I was a Mega Drive kid. I got mine for Christmas 1991 and it changed my life. A childhood that had previously been dominated by movies and The Real Ghostbusters was no awoken to Sonic and pals. My best friend also had a Mega Drive so we would waste weekends playing Golden Axe or Revenge of Shinobi rather than going outside to play football. However a few of our friends had the SNES, and we would go to their houses to play Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past and Super Metroid. Awesome games, but because they weren’t on my beloved Mega Drive, I would say they were just ‘okay’.
They had Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Turtles in Time, which was vastly superior to the Mega Drive exclusive Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist – but my brand loyalty wouldn’t allow me to admit that. My friend would constantly tell me that Street Fighter II: Turbo was better than Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition and that Final Fantasy was better than Phantasy Star. In some ways he was right, in others he was wrong. I would counter that my version of Mortal Kombat had the blood (when you put in a code) and that my copy of Aladdin was light years ahead of the SNES version. Amazingly this brand loyalty continued when both the Mega Drive and SNES were coming to end of their lifespans, and we’d instead argue over which would be better: Saturn or Nintendo 64.
Later in life I picked up a SNES and discovered all these games that I’d previously written off just because I wanted to believe the Mega Drive was better. Castlevania: The New Generation (aka Castlevania: Bloodlines) was a great title, but it paled in comparison to Super Castlevania IV. As I alluded to above, I now appreciate that Turtles in Time is a much better game than Hyperstone Heist (it’s not even close, really) and that the Mega Drive didn’t have anything close to Super Mario Kart in terms of multi-player fun – though Micro Machines comes pretty close. I still stand by the Mega Drive version of Mortal Kombat (so long as you have the six-button pad) and I will argue to my dying day that the Mega Drive version of Alien3 is more fun than the SNES one. Aladdin on the Mega Drive is also still better, and the soundtrack for Earthworm Jim is better suited to the Mega Drive’s grungy tones. Really, both have their strengths and both have their weaknesses.
The point I’m (long-windedly) making is that brand loyalty and blindly following one company is a fool’s errand. Looking back on it now, I don’t understand why I was so defensive of the Mega Drive when I could have enjoyed both consoles. I see it today with gamers arguing brand loyalty over PlayStation and Xbox and I just don’t see the point. I’ll never understand the arguments between DC and Marvel fans on this website or any other website. I’ll never understand jibes from both parties on social media as they celebrate their successes and boo the other’s downfalls. I’m wearing a Batman belt buckle and Spider-Man pants. Shouldn’t we be happy that we have both companies releasing movies based on characters we love?
Maybe it’s because I grew up in an era when comic book movies were an idea and not the norm, and so this new crop of comic book output is everything I could have dreamed of. Our only comic book movies were Batman Forever and that bootleg VHS copy of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four you picked up at a convention. We may have had The Mask, The Crow and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but we also had Tank Girl, Judge Dredd, Steel and Batman & Robin. The idea of Spider-Man joining forces with Iron Man on the silver screen was nothing more than fantasy, and the closest we came to World’s Finest was when George Clooney’s Batman told Chris O’Donnell’s Robin, “this is why Superman works alone”.
Now I’m not saying that we should all just get along and celebrate every comic book movie that comes out, because that breeds acceptance. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice should be taken to task by DC fans because it’s not a good movie. Its story is incoherent, its break-neck pace is distracting and its character motivations are muddied and under-developed. Marvel fans should blast Iron Man 2 for its terrible villains and Thor: The Dark World for its bland direction and impact-less plot. We shouldn’t just say they’re good because of which comic book house they came from.
The best part about this is that I’ve just listed three examples that some people like and genuinely enjoy outside of brand loyalty. I know a few people who love Thor: The Dark World and discussions and arguments about their qualities and failures are part of what makes being a comic book movie fan so much fun in 2016. If you like those movies then good for you. Tell people you like them, defend them, argue for them – just don’t do it out of Marvel or DC brand loyalty. You can be a diehard DC reader and like The Avengers or be excited for Spider-Man: Homecoming. You can be a DC fan and not like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and agree that it’s a box office disappointment. Geoff Johns isn’t going to come round to your house and scold you for saying so.
Being loyal to a brand can be a good thing, but don’t let it cloud your judgement because it’s killing comic book movie discussion.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth, co-host of the Flickering Myth Podcast and co-host of Scooperhero News. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen.
