Who Will Handle The Multiverse Better: DC or Marvel?

Hands down, the MCU has taken off and outperformed their DCEU counterparts. Marvel has had the rare hiccups but DC has stubbled out of the gates. Currently, they’ve picked up in their later films but still can’t claim similar success. Now each franchise will take on a long-running comic staple, the multiverse.

Multiverses were introduced in comics as a way to reboot stories that killed off fan favorites, soft reboots for stories that didn’t work out, switched creative teams, or just wanted to pivot on characters that were taken down more exciting paths. To non-comic book fans, simply put “multiverse” is a shortened way to say multiple universes.

With their upcoming projects, Marvel is leaning heavily into theirs. In the MCU, because of the split of Spider-man owned Sony, they needed a way to eventually make the split make sense to the audience. Sony would like to use Spider-man and create their own Spidey-verse, Disney needed Spider-man to fulfill their Infinity War story arc. Now that Endgame is over, Disney will use Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness to transition Spidey out of the MCU while lending star power to Doctor Strange.

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Sony is going to run with the multiverse story with the third Spider-man movie as well. Already the rumors are floating around that iterations of Spidey villains and heroes returning for the third installment. By following that path, not only can Sony create a universe that no longer has to be shared, but now that Tom Holland has that star power, he might want to move on and they can carry the story arcs with a different Spidey like Miles Morales without a reboot. More importantly, it finally will make sense of having so many Spider-man reboots in the past.

Then of course there’s DC. Right now, with their shared Arrow-verse they’ve already utilized the multiverse story with their Crisis on Infinite Earths event. The Flash pulled the biggest surprise guest with DCEU’s Ezra Miller making a small screen appearance. With the upcoming movie projects, they’ve already started to work towards their multiverse on the big screen as well. For upcoming projects, DC has already cast fan-favorite Michael Keaton to return, rumored as Batman/Bruce Wayne.

Since the ties with Flash already exist, it looks like DC might be exploring their Flashpoint story. Doing so allows them to use blockbuster sized projects both in theater and on their new HBO Max streaming service. The biggest kicker right now is allowing the Snyder Cut version of Justice League to be utilized.

When Zac Snyder was the head of the bulk of the DCEU story, it had huge implications on the future of DC movies. When he stepped away, the studio had to pivot and change course. Thanks to fan demand and the streaming service they can now get those plans back on track.

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But that’s where the hangup is. They’d already cast a new Batman with Robert Pattinson. Due to studio interference, Jared Leto was cut from the Joker role and Jaoquin Phoenix took on the stand-alone film. With fan demand bringing those characters back into the fold, both Snyder’s stories and the future ones needed a way to coexist. Now with their multiverse, they can without having to pivot and rework their future as well. The only downside to the DC multiverse is not getting to revisit Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Both multiverses will change the course of the movies going forward but will allow creative freedom to both studios and filmmakers. Too many times, especially with DC properties, the studio’s interference has taken its toll on the movies leaving fans disappointed. Between Marvel and DC, the latter will benefit much more from a multiverse arc.

Batman, like Spider-man, needs an out for why the actors have changed so much over the years. Now with the strength of Batman and the Joker on multiple platforms, the multiverse war might lean to favor the DCEU. The MCU could stand on its own without this story and will serve as the split between two studios. DC needs theirs to strengthen their current projects. When it comes to the multiverse, DC will come out ahead.