In the seemingly eternal debate that pits Marvel and DC against one another, it’s hard to argue that each one excels differently in areas of entertainment beyond comic books. When it comes to animation, the likes of ‘Batman: The Animated Series,’ ‘Young Justice,’ and ‘Teen Titans’ are staples for superhero fans of all ages. Television in general seems to be DC’s domain since their live-action shows like ‘Smallville,’ ‘Gotham,’ ‘Arrow,’ and ‘The Flash’ have all received varying degrees of acclaim. But when it comes to live-action movies, Marvel has been reigning supreme since 2008 and their upcoming Phase Three looks very promising. Of course, this is my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own, but it’s always interesting when some people in particular weigh in with their takes on certain situations.

While appearing on a panel called “Creative Activism” at this year’s South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, ‘The Walking Dead’ creator Robert Kirkman discusses the new companion series on AMC that will show the early days of the zombie outbreak on the west coast. After dropping some hints about the series currently going by the name of ‘Cobalt’, the writer/producer sounded off about DC and Warner Bros.’ upcoming slate of films featuring ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and beyond:

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“I’m going to get in trouble here … Anyone would be foolish to think that Marvel hasn’t done something extremely special. I think of Iron Man ending with a surprise cameo from Samuel L. Jackson [mentioning] The Avengers – you were like, ‘What?! How did that happen?!’ People forget that was a surprise. Everything that came out of that was very organic and very exciting.

I think [DC] announcing you’re going to do a Justice League movie after a Superman movie, that was neat and had some awesome things in it, but it wasn’t like amazing or groundbreaking – I shouldn’t have said that. It was an awesome movie, I like it. [The plan] just seems derivative, so it puts them in a backseat position to Marvel. It’s not organic so there’s going to be so much scrutiny on Batman vs. Superman when it comes out. It’s got an uphill battle. If they hadn’t told anybody if the Justice League were going to appearing in that, and they were forming that, it would have been surprising and exciting and weird. People are forgetting how important the surprise is. But, you know, Aquaman looks awesome and I’m sure it will be great.”

Though Kirkman softened the blow he dealt toward the end of his remarks, I think it’s easy to see that he’s in Marvel’s corner. This shouldn’t really be surprising since he worked on ‘Marvel Zombies’ and ‘Irredeemable Ant-Man’ for the House of Ideas, but these days he’s largely focused on his Image and Skybound projects, so he’s pretty disconnected from the things going on with the “Big Two.”

What do you think of Robert Kirkman’s stance on DC’s cinematic universe? Do you agree with his assessment or do you find any flaws in his logic? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Entertainment Weekly