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Top 10 Worst DC and Marvel Moments (2016)

Nobody enjoys being negative. We all want to be a supporting fan to our favourite products, whether they be films, television programmes, video games, comics, music, but unfortunately we will all be let down sooner or later. These let-downs can come from a bad creative decision or a moment that is questionable, but whatever the reason it makes the fan-boy within us want to scream out in rage. And DC and Marvel are no exception to this. Despite the many good things to come out of DC and Marvel this year there have been many bad moments. There have been cringe-worthy moments and unforgivable moments, some of these moments occurring within films that should’ve made a mark in Hollywood history.

Without further ado, here is my list of 2016′ worst moments from DC and Marvel.

10. Forced References

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Don’t you just hate it when you’ve got a very solid movie on your hands and then all of a sudden you get a random reference thrown in that feels almost forced and not necessary to the rest of the plot. Doctor Strange did this when it randomly threw in, via quick exposition, that Stephen’s Eye of Agamotto was in fact an Infinite Stone. This was completely out of the blue just to remind us of the long-awaited arrival of Thanos in Avengers: Infinite War.

The DCEU even started to take this trait to heart as they incorporated it into their second film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, in an attempt to speed the process up of creating a shared universe. Firstly we had the inclusion of Batman, tagging onto the ongoing events of Man of Steel which introduced Superman. Then there was the addition of Wonder Woman but the nail in the coffin was the ridiculous cameos by The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.

I will admit that these forced cameos weren’t all that bad and did serve as nice teasers but the implications of their appearance weren’t constructed well and also missed a great opportunity of teasing further characters beyond the ones that have been given green-lit films. You could’ve had files appear on the hard-drive that featured data on all kinds of DC characters to further establish that the DCEU is an already established universe filled with characters waiting to be explored, similar to Batman and Wonder Woman already existing prior to Man of Steel.

9. Hardly Any Budget for Deadpool

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Now this one didn’t really create too many problems as Tim Miller‘ phenomenal directing skills proved more than capable of dealing with the limited budget presented to him by Fox and still managed to deliver a fantastic film. In fact that made Deadpool an even greater movie because it was done on a cheaper budget and yet looked as good, if not better, than most high budgeted movies.

It’s still a sad thought that Fox were too idiotic to realise how big Deadpool would be and by limiting its possibilities because of biased views simply made the outcome of its success a bigger “kick in the teeth”. But it would’ve been nice to have more extensive action scenes rather than the limited ones we got (which were still great, don’t get me wrong). But imagine how much more we could’ve got had Fox added a little more care, something I hope will be rectified within the sequel.

8. So, Why Do We Hate Each Other?

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This applies to the fight between Batman and Superman because let’s face it, there wasn’t much motivation for them to battle.  When you consider the title of the film and that these are DC’ biggest characters you would have thought effort would’ve gone into the script to make sure this grand event made history instead of becoming a mixed bag.

The film started off so well by establishing that Batman hated Superman because of his reckless actions and the film even goes about to show that the world is in debate about Superman, making Superman question himself. I also like the idea that Superman dislikes Batman because of his shift to branding and killing his victims, which showcases Batman’ decent as a hero because of Robin’s death at the hands of The Joker. But things fall apart when you consider that Zach Snyder made the two characters too similar, which meant there wasn’t anything to conflict with because they were both as bad as each other.

As I said above, they both dislike each other because they have killed but that just makes them both major hypocrites, unless you argue the case that Batman only kills bad people or that Superman doesn’t initially kill. The problem with the film is it doesn’t make things very clear and has too many plot elements going on when the narrative should be simpler. That and the motivations for Batman and Superman should’ve been focused on more and instead it becomes rather confusing and unrealistic.

And then in the end it just turns out that Lex Luther is behind everything and wanted them to fight to get rid of Superman, so when everything is said and done the reasons behind this grand event is a farce at best, and ultimately anti-climatic because there is no real substance.

7. Civil War?

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I’ll honestly admit that Captain America: Civil War isn’t one of my favourites because its narrative, similar to Batman v Superman, had little substance. Now it definitely had more reasons for the characters to go toe to toe, and there is a lot of character development holding this tragic story together but it wasn’t what I was expecting.

With Batman v Superman I didn’t know what I was getting, and so it wasn’t as disappointing, but with Civil War it was truly disappointing because I felt the narrative was changed too much from its comic-book counter-part and lost a lot of the impact that the comic-book had. Firstly it lacked the characters to use, which hindered the overall plot, but I felt that the focus was too much on Captain America and Iron Man, whereas Civil War should’ve more concentrated on the overall impact of the governments interference. It was shown in small portions, mostly with Scarlet Witch, but nothing more was really said and done and so I’m waiting for future MCU films to showcase the impact in more detail.

Also we only got one battle between the two opposed sides and that was it. Possibly the best part of the film and the part I was most looking forward to. Alas the film’s focus, like with Batman v Superman, was in the wrong place and I wanted to see more of the actual “civil war” instead of the petty fall-out between Captain America and Iron Man over Bucky Barnes.

6. Spider-Man’s the Best Part!

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Like I said above, the actual civil war fight scene was the best part about the entire film because it actually did what the title stated. Yes it was interesting to see the downfall of Captain America and Iron Man’ friendship within the tragic circumstances but I didn’t come to watch Captain America v Iron Man, I came to see Civil War! At least Batman v Superman had “Dawn of Justice” as its subheading to at least warn us that it was a film about setting up the Justice League.

Anyway, the crime of this pick is that Spider-Man’ cameo was the most exciting part of Civil War, and one that certainly got me hyped up more about the film as my favourite Marvel character was about to enter the MCU and be treated with respect. So yeah, the film’s best element was teasing Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is disappointing considering the film has “Civil War” in the title.

5. Batman v Superman‘s Doomsday of an Ending

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Without a doubt Batman v Superman falls apart in its third act because it is really dumb and uninspiring. It’s one of the most generic endings to a Superhero movie to date which is a shame since the rest of the movie tries to be different with its more sophisticated approach and concentration on character study.

But alas we have a boring “heroes fight mighty villain” clichéd ending that really deflates the enjoyment I have for the rest of the film. Maybe if Doomsday was made to be more interesting and the battle was better constructed then this may have been more enjoyable and not feel basic and utterly boring. Also Superman’ death felt unnecessary, and too soon. His character wasn’t fully establish, or evolved yet, and felt too convenient for the ongoing plot of the DCEU, as well as feeling pointless when you know he’s coming back in Justice League, therefore taking away any impact his death might have had.

4. Where’s The Joker?

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This one is very self-explanatory. After all the confusing publicity surrounding Suicide Squad it’s fair to say that nearly every fan of the film felt cheated by the absence of The Joker. Jared Leto was promised to be a terrific addition to the DCEU, and a great new interpretation to the iconic character, but alas he was cut short on the editing floor in favour of making a more fun version of the film despite its original intention to be a darker movie which would’ve shown the graphic romantic relationship between The Joker and Harley Quinn in full. But the re-edit took a lot of this away and thus deflated Harley’s development as gaps in her origins were belatedly apparent.

Hopefully the Extended Cut will help to amend some of these issues but it still doesn’t alter the fact that there should’ve been more Joker. Next time publicity show what is actually going to be in the film instead of teasing us with elements that aren’t a central concept.

3. Wait, I Thought This Was “The Killing Joke” Not “The Life and Drama of Batgirl”?

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This was the biggest problem, and disappointment with the theatrical release of Batman: The Killing Joke. The graphic novel itself is one of the greatest stories of all time, not just in Batman mythology but for comic-books in general. So naturally you’d expect this movie adaption to be totally fateful to this amazing piece of art and utlerise all of the production team’ strengths to deliver a definitive version of this gripping tale. You would also expect not to have to sit through 27 minutes of filler revolved around Batgirl before actually receiving The Killing Joke! This was a massive insult to the fans and made us all question why it was even in the film.

I was literally sat there waiting for this filler to end, and after 15 minutes I began to become concerned because there was still no sign of The Joker and the film only had an hour left. Then I was waiting to see how this important Batgirl tale actually integrated with The Killing Joke part of the narrative only to be met with further confusion as it doesn’t actually go anyway, nor is it even referenced again.

I get the similarities between Batgirl’ struggle and Batman’ struggle, both having faced a mad-man that tried taking the battle too far and nearly pushed our heroes over the edge, but without any real context with the rest of the film it still falls flat and becomes a wasted effort. It just makes me think that the filmmakers should’ve made a better filler section, that actually linked into the rest of the film, or concentrated more on The Killing Joke.

2. “Did Somebody Call Martha?”

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I think everyone knew that this moment would be high on this list. I actually don’t mind the scene as much as most people because I get what the intention is. Batman sees that Superman has a connection to humanity through having a mother, and her name being the same is his dead mother reminded him of his own personal crusade and realised how far he allowed himself to fall away from that.

But, like everyone says, why would Superman refer to his mother as “Martha”? He has never once in the duration of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman referred to her as Martha, so why change now. Snyder could’ve still got his point across exactly the same even if Superman said “Save mother”. And then when Batman questioned his statement Louis Lane could’ve turned up and told him her name and that probably would’ve made a lot more sense. It’s one of those movie moments that you get the intention but don’t quite understand why it was done in the way presented.

Also there is the question of why this simple moment managed to make everything better. I think that’s another thing that should’ve been properly addressed. Perhaps had Batman not fully forgiven Superman and just decided to trust him slightly, needing time to fully warm up to him. But I’m not a big-named director/writer so what do I know right?

1. Bat-Sex

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Despite “Save Martha” being a cringe-worthy scene it at least still had some sort of context, and in its demented way, actually progressed the film. However, Batgirl’s whiny drama story during the unnecessary 27 minute filler prior to The Killing Joke did not need her to have sex with Batman to advance the plot. I don’t care what the filmmakers say, they went too far. They clearly didn’t understand their unique chemistry, which more represents the bond between uncle and niece, but instead took matters into their own hands and came up with a scenario that pretty much only made creepy producers of fan-fiction happy.

As if the filler wasn’t bad enough seeing Batgirl descended into such a petty acceptance story where all she does is whine about Batman not accepting her, and pretty much not screwing with her, made for a rather tasteless and embarrassing narrative. It was truly demeaning for her character, not to mention disrespectful to the mythology of Batman by having what should have been the greatest Batman animated film become no better than a teenage romance story where the insecure female protagonist pines for the man of her dreams.

So yeah, this is without a doubt the worst moment from this year and I pray nothing like this ever happens again.

So there you have it, my pick of the Top 10 Worst Moments from DC and Marvel. And from these results it does seem pretty obvious which company is producing better quality films and giving the fans what they want. I hope you enjoyed reading through this list and found my picks entertaining. But enough about my opinion, share your Top 10 Moments in the comment section below or send us your thoughts on Twitter!

About the author

John Hussey