Starting with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, leading into Batman vs. Superman, growing into Wonder Woman, and then getting a feature of their own, the Justice League has finally assembled itself into theaters. While the production process of that first team movie wasn’t perfect, these heroes can handle a bad beat. It won’t be the first time their characters were besmirched by an ill-fated multimedia venture and it won’t be the last.
The reason bringing the Justice League to film is important isn’t due to some immature fervor, but to introduce a little competition to the superhero movie market. Once both teams are going up against each other, competing for release dates, and box office records, and Rotten Tomatoes reviews in earnest, the rising tide will lift all boats, and the movies will only get better.
But it doesn’t stop there. Successful superhero team franchises in each corner will anchor the genre even further, allowing for deeper cuts into the intellectual property catalog, making way for more classic characters and stories to be brought into the next generation. There’s still fear from studios about investing in some projects, there are still “a lot of ways it can go wrong,” but once there are two titans competing against each other, the discourse will elevate itself.
In the spirit of free enterprise, they’re the underdog for now, but here are 20 Hilarious Memes That Show The Justice League Is Better Than The Avengers.
Gladiators
Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice gave viewers a rivalry that has been simmering in American pop culture for over 60 years. Finally, Batman and Superman squared off on the silver screen. Regardless of how the two heroes came together, or how they resolved their feud, this movie delivered on its main promise: to depict an epic, well balanced contest of champions.
Captain America: Civil War, (sometimes known as Iron Man 4), brought another battle to the screen, recreating the classic comic book event, originally published in 2006. At first glance, as a trailblazer in the genre, Civil War succeeds in throwing so many heroes together on screen and crafting a, technically feasible, premise for their conflict, but the action doesn’t hold up as well as in BvS. For good vs. evil, justice vs. truth, lightness vs. the dark: open your eyes, switch off your brain, and spend a Saturday night indulging in a rewatch of this clash of titans.
Dark/Light Filter
This is the first of many memes to notice this difference in the two production companies. What comic book fans have suspected for a long time is reinforced in their respective cinematic universes; Marvel and DC tell superhero stories with radically different tones.
So far the the MCU has produced light, adventurous, movies, arguably aimed toward younger audiences while Warner Bros. have, with their decentralized model, allowed more genre specific, mature films, often resulting in a darker, overall, color palette.
If the DCEU continues in their director driven style, resisting the collective production of the MCU films, future movies will allow for more expression and varied storytelling. Each DC movie has been different from the last, so, thankfully for the Justice League, fans can expect a fresh take next time around.
We Have Batman
Superman is the most powerful member of the Justice League, but Batman is simultaneously the brains, leader and secret weapon. Batman always has a way to defeat his enemies and it will never be the way you expect. He’s a hero of few words, but his devotion to the work earns the trust of everyone on the team. He’s a regular hero’s hero.
On the screen, Batman has long been the most enigmatic, yet enduring, first choice for adaptation to the big screen. Something about Bruce Wayne’s origin story, and the flexibility of the Batman, allows him to adapt to multiple different stories, themes, and situations. All of this means that Superman is right: heroically and cinematically, Batman trumps all. That’s why the Justice League will beat the Avengers every time.
Aquaman
This Christmas, another member of the Justice League is getting their on screen origin story. Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa and directed by James Wan, is going to try and breathe life into this oft-maligned underwater hero. Aquaman has gotten a bad reputation as a B-Teamer, coming off the bench for the League, but this movie is going to show a lot of fans that he’s simply misunderstood.
Aquaman is the king of Atlantis and the entire ocean, which happens to make up 70% of the planet. While he usually spends more time safeguarding his realm and striving to rule with the utmost legitimacy, Aquaman is a superstar in waiting. If the DC cinematic universe can rehabilitate the honor of Aquaman’s seat on the Justice League, it would be a great way to add new depths to the franchise and add much needed weight and cohesion behind their collection of superhero movies.
Shawarma
No one is saying that superhero movies shouldn’t be fun or funny, but recently, the real world role of superhero movies has grown and fans are searching for something deeper from their film fables. Superhero stories work best when people can see a little bit of themselves in the heroes, allowing their consciousness to inhabit the characters and accompany them on their journey.
The journey itself isn’t always smooth or logically flowing, or peaceful, for either the Justice League or the Avengers, but they always capture audience attention with their cosmic quests to eradicate evil.
With that great power in mind, the conscientious filmmaker might decide to spend their screen time tackling as relevant themes as possible, instead of filming an SNL skit and appending it on the end of their movie.
It’s About Family
This meme lays out the character templates for Snyder’s Justice League in the mold of the nuclear household. The funny thing is, they get it about right, aping the dynamics of the movie pretty well. Wonder Woman and Batman were the team leaders, Cyborg and Flash are the new kids, Aquaman is the wild card. Despite the hiccups of that first team up movie, the chemistry among the heroes works pretty well.
The Avengers offers a lot of individual stand out performances. Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America are a big three that have really developed as strong characters on screen. They feel complex, emotional, and human (mostly). The team dynamic is another matter. One of the ways the main conflict of Captain America: Civil War felt hollow is the lack of team feeling available to be torn asunder. The Guardians of the Galaxy are a more compelling team than the Avengers, based on the movies so far.
Say what you will about the finished product, Justice League was a film about creating a group and creating that sense of family. Let’s hope they keep building on that sense in future movies.
Quicksilver
Speedster vs. speedster, it’s no contest, The Flash takes first place over Pietro Maximoff, aka, Quicksilver. Even though he passed away at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, he may make his return to the MCU at any time. Even in his prime, Flash brought a bit more to the Justice League team.
Assuming their super speed powers can cancel each other out, The Flash also brings a background in criminal forensics and zealous commitment to justice that Quicksilver lacks. And then, Barry Allen’s powers tap into the speed force, an expression of time and space that connects every corner of the DC universe.
It may be unfair, with Quicksilver’s character on hiatus and The Flash’s just beginning, but this is still advantage: Justice League.
Stand Back, Superman
Who would win, Batman, or all the Avengers? Admittedly, this would be the Dark Knight’s steepest challenge yet, but if ever Marvel Studios and Warner Bros do a crossover movie, this should be the first one on their list.
A Batman, travelling between universes, possibly with the assistance of The Flash and his cosmic treadmill, crosses into the MCU Earth. Batman is immediately hunted by the Avengers for most of the movie, eventually, he sorts everything out over a controlled meeting with Tony Stark. Just when everything’s almost all figured out, the main villain’s smoldering plot comes to a climax and Batman needs to help the Avengers save New York City before they send him back to the Batcave.
That’s just the first movie of a trilogy.
Alien Invasion
As this meme alludes, it took all six Avengers to defeat the alien invasion in Avengers, but Superman mopped up the Zod invasion all by himself in Man of Steel. Of course, not all alien invasions were created equally, as different alien species have different strengths and weaknesses, so at first glance, this appears to be a crude oversimplification.
However, when one expands the premise, Superman is also correct that the Justice League handled their Steppenwolf problem better than the Avengers handled their Loki problem. Specifically, the two franchises handled their respective macguffins, the mother box and tesseract respectively, very differently. The teamwork grown among the Justice League allowed them to easily corral the Motherboxes once they get the muscle from Superman. The Avengers, even at full power, spent way too much time smashing and too little time strategizing.
Cap + Iron Man
More memes that make strikingly good points. In addition to a great suit and a great tactical mind, Batman’s collection of talents includes: advanced scientific knowledge, and gumshoe detective skills, he’s a master of disguise, computers, and martial arts, he’s also resistant to torture, telepathy, and mind control.
Beyond that abridged list of skills, Batman’s greatest strength has got to be his ability to adapt to any situation and do whatever’s necessary to achieve a humane, just, victory. Batman’s amazing capacity for power and proficiency would overburden some characters, making them too powerful, boring, or predictable. Not Bruce Wayne. Something about his mortality, his tragic background, and his idealized wealth and societal position, make him the quintessentially timeless hero.
It might be a step too far to say that Captain America and Iron Man are each half as powerful as Batman, but he does check a lot of boxes.
Started From Smallville
There is a certain something about the Justice League heroes that feels a bit more familiar. Cyborg, Flash, and Aquaman all got time on the young Superman series, Smallville, so maybe that’s why their characters feel more earned.
These three characters in particular serve as good examples of how DC has cultivated the 3-6 spots on their main super team. Every team has its headliners, the stars, but a great team is only as strong as its weakest link, so Cyborg, Flash, and Aquaman have to stack up favorably against, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Black Widow.
In terms of popularity and cultural relevance, it looks like Justice League wins on this measure as well. At least in part thanks to that Smallville run, the deeper team wins the day.
Popcorn Flicks
Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy has passed into the Justice League’s past, but the themes of those movies continue to influence the projects released by Warner Bros. today. An above meme pointed out the visual differences, this one comments more on the thematic differences that have emerged, not just in that trilogy, but the DCEU as a whole.
Taking a more serious tack toward the stories, conflicts, and themes, is more than a stodgy attitude, it’s a calculated strategy and approach to making superhero movies, distinct from the Marvel method. In the MCU, the amount of jokes per minute is many many times that of something like Batman Begins.
Even the more recent Suicide Squad, while it focused on being light-hearted, and resides fully within the DCEU, mostly forsakes the viewer under the age of 15. The Marvel saga loops that audience into their key demographic.
Sloth the Haters
In this age of overflowing content, there’s no shortage of fans on both sides, but the Marvel camp has probably, narrowly, inched ahead, fueled by the success of the movies. It may be that in some cases, pro Marvel opinions have become so commonplace, it would be hard for a Justice League supporter to show their true colors and voice their opinion. Especially, as some may argue, after the most recent round of films.
This meme advocates confessing one’s feelings honestly and bearing with all the consequences. Despite the slant of this article (and despite what you may read in the comment section) the main takeaway is that the time has come when there are legitimate arguments on both sides. The future for both looks bright and there’s a lot to look forward too from each production company.
So much of the talk and news will consist of concerns about rumors and future plans, but through it all, more movies will come out. That’s reason enough to state one’s Justice League allegiance loud and proud.
Moral Compass
When fans last left The Avengers, they were in the middle of a Civil War, fighting over an argument about whether or not they should submit to government regulation to contain their power and monitor their destructive potential. Half of the team was considering it, based on the damage they’ve caused over their past missions.
Everywhere The Avengers go, they do tend to take down a healthy amount of henchmen with them. Black Widow and Hawkeye aren’t committed to non-lethal shots, Hulk just moves through the world as one big wrecking ball, so there’s no hope for anyone who gets in his way. Captain America probably tries to avoid it, but he is a soldier. Iron Man and Thor have the right combination of morals and powers to keep their kills low, but that’s still only 1/3 of the team.
The Justice League’s darkness makes them take a lot of things too seriously at times, but that serious tone extends to their no killing policy as well.
A Lengthy Comparison
This meme ignores tone and execution completely, and breaks down the Justice League and Avengers team in a head to head comparison. Some standouts from these matchups: Thor and Superman are eerily similar upon closer examination. Thor never symbolized patriotism like Superman did, however, and their backgrounds are vastly different.
The Martian Manhunter is the next shoe to drop on the Justice League team. The Avengers are running in concert with the Guardians of the Galaxy now, which gives them a much needed cosmic dimension, but J’onn J’onzz can do the same for the League. He’s a monolithic sentry, with a past more tortured than Bruce Wayne’s and more powers than Superman.
The Green Lantern lands favorably on this comparison as well, but unless that easter egg in Justice League goes anywhere, fans will have to wait a long time for him to come back to the screen.
Brooding vs. Comic Relief
This one takes it half a step too far, but the sentiment falls in line with the general direction of a lot of these themes. One can’t disagree with all of them. In particular, this meme highlights two leading Marvel men, two heroes whose franchise legacies will go very different directions. Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., and Dr. Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.
The Iron Man movies hinged on the performance of Downey Jr and how he inhabited the role of Tony Stark, wore that guy’s demons on his face. Doctor Strange didn’t strike gold with Cumberbatch unfortunately. He’ll be great in Infinity War, in a supporting role, but that character coasts mostly on great jokes and magical effects, the hero’s journey is still in progress.
Try this one: what if Dr. Strange was the broodiest character in the MCU? Grumpy at everyone, king of the dead eye stare, Sorcerer Supreme.
Waller Over Everybody
Amanda Waller is the perfect anti-villain. Her government role with A.R.G.U.S. places her right at the crossroads of justice and morality, and it allows her to team up alongside the Justice League as often as she fights against them. She never signed any no killing clauses,= and she manages the Suicide Squad to take care of any loose ends.
The MCU truly does have a villain problem. One of the many amazing parts of Black Panther was its sympathetic villain, easily making Killmonger the strongest evil character in the entire canon so far. Other than he and maybe Thanos, the bad guys have been flatter, kookier, with louder dramatic music playing behind them, but without true malice.
Now, as far as the other villains in the DCEU go, Steppenwolf or Ares, for example, Waller could teach them a thing or two also.
Batman is Worthy
This would be a perfect scene in the Batman/Avengers crossover. Batman, of course, even by the most generous fan’s standards, shouldn’t be able to wield Mjolnir, so everyone on the battlefield is shocked when this happens. In fact, it brings the two parties together at last. The third act follows, when Shuri, Mr. Fantastic, Bruce Banner, and the Silver Surfer determine that due to Batman’s roots in the alternate, DC universe, Mjolnir’s magic doesn’t work on his molecules.
Fiction’s fabric is torn a little further once Batman’s detective skills put together the case against H.Y.D.R.A. in a most elementary fashion. His breakthrough leads to a very lengthy montage in which Batman and Nick Fury coordinate S.H.I.E.L.D. in concert with the Avengers for a full on assault on Baron Zemo and H.Y.D.R.A. H.Q.
The dust settles, the Batman-ified Avengers walk away victorious. The scene zooms out through a bay of surveillance monitors. Doctor Doom is studying Batman’s every move…
Grimacing Thanos
Thanos, hopefully, will be the next greatest villain in the MCU. So far, in teasers, he’s being set up as a strong man, bully style conqueror. He is that, but originally, the character was written with more emotional depth.
Jim Starlin created Thanos in 1973, definitely as a megalomaniacal god, but as a really clever one. Thanos was a master strategist and logician. He could always outsmart his enemies, knowing their habits, tricking them into a false sense of security. His quest to court Death drove him to collect the Infinity Stones and become the master of his destiny. Eventually Thanos himself was tricked. His own pride made a fool of him and opened him up to attack. We’ll see if The Avengers are so lucky.
He sure does look like that McDonald’s advertising mascot though. And he was based off of Darkseid anyway. Another one for Justice League.
Awesome Childhood
The MCU is having a great run now, but there’s a broad generation of fans that will gravitate even more toward the animated representations of the DC characters. Using the formulas of shows like the cartoon Justice League, the movies should be relying on character driven adventure, with room for a slightly darker silver screen adaptation. If fans can get an aged up version of the stories in these shows, they’re set.
The animated series were able to focus more cleanly on specific plots, taking the time to explore narrow vignettes. A team up movie, especially one that tries to do an origin, just goes through too much, like trying to fit a whole school year of Harry Potter into one movie, it barely fits.
Now that there’s a foundation in the genre, hopefully, future movies can move away from such linear stories, and the Justice League will stand level in the box office.
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Which meme made you laugh most? Let us know in the comments!
