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Over the weekend, it was announced that Ryan Reynolds has signed on to be Green Lantern in a major motion picture slated to open next year. With this announcement DC Comics  looks to be making a move to combat Marvel’s near monopoly of the comics to film market.  

Since releasing X-Men in 2000, Marvel Comics has released 19 films based on major properties in its publishing line-up, averaging 2.5 films per year from 2003 to 2009. DC has released only five films since rebooting its Batman franchise with Batman Begins in 2005. Much of the success and prolific output of these films is attributed to Avi Arad and Marvel Studios, founded in 1993 in order to cut out the middle-man in the production of comic book properties to films.
 However the greater advantage Marvel properties seem to have over the “Distinguished Competition” (DC) is the nature of stories within the Marvel Mythos. For years, Marvel has been recognized for its more character driven stories and greater number of what’s commonly referred to as “street level” heroes such as Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the Punisher. Even the larger scale team stories such as X-Men and the Fantastic Four focus as much on the people as they do the powers, thus giving filmmakers greater fodder to craft stories audiences can latch onto.  
 
DC Comics’ characters have always veered toward the more iconic than personal. It’s no wonder that Batman has been the one film franchise DC has built their film ventures around, seeing as how it most closely resembles the ‘street-level’ characters of the Marvel pantheon, not to mention director Chris Nolan’s more personal take on characterization in the series.
 
It will be interesting to see if such a large scale cosmic powered character such as Green Lantern can support the kind of summer blockbuster DC is looking to recreate after their success with Dark Knight.  Casting Ryan Reynolds in the lead role is certainly a draw, but with questions surrounding his dramatic abilities, fans are definitely saying, “Wait and see.”