Joe & Anthony Russo Talk CIVIL WAR, BATMAN V SUPERMAN Comparisons & DC Comics
Captain America: Civil War is just one day away from official release in the west, and Uproxx has shared a revealing interview where the co-directors share their thoughts on their film, DC comics, and more! When asked if he was excited to include Spider-Man in the epic conflict, Joe Russo was rather enthusiastic. "Are you kidding? That was a sheer force of will to get him into the movie based on my love of the character. There’s no universe where two studios should be sharing a billion dollar piece of IP – beyond the fact that there were a lot of circumstances that lined up to allow this to happen." Anthony Russo was adamant that being "fans first" allowed the directors to make the best film possible. "We’re fans first. I mean, that’s why we started making these movies. We grew up reading comic books, so we understand the mythology in a very deep way and we have an emotional connection to it because we were fascinated with it as children."
With Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice being released a few months prior, the "hero versus hero" premise was bound to draw more than a few comparisons. The brothers say that these comparisons can be traced back to their roots in comic books, but when it came to the inevitable similarities between the two films, they were unconcerned. "...from our point of view, as far as the choices we had to make, we had to take that as a given. And then we moved forward on the belief that the specificity of how we filter that will be very unique to us. We had to believe that, whether or not that ultimately ended up being true. We’ve learned, anytime we’ve allowed outside influences into our creative process, we’ve failed."
The directors admitted to being fans of certain DC characters growing up, but were honest in saying they appreciated Marvel's take on superheroes more. "I always had a really hard time getting into Superman as a kid," Joe Russo admitted. "There just wasn’t a lot of vulnerability there for me. I loved Batman. He’s the one DC character I really loved. I found that Martian Manhunter was the Martian Superman. Wonder Woman was the female Superman. There was repetitiveness in their characters. Aquaman is the sea Superman. Where I found that Marvel was building characters that are flawed and unique. Spider-Man was my favorite character growing up. I loved Wolverine."
