*Spoiler Alert: This article includes spoilers for the Star Wars and Marvel movies* 

Note: for this article, I spoke to 74 students anonymously during block times and in between classes. 

Two of the biggest movie universes in the film world are the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars.  

Star Wars is a classic; it always has been.  And lots of people love it.  But there are some things about it that just cannot compare to the Marvel Universe and all its resplendent glory.

The first Star Wars movie came out on May 25, 1977 and was named Star Wars, but was later changed to Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, due to the production of three prequels at the beginning of the 21th century.  These movies, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, were written to explain the history of Anakin Skywalker, otherwise known as Darth Vader.

A New Hope and the movies succeeding it, follow a young man named Luke Skywalker who feels trapped in the war that is occurring between an empire and rebels.  Luke Skywalker receives help from Han Solo, a smuggler and leader of the Rebel Alliance, and together they must rescue rebel leader Princess Leia.  Underneath all this, there is a group called the Jedi Knights who use the force: the ability to work against gravity and influence things with your mind. 

For some students, Star Wars is superior to Marvel.

“The storyline is better,” a Crofton High School freshman said. Another student, when asked why he liked Star Wars, said, “It’s such a big universe. There are millions of years worth of content.”

Let’s take a look at Marvel. The first hint that Marvel would be a thing was in 1939 when Martin Goodman created Timely Comics and the first superhero book came out in October, 1939 and was named Marvel Comics no. 1. In 1967, stories were written based on Nick Fury and in 1985 stories were written about Captain America. In 2007, Marvel wrote digital comics and Walt Disney Company bought the Marvel Universe in 2009. 

Since the first Iron Man movie came out in 2008, Marvel had produced 26 films, with 7 more planned for release within the next two years. Marvel has also released more than five TV shows.

When interviewed about both Marvel and Star Wars, one student said, “Marvel is better because it has a lot of different heroes.”  Another student said that “Star Wars is hard to keep up with.”  When asked why one student liked Marvel, they responded, “It’s not Star Wars.”

Out of the 74 students interviewed, 60 students said they liked Marvel and the other 14 said they preferred Star Wars.

As much as Star Wars was loved once, movie production has become even easier and Star Wars has slowly started to fade into the dark. The notion of space wars and a bunch of men in brown tunics fighting with big flashlights do not compare to Captain America’s indestructible shield, Spider Man’s ability to climb walls, or Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, and her ability to master all magic. As one Crofton student put it, “Marvel all the way.”

Article information about Marvel and Star Wars from Britannica.com.