‘The Flash’ Is Bad, But Is It Worse Than ‘Morbius’?

The Flash is a disaster, following up on a disappointing opening with a staggering 73 percent drop in ticket sales, coming close to breaking a record for the biggest second weekend drop of any superhero film release ever, falling just behind Morbius.

Like Morbius, The Flash was weighed down by a controversial star, stuffed with awkward cameos from more popular characters, and inspired a surge of memes and mockery.

But which is worse? How does The Flash stack up against Morbius, one of the most-memed movies of all time?

Let’s compare the two:

Awkward Cameos: The Flash

Superhero movies are often stuffed with easter eggs and cameos, but The Flash accelerated the trend to the level of Space Jam: New Legacy, filling the screen with nostalgia-bait.

Michael Keaton returned as Batman, a much-hyped cameo that was foreshadowed in the satirical 2014 film Birdman, in which Keaton plays an aging actor who just can’t escape the shadow of his old superhero role.

Other cameos were less obvious, like Nicolas Cage, who appears as a scrapped Superman concept that became internet-famous after a series of funny anecdotes told by Kevin Smith; an obscure cameo, aimed solely at the Reddit crowd.

The most controversial cameos were the late Christopher Reeve and George Reeves, both digitally “resurrected” to appear in the film as Superman; some reacted with shock and horror at their inclusion.

One Twitter user wrote: “It’s still wild to me how a movie where the message is “don’t let your past define you” opts to use the legacies of George and Christopher Reeve to try and get a nostalgic reaction out of people. It’s just so wrong on every level.”

Michael Shannon also returned as General Zod from Man of Steel, and was refreshingly honest about how the experience “wasn’t quite satisfying for (him), as an actor.”

Awkward Cameos: Morbius

When it comes to awkward cameos, Morbius isn’t on the same level as The Flash, containing only one. Funnily enough, that cameo was also Michael Keaton, appearing as Vulture (one of Spider-Man’s villains).

Keaton’s inclusion seemed hastily shoehorned in, as the character hails from another cinematic universe (the MCU) and it isn’t quite clear if the scene is canon.

The two share a stilted conversation and hatch a vague plan to track down Spider-Man, but there’s no guarantee of a future crossover.

Unlikable Leads: Jared Leto as Michael Morbius

Jared Leto seems to have more haters than fans; much like James Corden, Leto always seems to be cast in high-profile projects, and no one ever seems to be excited by the news.

His goofy “method acting” aside, Leto’s reputation has long been stained by allegations of inappropriate behavior; current DC Studios head James Gunn even entered the discourse a few years ago, heavily implying in a since-deleted tweet that Leto had a reputation for texting teenage girls.

Many of the memes around Morbius acknowledged the internet’s dislike of Leto, but his performance wasn’t really the focus of the joke.

There were behind-the-scenes stories in which Leto reportedly refused to “break character” and insisted on using a wheelchair for bathroom breaks, but that was about it.

Before Morbius, Leto famously played the Joker in Suicide Squad, and the negative reaction to his performance foreshadowed the Morbius mockery, inspiring an ironic meme movement known as “Gamer Joker,” or “Gamers Rise Up.”

In his time playing comic book villains, Leto has managed to inspire two separate waves of memes; which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Unlikable Leads: Ezra Miller as The Flash

When it comes to allegations of inappropriate behavior, Miller is in a league of their own; the actor has been accused of committing assault, burglary, harassment and grooming minors, resulting in arrests and restraining orders.

Despite all the panic around “cancel culture” nowadays, Miller remained as the star of The Flash, despite the alleged crime spree. Perhaps the cost of recasting and reshooting a VFX-heavy movie where Miller plays multiple characters was too much to consider, but Warner Bros. didn’t budge.

Marketing for The Flash focused on the cameos rather than Miller, for obvious reasons, but the long list of disturbing allegations surely affected the way fans viewed The Flash, prompting some to boycott.

Memes and Mockery: The Flash

As The Flash bombed, film Twitter went to work, sharing out-of-context clips from the film, which made it seem far more absurd than it is.

One widely-shared clip sees the Flash place a baby inside of a microwave (the shot had been reversed, and the original clip has Flash save the baby). Still, it was a weird scene.

Many posted screenshots of unsettling, wonky VFX from The Flash.

At one point, the director of The Flash even claimed that the underwhelming VFX work was intentional, stating: “Everything is distorted in terms of lights and textures … It was part of the design, so if it looks a little weird to you that was intended.”

The mockery, however, didn’t last long and none of The Flash memes really stuck.

Memes and Mockery: Morbius

Morbius, on the other hand, managed to inspire a memefest that went on for months, an ironic fandom celebrating a movie that no one wanted to watch.

Morbius was heralded as “one of the movies of all time” and said to have made a “Morbilllion dollars” at the box office. The iconic fandom made up ridiculous catchphrases, like “It’s Morbin’ time” and feigned hysterical excitement for a sequel.

In an hilarious twist, the surge of online activity resulted in Morbius returning to theatres, in the hope that some of the memes were made in earnest. Of course, Morbius bombed again, and the fandom jokingly requested that Sony release the film again, as they “were all busy that weekend.”

Eventually, Leto joined in on the joke, and killed the meme in a single tweet.

Which is worse, Morbius or The Flash?

I’ll have to go with The Flash, because at least Morbius made some kind of cultural impact; outside of Miller’s controversies, I don’t think anyone will remember The Flash.

As the success of Across the Spider-Verse proves, there’s still plenty of appetite for superheroes and crazy cameos from the multiverse, as long as the film is worth watching.

Morbius, it seems, is still the king of mediocre superhero movies. At least, until Kraven the Hunter arrives to challenge the crown.