DC or Marvel? Which do you prefer?

[barnaclelapse]

These days I seem to like the long-term stories in DC more than anything Marvel comes up with. When I was a little kid I thought the opposite.

Really I like both, but when I do get around to reading some comics I've been more impressed overall with DC in the last few years than with Marvel.

 

[Derishton]

I suppose DC, although my purchases are about equal if you don't include Vertigo. I tend to be creator-runs more than anything these days.

 

[Admiral2]

I think you mean the Future Foundation.

Dude, you ruined my moment.

I will wait patiently until saner heads prevail and it goes back to FANTASTIC FOUR the way God intended.

Spoiler: minor spoilers from the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man

Well, the Future Future Foundation is apparently around in the 3,141,592,653...I guess that means the name has some staying power...even though they don't seem so futuristic as they've forgotten how a lot of stuff works...

On possible future, obviously, but an alternate future where saner heads prevail can also be brought about.

 

[Nerys Myk]

There is an anniversary coming up. I suspect Johnny and the Fantastic Four will be back around then.

 

[shivkala]

I've always been more DC than Marvel. As a kid, I'd buy issues here and there of Spider-Man, X-Men, etc. but I'd buy runs of DC comics.

Now, I find most of the direction Marvel has taken doesn't interest me, though I do think that their cosmic titles, specifically the late, lamented Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as the cosmic events from Annihilation through The Thanos Imperative were some of the best comics of the past 5 or so years.

However, the bulk of my purchases have been from DC.

The blogger Scipio has done some great analysis of the reasons why I like DC better than Marvel at his blog, The Absorbascon. Specifically his posts about The Difference Between DC and Marvel. Put simply, I don't want to read about a hero that's "just like me!" but rather, I prefer heroes that are the epitome of what we are supposed to be. Which is why I prefer stories like All-Star Superman to JMS' "Grounded" storyline.

I can definitely see the appeal of the Marvel Universe, but it's never been for me.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Marvel loyalist, but I gave up comic books a long time ago...

 

[RJDiogenes]

Back in the 60s, when the companies were very different, I read both probably equally (as well as Gold Key and others, but that's not the question), but I definitely favored Marvel. They had the coherent universe and the more solid and substantive characterizations and storytelling that appealed to me. DC was totally tripped out back then-- bizarre, off-the-wall concepts based on the weirdest cover ideas that the artists could dream up.

In the 70s, when DC Marvelized itself, I went strictly Marvel (with the except of Plop, Kamandi and Englehart), because DC could never do Marvel as well as Marvel could.

In the 80s, when I got back into comics, I once again was buying them about equally. But I still favored the Marvel Universe and characters.

Now, of course, Marvel doesn't really exist as anything resembling its former glory and DC is just banal. I'm not reading anything from either company, with the exception of archive editions; if someday this Dark Age ends before the comics industry goes the way of old-time radio shows, I'll start buying again.

 

[Trekker4747]

I think someone above made the interesting point that DC has the "big" super heroes the ones you think of when you think "super hero" namely they have Superman and Batman the superheroes along with, to a lesser degree, Wonder Woman.

Marvel, on the other hand, has no real "flagship" super hero. Who would it be Spider-man? Captain America? There's no all-that-is person.

That's probably why I've always been a DC because when I think super heroes I think of Superman and Batman, instantly. They're the two greatest and most awesome. Then I start I dive into the Marvel super heroes when I say with a shrug The X-Men and then with an "I guess" I'll say Spider-man (whom I was never that really into as his skill-set never appealed to me. When you're a geeky teenage boy the last super-hero you're interested in is a geeky teenage boy) after him I wave my hand and say whatever.

Most of Marvel's "big super heroes" to me aren't appealing and are just a jumbled mess of Stan Lee nonsense. The Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man all of that is just, bleh, whatever. Granted, DC's "second tier"/B-list super heroes aren't greatly better and they really only have a few "flagship" ones but, to me, Batman and Superman are the super heroes. So, DC wins.

IMHO

 

[Nerys Myk]

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four were Marvel's flagship characters until the X-Men ( and Wolverine) really began to take off in the 80s.

 

[Saga]

what drew me back to Marvel was Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America and all the cosmic stuff that has been going on since Annihilation. the X-Men Second Coming story line actually has me interested in X-Men comics for the first time in almost ten years.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I think someone above made the interesting point that DC has the "big" super heroes the ones you think of when you think "super hero" namely they have Superman and Batman the superheroes along with, to a lesser degree, Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman all the way baby!

 

[Captain Craig]

I think someone above made the interesting point that DC has the "big" super heroes the ones you think of when you think "super hero" namely they have Superman and Batman the superheroes along with, to a lesser degree, Wonder Woman.

Marvel, on the other hand, has no real "flagship" super hero. Who would it be Spider-man? Captain America? There's no all-that-is person.

IMHO

I think for most people who don't read comics and couldn't tell Marvel from DC(especially 10yrs ago pre-comic flip prior to the movies) they would indiscriminately say Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-man and Hulk all in the same breath and probably close to that order. Because those were the ones that had mass media exposure up through the 90's.

Now with the movies and the pre-credit sequence more and more people are figuring out who belongs to which company.

Marvel I think for the largest part has had Spiderman as their flagship character. Despite the rise of the X-Men and Wolverine in particular they still put Spidey up front. Just like you say DC and think Superman/Batman for Marvel I think it's Spiderman/Wolverine or Hulk depending on the generation of whose being asked.

 

[OsmiumJohnnycake]

When I was a kid in the late 70s, I have no idea how I first started choosing what I chose, but I was probably 85% Marvel, 15% DC. That continued until I stopped reading them around 1990ish. The 15% DC was pretty much Batman, with the occasional Superman and other random things.

I loved a lot of Marvel stuff in the 80s, but at the top would be Claremont's X-Men and Peter David's Hulk. Spider-man had a lot of good stuff too, and I had my odd favorites like G.I.Joe and ROM, both of which probably sound terrible to anyone who never read them (and possibly to some of those who did as well).

I didn't read anything from around 1992-2006 or so. When I got back in, I tried a lot of stuff, and the Marvel/DC breakdown was probably half and half. After a couple of years I whittled it down and now it was around 85% DC, 15% Marvel. But with things so interconnected today, that 15% Marvel was pretty unreadable unless I kept up with the larger universe happenings online (not a criticism of Marvel, it'd be the same way with DC). So I entirely dropped Marvel. I do get back issues from the 70s/80s/90s, and that's all DC too.

None of this really addresses why I enjoy DC more though. I guess it's partly the characters. I really enjoy the cosmic side of DC but have never enjoyed that aspect of Marvel. Another thing is I just can't get past the fact that I don't enjoy the Marvel characters I used to love in the 80s anymore. I loved Hulk (including all the pre-David stuff with Bill Mantlo, etc) and the X-Men, but none of the current stuff does anything for me - I keep trying from time to time when I heard of a good run or writer, but no luck.

Batman is some sort of gold standard, because any era I grab an issue from I enjoy. There are momentary dips in quality, but what a great character and rogue's gallery and extended family.

But I don't follow the whole DC universe. The stuff I won't miss includes Batman, Flash, Supergirl, Wonder Woman (a lot of frustration there) and The Legion of Superheroes. There has yet to be an incarnation of Green Lantern that I really loved.

 

[JRS]

I do not mind Marvel..but I must say that I like DC Comics much more They have somehow more interesting characters and honestly more "girl power" in their selection.
I am currently subscriping Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Power Girl..and I have found them all to be very good.
I also find DCs animated films and shows superior to those of Marvels

 

[Technobuilder]

I tend to enjoy runs from both.

Tier 1: Marvel & DC
Tier 2: Image & Dark Horse
Tier 3: Dnyamite & IDW

 

[Captain Craig]

Technobuilder where do you get your books?
Great Escape, Rick's Comic City or Other? I'd wager we've been at some of the same shows around here at some point at the same time.

I don't think Dynamite gets enough love. I actually am getting more books from them the past year than I have DC.
Their Green Hornet(main series), Warlord of Mars, Last Phantom and Vampirella series are all on my list. Not sure what happened to Robocop, issue #7 was the last one and it wasn't an ending but cliffhanger.

 

[Llama]

DC for me.

I collect batman trades - focusing on highlights of the bat-family; and the GL trades since rebirth.

 

[T.Geiger]

I have always admired the character of Superman, and currently run a pen and paper campaign set in the DCU.

I like some of the character concepts in Marvel, but they just don't grab me in quite the same way.

 

[RandyS]

These days, I couldn't say, but back in the salad days of the 1980's, DC. In the late 70's, I also liked Marvel, but that was only because they were doing Star Wars at the time.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I don't think Dynamite gets enough love. I actually am getting more books from them the past year than I have DC.
Their Green Hornet(main series), Warlord of Mars, Last Phantom and Vampirella series are all on my list. Not sure what happened to Robocop, issue #7 was the last one and it wasn't an ending but cliffhanger.

Two possibilities--one, that it was intentional to end the series that way; two, it could be resolved later in another Robocop series to be released later.