Spoilers Marvel or DC Comics?

[JD]

I don't actively read the new comics, but I usually look through the solicits for the digital issues on Wednesday, and I tend to read a lot of articles about what is going on in them right now on sites like the Marvel, and DC official websites, IGN, Io9, and Tor.com. In general I'm finding myself more interested in Marvle's stuff, the whole Dawn of X line with the X-Men sounds especially cool. Now, I was just curious what the other comics readers on here are thinking.
So who's current comics are you enjoying more overall, Marvel or DC? Spoilers are welcome.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I read a lot in the 70's and 80's and collected a lot in the 90's. More Marvel than DC. With DC i stayed mainly with Bats and Supes. With Marvel it was pretty much all the main ones.

It got too expensive then, so way out of the question now.

 

[kirk55555]

When it comes to which one overall I'm more of a DC fan, but for modern comics I have to go with Marvel. I'm reading more Marvel books right now, and their events, while usually frustrating, don't tend to screw up as many books as DC's. It feels like more writers are allowed to actually write their books without having to worry about being derailed every other month (not that Marvel doesn't do that sometimes, but it generally doesn't do it as much, and when they do it usually only screws with the really big books like Avengers).

Also, Marvel is 1000% the winner in the diversity department, both in the styles of the books and the actual diversity of the characters. DC books right now, possibly as a side effect of constantly having to bow down to Scott Snyder's semi-monthly shit events, almost all have dark tones and have similar issues with inconsistent writing coming from never being allowed to have a status quo. Marvel on the other hand has everything from Immortal Hulk to Thor to Guardians of the Galaxy and more being extremely different from each other and offering different things (horror, cosmic adventure, comedy, etc).

Character wise, DC seems to actively fuck with everything people start to like that doesn't fit in with that months grand plan, and its track record with character diversity is getting pretty grim (see the recent "Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are totally not a romantic couple" thing that has gotten some people upset in the last few weeks). Not to mention a bunch of unrelated characters getting "infected" with the dark universe and having their books ruined because of it (Supergirl becoming an evil edgelord completely ruined that book).

Marvel, on the other hand, just explicitly confirmed that Mystique is married to Destiny, which is just a recent example of Marvel, even when it was totally under Ike Perlmutter and his minions control, allowing more diverse content then Dan Didio allows. Marvel also just has more variety in which characters get to have books, with Ms. marvel, Black Panther, Miles Morales, etc all doing well while DC does stuff like canceling its excellent Green Lantern comic starring POC Lanterns so that the blandest white man in the galaxy can be the star of the sole GL book. To be completely fair to DC, Marvel in the last few years has also made a holocaust survivor character into basically a nazi and hired an editor who wrote comics pretending to be an asian woman to a high up position, but on the other hand that was under Permutter who is now not in control of the comics, so hopefully shit like that stops happening.

Overall, as much as I love Marvel I'll always love DC's characters a bit more, but the last decade has been pretty bad for DC, and at this point even the good stuff that came out of DC Rebirth has pretty much been eliminated by management that really just wants dark, grim, edgy stuff to sell even it is obvious that people want more variety then they'll give.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I noticed with the events that Marvel seems to do one-offs for the different events, where DC actually has the event take over their monthly title.
I hadn't heard about the Harley/Ivy thing, but that is weird, especially since they pretty clearly been a couple for a while now.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Marvel in the last few years has also made a holocaust survivor character into basically a nazi and hired an editor who wrote comics pretending to be an asian woman to a high up position

If you're referring to Magneto, hasn't he always had some fascist totalitarian tendencies? It seems like the main lesson he learned from the Holocaust was-- Do it to them before they do it to you.

As for C.B. Cebulski, he never pretended to be Asian. He was a Marvel staffer who took a pen name because Marvel wanted him to write some books but their official policies prevent staffers from doing so. (The BBC had a similar policy during the classic Doctor Who series, thus leading to episodes being credited to "David Agnew" & "Robin Bland.") He took the pen name "Akira Yoshida" as an homage to Akira and to the X-Men character Shiro Yoshida. I've never heard anything saying that he claimed to be Asian, that he received any benefits through any diversity hires, or that Marvel didn't totally know who he was the whole time.
https://thefederalist.com/2017/12/04/manufactured-outrage-marvels-new-editor-chief-just-power-play/

 

[JD]

I think I remember hearing stories about how he did pretend to be Asian when dealing with fans while using the Yoshida name.

 

[Relayer1]

I'm in my mid 50's. I started off reading DC when I was just a kid, but discovered Marvel in my teens, and stuck with them.

I've dabbled with DC since (working in a comic shop I thought I should) but just really just can't get on with them. I guess I'm a Marvel guy...

 

[Ovation]

I’ve enjoyed each since the early seventies but have usually preferred and purchased more DC than Marvel. My latest stretch of buying has been more heavily DC (started up again about ten years ago after a seven year hiatus) but in the past year or so I’ve been steadily dwindling my buying (even though I can afford it now more than ever) as I find fewer and fewer things of interest. Maybe I’ve aged out of being able to follow the trends (or find them interesting). I certainly aged out of the target audience a long time ago. Happened with popular music. Was bound to happen with comics.

 

[Hound of UIster]

As for C.B. Cebulski, he never pretended to be Asian. He was a Marvel staffer who took a pen name because Marvel wanted him to write some books but their official policies prevent staffers from doing so.

That's not true. Joe Quesada and Tom Brevoort both have written comics while they were staff members at times before and after Yoshida's time. Marvel may have known, but Cebulski promoted himself to the fans and to the fan press as a Japanese man. In other words what he did was problematic

 

[Nerys Myk]

Right now it's DC. I'm liking more of their titles right now.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

If we're talking current titles specifically then it's no contest. I'm currently following Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Ironheart, Hotshots, Runaways, Champions, Marvel Team-up and Valkyrie and I very recently also had a great time with the Marvel Rising miniseries, the Life of Captain Marvel miniseries and the Secret Empire crossover event. I even had such a great time with a recent What If? (The one starring Dr. Strange and Magick together) that I'm now actively hyped up for and really looking forward to Strange Academy (basically Marvel's Hogwarts with Strange teaching magic students, including Magick) even though it isn't due to be released until sometime next year, and that's literally a first for me. I usually don't even know something new's coming out until it does, let alone look forward to it a year in advance.

Meanwhile the most recent DC book I've read was the first volume of the post-Rebirth Suicide Squad. Not sure how old that is, but I think it's a couple of years at least. And while I enjoyed it enough to put volume 2 on my wishlist I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as the pre-Rebirth SS stuff I read before that.

In fairness, I wouldn't have read even a third of those Marvel titles if I didn't have Marvel Unlimited (less than six dollars a month for as many comics as I want to read makes comics downright cheap) and the fact that I can't get any reasonable facsimile of that for DC is obviously a major part of why I don't read them as much. It's just too expensive, so my DC reading is limited to whichever specific volumes I feel like buying on the rare occasion - once or twice a year - when I decide to treat myself with a physical comic and most of those volumes are going to be the famous/popular backlog stories I haven't read (most recent purchase was Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader).

Also, to be 100% honest, even if DC did get off its ass and actually offer a competitive 'DC unlimited' service in my country I'm not sure I'd subscribe to it right away. I love Batman and the Suicide Squad and I'd be happy to check out other dc stuff I haven't read much, but I adore the X-men in all iterations (of which there have been many) AND the Thunderbolts AND Ms. Marvel AND Ironheart, etc, etc, and of all the (dozens of) new books I've casually checked out since getting MU, I've literally only found a handful that I actually disliked. So Marvel still wins on balance.

 

[Relayer1]

I'm in my mid 50's. I started off reading DC when I was just a kid, but discovered Marvel in my teens, and stuck with them.

I've dabbled with DC since (working in a comic shop I thought I should) but just really just can't get on with them. I guess I'm a Marvel guy...

I should add that War Of The Realms nearly finished me. I stopped reading comics after that and have only just recovered the urge.

 

[YLu]

I think I remember hearing stories about how he did pretend to be Asian when dealing with fans while using the Yoshida name.

Yep, he might or might not have been pretending to his employers but he definitely was to the audience and press.

NRAMA: With your background, what uniquely Japanese influences have you brought into the history and origin of the Hand?

AY: My version of The Hand is greatly influenced by my love of Japanese history, Kurosawa movies and samurai manga, like Lone Wolf and Cub, Blade of the Immortal and even Naruto.

NRAMA: Why do you think stories of the samarai and ninja are so compelling today, particularly in the West?

AY: I just had a similar conversation with one of my editors actually. People always ask Japanese writers and artists why Catholic and Christian religious symbolism is so prevalent in many Japanese manga and anime series, like Trigun or Helsing or Chrono Crusade. They seem to think that the creators are trying to make some kind of statement about Western religion in contrast to Buddhism and Shinto. Sorry, but it is usually nothing that deep. The answers are much more simple... 1.) Crosses and religious symbolism look cool and provide great imagery, 2.) Japanese people don't really understand Western religion so the creators can take a few more liberties in telling stories about these practices, and 3.) there is an air of mystery surrounding Western religion and its history of violence that makes for great stories.

https://web.archive.org/web/2005021...a.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15849

And given how many of his stories deal heavily in Japanese culture, he was definitely using the fake ethnicity as a sort of hook.

 

[JD]

Yeah, that is definitely pretty questionable knowing he's actually a white guy.

In fairness, I wouldn't have read even a third of those Marvel titles if I didn't have Marvel Unlimited (less than six dollars a month for as many comics as I want to read makes comics downright cheap) and the fact that I can't get any reasonable facsimile of that for DC is obviously a major part of why I don't read them as much. It's just too expensive, so my DC reading is limited to whichever specific volumes I feel like buying on the rare occasion - once or twice a year - when I decide to treat myself with a physical comic and most of those volumes are going to be the famous/popular backlog stories I haven't read (most recent purchase was Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader).

Also, to be 100% honest, even if DC did get off its ass and actually offer a competitive 'DC unlimited' service in my country I'm not sure I'd subscribe to it right away. I love Batman and the Suicide Squad and I'd be happy to check out other dc stuff I haven't read much, but I adore the X-men in all iterations (of which there have been many) AND the Thunderbolts AND Ms. Marvel AND Ironheart, etc, etc, and of all the (dozens of) new books I've casually checked out since getting MU, I've literally only found a handful that I actually disliked. So Marvel still wins on balance.

The DC Universe subscription service has a fairly large library of comics along with the TV shows and movies. I don't think it's quite as big as Marvel Unlimited, but they are adding new ones quite a bit.
There is also the digital library app Hoopla, which is free if with a library card for a library that has access to it. I've started using Hoopla the last few months, and they've got ton of comics, including some that came out as recently as last week.

 

[kirk55555]

If you're referring to Magneto, hasn't he always had some fascist totalitarian tendencies? It seems like the main lesson he learned from the Holocaust was-- Do it to them before they do it to you.

That doesn't excuse making him an actual Nazi, which is what HYDRA are. Hickman's stupid retcon of HYDRA being some group from ancient egypt or whatever doesn't change what HYDRA were created to be, a stand in for Nazi's and other evil groups that Marvel could use in stories without causing issues. They even use slightly alterned Nazi imagery (swapped colors and Octopus symbol), and Magneto having facist tendencies can be an interesting part of his character, something to explore by a good writer, but that doesn't excuse making a Jewish Holocaust surviving character into a Nazi. Also, making any Marvel heroes into nazi's was fucking bullshit, both in the comics and in that awful Agents of SHIELD season, but Magneto was definitely the worst specific part of Marvel's love affair with pseudo-Nazis from a few years ago.

As for the Marvel editor, as other people have confirmed he definitely pretended to be Asian, although I might have gotten the gender of his alias wrong.

 

[Starbreaker]

Marvel. I love the X-Men Comics and there is a never-ending supply.

 

[Tosk]

I voted both, as I've loved both for many years. But it's been very hard to get into any DC titles in the last few years. I mostly just read older stuff from them, and stick to Marvel for new releases.

 

[Nerys Myk]

That doesn't excuse making him an actual Nazi, which is what HYDRA are. Hickman's stupid retcon of HYDRA being some group from ancient egypt or whatever doesn't change what HYDRA were created to be, a stand in for Nazi's and other evil groups that Marvel could use in stories without causing issues. They even use slightly alterned Nazi imagery (swapped colors and Octopus symbol), and Magneto having facist tendencies can be an interesting part of his character, something to explore by a good writer, but that doesn't excuse making a Jewish Holocaust surviving character into a Nazi. Also, making any Marvel heroes into nazi's was fucking bullshit, both in the comics and in that awful Agents of SHIELD season, but Magneto was definitely the worst specific part of Marvel's love affair with pseudo-Nazis from a few years ago.

As for the Marvel editor, as other people have confirmed he definitely pretended to be Asian, although I might have gotten the gender of his alias wrong.

HYDRA was just Mavel's attempt to create a Bondian evil organization to go with the Bondified Nick Fury.
Magneto was way more Nazi than Hydra back in the day

 

[Grendelsbayne]

The DC Universe subscription service has a fairly large library of comics along with the TV shows and movies. I don't think it's quite as big as Marvel Unlimited, but they are adding new ones quite a bit.

US Only. Also, it's described as having a 'rotating selection of comics' which is a huge red flag for me.

There is also the digital library app Hoopla, which is free if with a library card for a library that has access to it. I've started using Hoopla the last few months, and they've got ton of comics, including some that came out as recently as last week.

Also US/Canada only, unfortunately. (Of course since it's apparently based on which titles your library licences, if it did exist at my library it would probably be 90% european comics and the only Marvel/DC stuff would all be translated, anyway.)

 

[JD]

Oh wow, all this time we've both posted here, and I never noticed until now that you aren't in the US.