Marvel vs DC (Comics)

[Antonio_022]

Just a classic question what with Thor 2 taking the Marvel fanbase by the throat and news on Batfleck making DC fans squeal.

For me, it has to be Marvel. I love how the characters are so well crafted and the settings may be generic, but the way each hero represents their setting is… wow.

As for DC, the comics rely too much on Batman. Superman and the rest of the JL don’t get much popularity but Batman is what really keeps this comic alive.

Anyway, LET THE DEBATING BEGIN!

 

[Nacho45]

I was a Marvel fan in my youth.

 

[dmar198]

Just a classic question what with Thor 2 taking the Marvel fanbase by the throat and news on Batfleck making DC fans squeal.

For me, it has to be Marvel. I love how the characters are so well crafted and the settings may be generic, but the way each hero represents their setting is… wow.

As for DC, the comics rely too much on Batman. Superman and the rest of the JL don’t get much popularity but Batman is what really keeps this comic alive.

Anyway, LET THE DEBATING BEGIN!

What? Superman doesn’t get enough attention? His is the best selling comic, I believe. Certainly better than Thor, who is Marvel’s closest equivalent. The heroes in Marvel are much more uncanny than DC heroes. DC spends a lot more time on realism in the non-hero characters and settings, and I think it shows.

 

[MarcoPolo]

In very general terms, it’s interesting to study the origins of main Marvel characters and DC characters, especially the most popular.

Now there are a number of exceptions to this, but just focusing on some of the biggest, take Marvel’s Spider-man and Hulk on the one hand. Their origins were as ordinary humans that incurred an “accident” or experiment that transformed them.

Then take DC’s Superman or Wonder Woman. They are born with their gifts and are pretty much alien.

I think Marvel tended to be more apt to have an ordinary person transformed by an event than DC. I tend to like this aspect.

And obviously there are crossovers like how Iron Man and Batman are pretty much ordinary guys with gadgets, but again, I’m speaking generally.

 

[Joe_5859]

Why can’t it be “both/and” instead of “either/or”?

 

[JustaServant]

Historically I think, DC has always been percieved as being more conservative and Marvel more liberal in worldview. When I was a kid Marvel was more “hip” to read than DC. Thier characters had more of an ‘edge’ to them. Sub-mariner started out as a villian and was never really completely rehibilatated. The Hulk was an equal opportunity smasher too when he first appeared.
I used to love the old “horror” comics when I was kid. Frankenstien, Dracula, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing.
Should have saved them, they’re collectors items today.

 

[4Squarebaby]

Historically I think, DC has always been percieved as being more conservative and Marvel more liberal in worldview. When I was a kid Marvel was more “hip” to read than DC. Thier characters had more of an ‘edge’ to them. Sub-mariner started out as a villian and was never really completely rehibilatated. The Hulk was an equal opportunity smasher too when he first appeared.
I used to love the old “horror” comics when I was kid. Frankenstien, Dracula, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing.
Should have saved them, they’re collectors items today.

From my era DC was represented by the TV Batman and Superman. Marvel with its use of actual cities came off as more real. New York City itself being a force multiplier above Metropolis or Gotham. Even when Spiderman and other split off into Saturday morning cartoons they were still more adult then DC because Adam West and his Batman was the public image of the corporation. Meanwhile Bill Bixby was doing The Hulk.

As a kid I did not have the money to follow both and most of my friends except the aspiring artist, were mostly into Marvel

 

[edwest2]

I was a Marvel fan in my youth, and bought only a few DC titles. I haven’t bought any new comics in a long time. The stories and art don’t appeal to me.

Best,
Ed

 

[JustaServant]

From my era DC was represented by the TV Batman and Superman. Marvel with its use of actual cities came off as more real. New York City itself being a force multiplier above Metropolis or Gotham. Even when Spiderman and other split off into Saturday morning cartoons they were still more adult then DC because Adam West and his Batman was the public image of the corporation. Meanwhile Bill Bixby was doing The Hulk.

As a kid I did not have the money to follow both and most of my friends except the aspiring artist, were mostly into Marvel

If I remember correctly the Batman ‘silly’ years (Adam West) were gone by the early 70s. Jack Kirby brought Batman closer to his ‘Dark Knight’ persona of the 1930s. There were even attempts to update Superman. Edmund Hamilton, a sci fi pulp writer took on the series and created more of a sci fi edge.
Do you remember the allful animation of those “Marvel Superheroes” on Saturday morning?
By the time Superfriends came along I was growing out of it. But anybody from that era will know what you’re talking about when you say ‘wonder twin powers, activate’!

 

[4Squarebaby]

It didn’t matter that production had stopped it was stripped on syndication so instead of once a week while I was growing up Batman was on TV everyday. For Spiderman and other Marvel cartoons I remember them but don’t remember the details. So it was really a matter of the live action shows. However as I remember The Green Lantern he came off much better, as memories ago about the best of comic characters in the cartoons. But today the big budget movie failure is what many point to many blame for DC’s movie decline in relationship to Marvel

Then there is the entire mutant thing especially with cold war worries and the mutant origin stories link to the hot issue of war and weapons testing creating a huge part of the Marvel universe, even if mutants are officially outside of Marvel’s movies and TV shows today

 

[tomarin]

Marvel also pioneered the idea that all of their titles took place within a single coherent universe so that people and events in one comic book title could have an influence on what was going on in another title and even be a guest star in another superhero title. This is something so fundamental that we take it for granted but it was an idea that had to be developed, in this case by Stan Lee (if I’m not mistaken).

 

[4Squarebaby]

Marvel also pioneered the idea that all of their titles took place within a single coherent universe so that people and events in one comic book title could have an influence on what was going on in another title and even be a guest star in another superhero title. This is something so fundamental that we take it for granted but it was an idea that had to be developed, in this case by Stan Lee (if I’m not mistaken).

And that helped in that in a group of friends one could buy Ironman and another Captain America to go supplement the group’s Avengers theme.

 

[adawgj]

I’m more of a Marvel because I read their comics more.

DC has cooler characters though. Batman for sure.

 

[Havard]

I’m more of a Marvel because I read their comics more.

DC has cooler characters though. Batman for sure.

I respect that, but it hasn’t been my experience. I personally prefer the more subtle, everyday imperfections of a Peter Parker to those of an (imho) unrelatable intense billionaire ninja like Bruce Wayne. I even feel like Thor is often more relatable than the uber-perfect Kal El.

 

[tomarin]

And that helped in that in a group of friends one could buy Ironman and another Captain America to go supplement the group’s Avengers theme.

Although, now that I think of it, what about the Justice League of America? Didn’t that predate Marvel? (And I know it had to, because as everyone knows, the Avengers were an attempt to do a Marvel version of the JLA.)

Jharek, ole buddy, where are you when we need you?

 

[tomarin]

I respect that, but it hasn’t been my experience. I personally prefer the more subtle, everyday imperfections of a Peter Parker to those of an (imho) unrelatable intense billionaire ninja like Bruce Wayne. I even feel like Thor is often more relatable than the uber-perfect Kal El.

in my day, there was no way any DC character could be considered cooler than the Marvel ones. DC was an afterthought. But that may have changed.

 

[4Squarebaby]

tomarin:

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4Squarebaby

And that helped in that in a group of friends one could buy Ironman and another Captain America to go supplement the group’s Avengers theme.

Although, now that I think of it, what about the Justice League of America? Didn’t that predate Marvel? (And I know it had to, because as everyone knows, the Avengers were an attempt to do a Marvel version of the JLA.)

Jharek, ole buddy, where are you when we need you?

Perhaps but in part because of Batman and later Wonder Woman depictions on television DC became the kiddie company compared to the more adult David Banner Bill Bixby played. As young teens going towards adulthood most of my friends were into Marvel with only the artist buying from both companies.

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[Joe_5859]

Perhaps this just betrays my lack of knowledge, but I’ve always viewed the Marvel vs. DC debate in much the same way that I view the xBox vs. PlayStation debate: Aren’t they both basically the same thing?

 

[tomarin]

Perhaps this just betrays my lack of knowledge, but I’ve always viewed the Marvel vs. DC debate in much the same way that I view the xBox vs. PlayStation debate: Aren’t they both basically the same thing?

The two companies hit their stride at different periods of time, reflecting different eras of popular culture. The DC characters were a throwback to an earlier era, so that they always seemed to me more one-dimensional and standard issue broad-shouldered hero types. They had alter-egos but these were essentially charades. They had love interests but these urges remained largely deferred. By contrast, the point of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Marvel characters that they invented in the early 1960’s seemed to be to present life in all of its messy glory, so that the “heroes” were flawed, perhaps relatable human beings who to a greater or lesser degree were dysfunctional, and their dysfunction bled into their “superhero” persona. Some were even anti-heroes, like the original Hulk or the revived Submariner (or the Thing from the Fantastic Four, for that matter).

By the early 1970’s a lot of these characters had become domesticated, and Marvel got into a cosmic phase in which the stories had a lot to do with other dimensions and long sagas involving postponing apocalyptic outcomes. Stan Lee and his successors had perfected the art of “creating the illusion of change.”

I think the Marvel way proved so popular that sooner or later the other companies who published superhero comics had to imitate it or perish, and by the 1970’s when I began reading comics the DC titles seemed a pale imitation of Marvel ones.

 

[Joe_5859]

The two companies hit their stride at different periods of time, reflecting different eras of popular culture. The DC characters were a throwback to an earlier era, so that they always seemed to me more one-dimensional and standard issue broad-shouldered hero types. They had alter-egos but these were essentially charades. They had love interests but these urges remained largely deferred. By contrast, the point of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Marvel characters that they invented in the early 1960’s seemed to be to present life in all of its messy glory, so that the “heroes” were flawed, perhaps relatable human beings who to a greater or lesser degree were dysfunctional, and their dysfunction bled into their “superhero” persona. Some were even anti-heroes, like the original Hulk or the revived Submariner (or the Thing from the Fantastic Four, for that matter).

By the early 1970’s a lot of these characters had become domesticated, and Marvel got into a cosmic phase in which the stories had a lot to do with alternate universes and long sagas involving postponing apocalyptic outcomes. Stan Lee and his successors had perfected the art of “creating the illusion of change.”

I think the Marvel way proved so popular that sooner or later the other companies who published superhero comics had to imitate it or perish, and by the 1970’s when I began reading comics the DC titles seemed a pale imitation of Marvel ones.

Interesting. Thanks! That makes sense.