Let me know what I’m up against.
July 8th, 2009 by Esther Inglis-Arkell |Yeah. It’s a cheap, divisive, artificial question, but I’m still asking it.
DC or Marvel?
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I’m gonna have to say “DC”. I tend to respond to the platonic ideal of characters as opposed to how they’re written on a month-in, month-out basis, and I love me my Batman, Superman, Flash and Green Lantern.
At what? Competitive eating?
Marvel. They don’t call them the Bottomless Gullet for nothing.
Roller Derby?
DC. Much deeper bench.
Battle-Rap?
Dark Horse. They be up from the streets with the mad rhymes and the fire in their eyes.
Home Design?
DC has the better eye for colors, but Marvel seems to know how to bring the whole package together better.
Super-Hero Comics?
Image. I’ll take Savage Dragon, Invincible and Dynamo5 over corporate properties any day…
If I had to judge by my current collection, I’d have to say “Tokyopop.” Darkseid and Punisher got nothin’ over Sergeant Keroro and Rushuna Tendo.
When I was in high school, my comic collection was roughly 4 Marvel for every one DC.
Marvel for me.
DC. I love them both, and I actually prefer the Marvel books at the moment, but I love DC best.
I like Marvel’s characters a lot more on general principle but crossover fatigue g
has me much more interested in what’s going on at DC than the ‘Dark Reign.’
Marvel
Been a Marvel fan since I was a kid, and really only got into DC in the past 5 years or so (maybe more? When did Identity Crisis come out?).
I want to say DC, big Bat Family fan and well any DC hero Family when you get down to it, but when it comes to continuity sometimes DC is a little heavy. I’ve been reading both for the past twenty years but I know Marvel and don’t feel lost when say a copyright is going to expire and when have to reintroduce a character that should be relevant but just plan suck. *cough* Freedom Fighter * cough* Red Bee. Also when it comes to the big crossovers, I’ve been able to grasp who’s who and what’s happening better in Marvel more so than DC. I hated Secret Invasion but I knew who everyone was, Final Crisis and RIP, I felt like I needed a PHD in Jack Kirby, and every crazy Batman story that happened before my mom was born. Even DC knows it’s too convulated for it’s own good, just look at the number of “crisis” we’ve had to bear. So guess I like Marvel now that I think about it. You should do an article about Marvel the Lost Generation. John Byrne is good when his beard isn’t infecting his brain.
I can tell you this much, Marvel ALWAYS loses to DC in the yearly softball games.
Marvel. Since I was little.
I like whichever company is releasing the comics with the best artists and the best writers. I’ve flip flop all over the place.
I like Amazing Spider-man/Uncanny X-men when JR. JR drew them and got bored with it after discovering 80’s DC comics of JLI and Suicide Squad. I came back to Marvel based on some Thor comics Jurgens was doing and then flipped back to DC for some Dixon Robin. I fucked a bit with some Vertigo/ABC comics but came back to Marvel for Marvel Knights (Inhumans, Black Panther, the Sentry), which accidentally led to some Morrison work on both sides of the aisle. I then grabbed that Rucka Gotham Central, and that Brubaker Catwoman. I went back to some Starman by Robinson, some Hitman from Ennis. Bendis, with the help of Maleev brought me back to Marvel. I flip back and forth all the time, like a cheap whore, because “a good story is a good story.”
@Tekkamansol: Final Crisis and RIP, I felt like I needed a PHD in Jack Kirby, and every crazy Batman story that happened before my mom was born.
I had a very loose knowledge of both thanks to reprints. It was enough to take the ideas and run with them. I didn’t need to know all the intimate details of 50’s sci-fi period of Batman to just be glad that someone was trying to integrate it into Batman’s history again.
Marvel.
DC only really has Secret Six and Green Lantern for me, which are great, but honnestly, if I stopped reading them, I wouldn’t feel the deep deep loss that it would came if they canceled Runaways, Hercules, Ultimate Spider-Man, Thor and others.
Also, Agents of Atlas is about on Secret Six level, and I can’t see myself sticking with GL after the war of light.
Joe Quesada and Jeph Loeb notwithstanding
Mirage.
The company that fought Capcom is my favorite. Which one was that?
Oh yeah, IT’S MARVEL BAY-BEE! EAST COAST PHILLY WHERE YOU AT?
I only read hand-stapled comics about depression. Superheroes are for children.
D
C
.
Wherever my favorite Writer(s)/Artist(s) are writing/arting, not by company.
Lately, Avatar.
I like DC a lot though. I was thinking about this after your latest fourcast- about what makes the two companies different. People always come up with the same feet of clay/platonic ideal thing when this question comes up, but I’m not sure that holds water. Batman has feet of clay, and Captain America and the Fantastic Four are both pretty idealised.
This occured to me: Most of Marvel’s most successful properties are about group dynamics: X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four, even Spider-Man is as much about Aunt May and JJ as it is about Peter. DC tends to focus in on individual characters more- even the (classic) JLA is really about a collection of individuals we all primarily love from their solo adventures.
So maybe it’s my misanthropy? Or maybe it’s all bollocks. I don’t know.
I’ll say this for sure- Marvel tends more towards soap opera, and I don’t enjoy soap opera.
If I’m forced to pick, Marvel. It’s not that I don’t read DC, because like in most fields loyalty to a brand first and foremost is a really bad idea, but I read more Marvel than DC by a long shot. This was true when I was a kid (didn’t read any DC because I was brand loyal… kids make really stupid decisions) but in college (2002-2006) it flipped, so I’m fully willing to flip-flop all over the place when one company or the other puts out more stuff worth reading. When it stops being worth reading, I run screaming, whether I like the character or not.
DC, although I’ve recently started enjoying a few Marvel works.
DC.
“Where the talented creators happen to be right now” is what it takes to get me to look at Marvel books. DC characters and the universe, I care about already, and it takes bad/mediocre execution (and/or massive crossovers) to push me away.
As far as comics currently being published right now, I slightly prefer Marvel because they have a far more diverse B-List team of writers.
But, overall I greatly prefer DC.
I don’t have too much of a brand loyalty. It’s all about good writers and good artists. That being said, these days I’m more Marvel than DC. I read a chunk of DC (Batman & Robin, Booster Gold, Secret Six, Green Lantern, GL Corps off the top of my head), but right now I read at least twice as much Marvel.
DC fo life boyee
Marvel. I still read DC, Image, Wildstorm, Vertigo, etc. but I always read more Marvel comics that anything else. Oddly enough, as a kid I used to read more DC.
@AnarCHris: SCOOPS. SCOOPS HAAGEN DAZ.
If I had to choose (like someone tied me up and pistol whipped me) I guess I would say DC for Vertigo and Starman. It’s more a creator thing than a company thing, though.
Actually, it’s a hard choice. I like the 80s vibe that Marvel had with their MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVELS and Epic Comics, too.
Can I pick First Comics?
DC
I have always been a bigger Marvel fan than a DC fan — specifically an X-Men fan. Marvel and the X-Titles have been having their share of problems, however, and I have tried to give DC more time. Unfortunately, I picked up Batman in the midst of RP and found it one of the most obscure, inaccessible stories I ever read. I had the same problem with Final Crisis. I tried Superman, but I had a new story arc start before the last arc ended, which apparently DC has done quite a bit of. I do enjoy Green Lantern and Superman/Batman, although the latter more than the former. Marvel remains a favorite because it has always seem more realistic in a way and thus more accessible, and their use of summary pages mean that even though it may take forever and a day for a new issue of Astonishing X-Men to drop, I get a refresher on what happened, and if Secret Invasion confuses me, I can pick up the Marvel: Your Universe Saga for free.
So Marvel beats DC. My favorite comic though? Usagi Yojimbo.
Traditionally Marvel, but lots of Vertigo as well.
Recently, Paul Dini’s Batman stuff and Jonah Hex are some of my favourite books. I don’t go near non-Bat DCU stuff though.
I grew up on Marvel more or less exclusively, so…Marvel. If I had to pick only one company, that is. Really, though, I’m glad I don’t have to choose.
It’s only since I got back into comics that I started pulling a few DC titles, and while a lot of their flagship properties (Superman, JLA, JSA, Green Lantern, the Flash, etc.) still leave me utterly cold, they’ve got some good writers and artists working for them and have done some great stuff.
Neither. I didn’t grow up that way; I read everything. I’m in it for good stories. So these days, whichever company Grant Morrison’s writing for.
I’d rather write for DC, however, because their characters have more unrealized potential.