Originally Posted by
Prof. Warren
Yes, exactly. One of the problems that DC has had in the modern era is trying to emulate Marvel and re-fashion their universe to be more akin to Marvel.
Or, if not to be like Marvel specifically, than simply to escape the perception of DC as being corny, simplistic and old hat. Marvel, from the start, was always a grittier, more "real" place. And it's characters were created with real personal flaws and weaknesses, as opposed to DC whose characters had weaknesses only in relation to their powers - like Kryptonite or the color yellow.
To change with the times, DC has had to artificially graft on these qualities to their universe and it's never been natural. They've taken what was conceived as a bright, optimistic universe filled with uncomplicated heroes and dirtied it up. One of the most grievous missteps along these lines being the Identity Crisis mini. It's an effort to make characters whose inceptions were rooted in a naive appeal and apply adult complications to them. Whereas a character like, say, Daredevil can take on serious subject matter and still feel true to his conception, to do the same with DC characters feels like they're being clumsily retro-fitted to belong to a new world.
Marvel and DC are not the same and it's in trying to act as though they can be or should be only points out how different at the core they really are.