DC fans, why do you prefer DC over marvel?
DC fans, why do you prefer DC over marvel?
IMO DC's heroes and villains are more interesting than the Marvel ones. The Justice League was always a more interesting concept than the Avengers. As for the villains, the top Marvel villains are now heroes/anti-heroes (Venom, Loki, Magneto, Dr Doom). The only reason I like Marvel more is the X-Men. Also, storywise, I have not enjoyed a Marvel comics in a loooong time.
DC just have more characters and comics that I like, Marvel to me is basically X-Men(Cyclops), that I don't read anymore; Daredevil, love the TV show but just don't read it anymore; the only thing I read from Marvel right now is Punisher, I just don't have that love for Marvel characters to keep reading it anymore. DC on the other side is full of character that I want to read about: Superman always was my favorite and I don't think it will change, but I also have found a lot of character on the last few years that have catch my interest like, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Red Hood, Constantine and Hawkman.
Plus DC also have those awesome series like Hitman and Starman, that are just above the rest.
i've always liked both companies and found quality output is more cyclical than anything else, but i do find i follow characters in the dc universe moreso than marvel, where i tend to follow creators. i have *long* uninterrupted runs of green lantern and flash, and whenever they bring back the legion and jsa i'll pick right back up with them. i've read some awful, awful books in those runs, but i'm still on board because i love the characters so much. with marvel, i'll drop a book in a hot minute if the quality drops.
It's not so much a preference as DC is just happen to be more accessible at the time I was interested in it.
I was tracking down chronology from both worlds when DC announced the New 52 and so I was like, hey! I don't need to do that anymore, and just pick them. I know not all of them started from the beginning but I'm already familiar with Batman family history so that's not a problem. The rest of the characters I was interested like Justice League, Wonder Woman, Superman, Swamp Thing and Aquaman were all easy entry. Sure, the universe itself turned out to be a mess later on, but I kinda just ignore the mess until they creep to the books I read. When starting out it's not a problem.
I picked Marvel NOW too, but the characters I'm interested, like X-Men, Spider-Man and Avengers all retain their history, spread out on different teams, continue directly from their previous arc, and their current conditions are way too unfamiliar to me, like murderer Cyclops and headmaster Logan, or I dislike, like unmarried Spider-Man.
Their universe and characters are more interesting to me.
Behind the scenes, I think they (historically) treat their fans much more respectfully; and while it's all business at both companies, DC aren't so blatant in their money-grubbing ways. For the last 20 years, Marvel has also felt like it's run by vindictive geeks that finally made it to the top.
To use a TV analogy, Marvel to me is like if you had a whole comic book company of Donald P. Bellisario properties--and throw in some Stephen J. Cannell and Glen A. Larson properties as Bellisario woked with them before establishing his own productions--plus work that has since been spun off from their productions, like the rebooted BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and the new MAGNUM P.I.
That's a lot of stuff, but it all comes from the same few people and reflects their interests and production style.
DC is more like if a bunch of individual TV producers and screen writers had all their works under the same comic book company umbrella--so Quinn Martin, Aaraon Spelling, Sherwood Schwartz, Agnes Nixon, James L. Brooks, Dick Wolf, Stephen Bochco, Dan Curtis.
I'll post two in-depth answers I wrote elsewhere in recent years.
#1
Marvel got a head start on creating tortured characters, but the thing DC has that Marvel never will is a classic sense of mythology. Their characters are larger than life and represent human qualities that readers aspire to and feel inspired by. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are cultural icons for a reason. The Flash and Green Lantern rest on the concept of legacy, history, relationships, and their powers lend themselves to expansive stories about space and time travel. I could go on. Each character on their own just brings so much to the table. What matters just as much if not more than the powers or the fictional backstory is the person underneath. DC characters may seem simple because of their prevalence in pop culture but they aren't. They are complex and different approaches in their writing tap into different themes in humanity.
Marvel's characters just don't feel that heroic. Their characters and conflicts are so often gray to the point of overwhelming the reader with a sense of apathy. The X-Men are awesome but it's always mutants fighting each other and stories of persecution. I love it when I'm looking for that kind of story, but what else is there to offer? Spider-Man is cool as a relatable funny guy but he's so emo. Avengers are alright but fall into many of the same traps with the Hulk and Civil War stuff. I like Captain America because of the way he stands out as a man out of time compared to the rest of the Marvel Universe, but what does that contrast say about the Marvel Universe? The Punisher kills people, Wolverine slaughters people, Cyclops is a dick, Iron Man tries to register everybody, Hank Pym (Ant Man) abuses his wife, the Hulk is always fucking **** up, Deadpool kills people. Anti-heroes are baddass, I get it. Give me something other than a post-apocalyptic sense of doom.
DC has plenty of room for grit, flaws, tortured characters, and street level heroes too. But it offers so much more, and when it comes to heroism, character development, and powerful literary themes, DC takes it.
(I acknowledge that not everything in that post is fair to certain characters like Stark and Pym).
#2
I like both but I've always preferred DC. I'll name the key reasons why.
-Each hero is like a universe unto themselves. Each has a unique environment with its own dynamics in which they operate, full of supporting characters obstacles specific to their world. So many good stories are spun out of one character's pocket of the universe. Green Lantern has Oa, Coast City, and countless planets; Superman has Metropolis, Kandor, the LOSH; Batman has Gotham, his family and the GCPD; The Flash has Central/Keystone, the Speed Force, and time-travel; Wonder Woman has the UN, Themyscira, and the pantheon of Greek Gods; Aquaman has Atlantis and the entire Ocean; Martian Manhunter has Martian civilization and insight into everyone's mind; the Hawks have St. Roch, Thanagar, and any period they might have reincarnated through; the JSA has WW2...on and on. Some members work better on a team dynamic, but that just leads into my next point...
-The relationships DC has are amazing. There's a family feel to so much of the DC Universe, and there are also classic friendships that have kept the same dynamic over the years. Hal-Barry, Hal-Ollie, Ollie-Diana, Wally-Dick, Clark-Bruce, Arthur-MM, on and on. DC characters feel like real people, with distinct voices, who you could imagine having a conversation with. They come alive. Not that Marvel doesn't, but it's not as cohesive. The feeling of family isn't the same across the board.
-The mythology. Couldn't ignore this of course. DC characters are god-like not just in the sense that they have awesome power, but that their origins and backgrounds inspire a sense of wonder. But most important of all, and I think this is what sets them apart from Marvel, is the fact that they are truly heroic. There's so much to be admired and inspired by in the stories of DC characters. Each one has a different motivation for trying to make the world a better place, and they all overcome their obstacles and join together to be our saviors. They are larger than life in many ways, sometimes god-like, but their fears and desires and showings of bravery are no less human.
This is something I think Marvel lacks at times. A lot of their main characters are morally ambiguous to the point that they aren't that heroic anymore. And the opposite end (DC) isn't a slate of two-dimensional good guys; I hate that untrue stereotype. Each character has flaws, it's just a question of whether those flaws consume your heroism or not. I get the appeal of anti-heroes, and DC has plenty of amazing ones, but at times they feel like they are the stars of the Marvel Universe. And while I love the X-Men, their constant in-fighting and story of persecution (while the best of those types of stories) are an example of one-dimensional conflict. Is my power a gift or my curse? Will I ever be able to fit into society? Reform and co-existence, or violent insurrection and supremacy? Don't get me wrong, I love those themes. But it's hard to offer hope and truly heroic characters when they're constantly in that kind of environment. Shades of gray are awesome, nobody wants black and white conflict all the time, but if the whole thing is smudged gray, it feels kind of pointless and betrays the purpose of superheroes.
I love a bunch of characters and teams from both but ultimately what leans me toward DC is the feel of the universe and the relationship between the hero community vs that of Marvel as well as the relationship between the hero's and the civilians.
Simply put DC's hero community... actually feels like a bunch of friends who happen to fight crime. Hell the JSA and JLA have annual thanksgiving dinners, sometimes the Titans will call up some other team to train together, little things like that go a long way to making things feel more hopeful and optimistic. Sure you'll occasionally have your superhero shuffle but it's nothing near the nonsense of Marvels Civil Wars, HULK VS THE AVENGERS FOR THE 50TH TIME and what not. Over at Marvel the hero community feels so tattered that half the time they seem to be fighting each other more than actual villains.
Also the civies over at Marvel sometimes come off as so damn selfish and dickish towards the people constantly saving them that it's hard to root for them even being saved sometimes.
Yeah gonna bring up the moral thing, events like Civil War 1 and 2 basically made some of their big names toxic in the eyes of readers for years for no damn good reason, Iron Man randomly becoming a proto fascist type and that weird nonsense Carol was doing in Civil War 2 does not make those characters more appealing at all. It took Iron Man YEARS to recover from that in the fanbases eyes and Carol is STILL deeply damaged by it. Marvel REALLY needs to tone it down on the in hero community in-fighting, it's damaging to their own characters.
I always thought that DC comics are better and more consistent than Marvel's besides the 60s when Stan Lee and company went crazy with ideas.
I just really enjoy the stories, the fantastical and weird concepts that DC has. Of course, casual fans who only reads the occasional Batman probably won't discover the wacky concepts the DC Universe offers. I'm talking about characters like the Nazi pilot Enemy Ace (what other comic book has the main character be a conflicted Nazi?), Metal Men (wacky concept with crazy villains), Weird War Stories (WW2 Soldiers fighting Dinosaurs), Dial H for Hero, LEGION (Vril Dox is the biggest jerk in all of DC), Shade the Changing Man, Jonah Hex (The best Western comic series ever), Deathstroke, Hawkman, Animal Man, New Gods etc...
I feel that a lot of DC runs have been overshadowed by Marvel as well. People talk about Claremont's 20 year run of X-Men but what about Wolfman's 15+ year run of Teen Titans? I feel that it's better than Claremont's X-Men at times. Or what about Byrne, Jurgens, Starlin, Ostrander's Superman? That stuff is some of the best comics ever. What about Chuck Dixon's Nightwing and Robin? They are top-notch comics as well. What about Mike Grell and Judd Winnick's Green Arrow? Best Green Arrow stuff ever. What about Mike Baron and Cary Bate's Flash? They're insanely fun. What about Peter Milligan's Shade the Changing Man? A trippy experience. What about Peter David's Aquaman? It's wonderfully creepy and unpredictable. A lot of casual comic book readers overlook these, or just plain never heard of them, which is a shame.
Because Marvel doesn't have Lobo hunting down Santa Claus?
Yeah, I very much enjoyed the story but the damage is lasting. I didn't read Civil War 2 but it seemed completely unnecessary and unrealistic to have another universe-wide infighting event. No lessons learned by the characters at all apparently. (What was the conflict even about?)
DC's story lines and character relationships interest me more than Marvels. However only the X-men rival this idea for me personally. Also I find DC's world more interesting.