Why prefer DC over marvel?

[kjn]

I started to think over the question. I don't think there is really any fundamental difference with regards to the actual heroes. Characters like Barry Allen and Peter Parker, or Captain America and Superman, are pretty good equivalents of each other from an aspect of personality and morality within their universes.

What I believe is the real difference between Marvel and DC is that with Marvel, the heroes are constantly having to fight the society around them. Peter Parker has J Jonah Jameson using his newspaper to paint Spiderman as a villain, while depending on him for his livelihood. Bruce Banner is hunted by the military as Hulk. The X-Men are feared and persecuted as mutants. The Punisher is wanted as a criminal. And so on.

In comparison, DC is assuming a society which largely appreciates their heroes. The GCPD is to a degree ambivalent about Batman, but then it is also explained that it is the corrupt parts of it that are against him. Superman is held up as a symbol of hope. The Justice League acts openly in the world. It does happen that they have to deal with a belligerent surrounding society, but it's either the result of enemy action (like in the case of Maxwell Lord) or it's the clearly set up as an exception (like in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns), but even then they usually see a return to a society that values them.

And I think that's why I prefer DC's stories, because I view society as something as something good that we create and can make better. I'm fully aware of that African-Americans and other groups have a fundamentally different experience of their surrounding society, but to me that's reason to fix the society, not reject it as a concept.

[Electricmastro]

For some reason, despite Stan Lee’s efforts to make Marvel comics enjoyable and fun, these days I feel that a lot of their comics is dipped in a sort of cynicism and cold attitudes, or if they make comics that are decidedly more lighthearted, are lighthearted in a way that feel more like parody or fluff that seem to talk down to the reader more than anything else. Of course, DC has also been accused of being too bleak, but I feel that they’ve been balancing that out more in recent times, like with The Terrifics.

[Man_of_Tomorrow]

At the end of the day, I think it all comes out to better stories.

While their average output is pretty even and both companies produce mostly crap and crowdpleasers,with regular gems springed in. DC has managed to create some standout evergreen stories that are above "entertainment" and the niche Super-hero comics market and have become synonymous with good comics or even literature. The holy trinity of american comics, Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Sandman came all out from DC. And then you have even more GREAT comics because DC hogged some of the best writers and artists in the industry during their prime in a transformative time for the industry and that informed the universe and its laws. And then allowed them to go nuts instead of having to comform into the monthly never-ending grind. The out of continuity mini series is DC's winning card in terms of quality.