Is Marvel still considered different from DC? (comics not other media)

[CTTT]

When the modern Marvel Universe came out, people praised it for being different from DC because it looked at the heroes not just with their powers but behind the mask as well. If you look at the doc "Robert Kirkman's Secret History of Comics" they have a DC executive in an animated sequence holding up an issue of Spider-Man and saying to the others "They have two pages of this guy talking to his aunt, no one's going to buy it." So it seems like they were kind of surprised at Marvel's success. Did DC really copy Marvel's way of story telling later on to catch up? I think that's pretty shameful if it's true. So, because of that, do Marvel comics despite evolving and changing still about that core concept? Or are both companies just copying each other at this point to stay ahead. I'm saying this as a Marvel fan so no criticism at al towards them.

[From The Shadows]

When the modern Marvel Universe came out, people praised it for being different from DC because it looked at the heroes not just with their powers but behind the mask as well. If you look at the doc "Robert Kirkman's Secret History of Comics" they have a DC executive in an animated sequence holding up an issue of Spider-Man and saying to the others "They have two pages of this guy talking to his aunt, no one's going to buy it." So it seems like they were kind of surprised at Marvel's success. Did DC really copy Marvel's way of story telling later on to catch up? I think that's pretty shameful if it's true. So, because of that, do Marvel comics despite evolving and changing still about that core concept? Or are both companies just copying each other at this point to stay ahead. I'm saying this as a Marvel fan so no criticism at al towards them.

Actually, I don't remember hearing about that. The story I remember was quite different. One of the editors of DC was reading Spider-Man and was fascinated with the idea of a hero with normal every day problems, like being broke or teased at school. He said to himself, "Stan, I think you have something here." So that's quite the opposite of your story. In yours the difference is what was going to cause Marvel to fail and the one I heard was pretty positive where it was their success. I heard DC and Marvel used to have softball games and be on friendly terms. This was decades ago and I don't know how much has changed since then. It was Marvel Age or Wizard I think but Marvel seemed to have missed the comeraderie. Or was it DC? I can't remember actually who broke it off.

[Tofali]

Read or listen to Slugfest written by Reed Tucker. It's all there.

[Hybrid]

DC has done a lot to change and adapt to Marvel, the biggest one being a solid continuity. Back during DC’s glory days, before Marvel came along, comics just didn’t have a consistent continuity or much of a shared world. They were just fun one and done issues.

Marvel then forced DC to adapt by having a solid continuity, and furthermore, unambiguously take place in a world where all superheroes were sharing space. For example, The Amazing Spider-Man #1 had Spidey meeting the Fantastic Four, and everything continued from there.

I still think Marvel is a different feel from DC, different enough to matter. I think Marvel heroes are overall more relatable, because as said they struggle with more human issues, ie the man behind the mask. Characters in Marvel are often interesting before factoring in their abilities, it’s why Spider-Man and the X-Men are such hits, and why we can all get behind them as they fight evil.

I also like how interconnected the MU is, where characters, plot elements, and story arcs can seamlessly translate from one to another, and it really does feel like they all belong in the same world. With DC, even after connecting the universe into one, I still can’t help but feel a sense of isolation between titles compared to Marvel’s major connectivity.

Fans have tried saying “Well, it’s because almost all the Marvel heroes are based in or near NYC while DC heroes are geographically spread out” but to be honest I’m not sure if that’s the entire reason. I just think it’s the writing styles each company favors. The animated Young Justice series is very connected while being spread out, so clearly there’s something going on.

I think it’s why DC has done better with isolated stories in their adaptations, than shared ones (DCAU notwithstanding). Marvel of course, was able to make an Cinematic Universe work, and I think part of that was because the comics’ already had the perfect blueprint for it.

My two cents.

[Sandy Hausler]

My favorite story of DC's shock at Marvel's success was that they hated Jack Kirby's art and thought the secret to Marvel's success must be bad art!

[Rosebunse]

My favorite story of DC's shock at Marvel's success was that they hated Jack Kirby's art and thought the secret to Marvel's success must be bad art!

I do think this is one thing DC over Marvel...sort of. DC has a pretty standard house style, while Marvel is much more open to different books looking different depending on their style.

Their use of more indie artists was always both a good and a bad thing, both in terms of style, marketablility, and budget.

[CaptCleghorn]

The major difference between Marvel and DC is the companies' policy towards rebooting characters. It's certainly not as cut and dried as DC reboots, Marvel doesn't. But Marvel's tweaking vs DC's huge monumental Crises are pretty much all that separates them right now.

Innovations and new developments are created by one company and then often used by the other. They both deal with similar issues (pun unintended) and although one can say one company does more of something than the other, the other is doing that same thing as well.

[XPac]

I think DC has tried to become more and more like Marvel with it's constant reboots to the point where the companies aren't quite as distinct as they used to be. Really, at this point the biggest difference is DC keeps rebooting. For better or for worse, DC has become like marvel to the point where the two companies aren't really all that distinct anymore.

[Panic]

Both companies have moved closer to one another in terms of style. When I started reading superhero comics in the seventies, I disliked DC and thought Marvel was far superior for several reasons:

Marvel was willing to print letters from readers criticising their comics;
Marvel didn't operate a hierarchy like DC did with all the heroes fawning over one man (Superman, and to a lesser extent, Batman) despite the other heroes being as heroic and often having better comics;
Marvel never made the mistake of upping their heroes power-levels until they became difficult to use;
Marvel chose the Avengers line-ups carefully, adding and removing heroes based upon who they thought would add chemistry to the line-up rather than who would sell comics; Spider-Man, Hulk (after the first two issues), Doctor Strange... they didn't fit so well so they weren't added to the team; contrast with DC's JLA, who had a membership consisting of pretty much every popular hero in the DC universe;
Marvel didn't spin-off their big characters into 'families';

DC started to adapt with Marv Wolfman and George Perez' New Teen Titans, continued with Firestorm, a character so Marvel I sometimes forgot he was DC, and generally upping their game across the board and getting darker and grittier.
Marvel unfortunately adopted pretty much all the things I despised about DC.

[Electricmastro]

I think the biggest comparison for the longest time is that Marvel focused more on internal conflict than DC did, who were said to really just focus on external conflict, but I think that has changed by now, hasn't it?

[Thor-Ul]

Both companies have moved closer to one another in terms of style. When I started reading superhero comics in the seventies, I disliked DC and thought Marvel was far superior for several reasons:

Marvel was willing to print letters from readers criticising their comics;
Marvel didn't operate a hierarchy like DC did with all the heroes fawning over one man (Superman, and to a lesser extent, Batman) despite the other heroes being as heroic and often having better comics;
Marvel never made the mistake of upping their heroes power-levels until they became difficult to use;
Marvel chose the Avengers line-ups carefully, adding and removing heroes based upon who they thought would add chemistry to the line-up rather than who would sell comics; Spider-Man, Hulk (after the first two issues), Doctor Strange... they didn't fit so well so they weren't added to the team; contrast with DC's JLA, who had a membership consisting of pretty much every popular hero in the DC universe;
Marvel didn't spin-off their big characters into 'families';

DC started to adapt with Marv Wolfman and George Perez' New Teen Titans, continued with Firestorm, a character so Marvel I sometimes forgot he was DC, and generally upping their game across the board and getting darker and grittier.
Marvel unfortunately adopted pretty much all the things I despised about DC.

Panic here have a point. In several facets, DC was marvelized, but also Marvel have several DCization of their characters. I suppose sharing and intersharing creators and politics helped that process.
There was a time when Marvel fans mocked DC for having a Legion of Super-pets. But now at Marvel you got Pet Avengers.
Or mocked Superman for having a Supergirl, a Superboy, a Superdog and so. But Wolverine now have Daken, X-23, Honey Badger, Old man Logan. And look at Spider-Man and all those variants!

They have grow closer.

[Ascended]

I think these days there's damn little difference.

Originally, yeah Marvel was the "world outside your window" or whatever, while DC was modern day mythology and didn't put much effort into the "normal" side of their characters' lives. But over the years the two moved towards each other, stealing bits and pieces from each other until now there's actually very little difference at all.

The biggest differences, I think, boil down to only a few things.

DC does hard reboots while Marvel uses a sliding timeline.

Marvel's also got a more streamlined overall setting. Everything was built to fit together and things like SHIELD crossed over franchises and provided a strong sense of connectivity. DC's shared universe was put together after the fact, and even now remains more segregated than Marvel, as Bat things tend to stay in Gotham and Super things usually stay in Metropolis, etc. The stuff DC has that spreads across IP's, like STAR Labs and Argus, tend to have a smaller role in the narrative than Marvel's cross-franchise elements.

DC's biggest characters are often their most powerful. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, these guys are some of the most powerful beings on earth, if not the galaxy. Marvel's biggest names, historically, have been more mid-tier, with Spidey being the obvious example. And most of the major X-Men aren't omega level (we've got Jean and Charles, etc etc, yes, but Beast? Gambit? Powerful, but not Superman powerful). And I'd say the FF are mid-tier as well; Reed and Ben aren't stupid powerful (Ben used to be, but somehow seems to have been left behind in the power creep race) while Sue and Johnny might be on the upper end of things, but aren't exactly cosmic level. So even though both companies have characters who are ungodly powerful, DC tends to give their's a bit more focus.

And at the same time, DC has a number of really strong Everyman type characters like Kyle Rayner and Roy Harper. But they're typically not franchise leads, unlike Spidey and Marvel's other big characters.

I think if DC switched focus to characters like Kyle and Roy, or Marvel switched focus to characters like Thor and Captain Marvel (oh wait....) the MU and DCU would be virtually indistinguishable outside of a few exceptions.