Torn Between Two Lovers: DC v. Marvel

[DrNewGod]

I can't help it. I'm ambidextrous (or some might call it "feckless") between The Big Two.

I came to comics late in the Silver/Bronze Age transition. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible (then) Girl were already married. The Teen Titans were all sidekicks (including Dick Grayson and Wally West). Iron Man still needed his armor to keep his heart beating. Black Canary was an interdimensional illegal immigrant. Spider-Man was in college. Martian Manhunter was a guy that used to be in the Justice League.

DC and Marvel were different animals, and fans took sides.

I never could. I loved Moon Knight and Ms Marvel every bit as much as Batman and Wonder Woman.

So, the point of this: did you have a preference? If so, why? If not, what was it you loved about each?

[CaptainEurope]

I was born into a Disney, Asterix and DC household... When I was 9 or so, my brother brought home a collection of repackaged Marvel comics, and I fell in love all over again. The German publisher (Williams) had cancelled the entire Marvel line a few years earlier, the new publisher (Condor) hadn't really started out taking over. So Williams was publishing those cheap books that literally were not reprints but overstock, cut and pasted together.



They were very affordable, but sometimes you would get the same book twice or 3 times, because you didn't have the other 3 in the collection yet!

[Starter Set]

Hate 'em Both!! Lol, no, always have been more of a DC fan but this last decade for being honest it has become kind of an abusing relationship so i stopped.

Started with Marvel though in a french magazine called "Strange". Lot of new mutants and Alpha Flight stuff for some reasons and to this day i still love those teams.

[CaptainEurope]

Hate 'em Both!! Lol, no, always have been more of a DC fan but this last decade for being honest it has become kind of an abusing relationship so i stopped.

Started with Marvel though in a french magazine called "Strange". Lot of new mutants and Alpha Flight stuff for some reasons and to this day i still love those teams.

We bought those on vacation sometimes! "Special Strange!" And "Titans" which oddly had Marvel heroes in it.

[Starter Set]

We bought those on vacation sometimes! "Special Strange!" And "Titans" which oddly had Marvel heroes in it.

Nice, i don't remember Titans but Strange and the Disney magazines (picsou magazine, le journal de Mickey) were a big part of my childhood.

[CaptainEurope]

Nice, i don't remember Titans but Strange and the Disney magazines (picsou magazine, le journal de Mickey) were a big part of my childhood.

Check out these I just took off my shelf:





The issue of Titans might even be worth something if 12 year old me had not stamped a picture of Tintin's dog on Beast's butt.

[Starter Set]

Man, if you hadn't mentioned it i don't even know if i would have noticed Milou on Beast's butt lol.

[WillieMorgan]

Well, I used to read both. DC first, from 1979 onward, and then Marvel too by the early 1980's. Marvel had a UK branch and were a bigger deal over here. Marvel Comics UK reprinted characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor and the Hulk alongside other licensed properties like The Real Ghostbusters and Transformers throughout the 80's. The UK version of the Transformers comic mixed American stories with specially made British ones and was superior to the US version definitely. It's not often I can say that about comic books. My first comic shop was called Odyssey 7 in Manchester and I would regularly travel there in the 90's to pick up imported Iron Man, X-Men and triangle era Superman issues. The IRA bombing in 1996 saw Odyssey 7 off though. It occupied space just on Exchange Square, no more than a couple of hundred yards from the explosion and nowadays on real estate that a shop like that would never be able to afford the rates for in modern day upmarket Manchester.

Like most people I'm stuck to a certain budget though and so when I came back to reading comics after a period away from the excesses of the 90's I decided to stick with DC so that I could read more titles from that publisher and immerse myself better in that universe. It was simply a matter of liking DC's main characters slightly more than Marvel's. No more, no less. I've never looked back to be honest. I also dislike Disney in the extreme and would have been hit with a personal quandary if I was still a Marvel reader. I resent giving money to Disney and would probably have had to stop. I know DC have greedy corporate owners too, that fact hasn't escaped me, but I find Disney to be a particularly risible entity.

[Tugger]

When I was reading comics, I read more Marvel titles than DC but I loved Legion of Superheroes & New Teen Titans, so had to vote both.

[TriggerWarning]

Definitely prefer Marvel. I've enjoyed the occasional run at DC: Flash by Mark Waid and then Geoff Johns, JLA by Grant Morrison, some Green Lantern stuff. But I don't really like Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. New 52 was the first time I actively tried to start reading a lot of DC but most of the books that interested me (I Vampire, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, etc) didn't last. At Marvel I was an X-men fanatic for decades while reading a lot of the non X-men stuff in the 80's, 90's, and 2000's. I'd guess my overall readership in my 30+ years of reading is 85% Marvel, 10% other, 5% DC.

[The Whovian]

I grew up a Marvel fanatic. I bought and read FF, Avengers, Thor, Cap, X-Men, Spider-Man, Power Man & Iron Fist, MTU, MTIO, really the whole nine yards.

I didn’t really read DC comics until COIE back in the 80s. I picked up the series on the rack every month and read this awesome maxi series and was amazed. When it was over, I started picking up Batman, Titans, Flash, GL and loved them. I became a HUGE Batman, Nightwing and Tim Drake fan, and later on John Stewart fan.

It ebbs and flows depending on what the big two are doing, but it’s pretty much 60-40 Marvel to DC right now.

[The Whovian]

Well, I used to read both. DC first, from 1979 onward, and then Marvel too by the early 1980's. Marvel had a UK branch and were a bigger deal over here. Marvel Comics UK reprinted characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor and the Hulk alongside other licensed properties like The Real Ghostbusters and Transformers throughout the 80's. The UK version of the Transformers comic mixed American stories with specially made British ones and was superior to the US version definitely. It's not often I can say that about comic books. My first comic shop was called Odyssey 7 in Manchester and I would regularly travel there in the 90's to pick up imported Iron Man, X-Men and triangle era Superman issues. The IRA bombing in 1996 saw Odyssey 7 off though. It occupied space just on Exchange Square, no more than a couple of hundred yards from the explosion and nowadays on real estate that a shop like that would never be able to afford the rates for in modern day upmarket Manchester.

Like most people I'm stuck to a certain budget though and so when I came back to reading comics after a period away from the excesses of the 90's I decided to stick with DC so that I could read more titles from that publisher and immerse myself better in that universe. It was simply a matter of liking DC's main characters slightly more than Marvel's. No more, no less. I've never looked back to be honest. I also dislike Disney in the extreme and would have been hit with a personal quandary if I was still a Marvel reader. I resent giving money to Disney and would probably have had to stop. I know DC have greedy corporate owners too, that fact hasn't escaped me, but I find Disney to be a particularly risible entity.

Hey Willie, who are your favorite characters?

[WillieMorgan]

Hey Willie, who are your favorite characters?

For DC? It's a long list is that. I regularly collect all Justice League team books and individual titles for each League member, including both main Superman and Batman books. So the likes of Wonder Woman and Flash too. I'm a big Green Lantern fan so read anything that DC publishes that relates to that, irrespective of which Lantern it stars. So, all of the main characters that usually make up the Justice League roster, including Martian Manhunter. There are other favourites of mine too like the Cassandra Cain Batgirl/Orphan, Shazam and Mera. I find that each of the major DC characters inhabits a unique place within the larger DC universe, whether the emphasis of that is in either a more fantasy, classical mythology or sci-fi setting, and like to immerse myself in all of them. I could go on.

For Marvel it would be the more fantastical characters. The likes of Thor or Dr. Strange. I loved the X-Men books back in the day too but am hopelessly lost when it comes to following their current development. I know that Hickman has taken the reins there but can't tell you what that encompasses. I always had a soft spot for the Fantastic Four too and didn't like to see them sidelined the way they were a couple of years back. How about you?

[My Two Cents]

I think both. companies had better days and it is from that I buy and read
From and why I voted both

[batnbreakfast]

Both. My favourite hero is DC, DC has more villains I love but Marvel has more heroes in my personal top 10 and Cosmic Marvel is fun, space DC not.