Why do some hope for failure?

[C_Miller]

There's a sense in which competition in the NFL isn't real; the New England Patriots aren't going to drive the New York Giants out of business, or vice versa, no matter how many times one beats the other. It doesn't matter if the competition is real, only if the narcissist identifying with one of the entities in question perceives a competition between them. In such a case, a narcissist needs to feel like "his" team is going to win, and if he's not certain they can do it, he'll pull for the opponent to fail.

But at this point you're talking about two different kinds of competition. Competition has many different meanings. Athletic competition is different than financial competition. In a football game, I want my team to win, because they're my team that I've loved since I was a little kid. The ONLY way for that to happen is the other team to do poorly. As much as I hate the Bills' division rivals, I don't want them to go out of business.

[Herowatcher]

I like all comic companies...even if I don't agree with what Marvel and DC are doing right now.

I can't imagine having only favorite characters from one company.

[Darkspellmaster]

There's a couple of reasons for this mentality that seems to be happening. In regard to the comics when it comes to Marvel fans vs DC Fans, it falls under the same idea that hit during the earlier video game wars "Sega vs Nintendo". The idea that one is better over the other for various reasons, same thing that drives sports fans that happen to have two of the same sports teams in different leagues to battle each other, think Angels vs Okland As vs Giants vs Dodgers, or Cubs vs Sox. On the other hand you have fans vs companies, in this case the fans want the failure to happen, not because they want to see the company fall to dust, but rather to have the company relalize that they shouldn't break what didn't need to be fixed. In this case the new 52 wasn't needed if DC had just let the older Heroes give room for the younger set, depending on Age of the character. In regard to Marvel, it's the idea of letting characters grow, or at least developing characters that can stand on their own minus all the crap that's been thrown at them over time.

As for movies, my guess is that, at least for the DC fans, there's a sense of wanting something to look and feel more like a comic. Batman works Dark, Superman doesn't, Wonder Woman should be amazing not just a warrior, etc. In that case the fans want the thing to strike out so that a new team or group can take control and fix it up. As for the Marvel Movie Fans, well in some cases it's a case of wanting Marvel to make all the money, and DC not.

[The Darknight Detective]

But at this point you're talking about two different kinds of competition. Competition has many different meanings. Athletic competition is different than financial competition. In a football game, I want my team to win, because they're my team that I've loved since I was a little kid. The ONLY way for that to happen is the other team to do poorly. As much as I hate the Bills' division rivals, I don't want them to go out of business.

I totally agree, though I have major problems with sports fans who wish injuries upon their team's opponents.

[sunofdarkchild]

I don't see much 'I want the other company to fail so as to prop up my favored company.' That's more a videogame thing where half the community wants Nintendo to go third party so they can not buy their games on their preferred systems.

I see a lot of 'I want this book or character to fail so DC or Marvel does what I want next time.' It's like a Transformers fan wishing Bay's movies would tank so they'd give the franchise over to someone who can make good movies or Marvel fans wanting Fox to give the Fantastic Four rights back to Marvel so there'd be a chance of quality.

[DrNewGod]

But at this point you're talking about two different kinds of competition. Competition has many different meanings. Athletic competition is different than financial competition. In a football game, I want my team to win, because they're my team that I've loved since I was a little kid. The ONLY way for that to happen is the other team to do poorly. As much as I hate the Bills' division rivals, I don't want them to go out of business.

I get your point. However, the OP's question was, why do people hope for the competitor of their favorite to fail. My answer was narcissists attempting to validate their own preferences for a comic company. Another poster suggested that wasn't possible since (in his view) there wasn't actually competition between the Big 2 in comics the way there is sports.

[Starter Set]

Pretty stupid rivalry anyway. This implies some kind of competition when everyone knows that DC is not going to take the lead of the market anytime soon. (probably never)

And when you look at it DC and Marvel are really not aggressive towards each other. That's not two companies fighting bitterly to the death we have here but two old beasts who know their respective places in the market jungle.

[FanboyStranger]

I think what most people fail to grasp is that a healthy Marvel and a healthy DC is good for the industry overall. Marvel and DC don't really compete against each other in any significant way other than their softball league, which is no more due to the move. There is a rivalry, but it's a friendly one (for the most part). Marvel wants to meet their projections, and DC wants to meet their projections. Anything more than that is gravy.