Opinions/Help Needed...

[Darthkostis]

I can understand your frustration with Spidey. You are not alone in your opinion. I guess for me the formula has always worked when it comes to Spidey stories. No problem in liking what you like.

I am not a huge fan of Allred's art, but I liked the story. You don't see a lot of comics that are fun to read these days, but the Surfer was one of them. I look forward to the new series. I am going to try Deadpool and Carnage for sure. I'm kind of on the fence about picking up the new X-Men titles. I haven't read them in quite some time, and I'm not sure if I can pick up on everything that has come to pass in the last 8-9 years. I do miss the X-Men though.

Personally, I'm only picking X-Men up because I like the roster and Bunn. Land is a major minus, but the prospect of a Fantomex/Sabretooth/Mystique/Psylocke/M/Archangel/Magneto team , makes me very excited about this title. Carnage I reckon will end until Spring, so I'll be able to add MK without cancelling anything.

[steeplejack2112]

Personally, I'm only picking X-Men up because I like the roster and Bunn. Land is a major minus, but the prospect of a Fantomex/Sabretooth/Mystique/Psylocke/M/Archangel/Magneto team , makes me very excited about this title. Carnage I reckon will end until Spring, so I'll be able to add MK without cancelling anything.

Yeah....the more I think about it the more I'm thinking I'll be checking out the X-titles. At least for a bit. These days everything gets re-numbered or cancelled after a short time anyhow.

[Darthkostis]

Yeah....the more I think about it the more I'm thinking I'll be checking out the X-titles. At least for a bit. These days everything gets re-numbered or cancelled after a short time anyhow.

True that. While it's good for jumping on/off, I really don't like it TBH.

[JasonTodd428]

If it wasn't for a great love of Spider-Man and Daredevil I probably wouldn't be involved with Marvel much either. I'm trying some of their "All-New, All-Different" titles, but I'm honestly not expecting much. I've been exploring books from IDW, Dynamite, Dark Horse, and Valiant, and I've been enjoying most everything form those studios. I've even been branching into some Image books too. I think right now TMNT is my absolute favorite title.

I pretty much like most of what IDW, Dynamite, Dark Horse and Valiant puts out although I can only afford to regularly keep up with my favorites from them. Image is a bit hit and miss with me though. I am also looking forward to several of the Vertigo titles as well. My two favorite indie titles are Ninjak and The Shadow although I've only just started both recently and haven't caught up as yet. I've also been enjoying most of the Transformer titles IDW puts out. Once I stopped buying Marvel titles altogether it gave me a bit more money to take to the indie companies so I tried a lot of stuff there and found a lot of it appealed to me more then most of the Marvel titles I had been reading. I actually find that to be sad since I was a really big Marvel reader back in the day but until things change with them I think its best for me to just stay away no matter how much I still love some characters there. I get my Marvel fix with trades of older stuff and the movies these days.

Marvel's pretty much dead to me apart from 2 or 3 titles and the SW stuff (I'm giving a few series a chance until MK and BP start though). Double shipping + price increase made me narrow my list. Now their pretty much boring ANAD titles, made me jump ship. And like I've said already, I'm damn happy about it. I mean, you can't throw "Magic Tony" at 4$ to me and call it a "Doctor Strange". You also can't put Bendis on GotG after his awful (but sadly, commercially succesful run) and also let him be the first person to write Post-SW Doctor Doom. Honestly, who thought that that was a good idea?!

You ask me, as a longtime Marvel Zombie, I can safely say that DC is better at pretty much everything. Better games, better shows and better comics. Really, I started reading some old Green Arrow stuff, (Longbow Hunters) and I'm just amazed about how well they're handling things like rape, child-beaters and sensitive political things. Truthfully, I can think of who knows how many great DC stories, and none from MARVEL that can challenge them. None at all. Death of Captain Marve, Night when Gwen Stacy died and Extremis come close, but I can't think of any other great stories, much less great comic series all around.

The only thing that you can "argue" is the movie subject. While Marvel's look like they jumped straight out of a comic book, DC's are much more mature. While Marvel's are filled with corny jokes and repetitive plots, DC's feature a lot of heavy handed "symbolism" and can become irritating. I didn't love MoS but from what I've seen from BvS, I expect it to put everything from Marvel to shame. It's a fine line really, but I think I'm going to give DC the point here as well. The Marvel stuff are enjoyable, but they don't really warantee repeated viewings. Mostly because you already know the jokes and gags, so it becomes pretty boring.

Yeah, Marvel is pretty much dead to me as well despite my liking their characters for the most part. Nothing that they've done in recent years has grabbed my attention and made me want to pick it up regularly. Add to that the price point, double shipping, constant events and renumberings and you know where I'm going with this. Like I said DC and the indie publishers are doing a better job at keeping my interest in their titles at the moment insofar as comics go and I'm finding DC's events to be less annoying then Marvel's have been to me in the past. I agree with you on Marvel's movies though and that is where I get my Marvel fix these days in addition to trades of older stuff although I have enjoyed DC movies in the past although I didn't care for MoS much. I'm really hoping that SvB will be a strong movie so that it can get the ball rolling for DC though and from what I've seen I think I might actually enjoy it.

[Darthkostis]

Yeah, Marvel is pretty much dead to me as well despite my liking their characters for the most part. Nothing that they've done in recent years has grabbed my attention and made me want to pick it up regularly. Add to that the price point, double shipping, constant events and renumberings and you know where I'm going with this. Like I said DC and the indie publishers are doing a better job at keeping my interest in their titles at the moment insofar as comics go and I'm finding DC's events to be less annoying then Marvel's have been to me in the past. I agree with you on Marvel's movies though and that is where I get my Marvel fix these days in addition to trades of older stuff although I have enjoyed DC movies in the past although I didn't care for MoS much. I'm really hoping that SvB will be a strong movie so that it can get the ball rolling for DC though and from what I've seen I think I might actually enjoy it.

Personally, my "beef" with Marvel essentially comes down to 3 reasons:

1) Constant Events and Relaunches: Jesus, we can't go a year without an even throwin a curve ball in the writers' plans and forcing them to do some crappy tie-in issues. And then, as soon as the event ends, another's on the horizon, so the book ends and then gets relaunched along the "All-New, All-Different, All-Game Changing" Event...

2) Price Increase and Double Shipping: I mean, your books already cost 4$, now you're double shipping as well? You mean to tell me that I need 9 euros to read Spider-Man?! Give me a damn break Marvel. Especially when the quality of your stories is going down. TASM was basically a "filler" vol, since nothing seemed to "matter" (especially with Secret Wars looming on the horizon), yet commanded an 8$ price every month.

3) Publicity Stunts: "Oh, you were enjoying God of Thunder? Well, F@CK YOU! Thor's now a woman! Why? Cause that gives us mad diversity points brah". Seriously, what is up with that? It gets them 5 minutes of fame in "The View" or in some magazine, drives the sales up for a few issues and then, they wait a year or two to seem "commited" and then things go back to normal. After 2 relaunches and 3 events that is...Honestly, Marvel doesn't know what they're doing. IMHO, they're just throwing stuff at the wall, and trying to see what sticks. Problem is, they don't care about normal stories anymore, they care about "dem mad cash/diversity points"!


Now, these are my beefs with current Marvel, but the reason why I "left", is because, honestly, they're just not up to par with DC on any level. The more classic DC stuff I see, the more I appreciate the company. The key difference is that while Marvel publishes super-hero stories, DC publishes stories with super-heroes. It's a fine line, but I think it makes all the difference. While Marvel's stuck in the days of "me good guy, you bad guy! Let's fight!" with a bit of "social undertones" (more like ham-fisted metaphors), DC's actually trying to tell real stories, be they horror, comedy, sci-fi, that just happen to feature larger-than-life characters. Heck, Green Arrow, who's not one of my faves, in his first 4 or so issues of vol 2, put everything Marvel made to shame. It's not even a contest...

EDIT: Another thing that I greatly like about DC is that most of the major cities are fictional. Gotham, Star, Coast, Metropolis and so on and so forth. The reason why I like that, is that, as a non-American I can more easily identify with these characters. You don't see them preaching about the "American Dream" or the "American Way" like in every Captain America book. You don't see them proclaim their love of New York every issue or so like in Spider-Man. And most importantly, you're not reminded that 80% of the comics you read are set in the US. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with that, but when each and every book in your pull-list is about America, or how America is so great, or how America is so brave and so on and so forth, it becomes quite tiresome. The evil Commies, the foreign and always power hungry Chinese, the ones that want to strike America and tear it down! That's what I don't like about Marvel. Almost every book is going to have a story like that once every two years or so and it's tiring. The constant presence of SHIELD doesn't help either.

But with DC, you have Superman at Metropolis, Batman at Gotham, etc, etc, so you forget that they're in the US, thus being more able to identify with them. Plus, the more often than not stray away from the always ham-fisted classic "America has faults, but in the end it's damn f@cking awesome!". Even when they do get political like in Green Arrow, the story isn't resolved with a wink. It poses questions and doesn't portray one particular country as the good guy or the bad guy. And I think that's a really fine way to handle things. Plus, I always found it ridiculous that every major super-villain and battle happened in NYC. Not to mention the constant backs-and-forths with the US President. JL handles things much better in my opinion, since they don't always have their big battles in just one spot. They take care of the whole world, unlike the Avengers who only care about their home-turf.