DC Vs. Marvel

[TrueDave]

Funny you should ask this . My friend once pointed out that Batman is the DC Marvel like character while Captain America is DC.

It was TV. Superfriends, George Reeves, Lou Ferrigno, Linda Cartrer. When I got into comics I was more DC because they had War stories ( Wheres my GI Robot figure??) and Horror stories ( Wheres my Wrightson Swamp Thing?)

Since I was a child Superman , Batman and Wonderwoman have been my friends. Role models.

Plus they were our dads and granpas too! hopefully most of us will be around when Superman hits 100 years old!

Superman and Batman have reached out of fantasy and affect the real world. I have friends from 5 to 80 that both love Superman and Batman!

Batman inspired me to take rock climbing, scuba, fencing, Tae quon do, kayaking, caving, paprchuting.

[david_b]

I always thought marvel took more chances, like giving The Submariner a cartoon in the
60's when he didn't have
- notable rogues gallery
- a likeable personally
- connection with the viewers
- pants

Wow.. an Excellent Point. Very indicative of Marvel's ability to mix/present non-mainstream heroes out with their mainstay characters.., which wouldn't be odd now, but back in the 60s, having just brought them back into monthly publications nary a year or two before (much like the Avengers, and the separate FF and Spiderman shows..).

Marvel broke the '50s/60s mold of heroes.., much like Jimi Hendrix and the Fab Four pretty much declaring the end of surf music..

I really can't add to ALL the other great explanations here, but yes, Marvel's my preference because we cared in following each/every month, especially in the 70s, with group line-ups changing (Avengers/Defenders, yes JLA did the same thing..), realistic locations (not Gotham City or Metropolis..), characters dying (Goblin, Gwen Stacy and her father), marriages in turmoil (Reed and Sue..), the list goes on.

It didn't just talk turmoil.., it made lasting changes.

{Well, until the whole Gwen clone nonsense came up.. Sheesh}

david_b

[bobws]

They both have thier advantages but to me it boils down to...Am i reading about heroes or people? Do i want soap opera with my heroes? To me DC was, when i started reading comics about heroes who stand for right and are there when things go bad. They make you feel like their are people out there who will make a difference and take a stand. They are there to inspire! Marvel, while their characters are more personal and therfore relatable, bring way to much agnst and darkness to thier universe. It went way down hill after X-Men # 141 days of future past. Then they said wow people liked this dark story, let's make the whole comic line have a nasty future ahead of it.

So here are 2 universes,
Marvel where the universe comes and is always attacking earth and beating down it heroes.

DC where it universe somes and is always attacking and it's heroes STAND UP to the Invaders and send them PACKING LICKING THIER WOUNDS. that is why i like DC better!

[ctc]

>My main issue with the moden DC universe is that they've tried too hard to make it all make sense.

Yeah; DC characters a re a LOT more iconic; and that works for AND against them. They're a lot more idealized, and accordingly a lot less "realistic." Part of that comes from being older: their universe gelled way back when continuity and "plot" and all that stuff took a back seat to action and excitement. Dc characters work best when dealing with big ideas; it's what they're made for. But they don't work as well for smaller ones. Seeing Batman all angsty, or petty goes against the grain 'cos we don't look upon him the same way we would a normal person. (Or more "realistic" character.)

Marvel was BASED on the idea of more "human" characters who have to deal with more mundane problems. So their characters work better for that. Spidey needing cash for the rent? Makes sense. Clark Kent? Not so much. I think for a teenager the Marvel characters are more appealing 'cos they're easier to relate to. ("Hey, people hate the X-Men 'cos they're different! JUST LIKE ME!") Older folks seem to go DC, 'cos they're based more on the bigger than life feel from their youth.

....'course, I grew up with Judge Dredd, Grimjack and Golgo 13; so t me they're both kinda silly....

Don C.

[huedell]

Seeing (what I'd loosely call) "FILMATION's" three big heroes...BATMAN,
SUPERMAN and AQUAMAN in (what I'd loosely call) HB's "SUPER
FRIENDS" alongside a chick (WW) made me a huge DC fan from
the very start...the only way MARVEL woulda had a chance is if they woulda
had a 70s cartoon starring SPIDEY, HULK, CAP A, and the FANTASTIC FOUR
as a team...which obviously didn't happen

[toys2cool]

as a kid it was all about DC for me, but then Marvel started getting better for me with Superman dying and crap

[clemso]

Why do you like DC characters more than Marvel characters? Everybody's opinion is wanted so please comment.

I don't, I've been a Marvel fan most of my life and I just relate to the Marvel stories better than DC which in the 70s seemed a little on the silly side.
Marvel heroes had a cool factor for me ... But relating your question to Mego dolls, then I prefer the DC characters, their costume design just work better.
Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are 3 of the top most iconic Super hero characters.

[PNGwynne]

DC versus who?

Seriously, to me DC is classic, with characters that are like mythology, archetypal...

I don't dislike Marvel, but it doesn't engage me like DC does...

[Brazoo]

I grew up on Marvel and thought DC was silly.

Marvel characters lived in our world and had real world problems, they aged and grew as characters. It made the serialization more compelling. Marvel books held the illusion that you were going to miss something historic every month if you didn't keep up. UNTIL...

I left comic collecting at age 14 or 15, I can't remember off-hand exactly how old I was, but I DO remember it was exactly after John Byrne had left his run of the Fantastic Four in the 80s. I didn't know who John Byrne really was until much later, all I knew was all the characters I had been following suddenly became the same characters they were when I started. I realized that part of my interest in Marvel comics was not only knowing what The Thing (for example) would do to beat a bad guy - it was what will Marvel would do if The Thing became a well adjusted and happy person. When Byrne left I realized the trick - The Thing would NEVER become a well adjusted happy person. He really didn't grow! The illusion was shattered for me, I didn't have to buy comics every month to follow what would happen, because NOTHING was actually going to happen.

In my early 20s I got back into comics. "Kingdom Come" was a major influence in getting me interested again - it got me interested in DC comics for the first time. I realized how much better the stoic and more iconic characters of the DC were suited to fitting each era. It was a real treat catching up on Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze/Modern age DC characters, because not only did the characters and stories fit each era perfectly, I didn't have to read a hundred other books just to follow a story. A good issue could stand up on it's own, and you could pick one up from any era and get a different kind of pleasure with it. DC didn't need use the albatross of it's universe's continuity to make a great book. Superman, unless you're reading an "Imaginary Story" or an Elseworlds, will never reach middle age, and that's fine - Spider-Man won't reach middle-age either, but Marvel pretends that he will, and personally I think Marvel's books suffer because of that.

[Captain]

I prefer DC. The characters are more varied and have a deeper backstory, secret identity wise...especially in their glory days of the Golden Age and the later Silver age. Marvel, once you get past Captain America (my favourite Marvel character) and maybe even spidey, are all the same under the mask. Angst ridden teenagers/adults with mutant powers. The powers differentiate them, but there mannerisms seldom do. They are interchangeable.
Sadly, nowadays, all comic characters seem written this way.

I grew up with the Adam West Batman, Filmations Superman,Aquaman, and DC Heroes cartoons, Spiderman (67) and the Mighty Marvel Marching society toons. Oddly enough, these are my favourite heroes (including Cap, Spidey, Namor and Iron Man) so I have no doubt those shows had an early influence on things. Plus, I could read before I went to school and since Batman was my favourite character on tv, I always wanted the Bat books. I just happened to be lucky enough to grow up in the era of 48 pg, 60pg, and 80pg comic books, with a ton of classic old reprints from the Golden Age Dc crew. Again, that influnced me a lot I'm sure.

[Mego Milk]

But DC has Tiny Titans, so they still win over Marvel![/QUOTE]

AW YEAH TITANS!!!!!

[starsky]

the filmation cartoon shows really did it for me. they were aired very consistently thus the bias towards dc. impressionable kid that i was. the only marvel tv show that aired regularly was spiderman which i loved as well.

[theressa]

When I was younger, my brother bought mainly Marvel comics. I used to read his and they kinda rubbed off onto me.
He always told me of how Mom tossed his Spidey #1 in the fire!
We both grew up with the Marvel regulars, so.......

Make mine Marvel!!

[generic]

As a kid, I never thought about there being a difference between DC and Marvel - they were all in the same category of "Superheroes" to me. Probably because my Mego Spiderman and Captain America could ride in the Batmobile just like Batman and Robin (and Uhura and Kirk for that matter). I've always loved Batman. He may not have always been my favorite, but he's the only guys to ALWAYS be in my top 5. Now, 1970s Batman comics are pretty much the only comics I'm reading. I've also always liked Spiderman, but not as much as Batman. I guess Batman just seemed like such a bad mofo. He doesn't have any super powers, but there he is right next to Superman fighting whatever you can throw at him. I always liked that. For years I considered myself a Marvel fan who liked Batman because he seemed more of a Marvel guy to me. It's only been in recent years that I've realized that I'm a DC fan who likes Marvel mostly when it's reminding me of Batman.

[saildog]

In my opinion of years of reading, Marvel has the best villains and DC has the best heroes.

I don't think you could sum it up any better than that. All you have to do is look at a character like Submariner to know that Marvel always flirted with the line between good and bad and DC has pretty much held true. With DC (for most of it's history) Good is good and Bad is bumbling.