I'm going with DC but I'm sure most here will pick marvel. dc has the flash, which is the best book ever and the best superhero ever. anyone bother to read it? by far the most complex stories in the books these days. martian manhunter. the question. superman. plus you got the dark horse comics. marvel is good too but their stories aren't as dreamlike. Silver surfer. xmen. spider-man. f4.
Acknowledging that I preferred DC over Marvel was the first time I felt old. This was 20 years ago, I was in college, talking to some young high-schoolers and they felt I was older than dirt. I prefer the old classics: Batman, Superman, the Justice League of America and all it's members, even the Legion of Superheroes. OK, I always thought Atom was pretty lame. I like Spiderman, but that's not enough to make me choose the Marvel universe.
Neither does all that well in regards to continuity issues of their respective series but DC does a better job than Marvel. The reason being most all DC characters have their own fictional city that they live and work in while Marvel uses almost all real cities for their characters which can hurt continuity when more than one hero is in a specific city. About a year or two ago Magneto totally destroyed NYC (and when I say destroy I mean it). The X-Men fought him but this event (what should really be a world changing event) had no effect on Spider-Man, Daredevil or The Avengers all of whom live in NYC. It looks like Marvel is trying to change some of that with a company-wide crossover this summer called "The House of M". Usually I would have reservations about this but it's headed up by BMB which could mean good things. DC also has a big event this summer with 4 seperate mini-series that along with happenings in all of their books will provide clues and background information to their next big event maxi-series: Infinite Crises. All of this is headed by some great writers and editor Dan DiDio which should make it quite good also. Now when it comes to DC vs. Marvel for me I have to go DC. As far as the Marvel Universe I've only ever liked Daredevil and the X-Men. Well outside of Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men and Joss Whedon currently on Astonishing X-Men there hasn't been much good in the way of stories. I do like the Ulmiate Marvel Universe because they restarted all of their big properties (Spidey, X-Men, Fantasic Four (who I've never liked until now because of the great writing) and The Avengers (now called The Ultimates) with great writers and art and have kept the continuity much better linked. Marvel has the new Icon imprint for cool/hip/smart creator-owned work but they only have 2 books there so far, only one of which I'm interested in, Powers (written by the aformentioned BMB). So that means Marvel-wise I'm currently buying 7 books a month (if they keep to schedule). DC on the other hand has been putting great writers and artists together on a much wider range of their books. Batman, Wonder Woman, JLA: Classified, Superman/Batman, Green Arrow, Teen Titans, Gotham Central, Breach and Manhunter are all great books with wonderful art and stories. Grant Morrison has his Seven Soldiers of Victory mega-epic throughout the next year which consists of 8 mini-series and two bookends that weave a crazy adventure where 7 heros save the world working together while not knowing they are doing so. Then add in the 4 mini-series I mentioned above (The OMAC Project, Rann/Thanagar War, Day Of Judgement and Villains United). Then you add in the Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints that are also putting out great stuff. Fables, Y: The Last Man, The Losers, 100 Bullets, Lucifer and Hellblazer from Vertigo. And from Wildstorm you have Ocean, Ex Machina, Sleeper, The Authority: Revolution, Razor's Edge (currently on hiatus) and the upcoming Desolation Jones. That's 33 comics. Luckily they don't all come out on a monthly basis but DC will be impacting my comic buying the most over the next year.
I am easily a Marvel guy, always have been and probably always will be. Marvel, to me, has always had the more believable characters (as believable as super heros can be that is). I readily admit to not giving DC nearly enough of a chance, though. I haven't given the books a proper read, I read some superman when I was much younger, but that is about it. From the beginning my eye was drawn to the far grittier appearance of the X-Men and Iron Man, and as soon as I opened those books I was hooked. The DC characters just looked too flashy, too clean, too bright.
I am a Marvel guy as well, more appealing characters in my opinion, but DC has who I consider the best superhero ever...Batman.
I actually have the special edition comic book collection about the battle between DC and Marvel. I also have the first issue of Dark Claw, or the mixing of Batman and Wolverine, the bad guy was Hyena, or the Joker mixed with Sabertooth. I also have nearly the entire collection of the cards depicting all the battles between the Marvel and DC. They had some great battles, Spiderman v. Superboy, Spidey wins. Hulk v. Superman, Superman wins. Lex Luthor v. The Kingpin, Kingpin wins. Great stuff. The mixing of the two was called Amalgam. This came with benefits of living in Los Angeles, it was heaven for a little kid who loves superheroes. My favorite comic book has to be the limited edition Spiderman meets Batman. My two favorite heroes, in it Spiderman goes to Gotham partners up with Batman to catch Carnage who teams up with the Joker.
The Ultimate universe is what does it for me. I read Daredevil and a few of the X titles, but that's it when it comes to the Marvel Universe (other than the Ultimate line that is). As for DC, I read more of their subsidiary companies titles than their titles. I really can't name one DC title I read. I read Wildstorm and Vertigo titles though. I like to spread my money around, Dark Horse, Image, DC, Marvel, etc. There are so many great stories out there.
Just to throw this out... What ever happened to ROM? Growing up it was all about the Legion of Super-Heroes. After reading and knowing all the stories, we had all the kids in the neighborhood pick on hero to be when we played. I was Star Boy. What? I was neither the oldest nor the biggest kid, so I had to take the coolest one left.
Whenever this subject is discussed, I like to limit/clarify it by comparing the "Marvel Universe" with the "DC Universe" and not try to compare publishing divisions. For me, DC has a lot of negative baggage from decades of incredibly stupid stories (pre-80s DC). I've long been a "Marvel Zombie" because I liked how their characters were flawed and more "realistic." I can still enjoy early issues of Spider-Man and FF. Today, I'm not sure I can say which is better. Some of my favorite comic writers, like Geoff Johns and Greg Rucka, are doing excellent work with DC characters. Johns especially has drawn me into the "DC Universe."
Hehe, Rom. Rom was a toy, Marvel only licensed the character (I believe from a Japanese company) so they can't put him in any comics without working out another agreement, which seems unlikely since there aren't too many people clamoring for the return of ROM (as far as I can tell).
yeah and the flash defeated quicksilver from marvel. dc won 6 of the 11 matchups. the flash is by far the best comic going right now. I feel sorry for any fan of comics that don't read the current flash stories. as far as universes go, well the DC cities are fictional but they reside in real states, smallville/metropolis, central city/keystone city are in kansas for example....though some of the others don't mention states. BenReilly, you can't juge DC by it's pre Crisis (on infinite Earths) days. DC themselves admitted they had some stupid stories and they rectified that with one of the greatest stories in the history of comic books and even killed off 2 of their characters (the second flash, barry allen and supergirl) while making others disappear when their existence was wiped out. Marvel had some duds too, remember the whole spider-man clone wars? that was ridiculous and it went on forever. Right now all the DC stories are still dealing with the identity crisis story from last year but it's mostly over.
above I said DC had dark horse, I meant vertigo. vertigo had some good limited edition books like last man and grendel.
I'm not "judging" them by their old stories, but it definitely affected my feelings about the DC Universe and helped solidify my "loyalty" to Marvel. As I said, I'm getting more into DC these days. I totally don't remember that. What was that all about?
I had gotten back into reading Spidey regularly before the whole clone thing hit. I have to say I was pretty disgusted, though, and when it looked like the Pete who'd been Spidey and married to MJ was the clone, I dropped it. Anyone want to enlighten me as to the outcome?
Grendel was never a Vertigo title, it's a Dark Horse title and has been for a while. Before that it was printed by Comico.
*chuckling* sorry, I just got a kick out of you saying Ben Reilly then the next post you dissing the spider-man clone wars. btw, Ben can I be blunt and ask what it is you do for a living. I've had some suspicions on whether you are connected to the comic industry.
No, the pro-Israel industry actually, which can resemble a comic book at times. I know some people in the comics biz.
Identity Crisis was just the base and it's ramifications aren't ending any time soon. Batman is slowly remembering what IC revealed was done to him by other heroes and when he knows it all it's not going to be pretty.
really? because theflash is pretty much done with identity crisis. actually batman was the one who told wally west who he was (the flash). martian manhunter is wrapping it up too. I guess batman was a little more central in the IC story so it may last longer.
Marvel, but the good old marvel (70' 80'). The X-men of Byrne / Claremont, Spiderman by Romita, Silver Surfer by Jim Starlin... Before they introduced the 124574th clone of Thor and Spiderman, before "Onslaught", before they started to think a carnage was enough to make a good story. When Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) was still a member of the avengers, when Storm still talked (and dressed, whaou..) like a goddess. I also remember women drawed by Paul Smith, for example Binary and Storm during the first Brood saga. They were "real" (if I can say so) and beautiful women, not the stupid bimbos with pumped breasts the female characters became later. Why the world has to change, tell me, why everything can't stay exactly the way it was when I was young ? Fortunately, I still possess a nearly complete collection of Marvel comics from this era, I can read them again and again. Let's say, tonight, re-re-re-read the X-men and New mutants in Asgard (Claremont / Adams). Bye.
Basically Identity Crisis was almost a prelude of what is to come in the DC Universe. So yes it's done with Flash currently but more issues will continue to arise in all DC comics that will play into the big Infinite Crisis coming up. Batman will have a whole storyline devoted to him in JLA written by Johns (I believe). He, Loeb and Rucka are really spearheading what will be happening in the DCU over the next year and a half. Since all 3 are great writers that's why I'm looking forward to the DC happenings.
well what are the titles you read on a regular basis? I admit I don't read batman but I do get the batman/superman title every month. the flash is now in the middle of a civil war between rogues.
