C/D: DC = Better Stories, Marvel = Better Characters

[Mee]

I feel like when you judge/critique a comic book artist you have to be thinking about the work as a whole, not just the style but the storytelling.

That's the nature of the medium.


If you're talking about best cover artists, that's one thing, but best artists in general...you have to consider the sequential storytelling.

[Arach Knight]

Originally Posted by Mee

I feel like when you judge/critique a comic book artist you have to be thinking about the work as a whole, not just the style but the storytelling.

That's the nature of the medium.


If you're talking about best cover artists, that's one thing, but best artists in general...you have to consider the sequential storytelling.

A wholistic approach to art critique is a more appropriate approach.

[gugumugats]

I think a lot of the difference can also be boiled down to DC having greater "out of continuity" stories while Marvel tends to have a somewhat tighter knit universe with a bigger emphasis on in-continuity stories.

Pretty apparent when you think of each company's most beloved and iconic stories. DC has Watchmen, TDKR, All-Star Supes, and Kingdom Come etc. Marvel has a lot of the original Stan Lee run (I honestly think that Stan Lee's run on Fantastic Four and Spider-Man are probably amongst the best stories for those characters), the Dark Phoenix Saga, New X-Men, Astonishing X-men, Miller's Daredevil, Civil War, etc.

[Arach Knight]

Originally Posted by gugumugats

I think a lot of the difference can also be boiled down to DC having greater "out of continuity" stories while Marvel tends to have a somewhat tighter knit universe with a bigger emphasis on in-continuity stories.

It is true that most of the noteworthy DC stories occur in Elseworlds or titles that have retroactively been considered Elseworlds (or Imaginary Tales, which are the precursor to Elseworlds). Not sure about Marvel having a tighter knit universe. The "What If?" line was very popular in its time. The Ultimate universe, while having its own continuity, is outside of the main Marvel continuity (up until Spider-Men, which finally bridged it as part of the Marvel universe).

[greenlantern248]

Alright I have to chime in here.

I used to work at a comic book store up in Maine, and I was a outsider looking in basically cause my legion lies with DC, I have been a DC fan since I was 5 (I'm 31 now) well the majority of the shop was marvel fans.

I do remember what my boss told me once of a reason why he didn't care for DC as much as Marvel he told me: "If you compare the two companies you have to break it down to the most popular ones. Take DC's big 7 which are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman and compare them to Marvel's big 7 which are Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine, and (the last one is always difficult to name cause it honestly could be anyone) well if you compare them DC's 7 are Gods while Marvel's 7 are people with God like powers.
Which yes I even admit that DC is overpowered on a good portion of their characters.

Now that being said, I do still have to side with DC on the better stories.
The one thing I do have to kinda argue about though is what you said gugumugats about Marvel tends to have a tighter knit universe, and yes I do know you don't mean its perfect but I have to point this out cause this was the funniest thing I saw when working there.
We got our shipment of books that went out that week, and I was putting the books away on the shelf by company then by character. Well I get to Marvel and Spider-Man and on this particular week 3 Spidey titles came out. Amazing, Spectacular, and Friendly Neighborhood. Well I was flipping through each book to get a rough idea of the story so I can tell customers about it. Well I'm not sure the order of the books but in 1 book Brock was dead from the cancer, in another book Brock was in a coma because of the cancer, and in the last book Brock was alive and kicking and walking down the street. I laughed cause the same week same universe and 3 different views on Eddie Brock.

[Arach Knight]

That's one of the more common difficulties with writing for Marvel. Not that it doesn't happen at DC, but it is pronounced with Marvel. Kurt Buseik commented on the challenge of writing Marvels due to the need to properly sequence story events that seemed to overlap yet have the same characters in different places at the same time. The supposition is that events do not run in tandem despite a same time release for content featuring the same characters. So if there are three X-Men books in the same month and each book features Wolverine on a different mission, the reader can safely assume that there is a time gap between each story. It hardly speaks to the idea of cohesion.

[Mystirious]

I don't think either company is better than the other in terms of syories/characters

I like both pretty much equally

They've both had both good and lousy stories and characters though I do think the Marvel event comics are slightly worse than DC's

Much as I hate Geoff Johns writing, even i have to admit that Flashpoint was better than that terrible nonsensical abomination called A vs X which can be summed up as 'Everyone is suddenly a total moron. They fight for twelve issues and multiple tie ins. Buy those variant covers!'

The only good thing to come of it was getting rid of that No More Mutants boo' **** from House of M, another awful Bendis event comic

[Czar Colossus]

Good point......but at least A vs X is now over while at DC we still are suffering the curse of the New 52.....with no end in sight.

[Mystirious]

There's been lots of good stuff about the new DCU though

Batwoman is absolutely amazing and one of the best comic books being publushed right now

And there are quite a few really fun and well written books like Sword of Sorcery, Birds of Prey, Demon Knights, Legion of Superheroes etc

I'm digging the new DCU so far

I'm less optimistic about Marvel NOW apart from Young Avengers

I'm going to buy the **** out of that comic

Astonishing X men is also fab and my favourite X men comic and I be digging Avengers Academy and Captain Marvel

[Mani-Man]

Originally Posted by Czar Colossus

Good point......but at least A vs X is now over while at DC we still are suffering the curse of the New 52.....with no end in sight.

So true

[Czar Colossus]

Originally Posted by Mystirious

There's been lots of good stuff about the new DCU though

Batwoman is absolutely amazing and one of the best comic books being publushed right now

And there are quite a few really fun and well written books like Sword of Sorcery, Birds of Prey, Demon Knights, Legion of Superheroes etc

I'm digging the new DCU so far

I'm less optimistic about Marvel NOW apart from Young Avengers

I'm going to buy the **** out of that comic

Astonishing X men is also fab and my favourite X men comic and I be digging Avengers Academy and Captain Marvel

I would not say a lot of good stuff, but what is good (Aquaman, GL and some Batman) did not need this horrible reboot to happen. The major changes (especially what was done to the legacy/JSA characters) absolutely suck!
As far as Marvel Now goes, I've no doubt that there will be a healthy serving of crap, but I am looking forward to Cable & X-Force, Uncanny Avengers, and Thor (I so hope Cap and Spidey will end up being good too).
As for Carol Danvers, I love the character, but I do harbor some animosity at the fact that the "real" Captain Marvel cannot use his real name so that Marvel can have theirs.

[Mystirious]

Is that really the reason why Billy is called SHAZAM now

That be silly

I agree the reboot was pretty pointless but at least we've gotten some fun series
I've dug the new JSA mostly Alan, Hawkgirl, Flash and Atom seem neat

I'm not happy about Terry Sloane being an evil villain though