Are Marvel characters more accesible than DC?

[TheCorpulent1]

Barbara Gordon's uterus must be broken, then. It's been like 2 or 3 years since then in comic time and she hasn't dropped any kids yet.

 

[Norman Osborn]

At the moment both are pretty inpenetrable to new readers.

Aside from some fringe books (which one could argue the ultimate line is now).

I miss bill jemas some times.

For me, and a sample of one is hardly enough to generalize, but Marvel has been far easier to jump on than has DC......I'm very close to cancelling JLA...not because it's necessarily poorly written, I just don't know what the hell is going on......Aquaman was brutal for jumping on.....

Marvel, for the most part, has been very easy to jump on.....give you an example.....I knew, before JLA Year One, the basics of all the characters involved, I knew 2 guys in the entire Annihilation series...JLA is just a confusing mess for me, Annihilation is likely the best story I've read since coming back to comics

 

[Whirlysplat]

I prefer to think of Marvel as the Mcdonalds of Comics in recent decades. DC has at least since the eighties had far more diverse imprints e.g. The one's that became Vertigo, The aquisition of the Wildstorm Universe etc. etc. Of course daring to go with things like Watchmen, Darknight Returns and Kingdom Come hammers the point home really. Although I have to say "Marvels" when it came out was breathtaking.

 

[CConn]

No, they aren't. When I started reading comics, besides being a Batman fan (but then, I was an X-Men fan too, so eh), I really had no preference between one company or another, but, for whatever reason, I was just more interested in reading DC comics - still am. I still read Marvel when a story looks good or interests me, but, for whatever reason, I want Flash's monthly. I want to read Superman's monthly. Whereas, I can wait for trade for Mighty Avengers or Thor.

Conversely to Manic's experience, the lead up to Infinite Crisis actually drew me even more into DC's universe. I mean, everything was so interconnected, and the whole universe was explored...so, if you read a lot of titles like I did, you knew the universe. I still don't have that level of knowledge and...comfort with Marvel's U.

 

[Anubis]

It's just like the taste of Soylent Green. It differs from person to person.

 

[Manic]

People are saying it was implied in The Killing Joke.

That explains the scene with Barbara clutching a coat hanger...


I'm a reader who only picks up a handful of books. A dozen or so, really. I was afraid to pick up any DC title because I knew every character had at least two versions of their history. Was the Waynes' killer Joe Chill, or some mystery that Batman can't solve? Was Clark ever Superboy? Does Wonder Woman have a secret identity? DC wrote it one way, changed it during the Crisis, changed it again after Zero Hour, change it with Hypertime, changed it with Superboy-Prime, and started shifting everything back to the Silver Age after I-Crisis. How the hell am I supposed to start reading that s***?

But I did start reading it. I just have to hit up Wikipedia and Google everytime something happens that I don't get.

 

[Harlekin]

I don't really think either is more accessible than the other, but I do have a healthy knowledge of both universes. Of course, I also don't necessarily regard inaccessibility as a problem. The whole fun of comic reading in the beginning is finding out all the little things, following the footnotes etc.

 

[Manic]

They don't do footnotes, anymore...

 

[Harlekin]

I know that, but these days you have the internet.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

They've had footnotes in comics recently. DC never stopped doing them and Marvel has apparently lifted its ban.

 

[Harlekin]

They're still used very sparingly, and if they are, it's mostly in the comics written by the continuity nuts like Slott.

 

[Whirlysplat]

They're still used very sparingly, and if they are, it's mostly in the comics written by the continuity nuts like Slott.

A great shame we don't see them more these days imo.

 

[trustyside-kick]

The only way I'd say Marvel is more "accessible" is because they expose more of their heroes. It really pisses me off that when it comes to movies and shows and such, that DC only puts out their big three (and really only emphasize them, or at least the top 2 of the 3 the most).

 

[gildea]

At least Sue was raped in Identity Crisis. I imagine fandom would've been much angrier if she had decided she was bored of Ralph and thought Dr. Light just looked so vulnerable...

I cannot believe you are arguing that rape is a more positive story than pitty sex. (not arguing quality of story here myself)

Regardless from the tone of the poster I quoted I took it that he was highlighting the grisly nature of some of the stories marvel has offered in recent times sue dinby was a counter point to his highlighting of what I assumed was the spider baby and my note about nightwind was my opposition to gwen.

Both companies are guilty of the sex shock value sale.

 

[Fenriswolf]

I mostly read Wildstorm and Vertigo but I still pick up a few Marvel titles (mostly the MAX stuff) Ive always found the DC characters were too powerful. Superman can do anything, he can lift and or move anything (planets?) and nothing can hurt him! (except a crystal?) Why? Because hes Superman!(yellow sunlight?) Well damn... thats boring. Nearly all the characters are like that, they are simply the best at everything all the time. Even so I recently began looking into the characters to see if there was really anything at all interesting. Nope. I find incredibley convoluted back stories and more invincible characters. Something else I`ve noticed that plays against DC. Look at the different word combinations on the JLA roster. WTH is a Martian Manhunter? Noone who doesnt care to begin with is going to pick up and read those. They sound childish even to a child.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I cannot believe you are arguing that rape is a more positive story than pitty sex. (not arguing quality of story here myself)

Regardless from the tone of the poster I quoted I took it that he was highlighting the grisly nature of some of the stories marvel has offered in recent times sue dinby was a counter point to his highlighting of what I assumed was the spider baby and my note about nightwind was my opposition to gwen.

Both companies are guilty of the sex shock value sale.

I agree. I was just arguing that in Sue's case it was more believable. At least, I find it more believable for a villain to rape a hero's significant other than for a hero's significant other to give her boyfriend's worst enemy (both in costume and out, since Sins Past itself shows that Gwen knows Norman is a monstrous bastard) a pity lay because he seems vulnerable. I never said anything about either story being positive.

 

[Anubis]

I mostly read Wildstorm and Vertigo but I still pick up a few Marvel titles (mostly the MAX stuff) Ive always found the DC characters were too powerful. Superman can do anything, he can lift and or move anything (planets?) and nothing can hurt him! (except a crystal?) Why? Because hes Superman!(yellow sunlight?) Well damn... thats boring. Nearly all the characters are like that, they are simply the best at everything all the time. Even so I recently began looking into the characters to see if there was really anything at all interesting. Nope. I find incredibley convoluted back stories and more invincible characters. Something else I`ve noticed that plays against DC. Look at the different word combinations on the JLA roster. WTH is a Martian Manhunter? Noone who doesnt care to begin with is going to pick up and read those. They sound childish even to a child.

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

 

[Fenriswolf]

Why because I have under 100 posts? Or that I see it from the perspective of someone who doesnt live and breath this stuff? One would see those as valid viewpoints as to how accessible comics would be to people from the "real world". I`m sorry if I offended your poor unending childhood or something.

 

[Anubis]

Wow, somebody musta pwned your ass hard recently to come back with such an extreme statement.

 

[Ultra-Herald9]

Its funny, I always here constant complaining about DC(and sometimes Comics in general when arguing with manga-preaching Comic haters) being unaccessible to the average reader when I completely understand most of DC continuity to the point of being a comic guru between my friends, and I often find that I know ALOT more than even the people who work at the comic shops and read comics all day. I started reading comics two years ago! I was a H-A-R-D-C-O-R-E Marvel fanboy.

Wanna know the first comic I bought? It was the Kingdom Come trade. The second, Infinite crisis. So that pretty much tells you that I was pretty new to comics. I then read then read House of M because I hated that all that all the books I bought so far were DC and that I truly enjoyed them. House of M sucked. So of course I moved on to the next Marvel books......Spider-Man,Blade,Hulk,Cap,New avengers,Uncanny and Astonishing X-men.

Thats when I first started to realize that I perhaps wasn't giving DC its credit(Identity crisis and Red Son sealed the deal for me). Around the time of Civil War I become a DC fanboy . Then I read Civil War just to give it a shot and I was reminded of why I strayed away from Marvel.

Marvel's front line books are just trying to be hip and cutting edge constantly. I hated it. Meanwhile everyone compalins about DC going back to the Silver Age. Why do you think!? They are trying to rectify there mistakes from an age where they were doing what Marvel is doing now!



But then I read Annihilation and realized that they are just comics. Everyone has there good and bad points. People probably think I'm still a DC loyalist, but thats because I find myself having to constantly defend DC. Its always the same lame-a** excuses to back up there opinions on why Marvel is cutting edge and why DC sucks.

 

[The Question]

I mostly read Wildstorm and Vertigo but I still pick up a few Marvel titles (mostly the MAX stuff) Ive always found the DC characters were too powerful. Superman can do anything, he can lift and or move anything (planets?) and nothing can hurt him! (except a crystal?) Why? Because hes Superman!(yellow sunlight?) Well damn... thats boring. Nearly all the characters are like that, they are simply the best at everything all the time. Even so I recently began looking into the characters to see if there was really anything at all interesting. Nope. I find incredibley convoluted back stories and more invincible characters. Something else I`ve noticed that plays against DC. Look at the different word combinations on the JLA roster. WTH is a Martian Manhunter? Noone who doesnt care to begin with is going to pick up and read those. They sound childish even to a child.

Martian Manhunter is kind of a silly name. But he's also a great character. Try learning a little more about DC before going on about how much it sucks.

 

[Ultra-Herald9]

Martian Manhunter is kind of a silly name. But he's also a great character. Try learning a little more about DC before going on about how much it sucks.

Maybe he likes the 90's stuff. Would Extremor or Skuurge be better?

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

True, but in Marvel, you have things like people's babies gone missing, Gwen Stacy sleeping with Norman Osborn, things like that... I used to be more into Marvel, but now I'm almost all into DC... Marvel tries to shake up their foundations every month so things will never be the same, but it never gives people time to relax... I mean, when was the last time Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Wasp, and Hank Pym fought together? A longass time ago...

Ill give you that Marvel really doesnt seem to give that much time for a new status quo to settle in. I mean, there events are only a few months apart, it hardly gives time for one to get used to the new changes. But on the other hand it does it make it exciting to see that Marvel isnt about keeping the status quo always and forever. Not to say that DC is, but really, a big part of Infinite Crisis was going back to the silver age roots. Hell, most of their events use the same terminology, crisis, countdown, etc.

And seriously, Id rather have a lack of a long-lasting status quo than constant revamps and retcons. ****, at this point i dont even care how Superman learned he was Kryptonian or who shot Batman's parents.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

That stuff about status quo applied to the MU in whole. Cuz, seriouslyy, JMS needs to stop ****ing Peter Parker up the ass.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

At least Sue was raped in Identity Crisis. I imagine fandom would've been much angrier if she had decided she was bored of Ralph and thought Dr. Light just looked so vulnerable...

Seriously, if my girlfriend had to have sex with another guy, I'd rather it be because of rape and not her cheating on me.