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

In recent years, with Bendis at the helm Marvel has been putting out more Blockbuster-ish storylines highlighting Superhero fights we've always wanted to see. House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Siege...They're pretty decent art and action wise. AvX is their most recent outing and from some of the feedback I've heard...falls a little flat.

DC has been putting out some...Interesting stories in recent years, big publicity but weak delivery and effect. Final Crisis in so many ways made me doubt if DC could ever pull off as big an event as they wanted to. Blackest Night was pretty decent story-wise and beautifully illustrated but the fallout from it was rather...meh. Flashpoint was very good in my opinion but maybe its because I do have a soft spot for Barry Allen and a Flash-related Comic event where the Flash saves the day is a breathe of fresh air from the usual Superman-finale.

All in all, I think both have their merits. DC has always tried to fancy themselves "The Original Comic Universe" and have tried to maintain their Silver Age outlook on things while Marvel has no qualms about morphing their characters and their stories to fit the times.

 

dc has better stories and better characters tbqh

call me when marvel has a

watchmen
dkr
all-star superman
sandman
etc.

they are the original and still the best

now if we get can just get out of the f**ing nineties (90's)

 

I find DC has more epic (Grander not so much better) stories than Marvel has. Personally I like Marvel characters better as they have normal flaws and can be total jackasses to everybody but in the end try to be better.

I like the Marvel stories better than DC. I just find that DC does too much and crams everybody they can think of all the time in the books. I still don't find Death of Superman or Blackest night to be very good but I love Secret war and the Infinity gauntlet.

They've both had terrible storylines and massive retcons out the wazoo, Whatever they've done to bring Barry Allen back and destroy Wally not to mention that trial they had for him before the COIE, One More Day, final crisis, Clone saga among many others.

All in all I find Marvel is more down to earth, even the villains are more likeable. Thanos is just ****ing awesome. Even as a Darkseid clone he's come into his own and is amazing in everything he does now. As opposed to Sinestro or Lex Luthor who I find to be rather flat characters.

I loved 52 though. It was flatout great. All the interconnecting storylines, the question and Black adam storylines were my favorite.

 

It seems like a really silly false dichotomy to me. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, The Joker, all of the Robins, Deathstroke, Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Ted Grant, Jack Knight, Morpheus, Wesley Dodds, all fantastic characters and just to name a few. The Dark Phoenix saga, Infinity Gauntlet, The Death of Captain Marvel, Days of Future Past, Daredevil: Born Again, The Death of Gwen Stacy, Demon in a Bottle, Marvels, all great stories just to name a few.

I've found that DC has just as much retcon-y ******** that fans have problems with as Marvel does. Hell, the whole new 52 is basically that. So saying Marvel has more of that, I just don't see it.

The idea that "DC has the most memorable, best selling, ethically challenging, morally challenging, socio-political pondering stories ever to grace the medium," again, don't see it. I mean, DC does have all of those qualities, it absolutely does, but Marvel has them just as much. The best of the X-Men alone covers an enormous amount of "ethically challenging, morally challenging, socio-political pondering" material, as well as the best of most of the mainstay Marvel characters.

And finally the idea that DC characters are more god like and less relatable, that just rings completely untrue to me. I mean, maybe it was the case at one point, way back in the 50s, but these days DC has just as much pathos and humanity, and conversely Marvel has amped up the spectacle and mythology and symbolism, because both work hand in hand to make super hero stories great, and contrary to popular belief they are not mutually exclusive. Really, you need both to tell big stories about simple ideas of what it means to be a good person.

Or, to be more brief, I counter the idea that DC heroes are more god like and less relatable with this:



God like and unrelatable. Sure.



The differences between DC and Marvel are, at this point, superficial. Setting choices and repeating motifs, mostly visual ones. They've both got a lot of heart, they've both got real, human, engaging characters, and they're both chock full of big ideas and mean a whole lot more than what they literally mean.

I find this desire some people have to define differences between the two to be very silly. They've got more in common than not, and they have the most important thing in common of all.

They're both great.

 

Now the differences between the business decisions of the two companies, those are significant and pretty interesting.

Like, someone above mentioned that Marvel has nothing on DC because it doesn't have books like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, All-Star Superman, or Sandman. Well, as far as the middle two go I think Marvel has plenty of stories that match up in terms of quality. But with Watchmen and Sandman, there's a solid point there. DC has, since the 80s, been much more willing to try out and very seriously promote out-of-continuity and/or non-superhero stories done by serious talent in the industry. Marvel, on the other hand, is very gun shy about anything not taking place in some version of the Marvel Universe and has only very rarely put much time or energy into such endeavors, and I do think that is a shame.

 

That's pretty much what I was gonna say, though I woulda went with something a little less eloquent like "this whole line of thinking is a buncha boos**t and you mofo's don't know wtf you're talking about with your this or that mentality." Or whatevs.

 

I think recently Marvel has had the better stories actually. At least in terms of iconic runs on a book.

Bendis/Maleev Daredevil
Mark Waid Daredevil
Whedon/Cassaday Astonishing X-Men
Brubaker Captain America


The only thing DC has had close to that quality has been Morrison's Batman/B&R/Inc stuff, and even that isn't as consistently good.


Marvel blows DC away in the art department as well.

 

No they don't. They got the same GD artists that go back and forth between the two.

 

Saying either company has better characters or better stories is entirely subjective. They're the same damn product. For every Superman, there's a Captain America. For every Kingdom Come, there's a Marvels.

 

I agree with most of this except that I don't think they're both great. Not anymore. Truth be told I've always been more of a DC guy but I also bought about as much Marvel titles once upon a time. Leading up to and since Civil War though I only buy a handful of Marvel titles at most.

A lot of their current "architects" have approaches that just don't appeal to me in anyway. A lot of those books feel like a chore to read and I can't force myself to bear with it just because I like the characters. I feel the same way about Marvel's movies. So I'm pretty much not even close to being as big a fan of that company as I was say 10 years ago. Matter of fact I could go the rest of my life without reading a new Marvel book or seeing a new movie from their film division and it won't bother me none.

With DC I do still read quite a few but I honestly find the animated Young Justice universe more appealing than The New 52 since it's an interesting remix of the DCU that I grew up with. But you're right at this point they're both pretty interchangeable in terms of tropes unlike the silver age. People who try to claim otherwise kind of show their ignorance in trying to prove it because it's a dichotomy that isn't even present anymore.

 

I was talking about the universes and the catalogue of stories as a whole. The current business practices of both companies, which with a few exception are ass, is another matter.

 

I like DC's event books a lot more than I like Marvel's events. Most of Marvel's events are sort of crap. I really enjoyed Blackest Night and Final Crisis. However, outside of events, I find myself enjoying more books from Marvel. My favorite titles of the past decade Ultimate Spider-man, Captain America, the Immortal Iron Fist, Daredevil, Invincible Iron Man, New X-men, Astonishing X-men, Fantastic Four, and Secret Avengers. The only DC stuff that has held my interest long term is Green Lantern and Morrison's Batman books. I really love Superman as a character, but I have had no interest in any Superman book in the past decade or so other than All-Star Superman.

 

I didn't say that you were alone in making this argument or that this argument was a new thing. I said that this argument was wrong.

Yeah, way back when, DC characters were god like and unrelatable. But a lot has changed since the 50s. That's really not the case anymore.

 

Marvel has spider-man and peter parker could beat superman in a fight. He'd just make a deal with the devil to win.

 

Nah, Marvel consistently has better and more original artists than DC. And not all of them go back and forth. But obviously art is super subjective, depending on what style(s) appeal to you.


I'd take the Marvel lineup of people like Maleev, Rivera, McNiven, Samnee, Romita Jr, Aja, Cassaday etc

over DC'S

Jim Lee, Ed Benes, Ivan Reis, Van Sciver, Tony Daniel, Rags


every time.



And I'm not saying that all of Marvel's artists are good, or that all of DC's are bad. DC does have some greats like Manupal and JHIII, but overall Marvel has more good/great ones.

 

They have a Sandman

I agree with the OP

 

From what I've been told, DC doesn't take many chances with new artists, preferring more streamlined pencil work from artists like Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Nicola Scott (who is a great personality in person) and so on. You might see a trend there. This has however changed with the dawning of the New 52 where DC has superseded the classic house look with a fusion of their old style and the Wildstorm-Jim Lee style.

Marvel on the other hand actually does take give newer artists chances at core titles. The touted Young Guns of Marvel being a pretty good example.

 

Ed Benes is no legend.


He's just another Jim Lee knock-off. He can draw some nice pin-ups sure, but his storytelling is waaaaaaay short of legendary.


And I realize there are plenty of artists that cross over, that's why I tried to list artists who have pretty much stuck with one company in recent years. Though Cassaday did Planetary and Superman covers for DC.