DC Comics or Marvel?

Hi guys this is my first post so take it easy on me!!!!!!!!

I don't know if the subject has been brokered before but I was wondering what the prefered reading of other forum members was.

For me it was always Marvel, I could never get into DC Comics perhaps it was my first exposure to a DC comics character (Batman in the 1960's television series starring Adam West) which possibly blighted my opinions but I was more inclined towards Marvel,that and the fact that Marvel publications were more readily available here in the UK.

i've never found marvel to be more readily availiable at all. where bouts are you?

i really like them both. however, i jut think that DC has the edge. the characters feel more rounded, and they are attracting the best writers at the moment.

East London,I have 3 shops within half hour of where I live.

i guess then all you can do is use the net. forbidden planet is usually good for graphic novels and such. try their website.

i think there is a forbidden planet shop in central london, which is a bit of a trek for you, so their website is your best bet, for sure.

hey man. i prefer Marvel as well. Although i like both Marvel & DC, i like Marvels heroes better. More human and such

DC Comics, most definitely.
Personally, I've found DC to be within some sort of reality-based realm. True, you're not really going to find an acceptance of some weirdo guy in tights and a cape flying around saving people. And the non-acceptance of mutants being a little more reality-based, but, most of the characters seem to have a little more thought put into them.

Marvel appears to have been thought up over a really quick lunch.
"We need a superhero, someone really cool"
"I got an idea as I sit here and eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some guy makes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but, the spoon he uses to scoop out the peanut butter hasn't been washed in weeks, so, uhh, some kind of bacteria is growing on it, but he ignores that and makes a sandwich anyway. And something happens, where he gets the power to control peanut or shoot peanut butter from his hands..."
"Thats marvelous and it'll make us millions"
(which it probably will...so, I better get props if someone sells this idea)
The X-Men...a group of people with every single off-the-wall mutant ability ever thought of...

Justice League..yea, its mainly a bunch of freak accidents, too. But, I dunno, I seem to be more drawn to DC than Marvel. I do own a good amount of Marvel comics, but, I can't really get into reading them.

"more human, and such"

this is something i have often heard, but have never really understood. in what ways are marvel characters in general more human?

now, i do not mean any disrespect by this, spider-fan, as i'm sure you are aware that i hold you in high esteem, but the majority of people who make this claim have not really read many DC universe comics.

how anyone can criticise the DC characters for being inhuman when there are books such as identity crisis, infinite crisis, JLA: the tornado's path and JLA/JSA: the lightning saga is beyond me.

I like marvel better. I just find the characters more appealing. Now dont get me wrong, DC has many good characters, Batman, Nightwing, green arrow, green lantern, many more. To me, there is too much history of the characters. Take Justice league of society for example, they had 3 or 4 supermans in 1 dam issue. It is just a bit too complicated right now (final Crisis any1?). Maybe after FC the history will be cool.

I think that marvel just has a certain appea to it. Spiderman, Cap, hulk, stuff like that.

Welcome to the boards.

forgot to add 52 to the list of stories that show superheroes in DC as very much human.

Mravels better.

forgot to add 52 to the list of stories that show superheroes in DC as very much human.

Ok, I have a question, what is with all the fighting amongt the heroes in Kingdom ome. To me, they did not really have a reason to fight eachother but it was something to do with brainiac. Justice on the other hand, was pretty good.

yea, i'd have to say thats true wolvie. I dont read pretty much any DC title, including all the ones you listed and as Green Arrow said, theirs just to much history to catch up on to care about whats going on (for me, a least). I grew up reading Marvel, being more interested to their heroes when i was younger so i just stuck with them instead of DC. I guess i said "More human, and such" as in just of how much i know of DC (which is not much) compared to my much more vast knowledge of Marvel, and their relatable heroes

forgot to add 52 to the list of stories that show superheroes in DC as very much human.

Ok, I have a question, what is with all the fighting amongt the heroes in Kingdom ome. To me, they did not really have a reason to fight eachother but it was something to do with brainiac. Justice on the other hand, was pretty good.

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Kingdom Come is a prophetic apocolyptic story. Things that may happen if a certain path is taken. The main reason everyone was fighting was, well, they didn't get along, plain and simple. Some of the "metahumans" wanted to be treated in a certain manner using their powers as fear for "lesser beings" while other liked Superman's boy scout approach. Some didn't give a damn about the consequences of being all powerful and could have cared less that some people were killed or buildings demolished, as long as the enemy was defeated. Superman always playing leader wasn't taken too kindly by a lot of various people, nor did they (mainly Wonder Woman) like to back down from a fight and Superman's way or no way at all. So, basically, it all became a huge civil war because of not agreeing with how things should be handled.

That is the thing, I don't find a story like that interesting. It has no effect on the continuity i think right? So it affects no one if I am right. I like marvel because all the crossovers affect most of the books even though the continuity is a little messed.

it wasn't a crossover. it was a miniseries that operated as a "what if" scenario, much in the same way as the dark knight returns is not currently part of canon.

these elseworld tales are most certanily a good thing, i think. i like to consider them the same way as i consider comic book movies. the character are the same for the most part, but the creative teams are allowed to put forward their vision without being bogged down by current continuity.

i would like to come back to the idea of DC having a much to convulted history, that makes it hard for non-readers to pick up and understand.

this is not the case when using identity crisis as a starting point. after reading that, there are gaps that must be filled to be able to comprehend the infinite crisis saga. you could buy the books in between, but using wikipedia is a much more...economic way of following the story. use it to look up the omac project, most specifically.

then, you are ready for infinite crisis. you do not need to have any knowledge of the original crisis on infinit earths, despite what you may think.

infinite crisis relies heavily upon that story, but is aware that not everyone has read it. so, written into the plot is a summation of sorts that keeps you updated with al you need to know. you could have zero knowledge of theoriginal crisis, but still fully know what happened. none of the "proper" characters (superman, batman, wonder woman) are aware of infinite crisis. they, just like the reader, learn of it as the story progresses.

after infinite crisis comes volumes 1-4 of 52, excellent stories that recount the year after infinite crisis, and is bloddy excellent in it's own right.

the best thing about identity crisis and 52, and i'm curious as to whether seb feels this way also, especially with identity crisis, is that they focus on characters that are lesser focused upon usually, even for us die hard DC guys.
identity crisis focuses on the elongated man and the original green arrow, character that i had only a limited understanding of. i felt like i knew them personaly after reading it.

52 focuse on character like the question and steel and booster gold, who you are supposed to be relatively unfamiliar with. it allows you to learn about them, and connect emotionally.

the best post 52 stories are probably JLA: the tornados path and the JLA/JSA crossover titled the lightning saga. they are two of the best superhero stories i have ever read.


honestly, i recoomend these stories, from identty crisis to the lightning saga, to anyone and everyone, and really think you should give them a read. at least just pick up identity crisis, and see what you think of that. it will blow you away.

it wasn't a crossover. it was a miniseries that operated as a "what if" scenario, much in the same way as the dark knight returns is not currently part of canon.

these elseworld tales are most certanily a good thing, i think. i like to consider them the same way as i consider comic book movies. the character are the same for the most part, but the creative teams are allowed to put forward their vision without being bogged down by current continuity.

i would like to come back to the idea of DC having a much to convulted history, that makes it hard for non-readers to pick up and understand.

this is not the case when using identity crisis as a starting point. after reading that, there are gaps that must be filled to be able to comprehend the infinite crisis saga. you could buy the books in between, but using wikipedia is a much more...economic way of following the story. use it to look up the omac project, most specifically.

then, you are ready for infinite crisis. you do not need to have any knowledge of the original crisis on infinit earths, despite what you may think.

infinite crisis relies heavily upon that story, but is aware that not everyone has read it. so, written into the plot is a summation of sorts that keeps you updated with al you need to know. you could have zero knowledge of theoriginal crisis, but still fully know what happened. none of the "proper" characters (superman, batman, wonder woman) are aware of infinite crisis. they, just like the reader, learn of it as the story progresses.

after infinite crisis comes volumes 1-4 of 52, excellent stories that recount the year after infinite crisis, and is bloddy excellent in it's own right.

the best thing about identity crisis and 52, and i'm curious as to whether seb feels this way also, especially with identity crisis, is that they focus on characters that are lesser focused upon usually, even for us die hard DC guys.
identity crisis focuses on the elongated man and the original green arrow, character that i had only a limited understanding of. i felt like i knew them personaly after reading it.

52 focuse on character like the question and steel and booster gold, who you are supposed to be relatively unfamiliar with. it allows you to learn about them, and connect emotionally.

the best post 52 stories are probably JLA: the tornados path and the JLA/JSA crossover titled the lightning saga. they are two of the best superhero stories i have ever read.


honestly, i recoomend these stories, from identty crisis to the lightning saga, to anyone and everyone, and really think you should give them a read. at least just pick up identity crisis, and see what you think of that. it will blow you away.

Forgot to actually reply to your quote wolvie. Embarrassing. All right for example, to showyou what I mean, I was reading Justice today. It was a DC crossover by ross. It actually isnt that bad. just finished part one. But theproblem I had with it was that there were guysin the book that were dieing and I had no idea who they were. There was no name given to the guy except the one I am reffering to I think is Ray. But to a new readr it was very confusing. For the big characters, I did not need to know their names like Supes, WW, martian manhunter, flash, bats and so on. Just for the lesser known ones is what really bugs me.

Marvel rocks HARD, but I started a DC man. It was firstly thanx to some really old school superman cartoons my grandpa had taped and then given to me, as well as some Aquaman ones.

Later, I stayed with my uncle in Pittsburge (who was a major BATMAN NUT)and I was then introduced to the Dark Knight and has remained my favorite super to today.

Marvel is a bit more down to earth in terms of its characters always seem to become better people AS they get acustomed to their unique abilities that are more or less forced apon them, as where DC's character's have the tendancy to already be noble and such before the powers are given and in some cases WHY the powers are given them. This is possibley why I like the DC 'ers so much, their character proves gold powerless or not, sort of sending a message that should something traumatic and fantastic happen, what will be YOUR true colors?

Marvel's are also cool, thier situation is a cercumstance in which they had either no choice in the matter or they didn't realise the consiquences of a certain action, like so many of us, and have to grow up VERY quicklly like many of us also must and show their metal then and there in that ONE decision.

Both are fantastic, but DC reigns supreme in my book. (or peanuts I guess...)

Forgot to actually reply to your quote wolvie. Embarrassing. All right for example, to showyou what I mean, I was reading Justice today. It was a DC crossover by ross. It actually isnt that bad. just finished part one. But theproblem I had with it was that there were guysin the book that were dieing and I had no idea who they were. There was no name given to the guy except the one I am reffering to I think is Ray. But to a new readr it was very confusing. For the big characters, I did not need to know their names like Supes, WW, martian manhunter, flash, bats and so on. Just for the lesser known ones is what really bugs me


again, it was a miniseries, not a crossover. it's not in continuity, and you will always find stories like this and kingdom come are aimed at old-hand, DC vets. i uderstand that as a new reader it would prove confusing. my advice? don't get such a miniseries. if it's not in continuity, and features characters you don't know much about, stay away from it, for the time being.


as i was saying in my earlier post, the stories i reffered to (identity crisis, infinite crisis, 52, JLA: the tornado's path and JLA/JSA: the lightning saga) have been written with a narrative that not only welcomes but to a certain degree caters specifically to them. they are universe defining stories, and are intended to be jumping on points for new readers.

my brother has been out of DC comics for years, since superman died. he hated them for "sinking so low to pull in readers, who just want good stories". i actually thought it was well done in the most part, but he was adamant as soon as he heard.

i kept him updated anytime something major happened, but it wasn't until i gave him identity crisis for christmas that he got back into a comic shop. he loved it, and the deep, complex stories that followed. he, just like many of us here, simply wanted to read good stores featuring his favourite characters. he didn't want to read money-grabbing event stories, which is why we often e-mail each other over the horrid progression of countdown to final crisis.


trust me, if you read identity crisis, you will have no such problems.

I like DC becuase oh the humanity issues. You have Batman, a regular guy. The Watchemn for example, very humane, not too manby people with super powers. Marvel pushes buttons. They have "mutants", and "lab accidents" left and right. Lets face it many Marvel heroes wouldn't have become who they are if they didn't spill coffee on their labs every 10 seconds. It seems everytime a kid spills milk during his lunch period he gains some super powers, in the marvel universe. One thing I've noticed in DC is their heroes work with what they have. Batman constantly has to update his weapons or change things here and there to get by against an enemy. Superman has to balance the clumbsy dork Kent, and Superman. Green Arrow has to work to be an expert marksmen. Wonder Woman has to deal with a male hero's world, and deal with exilation from Amazonia. DC is far more the believeable universe. Marvel throws everything at you constinuously.