I read The Avengers, Defenders, X-Men, GhostRider and many other Marvel comics from around 1980 until about 1986 or so. For some reason I just couldn’t get into most D.C. comics despite having been a big Superman/ Batman fan when I was a younger kid in the 1970’s. I could never quite put my finger on why. It wasn’t that the DC writing was bad. Instead, it was something about the Marvel presentation that was maybe… more realistic? Again, I’m not sure that’s it either. Did anyone else experience the same phenominum? Also, how do kids afford comics now? They were about $1.00 back then and even adjusted for inflation they should be more than about $1.70. However, instead don’t they sell for three dollars and up?
I was mostly into X-Men and no other comics at the time could match Jim Lee’s pencils. I think what I disliked most about DC comics is that they went overboard in powering up their characters. For example, Superman could move the speed of light, but he apparently doesn’t use it too often in fights for some reason. Kind of like the old Paul Bunyan tall tales where his height and strength seem to change in every story.
I’ve always been a DC fan first and foremost, although I went through an X-Men phase in middle school (1991, which was a great time to be reading with Jim Lee on “New” X-Men, Whilce Portacio on Uncanny, and Rob Liefeld on X-Force), and became an Image/Valiant/Dark Horse bandwagon jumper shortly after that. But I always come back to DC, especially since the majority of my comic reading over the last few years have been Wildstorm and Vertigo books.
I went through a couple comics phases:
As a kid, I loved DC, thought Marvel was stupid.
From about 13-17, I liked Marvel, and DC bored me to tears, for the most part. Although I did enjoy Justice League, that was about all for DC. Other than JL and a single issue of Flash, I can’t remember reading a single DC book at that time. (Oh! Except for their !mpact line with the old Archie supers…but that was kind of a Marvelly line, now I think of it…) Manga and some stuff from smaller companies is making its way into my reading.
17-22, DC (the main DCU, some Vertigo, and the late, lemented (by me) Helix line) and manga. Marvel is, again, just stupid.
22-25, manga and Vertigo. Little patience for superheroes, and not enough money for the books I do still want to read.
25-27, pretty much out of comics entirely.
28, back into comics, little in the way of company preferences, although Marvel I only read the Ultimate line, Supreme Power, and other non-616 books because all the problems that put me off Marvel are still there with the main line books. A lot more indies.
So…yeah, I did do that, but also did the inverse.
Everybody goes through their zombie periods; I read exclusively Marvel from when I first started comics to 10th grade. I got a bunch of comics from my cousin when he moved away then, and that included several DC’s. After that I branched out a little, but I quit reading comics a couple years later. When I got back into comics five years ago, I read almost exclusively DC. Now I read whatever seems interesting.
–Cliffy
I always was a DC fan, mainly because I prefer my superheroes to be superheros and found superhero soap opera very tedious. Despite his praise these days, Stan Lee was only a mediocre storyteller – most Spider-Man comics from the mid-60s had exactly the same plot (Peter Parker gets dumped on, villian appears and defeats Spidey, Peter Parker gets dumped on, villain appears and Spidey wins).
Also, you couldn’t find Marvel comics even if you wanted to – they were pooly distributed in the 60s. Ironically, I was considered an expert on Marvel comics during high school because I had actually read a few. I was not allowed to ask about Marvel heroes in trivia contests because asking, “What is Spider-Man’s secret identity?” was considered a stumper. (This was about 80 miles east of NYC, btw).
Over the years, I still have found Marvel less interesting than DC. It is comics written for teenagers; DC tried to write comics for an older crowd. About the only first-class titles Marvel has produced was Howard the Duck, and Peter David’s version of the Hulk. DC, OTOH, has titles like Superman and Batman (which have been remarkably consistent over the years – always among the top ten titles of any given year), Flash, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Swamp Thing (both versions, though I give an edge to the original), Keith Giffen’s Justice League, the Heckler, Preacher, and, of course, Sandman.
60’s-era comix fan checking in here. I’m certainly no expert in the genre, but I much preferred the Marvel universe to DC’s. As to why, I suppose it mainly had to do with Marvel’s characters being interestingly flawed and more emotionally realistic, generally superior artwork, and, it seemed to me, a more imaginative approach overall (I really loved the almost insane wierdness of the storylines in Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, and, above all, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
I will say, though that like RealityChuck, the repetitious plotlines and general whininess of most of the characters in Spiderman annoyed the hell out of me. I often wondered why Peter Parker someday didn’t just snap out completely and burn Aunt May’s house down with her in it, then go over to the Bugle and drop J. Jonah Jameson out his office window. I suppose that pesky Comics Code had something to do with it.
There was one case where I found DC superior, however, and that was in the realm of WWII comix. Sgt. Rock and DC’s related WWII titles beat the ripped pants off the wartime Nick Fury for (relative) realism and historical accuracy, IMO, and as a bonus inspired a great song by one of my favorite bands:
"If I could only be tough like him
then I could win
my own, small, battle of the sexes
Sgt. Rock is going to help me
make the girl mine
keep her stood in line…"
Ah, nostalgia.
Like some of the above, I was always just the opposite: Loved DC, couldn’t stand Marvel. Still can’t. The movies are ok, but I still to this day can’t read Marvel.
I read comics in the 70’s mostly and was pretty much a Marvel guy. As a 12-15 year-old, I just liked the characters and plots. I was really into the X-Men, Spiderman and Iron Fist.
Of DC, about the only stuff I remember liking - and this might’ve been after my main period of reading - was the Teen Titans when George Perez drew it - it seemed like a decent rip-off of the X-Men.
For me, I just remember the Superman and Batman of the, I think, 1960’s - where they seemed to be written for little kids. I remember thinking how uncool they were, and how I felt talked-down-to - they faced preposterous bad guys and there was never any doubt that they could save the day. And I remember in my limited teenage mind thinking how dumb it was that Superman could be all-powerful and still get into trouble. It seemed so contrived.
I still haven’t really shaken that feeling - I don’t read comics anymore, but I think of Marvel as taking the medium more seriously and DC being kids’ stuff. No doubt that has cycled up and down countless times and they have surely traded roles a ton, but those were my impressions as a kid…
I was a Superman/Batman fan until I discovered Marvel. You have to remember how incredibly awful DC was at that period. Batman kept battling dumb aliens, Superman had no real villains, and Jimmy Olson and Lois Lane were more important characters than Clark Kent. The JLA fought Starro the Conquerer and other equally dumb aliens.
Then Stan Lee came along. Everything about Marvel comics were different. They were about people. They had personal lives. They evolved and changed. They all lived in the same city and ran into one another on the streets. The stakes kept growing bigger until the entire cosmos was put into play.
By today’s standards Stan wasn’t a great writer by any means. I just took a look at the compilation of the first Sub-Mariner stories from the time he shared a book with Hulk. They’re beyond stupid and repetitive.
But he wasn’t writing for adults the way today’s comics are. He was writing for a teenage audience that comics have abandoned. The books had a naive grandeur that was very attractive. Some of the work, especially in the first 50 or so issues of the Fantastic Four, was remarkable. And as the audience aged, other and better writers came along to continue the series in more adult ways that kept the readers.
In the meantime, DC got stuck with the tv show camp Batman. They tried writing hippies into the books in ways so embarrassing that people are still cringing 35 years later. They copied Marvel in every way they could, and failed in every way. They brought in Jack Kirby and allowed him to work without an editor.[!]
I stopped collecting comics 20 years ago. Ironically, when I now go to the library and take out graphic novels I find that DC’s writing is far superior mostly to Marvel’s. Times change, companies change, and people change. But those early Stan Lee years at Marvel were utter magic.
DC has without doubt been by far the most interesting publisher for the last 15 or 20 years because of the diversity of its offerings. A few years ago Marvel looked like it was going to give them a run but they never offered anything beyond interesting work in their standard superhero universe – that couldn’t compete with DC’s various imprints, viz. Vertigo and Wildstorm (which at the time was a doing some really coll and dark superhero stuff). Of course it didn’t last and Marvel’s output is now pretty pedestrian (with the exception of Dan Slott).
–Cliffy
I think I may be a clone of Wordman. I had pretty much the exact experience and tastes as him.
Remind me not to introduce you to my wife!! She’s convinced (and probably hopeful) that there is just one of me loose in the world…
I never liked and never collected DC as a kid. I don’t buy many comics anymore, though I do read a few at the book store…and I still dislike DC for the most part.
I never had much time for Marvel when I was a kid in the 70’s. The heroes were such a bunch of whiney, angsty little bitches. The soap opera aspects dominated too much. And I hated…HATED…HATED Marvel’s habit of dragging out continuing stories over endless numbers of issues and several different titles.
DC also had some non-superhero titles that I enjoyed: Weird War Tales, Plop!, and Weird Western Tales. Marvel had nothing comparable.
I started reading comics in 1973, and had a strong preference for Marvel. The characters were less iconic and therefore more believable, whereas at DC, all the non-superhero characters wore 50s-type business suits and seemed to be drawn by either Curt Swan or Jim Aparo (I now appreciate both of them as important artists, but next to Marvel’s Jim Starlin and Al Weiss, they seemed about as hip as my parents).
Starting around 1977-78, all the writers and most of the artists I really dug at Marvel quit and showed up at DC; apparently, Jim Shooter either got rid of them or just plain alienated them (I’ve heard support for both theories). Suddenly, Englehart and Gerber were more-or-less exclusive with DC; Jack Kirby, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman and Len Wein worked at both companies; Marvel replaced its early 70s dead wood with guys like John Byrne, Chris Claremont and Frank Miller.
Eventually, there was no meaningful distinction between the two companies. Jim Shooter was making Marvel look as much like Weisinger-era DC as he could manage (Kirby and Colan were out as stylistic pillars, while Don Perlin and Bob Layton were inexplicably everywhere), and DC was publishing books like Teen Titans and All-Star Squadron, essentially Marvel (circa 1974)-style books with DC characters. And as soon as this happened, my favorite books were Love and Rockets, Nexus, Badger and** American Flagg.**
Marvel fan, forever and ever, world without end, amen–but who could resist any of the Batman series?
My main beef with D.C. is that they’ve had great artists on board, and some great plots, but the characters have always seem too larger-than-life, too superpowered, too heroic. They’re always buff and bold and standing up for Truth and Justice and The American Way. Batman seems to me the only realistic hero of the bunch.
Have you seen DC lately. I’ve never seen anything drug out longer or through so many titles ever.
I used to be all-Marvel all the way; I could never figure out the appeal of flawless, perfect heroes like Superman or Batman. Spider-man, despite his whining, was at least human.
Nowadays I follow writers more than publishers.
Have you seen DC lately with this Crisis thing. I’ve never seen anything drug out longer or through so many titles ever.
Anyways both have their ups and downs 3 years ago DC was pulling out crap like Our Worlds at War (where the most important event was the short death of Aquaman), Joker’s Last Laugh. When Marvel was starting the ultimate line, and putting Grant Morrison on X-men.
Rite now DC has my attention more but that’s only because I want to know what the hell all this Crisis stuff is going to being and if it is done rite could be a very good multi title crossover event (something marvel even tried pulling on the readers since the 90’s).
Honestly you should see all the Crisis tie in books it’s almost ever god damn book DC has put over the last year.