Marvel vs DC Comics

I'm sure this must have been asked before, but I cannot find anything on here.

The ultimate question:
Do you prefer Marvel or DC comics?

I must say, personally I prefer DC. I like my comics to be hardcore and violent, and Marvel lacks that alot of the time. That's the main hook for me.
So what about you guys?

Both

But the candy cotton corniness in DC is hard to bear sometimes and the constant repeat storylines of Marvel are hard to stomach in large doses as well.

reply to post by SR


Lol yeh I hear you. I was reading some batman earlier and the guy he was fighting (Mr Whisper) had him caught and tied up, but instead of just killing him straight, set up an elaborate chain reaction that started with a burning candle and ended up with a heavy barrel falling on batmans head.
I found that pretty hilarious lol

reply to post by PeaceUk


That sounds like the old Batman TV series.
I prefer DC Comics, but I do read the occasional Marvel (Iron Man and Silver Surfer when I was younger). Favorite DC characters: All of them!

They're both good really.
It is a hard choice.

I'm more of a Marvel guy being that it seems more, how can I put this, mature? Though, I will say that DC has had better luck with their characters getting TV shows. Marvel had like X-Men, but you don't see it much anymore. DC has Smallville and that has everyone going crazy, I personally can't stand Superman. He's just too powerful really. Who can actually beat him? Darth Vader, that's who.

Avengers>Justice League

reply to post by Echo3Foxtrot


After Crisis in the 1980s, Superman was de-powered a bit. He could not move planets anymore. Marvel paved the way for realistic comics in the 1960s, and DC finally started in the 1970s. DC made a lot of its heroes dark in the late 80s and early 90s, but started a trend of lightening some of them up. The biggest mistake DC did was to start killing off their silver age heroes, Green Arrow, Hal Jordan, and Barry Allen to name a few. They have been bringing them back and have written really good stories to get them back.

Marvel has the most balanced of the universes, there are some who have who have Omega level powers, but they have major flaws with their charater, both good and bad. Plus every arch ties in with the next one. For example, they have set up the current secret invation back in Nick Fury's Secret Wars and followed up weakoning the univeres with house of M and decimation, Civil War and Planet Hulk. Now you see what fury has been doing for the last four years. Plus you see that marvel is not scared to knock off one of there most loved and trusted, Captain America. Who did DC kill John Jones the manhunter. They killed a hero in final crisis but he is still in JSA and other comics.

This brings me to my second point. There are way too many universes running at one time. There are the 52 Earths in the DC universes. Well it is like they are writing in about 4-6 major comics in these more that 3 different universes. It gets hard to keep up. Marvel has thousand of universes but only they revolve everything mainly around Earth 616. They do have tangents and one shots but they are mainly kept to What if's, and specials. The only one that really doesn't stay rooted too much in 616 is Exiles. Still The took the Star Wars route and put everything in to a database and try to make everything fit so that you are drawn in to the universe and there is continuity to it.

One of my problems with DC is they keep changing everything. I haven't read one of their books in a while, but I do go to the boards at DC to find out what is happening. In the 1980s, they got rid of all the different universes for one Earth in Crisis of Infinite Earths storyline. After 52, they now decide to bring back 52 Universes. Maybe I'll just stick to a couple of heroes, and ignore all the big events.

I personally always like marvel better.

Their superheros seemed to have more creative super powers compared to dc.

Like Spiderman compared to Superman.

I think its a lot more creative and orginal to make a person be like a spider instead of just giving them like every generic superpower(super streangth, speed, ect, ect) ever like dc did to superman.

Well thats what I've always thought.

I agree with you, Marvel probably is better.
I just think that their comics are a lot more fun to read than DC's are.

I never liked the Marvel storylines or boldfaced words that made no sense in terms of diction or content: Then she WAS in trouble. (WTF!!!)

Loved DC from 1988 to 1992, before everyone got their noses up Neil Gaiman's rear-end and the DC magic-verse became a pale shadow of the Beeteljuice movie (

Generally, I much prefer Marvel and really struggle getting into DC's main books. That said, I really like the Vertigo imprint and some of that has my favourite books: Fables, Hellblazer, Sandman, Preacher, Y: The Last Man so perhaps it's to do with the regular DC universe more than anything else.

Perhaps that is the case as I'm a big fan of the bigger DC icons in non-continuity things like 'Elseworld'-type scenarios or some of the retro-fitted JSA stories.

I was a huge reader of comics when I was a kid. Always liked Marvel better. Marvel not only had the better heros but the better villians as well. And maybe the corny Batman tv series affected how I viewed the comic.

I got started on comics in 1980 and have always preferred to read DC over Marvel.

For me, Marvel dialog was always too melodramatic, and the strange twists of grammar ("When Strikes the Hammersmith!") were pompous and overused. It also struck me as odd that the heroes spent as much time fighting amongst themselves as they did the villains.

Both of the companies' universes are complicated after so many years of publishing, so that's not a factor for me.

I guess for me it's summed up in the words used for their superteams: justice and vengeance. Justice seems to look more to the future with hope. Vengeance just sounds petty.

reply to post by qisoa


Yeah I prefer DC as well. They get hammered for having their characters being too powerful and moralistic but, in my opinion, that's what makes them true superheroes. And DC is edgier when you really scrutinize it. When you look at the stuff Grant Morrison has done on Batman and Final Crisis and what Geoff Hohns and Peter Tomasi have done with Green Lantern as well as Batwoman, R.E.B.E.L.S. and even Robinson's Justice League miniseries.

Marvel always was lauded for their character being edgier and while that may be true their storytelling isn't. I find it bland, cynical and generally repetitive. That said I am a huge X-Men fan of the 1990's and I all but stopped Marvel after they seemed to have a company wide edict to emmasculate the X-Men in favor of the Avengers whom I always found to be very boring.

I actually preferred IMAGE

But outta the big 2 I pick Marvel...

Marvel hands down.
DC has had some indie house comics like Sandman, Sin City, Watchmen, etc. etc. However these are indie sub houses that they did not include as DC universe nor main. So it is not right to include those-more of a comparison between true DC and Marvel-Marvel every time. If you include the indies then it comes much closer..

From the get go DC was more about the fantasy-the characters are all gods more or less. There is no real drama, never any doubt of failing etc. Marvel was more about the story and character failings. The exploration of humanity among the inhumane.

For example:
Captain America commonly engaged issues of politics and racism.
X-Men was based about the gay rights movements.

Each character had many flaws. The most powerful Marvel character was terrified to ever do anything. Iron man was a raging alcoholic who in one of the best scenes in comics had to fight someone down town in armor while raging drunk-then had to deal with the realization of what could have happened.

Could go on, but I think it's clear which side I think is superior.

It all depends I guess. For example I love batman,superman, and green lantern but hate aquaman, wonder woman, and the flash. Same with marvel i love some of it and can't stand some of it but my all time favorite is the sandman series by Neil Gainman (vertigo) i am more of a fan of image, Vertigo, and Dark horse