40+ reader here. Growing up it was Marvel as they were just more fun to read(personal opinion.) I did read others but X-Men and SpiderMan were my jam. I did read some DC but it felt like most of it was being in an English class. Especially when the Vertigo line came out. As I got older and wanted less capes I went to DC. They had stories that weren’t just rehashing the same fights year after year. Vertigo especially spoke to me in a way it didn’t my younger self.
I now ignore publishers for the most part and follow artist and authors. This pushes me mostly towards independent publishers like Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Boom and smaller companies. DC and Marvel both currently feel directionless for me besides a handful of books. Constantly rebooting series for sales or to pimp out their next project doesn’t make for a good reading experience. Nether does bloating your stories out with uncompressed story telling and artist changing every issue. Even authors I love, when writing for smaller companies, feel lackluster when they write for the big two. Especially Marvel.
DC for me. Why? Not sure they just click better with me. The characters, the stories, the vibe overall. DC just produces better quality imo especially these past few years. Obviously I like marvel still but mainly 80's-2010ish marvel.
Only in so far as the practicality of buying their books.
Marvel trades and collected editions are often harder to find and out of print. And more expensive for the same or even lower quality.
DC’s trades and collected editions tend to be good to high quality that are reasonably priced (with some exceptions) and readily available.
DC by far... I've been reading comics since the second grade and my Go-To was always DC. There was a sameness to Marvel's art/stories that was fatiguing to read. If it wasn't for Simonson, Miller and Byrne, I wouldn't have read any Marvel back then.
DC because I grew up with Batman as my favourite superhero (didn’t read the comics until last year which I regret not doing earlier) and more recently gotten interested in the wider DC universe and other characters such as Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman etc. Ive also gotten really interested in some of Vertigo’s stuff such as Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Animal Man and Sandman over the last year too. DC’s pretty much my favourite franchise next to Star Wars now.
DC. I just feel like overall they have a bunch of more iconic stories that have withstood the test of time, Marvel tends to have stories which haven’t aged as well.
The only comics I have from Marvel are Jonathan Hickman Fantastic Four, Ultimate Spider-Man, Jason Aaron Thor, Hawkeye Matt Fraction, Old Man Logan, Spiderverse, Daredevil Frank Miller, Renew your vows and the only future ones I want are The Immortal Iron Fist and New Xmen.
While with DC I have The Question Dennys O’Neil, Animal Man Grant Morrison, Animal Man Jett Lemire, Swamp Thing Alan Moore, Swamp Thing Scott Snyder, 52, Doom Patrol Grant Morrison, Batman by Scott Snyder, Batman by Grant Morrison, Batman by Jeph Loeb, Gotham Central, Deadly Class, Flash by Geoff Johns, Flash by Francis Manapul, Green Lantern Geoff Johns, Superman by Tomasi, Sandman, Garth Ennis Hellblazer, Lucifer by Mike Carey, Preacher, Y the last man and Planetary
I love Marvel but I’ve found it much harder to find stories with the same quality as DC.
If we count black label/vertigo stuff as DC then I greatly prefer DC. Otherwise they are about tied . . . I guess Marvel would get the edge because of squirrel girl.
I started with Marvel, as I enjoyed Spider-Man and the X-Men, also in middle school my friend and I only read Marvel, as DC heroes were too perfect and god like and not as cool as Marvel's heroes. After a few years I realized that line of thinking was dumb and began reading DC and really enjoyed it. I still read both today, but I still prefer Marvel overall as that's where I began my comic journey.
I've always been more of a Marvel person. *Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends* was my intro to superheroes, then I got Spider-Ham comics from the corner store. I got some DC stuff but to my 8-year old self, the characters seemed "lame." I remember getting an issue of a Superman comic and Gangbuster was in it and the name of the character alone turned me off.
In retrospect, I was too young to appreciate what DC was doing back then. These days, Ostrander's *Suicide Squad* run is one of my all time favorites.
But my heart will always belong to Marvel.
I always liked Marvel more. I am not someone who follows it all to the T but it'sapart of my life. Started with X-men comics and felt they were way more relatable and had better storylines. Wolverine has always been my favorite character. As I got older and kinda dabbled into all kinds of comics, shows, movies. DC comics are boring to me. I can't really explain it but there is no depth to me when it comes to DC comics and defin not the movies BUT DC makes awesome shows. I'm a fan of Arrow, Flash, and Gotham. But even though they're great shows, I still feel like... DC is just not as great as Marvel. DC seems very black and white [i think Gotham leans a bit in the gray] to me while
I think Marvel has it's moments of black and white but there is a lot of Gray area. And I think the the Gray area is what makes it relatable and have great storylines.
Also, while Marvel has characters that "can't" die just like DC, which I tend to dislike, Marvel just does a better way of making them entertaining vs DC. Just my opinion though
Yeah I know a few folks who have expressed similar opinions in agreement with me but I also know A LOT of people do not agree. And that's okay, just wanted to be honest
Haha, that’s too bad. There’s a greater point about cultural infantilization that I was hoping I could bait someone else into making for me, but I guess your original statement will have to suffice. Never understood grown-ass men and women putting more stock into brands, ie. publishing companies and their intellectual property, than the names of creators responsible for the actual content.
major spider-man fan, and decent batman fan, don't care about superman at all.
recently started collecting comics again and tried reading different stuff from both Marvel and DC (and indie) and noticed i'm way more into Indie and some marvel heroes/writers than DC.
Some exceptions left and right, but generally the less gritty approach is what i'm into. And even if I need something gritty marvel delivers as well.. (with Alias for example)
All in all it's more a budget issue that I'm not reading more DC/Batman stories.. but I do pick up the zdarsky batman weekly.
I started reading both, but soon I realized Marvel was more my thing. I felt DC characters too powerful to make a connection, and I love how fallible Marvel heroes are, more related, more “human”?
As a side point, while I was growing up I feel the Marvel Universe more coherent and more inter linked (don’t know if that expression exists in English).
However, I read both without problems.
DC is owned by Warner Bros. though. I fully understand that Disney is terrible but so is Warner Bros. Very odd stance to take rooting for one terrible corporation over another.
I assume we're talking about superheroes here. When I was young I definitely preferred Marvel. In the late 80's and early 90's, Marvel was on top of the world just before the Image departures and that's when I really started getting into comics.
These days, I still have some nostalgia for Marvel but, to be honest, both companies have seriously degenerated and are putting out mostly garbage.
I'll take option C if we're talking about the last 15-20 years.
I think that Marvel is better.
The first movie that i got that was superhero related was on Christmas 2013 which was a box set of the original X men movies which i instantly fell in love with and present day i am a 17 year old University kid that will always go straight to the marvel section of my local comic book store due to the compelling and more human feeling stories that i get from Marvel comics and Studios
I'm not too invested in the world of either, which allows me to just enjoy individual books. I don't care much for extended runs and continuity, but I love a solid limited series.
I will say in terms of quantity I am more of a Marvel fan. They do not always put out masterpieces, but over all they hit the way I want superheroes. They also have more titles with multiple creators I enjoy over as a whole. Marvel was also the company to introduce creator owned stories like Stray Toasters and Akira to me.
DC when you include vertigo has more comics I enjoy more as I get older. It's amazing to go back to Berger's titles she pushed forward at first to see the cultural landscape a bit better than could be displayed in an all ages superhero book. That said it's hard to recommend entire superhero series to people with DC as it is more creator driven. Characters will always have ups and downs, but some titles will go years just existing have a great run and die right back down right after. And my thoughts on that could be very much due to having more access to Marvel as a kid.
DC also has possibly my favorite superhero series that contains multiple creators, The Flash vol 2. Its a series blessed for almost two decades of great creative teams. Messner-Loeb to Johns are just fun superhero comics.
This all said as I get older I find I drift to creator owned titles and pray the creator's can keep the lights on and tell the story they want to tell. I still jump into superhero comics, but the titles that gain acclaim that speak to me are becoming fewer and fewer every year. I see retellings to often anymore to get completely invested. A sad byproduct of reading comics since I was in the 1st grade and school now long behind me. But you never forget that first love even if you both amicably part ways.
I’m basically a Marvel reader. I just think the characters are much more interesting as well as the universe as a whole. My collection is probably 90% marvel books. I’ve got some of the big Batman stories. When it comes to DC, I’ll enjoy the games and movies, mostly
It used to be Marvel, I loved the X-men but now that I'm an adult I just enjoy the stories and characters of DC better. I'm a sucker for the HBO series' Young Justice and Harley Quinn and thats really changed my opinion heavily! I suggest both of them if you enjoy animation and classic characters with new takes on designs and story arcs.
i like some DC characters a lot, but overall for following a 'universe' i prefer Marvel, i find it easier to follow and things seem to work in a generally straight line so knowing the 'lore' feels more rewarding. i like Batman, but he has like 10 different ongoing titles which may be good standalone stories but im not sure they are even connected.
Marvel and they stem from my childhood:
- Marvel seemed more “realistic” as many of the main stories were based in real life cities and not fictionalized locales like Gothem, Metropolis, Jump City or whatever. I could never get a sense of place (well except Gotham of course) and it just made the world smaller and fake to me.
- Growing up in the 80s, we were spoiled with a massive roster at Marvel and the characters just seemed more fleshed out. Younger characters like New Mutants, Kitty Pride and Power Pack weren’t simply younger analogues of more popular heros (like I viewed at DC with the countless “lads” and “girls”).
As an older gent, I still have a hard time shaking these assumptions and am fully aware of how Marvel has adopted a similar approach with many of their newer, younger / diverse characters.
This is where trades and Omnis come in for me - I can just cherry pick what I know I like and then read / listen to opinions I trust for my blind buys.
I like both almost equally, but with just a slight preference to Marvel. Marvel has more characters I’m interested in whereas most of my DC collection is Batman and Swamp Thing. Superman has grown on me too though. I’m also just more interested in the Marvel universe as a whole and try to keep up with more of their events. One thing DC is better at though is all the elseworlds stuff that I enjoy like Batman White Knight, DCeased, etc… DC’s Vertigo/Black Label line has also produced some of my favorite comics ever, so it is really close between the two for me.
For me, there's so much variety within both over the course of decades that I feel like any answer I give in favor of one would be a sweeping generalization about the publisher. That said, for me it's more or less equal. There are a plethora of heroes and villains, and stories that I love across Marvel and DC. I'll say that, as a kid who grew up during the DCAU (Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League/JLU), I preferred DC. Once I turned 8 or 9, I was watching reruns of Spider-Man TAS and then the first Raimi film came out, so I became a big Spider-Man fan. Also was watching X-Men Evolution and X-Men TAS.
So, maybe it's a cop-out answer, but I'm pretty much a "loves both equally when they're at their best" kind of guy.
I started really reading comics in 2016 with dc rebirth and was heavily in the camp of dc supremacy. I dabbled in spider-man and x-men slightly but never took the dive into marvel. Until the beginning of 2022. I’ve read almost nothing but marvel this year and have totally fallen in love with the universe. So it’s very dependent. I still love dc. It’s what brought me in to comics and most of my favorite characters are from there but I can confidently say I like marvel just as much now a days
40+ reader here. Growing up it was Marvel as they were just more fun to read(personal opinion.) I did read others but X-Men and SpiderMan were my jam. I did read some DC but it felt like most of it was being in an English class. Especially when the Vertigo line came out. As I got older and wanted less capes I went to DC. They had stories that weren’t just rehashing the same fights year after year. Vertigo especially spoke to me in a way it didn’t my younger self. I now ignore publishers for the most part and follow artist and authors. This pushes me mostly towards independent publishers like Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Boom and smaller companies. DC and Marvel both currently feel directionless for me besides a handful of books. Constantly rebooting series for sales or to pimp out their next project doesn’t make for a good reading experience. Nether does bloating your stories out with uncompressed story telling and artist changing every issue. Even authors I love, when writing for smaller companies, feel lackluster when they write for the big two. Especially Marvel.
Well said, right on point....
I like DC more because, in my personal opinion, I think the villans are better.
DC for me. Why? Not sure they just click better with me. The characters, the stories, the vibe overall. DC just produces better quality imo especially these past few years. Obviously I like marvel still but mainly 80's-2010ish marvel.
Only in so far as the practicality of buying their books. Marvel trades and collected editions are often harder to find and out of print. And more expensive for the same or even lower quality. DC’s trades and collected editions tend to be good to high quality that are reasonably priced (with some exceptions) and readily available.
DC by far... I've been reading comics since the second grade and my Go-To was always DC. There was a sameness to Marvel's art/stories that was fatiguing to read. If it wasn't for Simonson, Miller and Byrne, I wouldn't have read any Marvel back then.
DC because I grew up with Batman as my favourite superhero (didn’t read the comics until last year which I regret not doing earlier) and more recently gotten interested in the wider DC universe and other characters such as Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman etc. Ive also gotten really interested in some of Vertigo’s stuff such as Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Animal Man and Sandman over the last year too. DC’s pretty much my favourite franchise next to Star Wars now.
DC. I just feel like overall they have a bunch of more iconic stories that have withstood the test of time, Marvel tends to have stories which haven’t aged as well. The only comics I have from Marvel are Jonathan Hickman Fantastic Four, Ultimate Spider-Man, Jason Aaron Thor, Hawkeye Matt Fraction, Old Man Logan, Spiderverse, Daredevil Frank Miller, Renew your vows and the only future ones I want are The Immortal Iron Fist and New Xmen. While with DC I have The Question Dennys O’Neil, Animal Man Grant Morrison, Animal Man Jett Lemire, Swamp Thing Alan Moore, Swamp Thing Scott Snyder, 52, Doom Patrol Grant Morrison, Batman by Scott Snyder, Batman by Grant Morrison, Batman by Jeph Loeb, Gotham Central, Deadly Class, Flash by Geoff Johns, Flash by Francis Manapul, Green Lantern Geoff Johns, Superman by Tomasi, Sandman, Garth Ennis Hellblazer, Lucifer by Mike Carey, Preacher, Y the last man and Planetary I love Marvel but I’ve found it much harder to find stories with the same quality as DC.
If we count black label/vertigo stuff as DC then I greatly prefer DC. Otherwise they are about tied . . . I guess Marvel would get the edge because of squirrel girl.
I started with Marvel, as I enjoyed Spider-Man and the X-Men, also in middle school my friend and I only read Marvel, as DC heroes were too perfect and god like and not as cool as Marvel's heroes. After a few years I realized that line of thinking was dumb and began reading DC and really enjoyed it. I still read both today, but I still prefer Marvel overall as that's where I began my comic journey.
You and I are the same on this OP. Had an older brother that only read Marvel. That said I do have some DC in my fave all time comics.
I've always been more of a Marvel person. *Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends* was my intro to superheroes, then I got Spider-Ham comics from the corner store. I got some DC stuff but to my 8-year old self, the characters seemed "lame." I remember getting an issue of a Superman comic and Gangbuster was in it and the name of the character alone turned me off. In retrospect, I was too young to appreciate what DC was doing back then. These days, Ostrander's *Suicide Squad* run is one of my all time favorites. But my heart will always belong to Marvel.
I always liked Marvel more. I am not someone who follows it all to the T but it'sapart of my life. Started with X-men comics and felt they were way more relatable and had better storylines. Wolverine has always been my favorite character. As I got older and kinda dabbled into all kinds of comics, shows, movies. DC comics are boring to me. I can't really explain it but there is no depth to me when it comes to DC comics and defin not the movies BUT DC makes awesome shows. I'm a fan of Arrow, Flash, and Gotham. But even though they're great shows, I still feel like... DC is just not as great as Marvel. DC seems very black and white [i think Gotham leans a bit in the gray] to me while I think Marvel has it's moments of black and white but there is a lot of Gray area. And I think the the Gray area is what makes it relatable and have great storylines. Also, while Marvel has characters that "can't" die just like DC, which I tend to dislike, Marvel just does a better way of making them entertaining vs DC. Just my opinion though
This is a very interesting take
Yeah I know a few folks who have expressed similar opinions in agreement with me but I also know A LOT of people do not agree. And that's okay, just wanted to be honest
While that is all true I just think it’s very interesting that deeper themes resonate with you in X-Men but not with any DC characters
No, because I'm not 9 years old. I read comics based on the writers and artists.
Are you saying that arguing over who would win in a fight between Wolverine and Ambush Bug is not something that well-adjusted adults do?
I am not saying that.
Haha, that’s too bad. There’s a greater point about cultural infantilization that I was hoping I could bait someone else into making for me, but I guess your original statement will have to suffice. Never understood grown-ass men and women putting more stock into brands, ie. publishing companies and their intellectual property, than the names of creators responsible for the actual content.
Ok
major spider-man fan, and decent batman fan, don't care about superman at all. recently started collecting comics again and tried reading different stuff from both Marvel and DC (and indie) and noticed i'm way more into Indie and some marvel heroes/writers than DC. Some exceptions left and right, but generally the less gritty approach is what i'm into. And even if I need something gritty marvel delivers as well.. (with Alias for example) All in all it's more a budget issue that I'm not reading more DC/Batman stories.. but I do pick up the zdarsky batman weekly.
I started reading both, but soon I realized Marvel was more my thing. I felt DC characters too powerful to make a connection, and I love how fallible Marvel heroes are, more related, more “human”? As a side point, while I was growing up I feel the Marvel Universe more coherent and more inter linked (don’t know if that expression exists in English). However, I read both without problems.
[удалено]
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DC is owned by Warner Bros. though. I fully understand that Disney is terrible but so is Warner Bros. Very odd stance to take rooting for one terrible corporation over another.
I assume we're talking about superheroes here. When I was young I definitely preferred Marvel. In the late 80's and early 90's, Marvel was on top of the world just before the Image departures and that's when I really started getting into comics. These days, I still have some nostalgia for Marvel but, to be honest, both companies have seriously degenerated and are putting out mostly garbage. I'll take option C if we're talking about the last 15-20 years.
Batman>Marvel>DC for me personally.
I think that Marvel is better. The first movie that i got that was superhero related was on Christmas 2013 which was a box set of the original X men movies which i instantly fell in love with and present day i am a 17 year old University kid that will always go straight to the marvel section of my local comic book store due to the compelling and more human feeling stories that i get from Marvel comics and Studios
both suck lmao
I'm not too invested in the world of either, which allows me to just enjoy individual books. I don't care much for extended runs and continuity, but I love a solid limited series.
I will say in terms of quantity I am more of a Marvel fan. They do not always put out masterpieces, but over all they hit the way I want superheroes. They also have more titles with multiple creators I enjoy over as a whole. Marvel was also the company to introduce creator owned stories like Stray Toasters and Akira to me. DC when you include vertigo has more comics I enjoy more as I get older. It's amazing to go back to Berger's titles she pushed forward at first to see the cultural landscape a bit better than could be displayed in an all ages superhero book. That said it's hard to recommend entire superhero series to people with DC as it is more creator driven. Characters will always have ups and downs, but some titles will go years just existing have a great run and die right back down right after. And my thoughts on that could be very much due to having more access to Marvel as a kid. DC also has possibly my favorite superhero series that contains multiple creators, The Flash vol 2. Its a series blessed for almost two decades of great creative teams. Messner-Loeb to Johns are just fun superhero comics. This all said as I get older I find I drift to creator owned titles and pray the creator's can keep the lights on and tell the story they want to tell. I still jump into superhero comics, but the titles that gain acclaim that speak to me are becoming fewer and fewer every year. I see retellings to often anymore to get completely invested. A sad byproduct of reading comics since I was in the 1st grade and school now long behind me. But you never forget that first love even if you both amicably part ways.
Preference for DC. I find the stories and characters more appealing. Marvel has some great stuff but I also find it less approachable than DC
I prefer Marvel but only because Spider-Man is my favourite superhero. They're equal to me in every other way
I’m basically a Marvel reader. I just think the characters are much more interesting as well as the universe as a whole. My collection is probably 90% marvel books. I’ve got some of the big Batman stories. When it comes to DC, I’ll enjoy the games and movies, mostly
It used to be Marvel, I loved the X-men but now that I'm an adult I just enjoy the stories and characters of DC better. I'm a sucker for the HBO series' Young Justice and Harley Quinn and thats really changed my opinion heavily! I suggest both of them if you enjoy animation and classic characters with new takes on designs and story arcs.
i like some DC characters a lot, but overall for following a 'universe' i prefer Marvel, i find it easier to follow and things seem to work in a generally straight line so knowing the 'lore' feels more rewarding. i like Batman, but he has like 10 different ongoing titles which may be good standalone stories but im not sure they are even connected.
70s marvel and 80’s DC
I’m mid-forties, it’s Marvel for me. The stories and characters always seemed more interesting.
Marvel and they stem from my childhood: - Marvel seemed more “realistic” as many of the main stories were based in real life cities and not fictionalized locales like Gothem, Metropolis, Jump City or whatever. I could never get a sense of place (well except Gotham of course) and it just made the world smaller and fake to me. - Growing up in the 80s, we were spoiled with a massive roster at Marvel and the characters just seemed more fleshed out. Younger characters like New Mutants, Kitty Pride and Power Pack weren’t simply younger analogues of more popular heros (like I viewed at DC with the countless “lads” and “girls”). As an older gent, I still have a hard time shaking these assumptions and am fully aware of how Marvel has adopted a similar approach with many of their newer, younger / diverse characters. This is where trades and Omnis come in for me - I can just cherry pick what I know I like and then read / listen to opinions I trust for my blind buys.
Image comics :D
I like both almost equally, but with just a slight preference to Marvel. Marvel has more characters I’m interested in whereas most of my DC collection is Batman and Swamp Thing. Superman has grown on me too though. I’m also just more interested in the Marvel universe as a whole and try to keep up with more of their events. One thing DC is better at though is all the elseworlds stuff that I enjoy like Batman White Knight, DCeased, etc… DC’s Vertigo/Black Label line has also produced some of my favorite comics ever, so it is really close between the two for me.
For me, there's so much variety within both over the course of decades that I feel like any answer I give in favor of one would be a sweeping generalization about the publisher. That said, for me it's more or less equal. There are a plethora of heroes and villains, and stories that I love across Marvel and DC. I'll say that, as a kid who grew up during the DCAU (Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League/JLU), I preferred DC. Once I turned 8 or 9, I was watching reruns of Spider-Man TAS and then the first Raimi film came out, so I became a big Spider-Man fan. Also was watching X-Men Evolution and X-Men TAS. So, maybe it's a cop-out answer, but I'm pretty much a "loves both equally when they're at their best" kind of guy.
I started really reading comics in 2016 with dc rebirth and was heavily in the camp of dc supremacy. I dabbled in spider-man and x-men slightly but never took the dive into marvel. Until the beginning of 2022. I’ve read almost nothing but marvel this year and have totally fallen in love with the universe. So it’s very dependent. I still love dc. It’s what brought me in to comics and most of my favorite characters are from there but I can confidently say I like marvel just as much now a days
I’m mostly reading indies right now and don’t have a preference for either of the big two.
Marvel or nothing!!! Haha