tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post4887443422473760145..comments2024-03-19T10:41:35.976-05:00Comments on Bronze Age Babies: Face-Off! Who's in the Ring Today?Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04248324005584963229noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-91231407471966853922013-01-27T02:43:04.993-06:002013-01-27T02:43:04.993-06:00I like DC, but I LOVE Marvel. 'nuff said.I like DC, but I LOVE Marvel. 'nuff said.<br />Josephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00267401771086411957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-78312237892401188292013-01-25T22:19:11.439-06:002013-01-25T22:19:11.439-06:00Spot on HB..! It's just one of many points I m...Spot on HB..! It's just one of many points I made above, but whaaaat a great story that was. Between that and all the other casual references I made, I saw a HUGE difference between Marvel and DC.<br /><br />Nice synopsis as well, HB. Hoping that ish gets a column soon.david_bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00218727673816200051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-74697191820552013902013-01-25T21:02:03.774-06:002013-01-25T21:02:03.774-06:00Boy, this thread really had some legs, didn't ...Boy, this thread really had some legs, didn't it?<br /><br />Aside to David_b: I believe I even know the specific moment from Hulk #114 that clinched it for you. It's that sequence late in the issue where the hulk is shackled by a power beam that (somehow. . .) feeds off of his own strength. Betty is also there and imperiled by Sandy & Mandy (heh). Trimpe has a nice series of small panels that show him struggling in agony as he tries to counter-act his own strength. Mandy is astonished, and wonders why he would continue on so. And Sandy comments (from off-panel) "Maybe. . . it's because. . . he loves her. . ." (or something very similar). And of course at that moment, Hulk prevails and breaks free.<br /><br />It's one of those "Wow" moments that may be easy to overlook-- but to me as a third-grader ('cause yep, that very issue was included in the horde I mentioned earlier) it was transcendent. I may have not been able to find the words for it then, but this was a wholly different kind of comic book "love" than you'd find in Superman or Jimmy Olsen. This was raw, and huge, and unexplainable, and came with a cost, and clearly wasn't going to be wrapped up with a chaste peck on the cheek by issue's end. It was heart-breaking even as it was triumphant. <br /><br />Am I in the ball-park, DB? <br /><br />(I do realize that it's very, very likely that anyone else reading the issue could just as easily say "he got all that from this?!?". But that's okay-- I unabashedly acknowledge that it worked for me completely. I figure it doesn't need me to defend it beyond that.)<br /><br />Oh, afterwards, Mandy shoves Sandy into a blast furnace and takes a powder. . . and Sandy gets turned to glass (which is the first in a long, long chain of events that ultimately leads to the creation of Doc Samson, among other things).<br /><br />Boy, did I love this run of this book (#109 to #123).<br /><br />HB<br /> <br />humanbellynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-65470156522018068442013-01-25T18:35:24.509-06:002013-01-25T18:35:24.509-06:00Ok, thanks for the reviews, guys!Ok, thanks for the reviews, guys!Garettnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-16953540147717087962013-01-25T15:53:21.073-06:002013-01-25T15:53:21.073-06:00Garett, I have most of those Gil Kane Superman iss...Garett, I have most of those Gil Kane Superman issues and they actually illustrate the broader Marvel v. DC debate very well.<br /><br />On the one hand, the art is spectacular. This is Gil Kane's absolute best period, in my humble opinion. I read were he started using a felt tip pen(!) instead of a pencil around this time and it gave the art a really striking quality.<br /><br />The stories are pretty good for the most part, but Superman remains the kind of bland good guy he was in the 50s. <br /><br />Most of the stories are by Marv Wolfman but they only shake up the status quo a bit. I am guessing DC suits were looking over his shoulder and saying, "No, you can't do that with our best merchandising property." So he put most of the effort into the villains and the plotting.Inkstained Wretchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-66142466348598993512013-01-25T13:35:54.048-06:002013-01-25T13:35:54.048-06:00Garett, that Gil Kane Superman collection includes...Garett, that Gil Kane Superman collection includes the two Superman specials he did, and DC Comics Presents Annual #3 (featuring the Shazam family), all of which are pretty enjoyable stories. It also has a bunch of those stories he drew for Action Comics, written by Marv Wolfman, which are also pretty good as I recall. So if you like Kane's art, it's probably worth picking up.Edo Bosnarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-33237830662429530982013-01-25T12:56:33.235-06:002013-01-25T12:56:33.235-06:00On a related note, I'm tempted to pick up the ...On a related note, I'm tempted to pick up the new Adventures of Superman compilation with art by Gil Kane, but will the stories be worth reading? Garettnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-24937763234491937502013-01-25T09:01:10.004-06:002013-01-25T09:01:10.004-06:00One more thought.., from perhaps the 'Broken R...One more thought.., from perhaps the 'Broken Record' Department of how Marvel succeeded in getting the jump on DC with a ultimate mix of heroics and soap opera., I was browsing the nice Comic Coverage site this morning..:<br /><br />http://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2007/06/the_highlight_r.html<br /><br />"Game, Set and Match, True Believers".<br /><br />('nuff said)<br /><br />david_bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00218727673816200051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-35855705372548524792013-01-25T08:12:09.740-06:002013-01-25T08:12:09.740-06:00Richard, no worries on Xmen.. I still think of the...Richard, no worries on Xmen.. I still think of them as a freakshow.<br /><br />I've got a couple of Silver issues (even pulled out the Barry Smith Blastaar one yesterday..), but never got into 'em much. I liked Cyclops and typically prefer the Silver team over the revised team if I was to choose, but that's about it. <br /><br />Totally subject to change ~ I never thought a lot of Ditko and Doc Strange until last year, then I dove headfirst into collecting the early Strange Tales issues.david_bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00218727673816200051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-77732088105184845302013-01-25T07:08:49.811-06:002013-01-25T07:08:49.811-06:00Hi HB – I experienced that moment you’re talking a...Hi HB – I experienced that moment you’re talking about twice. When I was very little, I only read actual ‘comics’ (what Americans would call the funnies). I had a couple of Marvel comics and they just seemed absurd to me. It was like cartoons trying to be grown up and serious. Though I didn’t know the word pretentious at the time, that’s exactly how they seemed. If you needed to talk about grown up things, you didn’t do it in a cartoon, I knew that for sure, but then on top of that, these super hero comics had monsters and goblins and men in tights and yet were all still written as if it was all dead serious. I thought it was silly and went back to Biffo the Bear and Dennis the Menace. Mighty World of Marvel #138 ( yes, I still remember the exact comic) lay untouched for months until I pulled it out of a trunk one bored afternoon and my world changed forever. <br /><br /><br />The second time was shortly thereafter. I was collecting a comic called The Super Heroes which reprinted the Surfer and the Xmen. I loved the Surfer, which was surprising as I was only about nine, and I hated the Xmen, who I thought were a weird freak show. After many weeks, because I had read everything else a hundred times, I gave the Xmen another go. To say I changed my mind would be something of an understatement and I had about 20 back issues right there, right then. What a moment! While I still understand why I hated super hero comics from the ages of 5 to 8, I can’t imagine how I later loved super hero comics, but didn’t get the Xmen. I guess they just took some growing into. <br /><br />Richard <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-47253282683055715872013-01-24T23:04:06.145-06:002013-01-24T23:04:06.145-06:00By the time I turned 8 in 1970, I was very much in...By the time I turned 8 in 1970, I was very much in the Marvel camp as I just found their stories more exciting and liked the personalities of their characters, while those of DC struck me as interchangeable and cardboardlike. I stuck with Marvel through the early '80s when I began to sample some DC titles again. By the late '80s, I had almost entirely dropped Marvel and the few titles I still got regularly were DC/Vertigo. From the '90s on I've gotten more into getting collections of titles I like, and with few exceptions they've been Vertigo titles. Fred W. Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07602124919964053532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-46967450582651104462013-01-24T22:39:14.099-06:002013-01-24T22:39:14.099-06:00HB, you tell your tale well! You, indeed, are not ...HB, you tell your tale well! You, indeed, are not alone in experiencing that 'transformational' revelation.<br />When I first started reading comics (beyond the Disney/Harvey milieu), it was the DC books that caught my eye. Superman was my hero of choice; I read almost every title he appeared in. Granted, some of the things I read seemed silly (I recall a story in which Clark Kent swallowed bullets while eating a chinese dinner, pretending they were nuts). Still, the stories were fun, and I really didn't expect more from them. <br /><br />Then, one summer day, my neighbor introduced me to something cslled "Spider-Man". It was like the changeover from a black-and-white television to color! The story was dramatic, engaging and more 'real'. Peter Parker lived in a real city, and the experiences he had continued and expanded from issue to issue. I was hooked completely.<br /><br />Over the years I joined the legion of Edo's Marvel Zuvembies. There were some DC's I enjoyed (Rima, Detective, Green Lantern for example), but overall the Marvel stories just seemed more satisfying. Of course, this too changed eventually. As stated above, by the late 80's a good argument can be made that DC had the better books, and was exploring the comics medium in ways Marvel wasn't. Watchmen, Neil Gaiman's work, Giffen and Maguire's wry Justice League were all remarkable. So overall, each company has had it's stronger and weaker eras. But to answer the question of the day, I give the edge to Marvel. When I think of my favorite Bronze Age books, they are almost all Marvels.Redartznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-65352556806210389872013-01-24T20:54:04.587-06:002013-01-24T20:54:04.587-06:00You gotta be kiddin' me guys - in my humble op...You gotta be kiddin' me guys - in my humble opinion Marvel trumps DC time and again.<br /><br />Sure, DC has some good characters going for them - Batman is a dark complex personality, Green Lantern is a fearless hero with a cool power ring, and Wonder Woman is an inspiration to young girls the world over.<br /><br />However, DC pales in comparison to the heroes we find in the Marvel universe, in terms of edginess, compelling characterizations, and sheer fun factor. Stan of course was ground breaking in introducing many new things readers had never seen before - Spidey was the first teenaged superhero complete with all that angst to star in his own comic, the FF bickered like a real family, unlike the sanitized Justice League, Daredevil was a handicapped (blind) superhero, the X-men were the comics proxy of anyone who felt marginalized from mainstream society, the Hulk was a persecuted monster who just wanted to be left alone, and the list goes on and on.<br /><br />Marvel never attempted to hide the fact that their heroes were not perfect, that they had real flaws but were heroic nevertheless. In contrast, Superman and Batman were the quintessential 'goody two shoes' in tights when they were first introduced. It's only in recent years that DC attempted to develop their characters further - Batman became a darker tortured person (thanks to Frank Miller), while Superman's humanity was explored.<br /><br /><br />- Mike 'Namor kicks Aquaman's butt any day' from Trinidad & Tobago. Imperius Rex!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-2758164671741744022013-01-24T20:28:40.751-06:002013-01-24T20:28:40.751-06:00Here's what's neat for me: I remember. . ...Here's what's neat for me: I remember. . . DISTINCTLY remember. . . when that lightning-bolt of understanding hit me: "Wait--wow!--these are two different companies! If I divide them up. . . yeah! All of these guys are MARVEL COMICS and all of these guys are DC COMICS!" It was, I think, third grade, and we had a verrrrry long, late winter, and I missed a lot of school that year with the usual round of childhood diseases (stomach flu, chicken pox, mumps. . . ). And that was the oft-mentioned (here) time that my buddy first loaned me all of his older brothers' comic books to pass the miserable time. And it was an enormous mixture of late-silver age masterpieces (who knew?) that included nearly equal amounts of Marvel and DC. Up until that point I was completely clue-free (or foggy, at best) on the concept of there being different companies or continuities or anything. They simply were all COMIC BOOKS, y'know? And I loved all of them-- even the Superman Special w/ the different colors of Kryptonite and the Jimmy Olsen Special with stories of his most macabre transformations and the "new-look" jump-suited Wonder Woman. <br /><br />But-- it didn't take me long discern a big difference in tone between some books and others. There were books that I enjoyed as a fun read, but didn't leave too much of a lasting impression-- and then there were books that pulled me into the ongoing story, and kept me glued to the page, and made me care personally about what was happening to the characters. And the latter group of books also seemed a lot. . . funnier, in a way-- more amusing. And they seemed to talk directly to me. And it didn't take long to dawn on me that those books also seemed to be all inter-connected with each other. They were part of a much bigger overall story in a way that the first group of books never seemed to quite capture. And I KNOW that there are surely many others here who can recall that specific, honest-to-god tingling sensation that started in the pit of your stomach, and traveled up your spine to ultimately spread across your shoulders when you realized. . . truly realized, all in one rush. . . that THIS WAS THE COOLEST THING YOU'D EVER READ!! And that you'd put these pieces together all by yourself, and man, does anyone else even know how fantastic this all is??<br /><br />C'mon. I know. . . I KNOW. . . I'm not the only one around here who could have had that transformational experience, right? It sounds corny, sure, maybe even a little cliche'd-- but I remember it all-- the dark mid-evening, the heavy snow outside, the soft yellow light of my bedside reading lamp, the comics spread out on the bedspread and on the floor to my left. . . <br /><br />Ah, me. And thus I, too, was Zuvembi-fied (heh) before the condition was even known to exist. . . <br /><br />HBhumanbellynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-43646852667645537972013-01-24T17:50:56.537-06:002013-01-24T17:50:56.537-06:00I.W., glad you mentioned Firestorm. I liked him, a...I.W., glad you mentioned Firestorm. I liked him, and read his comic for the first while. Interesting power, in an uncertain kid, with the professor giving him guidance.<br /><br />I had a reading blend of Marvel, DC and Independents, so I can't pick one. Swamp Thing for me easily beat Man-Thing. Titans and X-Men were both good. Liked Avengers and JLA. <br /><br />Wonder Woman was a bore--what would Marvel have done with her? What would they have done with Superman? I want to see the What If where all the characters switch companies! Flash at Marvel would've been interesting.<br /><br />Ant Man and Atom were both not my cup of tea, but Sword of the Atom rocked. I was curious about the Golden Age Atom---so he's a little guy, with no powers, but...lotsa spunk!<br /><br />I'd take Conan over Warlord, but Warlord over Kull.<br /><br />Really, each company has to put up a champion to see who's the winner. Are you Marvel zuvembies really arguing that Team America is better than the Watchmen? Preposterous! DC wins.<br /> <br />; )<br />Garettnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-32392554985706737612013-01-24T14:14:22.057-06:002013-01-24T14:14:22.057-06:00Isn't that pretty
much what Anonymous said? D....Isn't that pretty<br />much what Anonymous said? D.C. heroes were written as adult role models for children readers. Marvel heroes were written to appeal to teenagers who related to the "problems" faced by the Marvel heroes, most of which were wholly ridiculous to an adult reader. <br /><br />I read both for different reasons. I always thought D.C. had better plots, though. And Julius Schwartz had responsive letter columns before the Marvel Age, just to clear that up. Marvel was, for me, more fun.Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-90018260678808792302013-01-24T13:56:42.891-06:002013-01-24T13:56:42.891-06:00Richard,
Yeah, that was pretty much what I was tr...Richard,<br /><br />Yeah, that was pretty much what I was trying to get across. DC's characters were not wholly devoid of personality.<br /><br />In addition to the Flash and Firestorm, there were other cases: Green Arrow had a long-running back-up feature in Detective Comics that was pretty good in terms of humanizing him as a swaggering, cocksure urban-liberal type. <br /><br />The Huntress had a great-back-up feature in Wonder Woman too that had her grappling with her legacy as Batman's daughter.<br /><br />And Batman as a brooding, dark, driven man was a characterization well in use before Frank Miller came along. <br /><br />It is a pity this style wasn't more common though. Superman and Wonder Woman in particular cried out for some kind of strong editorial vision that they didn't get until after the Crisis.Inkstained Wretchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-24132819687912329482013-01-24T13:15:08.728-06:002013-01-24T13:15:08.728-06:00Broken down, Marvel had a few major things going f...Broken down, Marvel had a few major things going for it when most of us came on the scene..:<br /><br />1) It had tension.. LOTS of it.<br /><br />2) It blatantly welcomed readers, readers who could interact, with Letters Columns and the Bullpen page. It gave a new readers a 'Hey, we've been here for a while, where have you been..??'<br /><br />3) Swirled in the writing and dramatic art (warmly remembering watching Greenskin fightin' Sandman and Mandarin in Hulk 114 as a 6yr old as I write this), there was 'something more'. <br /><br />All comics started becoming edgy by that post-primetime Batman timeframe, but Marvel did it better by very nature of it's style. As I mentioned back on the year-to-year synopsis done here, Marvel's style lent itself smoothly to this style, gaining readership. In contrast, DC's post-Dozer heyday had the heavier burden to adjust to changes in readership changes, resulting in a few titles closing down (Aquaman, GL/GA, Titans, etc..).david_bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00218727673816200051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-81288851031805931262013-01-24T13:13:56.543-06:002013-01-24T13:13:56.543-06:00Inkstained Wretch makes some good points in defens...Inkstained Wretch makes some good points in defense of DC, and as Karen said, the gap between the two companies definitely tightened up as the Bronze Age progressed.<br /><br />I have to think a big reason for that was the influx of veteran Marvel writers - namely Len Wein, Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman and Gerry Conway - to DC. Those four were major creative forces at Marvel during the early to mid-70s, and they all ended up being major players at DC after Jim Shooter took over at Marvel. They brought with them the type of storytelling that they had done so successfully at Marvel.Brucenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-148103674293966262013-01-24T12:25:13.703-06:002013-01-24T12:25:13.703-06:00As a kid, both (and I still like both to a certain...As a kid, both (and I still like both to a certain extent) but if I had to pick one...Marvel. Just something about the characters, the writin, just...everything fits together so well.<br /><br />Mike W.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-10874360158483426502013-01-24T11:41:54.774-06:002013-01-24T11:41:54.774-06:00My Marvel vs. DC experience is a roller-coaster ri...My Marvel vs. DC experience is a roller-coaster ride of sorts.<br /><br />When I was very very young I liked DC, mostly because of the live action Batman TV show and the Super Friends cartoon. Back then I used to buy the occasional comic book, and they were almost always DC. I would sometimes pick up a Spider-Man, but in those days I thought that Marvel was too complicated and dark for me. I liked the more simple and colorful heroes of the DCU more back then. <br /><br />That all changed when I was around 10 or 11, and I bought a pocket trade paperback that reprinted the first six issues of the Fantastic Four. loved that book so much that I had to have more more more! That is when I started on a regular diet of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Avengers, Daredevil, The X-Men, etc.. I pretty much became a Marvel Zombie and I don't think I read another DC comic until the New Teen Titans came along. I really loved that book at the time, and it sparked my interest in checking out some other DC titles.<br /><br />Then, in the 80's there was a DC explosion when "Crisis On Infinite Earths" came along and John Byrne and Frank Miller started doing work for DC on Superman and Batman, etc. and so, along with my usual Marvel stuff, I started adding a few DC titles to my pull list. I especially liked Byrne's Superman and the "Bwa Ha Ha" Justice League. But eventually, after a few years, most of those books started to decline in quality and I mostly lost interest, and was again exclusively reading Marvel.<br /><br />But then in the early 90's "Batman The Animated Series" came along, and rekindled my interest in DC. To say I loved that show would be an understatement. It was, and remains, one of my all time favorite comic book related properties. I also love all of the spin-off series that came later like Superman, Justice League and even Batman Beyond. (I own them all on DVD). I consider the Timm animated universe to be the definitive versions of the DC characters. I don't think they have ever been handled as well in print as they were on TV.<br /><br />These days I don't really read any new comics from either Marvel or DC (with the exception of Mark Waid's Daredevil). I hate the whole New DCNU 52 or whatever it's called. And "Marvel Now" doesn't look to be any better. So, I guess my new comic reading days are pretty much over. But I still enjoy discovering new old stuff from both Marvel and DC. I'd have say that for me, when it comes to printed comic books Marvel reigns supreme, but in the field of animation, DC comes out on top.Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988016825582035390noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-22285132857597721642013-01-24T10:49:02.385-06:002013-01-24T10:49:02.385-06:00david_b, ha! As stated in so many Marvel letters&#...david_b, ha! As stated in so many Marvel letters' pages of the 1970s, your no-prize is in the mail...Edo Bosnarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-70739239504590379432013-01-24T10:43:50.632-06:002013-01-24T10:43:50.632-06:00Edo, I hope I earn the Edo 'no-prize' for ...Edo, I hope I earn the Edo 'no-prize' for mentioning 'Marvel Zuvembie' first today..<br /><br />As for the mentality aspect, we've covered this several times earlier (especially the incredible year-by-year analysis Doug and Karen did a few years back..). DC had their stable of 'ruling royal' characters during the early Silver Age, so they could skate on minimal change or character insight/development for years without challenge. Their established branding didn't require anything more than one-dimensional stories or continuity, again, marketed to younger viewers. It was Stan with his 'antennas up' that tapped/exploited the emerging market, as all spelled out in Howe's 'Untold Stories' book among others.. He was both very lucky timing-wise, and smart. His characters were birthed and grew right along with the baby boom generation. <br /><br />As for him typically takin' all the undue credit on stuff by Ditko and Kirby, 'Hey, good for him'; it's always the victors that get to rewrite history.<br /><br />And agreed on the points of interchangeability... Reading the 'Shooter Years' now in the 'Untold Stories' book; sheesh, talent went back and forth between the two like a revolving door..david_bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00218727673816200051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-91977452459650677962013-01-24T10:17:13.683-06:002013-01-24T10:17:13.683-06:00I know you hate drive-bys, Doug, but I don’t think...<br />I know you hate drive-bys, Doug, but I don’t think that anonymous commenter was insulting anyone. It was a valid & sensible point, whether or not we agree with it. If it was an insult, it was a pretty lame one. I think we were all about 7,8 or 9 when we started reading these comics, so being told we had the mentality of teenagers means we were pretty advanced for our years. <br /><br />As Karen said, Spidey, Johnny, the Xmen, but I think Marvel made a conscious effort to target teenagers with the ‘hero-who-could-be-you’. Where you had Hulk, you had Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade or later Jim Wilson, Rick Jones also served as teen support to both Captains America & Marvel and the Avengers, Hawkeye wasn’t a teen, but his attitude to Cap was pure rebellious teenager, I think Wanda & Pietro were teenagers, when the Xmen did grow up, teen characters like Kitty & Jubilee were introduced and then the New Mutants, and we never knew what age Clea was, but she was certainly an ingénue. Marvel always had plenty of adolescents in the mix. <br /><br /><br />Bruce’s point about Superman is bang on and really illustrates the silliness and therefore blandness I got from DC. Every issue, he got into an implausible scrape which was resolved by the revelation of yet another super power. I loved the explanation of why no one recognises Clark Kent....because his powers of super – hypnotism are working ALL the time. Excellent. <br /><br />Despite my genuine reservations about DC, I wonder if there’s an element of imprinting involved as well? If I had started with DC and bonded with their heroes, house style and milieu, perhaps I would be a diehard DC fan. But I kind of suspect not. When DC did do something brilliant, like Watchmen, I was all over it, and I think if that had been typical of DC’s output, I’d have flipped from Marvel easily. <br /><br />Inkstained....Dude! I read that twice. You make an interesting point that key characters like the Flash could have given the Marvel characters a run (!) for their money in the realism stakes. Didn’t expect that point to be made of DC pre-1985. If I understand your main point, what seems to underpin it is this: while Marvel may have had a house style, atmosphere, ethos and continuity that made Marvel overall better than DC overall, there are many, many key exceptions in terms of writers, artists, runs, storylines, and titles. So Marvel whole over DC whole, yes maybe, but DC whole is much LESS than the sum of some of its pieces. It’s hard to argue with that, esp. later. I don’t think Marvel has anything to compete with Watchmen, V & From Hell. <br /><br />Richard<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5293155946761960913.post-23440715026572306122013-01-24T10:11:05.040-06:002013-01-24T10:11:05.040-06:00I agree that Marvel was aimed at a somewhat older ...I agree that Marvel was aimed at a somewhat older audience than DC. When I was 8-10 years old, I was mainly a DC fan. I disliked Marvel's emphasis on angst and soap opera, and their long, complicated serials and story arcs. I liked DC's simpler plots and (usually) complete-in-one-issue format. Maybe if I'd been older, my attitude would have been different. I had a neighbor who was 12-13 at the time, and he was the original Marvel Zombie. He fancied himself an intellectual, and the X-Men moping around feeling sorry for themselves seemed terribly sophisticated to him. By the mid 1970s, DC was (it seemed to me) imitating Marvel, with continued stories, angst, and heroes constantly bickering among themselves. The only difference between the Avengers and the JLA was the costumes. IMHO, during the Bronze Age, the two publishers' house styles became so similar that the question "DC or Marvel?" has been irrelevant ever since.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com