What are your opinions on Marvel and DC comics?

[mg78]

1 more thing: i dont get when characters change, and there re 92348 stories about them. WTH!!!
there was 1 thor, now it s a woman. whaaaat?
there was a spider, now it's black and he took of his mask but in an universe not in another.
there was a multiverse with marvel vs DC. like a wrestling show. :vomit:
and then there re the no fantasy characters from other characters. there is superman. then there s supergirl. then there s superboy. then there was even superdog. then PLEASE STAPH

i love comics with one story and their chara, a beginning an evolution and an END. when it start to be multiple stories, univers, version, whatever... to me it's horrible.

[TheRabbit]

Started to read Marvel after I discovered GotG by Abnett and Lanning. Sadly, I feel that the series became "meh" after Bendis took over. As for the rest of the Marvel stuff... yeah, I feel the "meh".

[tiredfishcomi]

I really like Dan Slott and Mike Allred's run on Silver Surfer. I think the art is brilliant and the writing is very fun. This is pretty much the only Marvel/DC book I have read in the past few years.

[ConradComics]

When I was a child back in the late 70's, I started reading Marvel. I read some DC, but sparingly.

I read about 15 years worth of my generation of Marvel until I stopped in the early-to-mid 90's. I also read 15 years of back-issues for certain titles (mainly X-Men). In about 2006 or so, I picked up some of the titles I read back in the 80's-90's and it seemed pretty much the same.

Overall I liked them, enough that it inspired me to write some of my own one-offs in the 90's, but things seem to repeat every 10-15 years. So much so, that after reading the back-issues along with my generation of Marvel, I felt burnt out.

So honest opinion, they're good for a 15-year stint. Not bad in my opinion, but I'm probably not going back to them in any serious capacity.

[joannekwan]

Never got into the comics, there's just too many reboots and alternate timelines. I don't got time to keep track of all that.
I did however thoroughly enjoy the shows X-Men: Evolution, Static Shock, and Young Justice though.

[Delete]

Slott's silver surfer is good? I'll have to pick up a TPB of it sometime. I read a lot of Slott's spider-man run and to be honest, as much as people hate on it, he's stories are always pretty good/consistent.

[blackopsracing321]

It's funny I've been a HUGE Batman fan since I was a little kid but the first time I've ever read a Batman comic was last year and that's only because of the introduction of Damian Wanye Batman's son (he's great like batman, Sasuke, and Vegeta fused and made a 10 year ol lol). But most other superhero comics don't really appeal to me. I thinks it's because the first comics I ever read was in shonen jump and I'm so accustomed to that manga style (heck I still accidentally open the western comics it do have backwards). I have started trying them out though. I have a few volumes of Batman and Robin and I'm just getting into Deadpool (that guy's hilarious)

[UncleVlad]

Okay so here i am a guy who only got into the Big Two recently.

Sadly, i don't read my DC at all Maybe Batman:The Animated Series spoiled me as a kid, but i think DC can make good t.v... But I don't really have an opinion on thd comics themselves.

Marvel i have read- and i think the smaller, less ambitious projects are the better ones. Squirrel Girl is a fun romp and pokes fun at the larger Marvel Universe while being a fun and inclusive title. Cable & Deadpool (... or is it Deadpool & Cable now...?) was pretty solid, but its a run from the early 2000's.

I also like Agent X- it was only 13 issues, so its a fairly quick read.

Dr. Strange is my jam, though. I think it was a title that really showed a different side of some of Marvel's top artists of the time. I'm enjoying his new solo title so far as well.

My personal opinion on The Big Two on a whole is this- I don't like the structure perpetuated by either. i don't think their system gets very good results from the artists or writers. That being said- When the pressure is off i think some good quality work can show up in both.

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

I only own/have read 3 DC comics lol, but I'm a big fan of the movies and shows and such. I used to be very anti-Marvel when I was younger, but a lot of it has grown on me over the years (Big fan of Thor and Ghost Rider)

[blinkingkills]

My dream is to one day be good enough to draw for marvel or dc. i know its a pipe dream but thats what dreams are for right?

[Shanny8]

I grew up reading Marvel & DC, so yeah I liked a lot of superhero comics. When I was 15 & started buying my own comics I was into X-Men. Around the early to mid 90s, when the more popular artists left Marvel to form Image, I found myself not reading as much Marvel; I had stopped reading DC altogether through the 90s. I ended up taking a hiatus from drawing & reading comics in the early 2000s; I just started looking at comics again after deciding to start back drawing comics a couple of years back- mainly to see how the format & landscape of the industry had changed.

I found myself mainly picking up Marvel books nowdays because of the artist or creative team(s); not so much because of the characters. When my fave artist migrated from one book to another, I'd switch books just as well. I've also grown tired of the "event series" that Marvel does that runs through all the books- 2015 was Secret Wars; this past year was Civil War 2. Another thing I've noticed is that the writing is lackluster; nothing really happens throughout the book- or should I say the characters never really go through a life changing ordeal. One of the books I've been reading is the Miles Morales Spider-Man, and basically through 10 issues, Miles hasnt really had any real awesome adventures- everything has been "meh" level; interesting, but could be better. About the only book that I say I really enjoy from Marvel right now is Black Panther.

The only DC books that I have been picking up for a long minute has been Green Arrow, Harley Quinn, and the Vertigo book The Sheriff of Babylon.

@UncleVlad I agree with you on your last statement. I havent really been invested too much into Marvel & DC and that's because I feel like they arent invested into their creative teams as much as they are into their properties. They've jacked up the price of their books, but are the stories really worth it? I get better enjoyment out of reading Paper Girls, Tokyo Ghost, and Monstress than I do from reading the new Wolverine.

At one point in my life to my early/mid 20s, I used to want to work for mainstream...but once I ran into a dude who became a pretty decent friend of mine who was creating his own comics, I decided that I didnt want to work for any company; I wanted to create my own comics. Now days I'll read Marvel & DC stuff- pending on what appeals to me, but I much prefer drawing & creating my own.

[punkarsenic]

i read a lot of marvel comics every week when they come out. its kinda hard to get out once youre in, although ive dropped it down to only the characters and titles i actually care about.

theyre overrated. and have serious problems - both in the 'bad art and writing' sense and the 'this is super fucking racist' sense. probably worse than DC on the racism front; lately theres been a lot of antisemitism and nazi shit. its not fun.

that said, when they get the right writer and a bearable artist, great things can blossom. thing about marvel is that brilliant people will grow up loving it, and then write it, bringing their brilliance and the passion of growing up with a character. like hannah blumenreich's spiderman stuff (i cant fucking wait to see her write spiderman instead of bloody bendis)

theyre also creating brilliant new characters like kamala khan and mosaic. their good titles are oases of brilliance in a sea of nazi-themed shit

i still wanna work for them one day. it feels like a token of making it - and job security. some of their regular artists are soooooo crap, so clearly its a question of getting in with the right people and then, youre set. which is nice.

[neonmeres]

I'm listening to comicxplain too. I find spiderman to be my favorite among the marvel superheroes because I find him a bit more relatable.
The funny thing is I've never read a DC or Marvel comic. I discovered most of their heroes and universe through their movie adaptations. The only superheroes movies I really enjoyed are the dark night trilogy and sam raimi spiderman trilogy.
I think marvel and dc were great in the 80s and 90s but they're really becoming too old fashioned for me now. I would like to see something fresh because they've been dominating the comic and movie industry for too long.

[sarrowsmith10]

I think everyone is forgetting that DC and Marvel publish alot more than Superhero genre books.

*If you want to read a whole cohesive story from big publishers: Buy tradebacks. You get the whole story in one book.

*Superhero stories are retold many times, so it seems confusing. However, how many different versions of Dracula have we seen in popular fiction? No one seems to mind that... just take each "story" of Batman or Spiderman or whoever, as independent stories that aren't really related to each other. If you don't like one version (Female Thor? Not my favorite) you just pick a different series.

*Did you know there is a whole series of Jane Austen comic adaptions put out by Marvel? They are fabulous and beautiful! Not drawn or paneled like typical superhero comics at all. Like this one?

*Did you know there is a beautifully done adaption of Wizard of Oz by Marvel? It's beautiful and I read it to my son. It may be my favorite of all of Marvel's comics. It's very true to the source material, beautifully illustrated and the pacing is perfect.

*I disagree that superhero comics are the backbone of comics. It's just one genre that happens to be very popular because the movies have been very lucrative. I think that Superhero comics are perhaps the most formulaic of all comics, and artists breaking into that scene lose a lot of artistic freedom there, unless they are senor artists at the big publishers. Working in other genres at Marvel, DC, Image, DarkHorse allows for more artistic and writing freedom.

That's just my 2 cents anyways.

[trinkettrancemusic]

Like any story, Marvel and DC stories are only as good as the writers and artists creating them.

Some of the most accomplished comic book creators have worked for the big two. Most of them have. That means there are a LOT of great mainstream superhero stories, and I'm not someone that ever expected to give a flying moose nut about capes and tights. I grew up reading Usagi Yojimbo and came back to comics for Preacher and 100 Bullets and Sandman and Transmetropolitan etc...

BUT - holy crap are there some fantastic superhero stories. Try anything by your favourite authors - Grant Morrison's Batman, Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, Charles Soule's She-Hulk, Alan Moore's Killing Joke, Warren Ellis's JLA. Especially though, check out Tom King's recently completed run on The Vision. That's big league story telling regardless of genre.

[J.Z.Castillo]

I am into Marvel more than I am into DC just because I think Marvel writes better characters than DC's black and white character types. However, I have a huge problem with both DC and Marvel and that is that they are too afraid to pull the trigger on their own character and franchises, by that I mean they are too afraid to kill anyone or end a franchise. I understand why they would do this, after all they have to make money, right? But after a while it just gets ridiculous. A lot of the time I feel like writers place themselves into a corner and have to utilize a Deus Ex Machina to come save them and I absolutely LOATHE that! I hate how parallel timelines are conveniently accessible with zero to no consequences or how there are characters who can shape the fabric of reality and reboot the universe if they wanted to. It's ANNOYING!

I am mainly talking from Marvel, since that's what I am more familiar with. I am so happy they have carried through with some deaths, like Wolverine and that momentary Captain America death. That is my main problem with these two big comic companies, they just don't have enough balls to keep people dead, there is always a thing to bring them back to life or to go back in time or whatever, so there really isn't any sense of fear of losing someone or anything so it really doesn't matter because we all know no one is going to die at the end, and if someone dies they will either be a lesser character that is not selling comics anyway or the dead will be brought back by either magic or another timeline, which is stupid as fuck! I do agree with some people on this thread as to the stories being tired, it is very rare that a new original mind blowing story comes along. I would recommend House of M and Messiah Complex (both X-Men stories) for you to read!

I am however not a complete hater... I'm not even a hater, I'm just frustrated most of the time. I will still love Spider-Man to no end, he's my favorite, and right now I am actually reading the Deadpool and Spirder-man comic they have together because OTP FTW!! I love the art work of most of their mainstream comics, aka whatever big storyline is going on at the present time. I would actually really like to ink for Marvel someday! I would die to ink a Spider-man issue! I think I don't have to say that I really look up to the artistic talent working over there. I am actually taking a break form my comic because I wanna amp up my inking skills and have BioHazard have a more "Marvel-DC" look!

[Shanny8]

@mrjonzap love everything you said up until the "loved whatever big storyline is going on". I think it tends to hurt the momentum growth of the indiviual creative teams that they have to stop what they're doing and write a story to cater to "Civil War 2" - but then it's not really much of a stretch if BMB is writing 40 books. I guess with the format of how they do stories nowdays(the stories dont go anywhere) the only action the books do see is from the big event crossovers- plus I get tired of at the end of every event crossover, they come promising "all new all different" comic lineups; only for them to really go nowhere like the last "all new all different" lineups- at the end of the last event crossover.

[J.Z.Castillo]

I said the big story line thing because usually that's when they shoehorn all their big name talent... the writing is always hit and miss with me, like Civil War 2 (WE GET IT Ironman is a fucking asshole, how many times will he start a conflict until someone pops him in the face FOR GOOD??) So I read mostly the mainstream storylines because I wanna learn that art style, I want my comic to look like that, that's why I don't bother with the rest. I know I am missing out on some other stuff and feeding into the comic churning machine, but oh well.

My favorite kind-of crossover event was Spider Verse. The art was cool and the writing was aight, and that was almost 2 years ago, that should tell you about what they're doing over there haha. Seriously I will eat anything Spider-Man. I really enjoyed Monsters Unleashed, it was just stupid fun haha

[kyupol]

Very good art. I love the art. But that's where the buck stops. Everything else isn't exactly my taste sorry. I'm more of an anime person

[randomladyaj]

So there are a lot of "meh" about these two juggernauts and indie comics are where it's at huh? I wasn't expecting these many answers to this question. lol

Personally if I were to ever really get into the mainstream american comics, I would pick DC comics, more specifically batman. I don't know I feel like they just resonate with me more. I feel it's darker and less convoluted than marvel. While marvel seems too...light and airy if that makes sense.