What are your opinions on Marvel and DC comics?

[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.

[Celestinaat]

Okay, I've tried to read some comics since one of my friends just wouldn't shut up about them.

My impressions were "what the fuck did I just read?", "do they even know how to do worldbuilding?", "why poses are so weird?" and the main question of all times "why all these people wear underpants above pantyhose attached to swimwear and no-one ever told them about how ridiculous they look?" and more importantly "why can't you just make new characters instead of recycling old ones?".

Then I came to conclusion that I'd better stick to 90s Batman series because it was really good and didn't suck style-wise.

So this is why, folks, I prefer european comics.

[shiftingverses]

I adore DC and Marvel comics, and find the former much easier to recommend thanks to the "key" stories being easy to get hold of and enjoy without going through anthologies. My passage into them was very unusual though.

As a teenager I thought they were pretty dumb, and I liked to think that manga was a much more mature form of comic for mature people such as myself. However, a friend lent me the Killing Joke around the time Batman Begins was being trailed and I was absolutely stunned by it. From there I took a leap into Watchmen and The Sandman, which my friend lent to me. Watchmen cemented my interest in Alan Moore and Sandman gave me a little wedge into the DC Vertigo stuff.

My friend lent me Saga of the Swamp Thing and, while it was a pretty silly concept (man becomes a plant monster that can control vegetation), I was hooked on it, and pretty much bought all six volumes in the space of a few months. From there it was easy to start reading more of the characters I was interested in, I read Hellblazer and most of the "key" Batman stories. I discovered writers and artists which helped me follow into Marvel with books like 1602 and Daredevil: Born Again (Gaiman and Miller respectively). From then on my collection grew rapidly over the space of eleven years (I'm 28 now, most of this happened back in 2006 when I was seventeen and edgy). I have loads of volumes (not issues, I just want to read the stories rather than collect things) from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image etc - but DC and Vertigo takes up most of my shelf space.

If anyone wants to get into them I'd recommend checking out a character that catches your interest. Unlike Manga or many indies, long running characters are more like concepts than canon stories. So you'll find loads of different interpretations of them over the years. You don't need to read ALL of Superman to enjoy the wonderful All Star Superman. You don't need to know anything about Daredevil to enjoy Mark Waid's run on the title. Most writers do a soft reboot of the characters when they take over, changing the direction and tone to reflect their own style, as such you can find great "runs" that don't need much work to untangle.

Edit - I just realised I haven't given a very good opinion on them. I enjoy them because they kind of feel like our society's mythology. When you're reading a great Batman story or watching a lesser known character get a perfect reinvention it's like reading something that resonates with popular culture at large. These characters have inspired billions of people and have even changed the world in no small ways. That's really cool to be a part of.

[digitalvalium1]

I remember reading X-men way back in the late 80's. At that time I enjoyed it. I've looked through some old, silver-era comics, and enjoyed them too. My wife follows several modern comics and she shares what she thinks merits attention. Modern comics from DC and Marvel though? I don't pay much attention. The characters are... well, they tend to conflate justice with vengeance and oversimplify complex problems into one size fits all solutions.

There are characters and stories that stand out from the crowd, but... I can't say much to recommend the large majority of what I see coming out of Marvel and DC. I think it's an important point, and someone has already related it, that these are the mythos of America. That I find incredibly sad as they are substantially devoid of a soul. It's kind of like beautifully drawn but really bad doujinshi. You know the kind I mean: petulant, thoughtless, aggressively sexed, and juvenile. That is not a description or group of appellations I want associated with my country. It does not describe the people I know and like.

I can say this, though. It was because DC and Marvel are what they are that I think webcomics have really boomed in antidote. So, I think Marvel and DC are like staphylococcus, a somewhat dangerous infection that spurs the body to fight back vigorously. I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion, and it is just an opinion.

[M.ComicFan]

I like Marvel and DC. They're the reason I got into superheroes and comics in general. Although I think nowadays they focus too much on their movies and not enough on their comics. It's a shame really; if both of them put as much care into their comics nowadays as they do their movies, they could be making much better quality stories.