Re: DC versus Marvel: different styles
If I could speak from my humble opinion and only as things are at this time, there are a few things I would like to add.
The biggest difference between DC and Marvel is that DC has more characters that have passed into the collective American mythology. Ask any average person on the street to name a comic book hero, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman will top the list. Spider-Man will show up at some point with the Green Lantern and the Flash. Because of this DC is constrained in the changes that can be made to its characters. Even death has to be overcome to return a hero to what he was, i.e. Superman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern. (Personally I believe that Ted Kord lives.) So much that it has taken two Crises and several lesser events to give DC room to develop the characters.
Marvel doesn’t have the baggage. Their heroes can and do change at the drop of a hat short of Cap’s Shield. Even this is changing. How long did Wolverine have “natural” claws before getting metal ones back? Marvel plots and stories can and do go amazing directions. So many at times that the Marvel Universe has more loose ends than a wool sweater factory attacked by mutant moths. This also works against Marvel as the little inconsistencies have been piling up and in some ways is working against them. So much that the writer for the Spider-man title has gone on public record that the latest storyline for Spidey is going to be worse than the rivaled Clone Saga.
Often over looked between the two companies is the corporate security DC has and Marvel never enjoyed. In this I mean DC is a part of Time Warner and a title that may be dragging a bit can linger a bit to let a new team come in and revitalize it. With the bankruptcies and buy outs that Marvel has had to endure since the early 90’s, if a title falls to certain sell level it is gone. If it does have strong sells, another one is on it’s way with the same characters. (Yes I do know that DC has several Superman and Batman titles, but even together they are out numbered by the X titles Marvel has). At times it seems that if it isn’t a mutant or Spider-man, Marvel isn’t interested in doing it.
On a different topic, people seem bent on classifying comic in different “Ages”. When the current “Modern Age” passes to the next, I would suggest that it is the labeled the Dark Age. Not so much in regards to the comics themselves but the state of the comic book industry itself. The number of comic book shops is plummeting, Diamond has a virtual monopoly on comic book distribution (As lawyers for Diamond pointed out in the anti-trust law-suit, Archie comics are still use other distribution), and the trend to have story arcs designed to be bound into graphic novels the week after the final issue is released is slowly driving the comics to the ground.
The number of movies made of late, have infused cash into Marvel and DC, but it does not mean it increases sales of comics in the long term. A story a friend and comic book storeowner told me demonstrates this. A guy came in the shop and was looking at everything to kill time. He picked up the latest issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four and stated, “Look at this! They based a comic book on that movie!”
The graphic novels are particularly troublesome as the story is so driven by what fits into 6 issues that there is almost no overlap in plot- lines from arc to arc. Remember the days when a single page would be in every Avengers comic and wondering, “Who is that old guy?” only to have it wrap up in a huge battle royal a year later. It is so easy to get the “entire story” that the days of collecting are coming to an end. What need is there to hunt through back issues at comic shops, flea markets, and comic shows. Just bop into Walden books and get the graphic novel. Sadly, collectors are an important source of income for most small comic shops. When they go, I think the whole industry will suffer. Comic books are communal phenomena. Geeky and not so geeky people reading and enjoying a common area of interest. I wonder at times, what will become of comic books when all the comic shops close? Support your local comic book store.
