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John Cole
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Joined: 02 March 2008
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Posted: 09 July 2018 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Way back in 1973 when I was 7 my Aunt gave me ASM #98,100 and Avengers #97 I was hooked for decades.
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
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Posted: 09 July 2018 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I've kind of oscillated at different periods.

First phase was when I was very little and I basically didn't have any input into which comics I got: basically these were second-hand comics bought a jumble sales. The majority of these were Marvel titles, like UK magazine versions of The Incredible Hulk, but also some little Reader's Digest-sized things of Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, but we also had a few Superman comics and at least one Batman annual. In this phase, I didn't discriminate. I liked 'em all with equal gusto.

The first time I started choosing what comics I wanted to buy was when I was around 7 years old, and the comics I collected were British titles without super-heroes. Things like Eagle and Battle Action Force.

Next phase kicked off when I was about 10 years old and Marvel UK began reprints of Secret Wars. This re-ignited my love for super-heroes and it was ALL Marvel at this point. I liked the sleakness that Marvel costumes tended to have, sans capes. Yes, there was the occasional Thor in there, but I loved the costumes of Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Cyclops, Daredevil and so forth. When I discovered that there were actually specialist comics shops, selling US imports, it became a huge passion in my life... and it was Marvel alone that I was crazy for (I did like the Superman films though).

Things changed when London Editions Magazines started putting out UK reprints of JB's Superman work. The first issue appeared in my local newsagent in 1988, just on the cusp of me turning into a teenager. I was a big JB fan by then, easily enough to try out the other company. Of course, those Man of Steel stories were a perfect re-introduction to Superman, and as the issues progressed into stories from Action Comics and Superman and started including stories from other titles like Justice League, LEM did a good job of trying to softly introduce knowledge to the reader regarding the wider world of DC.

I was no longer so resistant to DC. In early 1989, a copy of The Dark Knight Returns fell into my hands and I was gripped. A trade paperback of Year One cemented Batman as my new favourite hero and, of course, the film came along in the summer of that year and everyone joined me in going doolally for the Caped Crusader.

In the early 1990s I still mainly collected Marvel, but it was supplemented with a smattering of DC titles. I bought Detective Comics and Batman every month, along with some Vertigo titles, like Shade, the Changing Man. And JB did OMAC!

I went to University in 1993 and that's really when I stopped being a full-on regular comic collector. I actually found it increasingly hard to get back into comics on those occasional times when I visited a comics shop. Strangely, DC offered me the titles that I felt offered the most accessibility back then: JB's run on Wonder Woman was one of the last times I collected a title month after month, and Detective Comics just always felt like you could jump in and not feel like you had to do any catching up.

And that's really it. The last time I bought new comics from either of the Big Two, I tried a smattering of Avengers and Captain America, but found the stories left me cold, and I bought a few issues of Detective Comics, which just like days of yore, still gave that feeling of not having to do any catching up.

Long post, sorry for taking so long and thanks for staying with it if you've managed to make it all the way down!
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Benny Hasa
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Posted: 09 July 2018 at 9:49pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Marvel. 
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Paul Reis
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Posted: 09 July 2018 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

as a kid (with an almost negligible allowance, therefore a lot of pop bottle hunting to afford comics) i always preferred Marvel - because they (generally speaking) got straight to the story. DC always always always (well, seems like always) had a cover and a splash page, that depicted "the" scene in the story. and if there were 2 or 3 stories, then 2 or 3 splash pages - i just always seemed to feel gypped with all the repeated pictures instead of more story ... so mostly Marvel, because i was cheap!
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David Allen Perrin
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Posted: 10 July 2018 at 3:32am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

“MAKE MINE MARVEL!”

Has anyone said this yet?

“EXCELSIOR!”
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Gundars Berzins
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Posted: 17 July 2018 at 10:08am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

When I was very young and first knew of comic books I never cared or even thought about if it was a DC or Marvel book. It was the character that drew me in. Heh, more of a "ooh Batman, ooh Spider-Man!". By my early teens it was only a way to identify and find my favorite characters. Looking at what my collection consists of I was split down the middle. Tho my first given comic book was Marvel's Captain Marvel #4 and I definitely like Coke vs Pepsi.
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Dale E Ingram
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Posted: 17 July 2018 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Marvel

Although I liked a number of DC's books, when I was a kid, the Marvel characters were my HEROES. Especially the X-Men. They came along for me at just the right time in my childhood when I needed them the most.
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Craig Earl
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Posted: 27 June 2020 at 7:09am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Marvel or DC? 

I was just thinking about my own preference and therefore decided to revive this thread. 

For me, it has always been Marvel (mainly due to my first comics being Spider-Man Comics Weekly - B&W reprints of ASM).

Interestingly. my only experience of Batman was reruns of the 60's TV show - which I absolutely hated. That show did more to push me in the direction of Marvel than anything else. I often wonder what would have happened if my first experience of Spider-Man had been the 70's TV show. I suspect that I might have sworn off comics altogether!
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John Byrne
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Posted: 27 June 2020 at 7:35am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I wonder how much "brand loyalty" there was back in the Forties and Fifties, when there were dozens of companies.
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 27 June 2020 at 9:25am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Mr. Byrne - there's very little way to tell about brand loyalty. For example, I would mess up the figures. Sure, I would have bought every Marvel Family book - and the sales obviously reflected that when Fawcett started publish weekly. I don't believe DC or Atlas or Marvel ever managed that (prior to the Crisis or the Secret War.) 

And on the same token, I'd have been buying DC comics just as fervently (well, perhaps not Wonder Woman...)

So sales reports on what I bought - and so many others like me - wouldn't have been very reliable for brand loyalty. And how could we tell who only bought DC or Fawcett or Atlas? There was no forum to discuss "Yeah, I only buy Superman 'cause Captain Marvel was just a BIG RIPOFF! The government should do something about that!"

Sigh. Sometimes, I kinda miss the good ol' days...
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Carlos Velasco
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Posted: 27 June 2020 at 10:20am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

DC for me for the following reasons:

- Superman and Batman are very powerful characters. You can do sci fi with Superman and detective/horror with Batman

- Big fan of what Byrne, Moore, Wolfman, Giffen and others did for DC in the 80s

- Except for Wonder Woman (I don't understand how she is so popular), I think DC has more interesting characters: Swamp Thing (and the rest of the magical characters such as Demon, Deadman....), Titans, Superman, Batman, the Legion, the Suicide Squad... I tried to get into Spiderman, Captain America, X-Men and the Avengers as a kid but wasn't too interested after reading one issue.

99% of the comics I read are from the 80s and the rest are mostly from the 70s and early 90s, so perhaps in the 60s or 2010s Marvel was/is blowing DC out of the water.


Edited by Carlos Velasco on 27 June 2020 at 10:22am
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Jason Czeskleba
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Joined: 30 April 2004
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Posted: 27 June 2020 at 12:56pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I was about three when I started looking at comics (not reading them obviously, but paging through them and then having my parents read them to me later).  From age three to eight (which was 1969-74) I was firmly in the DC camp.  I read an occasional Marvel (I did like Spider-Man) but DC was my clear favorite, particularly Batman, Justice League, and Legion of Superheroes.  The stories were more clearly plotted, had a beginning, middle, and end, and were driven by more than fighting/action. 

Then around age eight I started getting really heavily into Marvel... Conway's Spider-Man, Wein's Hulk, Thomas's Invaders, and Englehart's Avengers were particularly favorites.  At that point the greater focus on the characters' personal lives, as well as the greater self-doubts of the Marvel characters really appealed to me.  For a couple years I was primarily a Marvel reader. 

Then around age ten I started reading more DCs again, and from that point on (to this day) my interest remained roughly equal.  I was well familiar with the difference in the two products, but I liked and appreciated both and had no desire to focus on just one or the other. 


Edited by Jason Czeskleba on 27 June 2020 at 12:57pm
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