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Robbie Parry
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Joined: 17 June 2007
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 10:23am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

As a sophisticated adult (some of the time), I hate binary questions such as, "Do you like Coca-Cola or Pepsi?" I like both, although Pepsi is a tad sweeter; I also eat fish and meat; and, as a wrestling fan, I enjoyed both the WWF and WCW.

The question has come up in my life, childhood and adult, about whether i prefer DC or Marvel. I like both. I have liked both at various stages. I think it's fine for kids to debate such stuff, but it's a bit undignified when adults start throwing things around such as, "DC sucks, Marvel is king!" Or vice versa.

However, let's go back to childhood. Did you have a preference? If so, why? Thinking about this topic recently, I did have a preference, and some of that was down to numerous factors. I like both. But for me, I preferred DC.

Perhaps some of it was down to the fact that more DC books were available than Marvel. This was a period before specialist comic shops, where railway station shops, newsagents and the like all sold US comics. For every Marvel comic, there were at least 5-6 DC comics. So I was able to read more DC. In my young, unsophisticated mind, maybe I equated quantity with quality.

However identifiable the Marvel characters were, DC characters were larger than life (I am referring to civilian identities). I mean, Bruce Wayne was a millionaire, Hal Jordan was a test pilot, Barry Allen was a police scientist, etc. There were gods, aliens, etc. Yes, Marvel did have those, but there was something more fantastical about DC. It felt like Marvel *could* be taking place outside my window whereas DC was a realm which felt 100% escapist. I am not articulating that well, I know.

Also, Kenner's Super Powers Collection inspired far more awe in me than Mattel's Secret Wars Collection. And whilst I shouldn't compare apples with oranges, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and SECRET WARS came out at roughly the same time. My adult brain has very different views on those now, but at the time, enjoyable though they both were, CRISIS felt like the superior book.

It probably helped that, by the end of the 80s, whilst Marvel's only big-screen release was HOWARD THE DUCK, DC/WB had given us four Superman films, a Supergirl film, and a Batman movie (two if we count the 1966 one). It just felt like DC was king.

So, for some of the reasons listed above, I guess DC were better for me. All of those reasons above are the result of an unsophisticated young brain and must be judged as such. I have very different views now about some of the above points, but at the time, they were what I believed. And I guess kids should be allowed to believe.

It's like anything, really. I view some things favourably today when I didn't yesterday thanks to historical context; and things I didn't have much time for years ago are better now. I am not just referring to comics here.

But, enough from me. Based on childhood perceptions, were you in the corner of either DC or Marvel?
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 10:25am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Marvel. Even tho Batman is my favorite character. 

I was never into DC until JB went to Superman and even after that his were the only books I followed with any regularity. Make mine Marvel!!
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Marc Baptiste
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 10:45am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

DC - in large part because WONDER WOMAN is my most favorite character in the world!!

Marc
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 10:46am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Even though I loved Batman and Superman and was a fan of the DC characters through the cartoons, in terms of comics, I was 100% Marvel from when I started collecting regularly at age 10 until my late teens.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 10:48am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

I was DC thru-and-thru -- until Marvel came along! 1962, the year my life changed!
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Bill Collins
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 10:49am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Marvel, i loved Batman and Superman, but the rest of the
titles seemed childish in comparison to Marvel, i could
relate more to the characters, such a Peter Parker, the
family dynamic of The FF etc.
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Trevor Thompson
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 11:06am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Marvel. The idea that I could go to New York and bump into Spider-Man really captured my imagination.
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Dave Phelps
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 11:21am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

My first books were in 1981 and my "formative years" were the early/mid-80s. I generally followed both universes and found much to enjoy in both.

I preferred Marvel's continuity and how they handled their major characters. With Marvel the major hero/villain struggles came across as life threatening duals requiring the hero to triumph over impossible odds. With DC, they were more puzzles for the heroes to solve.

DC's strengths for me lied in the second string and their more off beat projects.    
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Shaun Barry
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 11:22am | IP Logged | 9 post reply


As a kid, I was drawn to the TV exploits (live-action and cartoon) of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, "Shazam!", the SuperFriends, etc., just like anyone else, but for some odd reason that I've often wondered about, the actual DC comic books at the time (mid-/late-'70s) left me almost entirely cold.

The Marvel Comics just spoke to me on some other primal level... the characters, covers and artwork at the time just jumped right off the spinner racks and bookshelves.  Loved almost everything about 'em.

I dabbled in DC off & on during the '80s and early '90s, but I'll always be a Marvel guy in my heart, until I die!



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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 11:26am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I liked some of everything as a kid but mostly DC and Disney. I think DC tended to be aimed a bit younger for long periods of time, especially the '50s and '60s comics, but even in the '70s... but I'm glad they kept Shazam and Supergirl fairly basic; I saw my brother's Deadman by Neal Adams and a Fantastic Four by Kirby in the middle of some longer story and couldn't make sense of them. Around age 11 into 12 is when the Marvels grabbed me and it was a couple years before I even tried DC again (New Teen Titans). Marvel made me have to get that next issue for the very first time. So I was DC over Marvel first, then Marvel over everything, then back to some of everything, even Donald Duck again!

I never liked the regular line of Harvey comics though, the style or something formulaic about them put me off, but I did buy Sad Sack, and also Archie, Dennis The Menace (U.S.), Wheelie & The Chopper Bunch as a little kid. Boys had a lot of Mad, Cracked and Crazy, some had war comics or those b&w Warren titles, so I didn't buy them but would get what I could from them, and later I did buy Crazy off and on.

It was sometimes the art, sometimes the writing, that made an impression, so Marvel tended to have a certain quality to it's writing while DC had a more staid quality to stories but some good art, and Disney usually had high quality in it's area. Charlton had a low-budget but approachable quality, and i also liked the '70s cover paper quality best! :^)
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 11:30am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

This is such a question that relates to when one's childhood was! Mr. Byrne very obviously would have been a DC person... because Marvel simply didn't have super heroes until Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. 

A lot of our friends here started reading books in the 80s, and it seemed that Marvel owned the market at that time... superior art, writing, and it seemed that they really did make a better book. (At that time, I was equally DC and Marvel.)

When I started collecting, in the late 60s, I was purely in DC's corner. The few Marvel books I looked at had very complicated stories, emotional concepts, and - worst of all - the stories were longer than one issue. I was fine with a long story, or even a continued story occasionally (much as I hated them.) But I was in for buying a book, reading a story or two, and that was that.
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 24 June 2018 at 11:49am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I was first into DC because the "Superman" and "Batman" TV shows, and the Filmation cartoons, got to me first, before I was a reader. I loved all the DC characters. My first comicbooks featured Batman -- definitely my favorite DC character, and at times my favorite of all.

But when I discovered through reprints the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, that was it for me -- a total switch. I still loved the DC characters, but the actual Marvel comicbooks were beyond love!

 
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