I've been called out a lot for hating Marvel and loving everything that DC does, but that just isn't true. There are things that Marvel does that I really enjoy and things that DC does, that leave me scratching my head. But, it's time for me to be honest with myself. When it comes down to Marvel vs DC I'm always going to be DC at the end of the day.
Now, it's not like I read every single comic that DC puts out. But, I read a lot more of their stuff than Marvel's. When it comes to Marvel I just can't get into most of their stories. I'm not saying they're written poorly or anything, most of them aren't anyway. The problem with Marvel is that every three months there's some huge event that takes place. Sure DC has big events but they don't sideline every comic in their universe with 4 issues of tie-ins. Why do I care what Squadron Supreme is doing during Civil War II when it doesn't effect them at all. Then on top of that, there's a 75% chance that after the events all of the comics will start at #1 again. The best part is that the endings to these events are often spoiled because while the main Secret Wars or Civil War II book will be delayed several months, other books will have to move on and reference the ending.
That's not to say DC doesn't do reboots. But the thing is, since DC last reboot, Marvel has seriously had 5 reboots. People may have complained about New 52, but DC just kept on trucking with it and eventually rolled it over into DC YOU, without renumbering anything. Meanwhile Marvel has renumbered for Secret Wars, Cataclysm, All New All Different, and Civil War II all within that same time period. There's nothing wrong with events, but Marvel you over do it by forcing every character and book to participate in every event. DC doesn't make Superman and Wonder Woman take part in Death of The Family, so why do I care if Tony Stark wants to talk to Sam Wilson about police brutality. If I wanted that, I would read Iron Man, which I don't.
It's not even like I enjoy every DC hero. Yeah, I like Superman but I hated his New 52 run and only read the Lois and Clark series with the pre-Flashpoint Superman. Now that he's the only Superman, I'm reading Superman again. I loved Green Arrow before the Arrow show, but I don't even like Batman. I only read his books when a character in the Batfamily that I like is involved. He better be thankful for Duke Thomas. But here's the thing, with DC I don't have to constantly restart with the character as we recap their origin for two issues. Sam Wilson never had a solo series until he became Captain America. Now look at him, series after series. It's rare a Marvel book even makes it to 10 issues now. That's crazy when you consider they publish almost as many books as DC and Image combined. I know I haven't really mentioned Image, there's no beef. They're like the dessert while Marvel and DC are your main courses.
On top of that, Marvel does some shady things I'm not really a fan of. DC doesn't hold a press release every time a minority character will be replacing a legacy character. Marvel had to wait until they could have a piece in Time Magazine to announce Riri was going to become Iron Heart. You might not have heard, but DC announced Vigilante will be returning this time as a young black man fighting against police brutality, that's because they did it without a press release, just started advertising the book on their site. Marvel does all these things to pretend they're promoting diversity.
Recently Marvel held a press release to announce they would be hiring three black women as writers for the first time in history. Meaning they would pass the two that DC already had. How did DC respond? Not in a press release, they had already announced that through their workshop Vita Ayala would be writing for El Diablo and Boomerang. People just didn't notice she was black until Marvel did the "look how diverse we are" dance.
Sure the hip hop covers Marvel did look great, but we all know it was a ploy hoping to bring in more black readers. However, can Marvel really expect black readers to stick around when they start releasing series like Cage by Genndy Tatakovsky. Where in 2016 Marvel is releasing a comic where Luke Cage once again puts on bell-bottom pants, a steel chain as a belt and the tiara to take on local crackheads. A big fall from leading multiple Avengers teams. People know I'm a huge Luke Cage fan, but I can't rock with this. On top of that, the art style looks like they're one step from pure racist caricatures of decades long gone by. Before you even start yelling that I'm just playing the race card for why I'll always put DC before Marvel, ask yourself this: Would I pay Charles Pulliam-Moore of Nerds of Color and Fusion to say the same thing? You know I wouldn't, everyone knows I'm cheap, that's against my moral code. I'm not saying DC never made a racial mistep, I'm just saying it's 2016 and they're smart enough to call their black employees into a room and ask them "Is it okay if we put Black Lightning back in the hoodie and afro, then have him beat up crackheads?"You can't even blame me for being distrustful of Marvel when it comes to them trying to push diversity. They still allow Ike Pearlmutter to have control of so much of their company. So, while they're dropping hip hop inspired covers, he's telling Andy Mooney about how all black people look alike. Mooney left followed immediately by three black women, who were executives. Did you know they quietly sued Marvel for this in 2012? Did you know Marvel immediately settled before a trial date could even be set? Yet they still let Ike walk around knowing that he had gotten Marvel sued in the past for his racist rhetoric and caused employees to leave because they felt uncomfortable around him. How can I not be distrustful?
Can we talk about the movies now? With the exception of Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man (debatable) and two Iron Man films, Marvel makes some good movies. But they all follow the same formula and I'm okay with that. I still think The Captain America films are the best superhero trilogy since Nolan's Batman. But I celebrate any time DC breaks a box office record whole critics say all their movies are horrible, depressing, need to be like classic Superman films and so on. I'm not saying everything they do is perfect but I enjoy those movies because they buck all the superhero genre films. Man of Steel, Suicide Squad and Batman V Superman, do not have happy endings. Marvel, Fox, and Sony all are concerned with making sure every movie has a happy ending. Even in Civil War, Steve breaks everyone out of jail and sends Tony a note because they're still friends in the end, plus they've got a new friend in T'Challa. DC movies end with "Can you believe this mess? What do you mean something else is blowing up?"
I think I finally figured it out. Marvel creates content where they try to make everyone happy and everyone can find some enjoyment in it. Yet behind the scenes, there are a lot of scumbags. DC has always been "Sit down, we're running this and you might get what you want." Think about almost nobody liked the New 52 Superman and they made us stick with him. Then they finally gave us the old Superman back. I'm not saying only great people work at DC. They could be sacrificing small children so Rebirth keeps selling, but if they do, they hide it well. Meanwhile Marvel tries to keep everyone happy. "We're killing Peter Parker...you don't like that fine Miles quits and we're reviving Peter. Wait you like Miles? How about we just have both and we'll bring back Miguel too, please don't hate us." I like that attitude. I think that's the reason that I prefer DC over Marvel.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
Follow @OriginalKingD
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