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There was a time when the companies felt distinctly different in their stories and approach. That started to change in the 1980's, when a large exodus from Marvel to DC started turning that company around, and the British writers started their impact, then the original Crisis.
Marvel sat on its laurels for years, riding the mutant wave of popularity, until they had to scramble and re-invent themselves as well. Now, a lot of the British talent works for them, too.

Are they now too much alike? Is it just perception? Does it matter, or should they be different at all?

You need to remember that Marvel and DC are first and foremost, major companies.

What do companies strive to do above all else?

Improve their sales, .


So, if one company notices something in particular that seems to be working for the other company, then they would be stupid to not try the same approach.

It's all about money in the long run.

I don't think they're too much alike.

Marvel seems right now like its gripping at straws as if it was a new company trying to make or break its entire business. They've got a bunch of hectic stories going on that seem to be just confusing their fans (ie Civil War, Annihilation, WWH, Skrull Invasion) and trying to win everyone back at the same time. No offense to Marvel...ok maybe a little, but Civil War was a disappointment lol.

DC right now seems the opposite. They seem to have a large quantity of straws to grasp at, but can't figure out which ones they want to. With the reboot from the Infinite Crisis, they could've brought it back to the basics, but they've been having a real beat down in terms of heavy hits lately. Right after Infinite Crisis, they give us 52. Right after 52, we get WWIII. Right after that, we get the information that there's Countdown, Amazons Attack, etc etc etc. Whereas Marvel seems to be having just about as many events, DC seems to actually know where they're going with it instead of just competing. Bart Allen's death didn't seem 100% planned to me, but most fans that I've talked to that are following DC's events all have the feeling that its building up to be a giant "IC --> Countdown" story, while Civil War, Annihilation, and WWH just seem to be coexisting rather than intertwined.

DC is becoming more like Marvel in that they're becoming darker and taking on some grit (Sobek's meal, anyone? Lol) but I don't feel as if the two companies are close enough to each other that you could say they've become too alike. We'll see what the consequences of all these events have to do with it, though. Who knows. Maybe a year from now, we're going to see DC more like Marvel and Marvel more like DC.

Barts death was planned from the start.
And WWIII was part of 52, not a seperate event.

Originally posted by Juntai
Barts death was planned from the start.
And WWIII was part of 52, not a seperate event.

You have to admit though , it seemed stupid that they make him a flash for a extremely small amount of time. Would have been better keeping him at kid-flash .

yeah i guess they did so IC could be an official crisis. but i saw no point to it other than forcing robin one step closer to imminent suicide.

I'm quite surprised he hasn't tried to off himself already.

In answer to the question... no I don't particularly think they're too alike.

NoFate already hit on my thoughts. Both companies are seemingly focused on blockbuster event after event. Only difference is the direction. DC has been telling one long story that started with Identity Crisis and continued through Infinite Crisis, 52 and Countdown. Marvel is more of a mish mash of random happenings.

Originally posted by Validus
NoFate already hit on my thoughts. Both companies are seemingly focused on blockbuster event after event. Only difference is the direction. DC has been telling one long story that started with Identity Crisis and continued through Infinite Crisis, 52 and Countdown. Marvel is more of a mish mash of random happenings. Yep.

And I believe that's largely due to the creative team.

Originally posted by roughrider


Are they now too much alike? Is it just perception? Does it matter, or should they be different at all?

Not very much alike....Lately....


In Marvel comics the heroes fight each other.

In DC comics the heroes fight villains.



It depends on what you like.

Originally posted by WrathfulDwarf
Not very much alike....Lately....


In Marvel comics the heroes fight each other.

In DC comics the heroes fight villains.



It depends on what you like.

So does that make Bruno Mannheim a hero?

Nofate: Nothing wrong with Annihilation.

Originally posted by llagrok
Nofate: Nothing wrong with Annihilation.

Oh I'm not specifically stating that Marvel's events are crap, lol. It just seems like they have nothing planned and they're just trying way too hard. Kind of like when you listen to a little kid try to make up a fake dream they had. "Ok, so, it started off when a bunch of kids were in a fight with some villains, and a guy explodes, and so every hero is against every hero, and the Hulk's in space, and uh..Silver Surfer is fighting with cosmic guys cause Annihilus..and Thanos...and a bunch of other people, see, they're fighting...and the Skrulls are taking over people...and there's a Thor clone...and..." you know? They've had some cool things in there, but it all seems illogical and way too coincidental. Cheap writing, in a way. Captain America's death seemed to me like it was really forced. Quesada and whatnot sitting around, rubbing their heads, trying to figure out why Civil War isn't welcomed as warmly as they thought it would, so they just go "how about we kill Cap?" DC seems like they actually know where they're going. Look at Rip's chalkboard. That was a year ago and some stuff still hasn't panned out 100% yet. But they have a lot of details in there that are getting somewhere...even stuff like "Don't ask the Question. It lies" foreshadows that Montoya most likely won't be a permanent replacement (thank God haha).

Annihilation Conquest.

Obviously they had planned something.

The only major similarity I've noticed is a desperate attempt to avoid the really big name popular heroes for events.

In Annihilation they explicitly left Earth out of the conflict and used mostly lesser characters.
52 completely got rid of Superman, Batman and WonderWoman for it's story.
The growing problem with the SinestroCorps has already been said to not be Earth's problem.
PlanetHulk (ok maybe not such an event) had Hulk as the only major character in the arc who existed prior to it starting.


Personally I like it.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
The only major similarity I've noticed is a desperate attempt to avoid the really big name popular heroes for events.

In Annihilation they explicitly left Earth out of the conflict and used mostly lesser characters.
52 completely got rid of Superman, Batman and WonderWoman for it's story.
The growing problem with the SinestroCorps has already been said to not be Earth's problem.
PlanetHulk (ok maybe not such an event) had Hulk as the only major character in the arc who existed prior to it starting.


Personally I like it.

Civil War-


Oh, wait, shit.

Originally posted by SpunkySmurph


Civil War-


Oh, wait, shit.

Yeah , pretty much every big name including the godawful resurrection of some.

Civil War was great to me simply for the artwork.

Originally posted by SpunkySmurph


Civil War-


Oh, wait, shit.

I was seriously unable to get past the first two issues.

Originally posted by NoFate007
Oh I'm not specifically stating that Marvel's events are crap, lol. It just seems like they have nothing planned and they're just trying way too hard. Kind of like when you listen to a little kid try to make up a fake dream they had. "Ok, so, it started off when a bunch of kids were in a fight with some villains, and a guy explodes, and so every hero is against every hero, and the Hulk's in space, and uh..Silver Surfer is fighting with cosmic guys cause Annihilus..and Thanos...and a bunch of other people, see, they're fighting...and the Skrulls are taking over people...and there's a Thor clone...and..." you know? They've had some cool things in there, but it all seems illogical and way too coincidental. Cheap writing, in a way. Captain America's death seemed to me like it was really forced. Quesada and whatnot sitting around, rubbing their heads, trying to figure out why Civil War isn't welcomed as warmly as they thought it would, so they just go "how about we kill Cap?" DC seems like they actually know where they're going. Look at Rip's chalkboard. That was a year ago and some stuff still hasn't panned out 100% yet. But they have a lot of details in there that are getting somewhere...even stuff like "Don't ask the Question. It lies" foreshadows that Montoya most likely won't be a permanent replacement (thank God haha).

Actually a lot of Marvel's stuff is planned out well in advanced. Like I heard some of the original concepts for Civil War (like the MU vs SHIELD) over a year before Civil War came out, and that's when they decided to release it to the public!
The Skrull stuff has been set in motion since New Avengers started and that as early as 2004, although its reasonable to assume they had that planned before the comic came out, so that's well in advanced.
Cap's death was always what Brubaker intended and he's been on the title for a couple of years now.

Personally I think there is very little difference in both companies planning

Sorry for the double post

Originally posted by SnakeEyes
Civil War was great to me simply for the artwork.

Meh, as some here would say, I'm one of the clearly stupid and unintellectual masses because I enjoyed Civil War as a whole

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I was seriously unable to get past the first two issues.

Oh please... it wasn't THAT bad.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I was seriously unable to get past the first two issues.

You're definitely overdoing it.

If you feel that bad about Civil War I'm surprised you're able to read anything Marvel has ever written.

Originally posted by batdude123
Oh please... it wasn't THAT bad.

I actually couldn't. The story held absolutely no interest to me. It wasn't even the writing or anything I was just bored by the concept srug

Originally posted by batdude123
Oh please... it wasn't THAT bad.
You're right.

I gave it 3 issues.

i gave 4 issues. okay i read all seven...but i hated it after 4.

I stopped buying them at 2... but I read them all.

well i bought up to the third then stopped. but i also read it all. Didn't like it after three.

I didn't mind it...

What gets to me is Marvel making the pro reg look like Nazis, and all the b*tching about it afterwards.

Originally posted by Validus
You're right.

I gave it 3 issues. I got all 7, and I was excited as the first 3 issues came out, but then it went downhill... and in hindsight, they shouldn't have let Millar do it at all. He misrepresented a lot of characters, imo. Millar has written like 3 good stories in his whole career, and suddenly he had a bunch of hype behind him because of Ultimates. And the guy is about as bad as Frank Miller about putting out stuff on time. Thumbs down.

They both have the same goal: MONEY!!! but for the last couple of years Marvel is hurting in sales and would do anything for a buck, selling crap etc..DC is at the top of the game. DC has better writers and artists,Marvel has shitty staff and that plays a key part in sales.

Charaters wise: DC has many more super people or Humans. Marvel has more low-mid tier and some high-cosmic high beings.

Imbecile .

Hurting in the sales? Have you seen the monthly sales report?

1 1 329.75 WORLD WAR HULK #1 (Of 5) WWH* $3.99 MAR
2 4 297.41 NEW AVENGERS #31 CWI $2.99 MAR
3 2 252.61 X-MEN #200* $3.99 MAR
4 6 247.59 FALLEN SON DEATH O/CAPTAIN AMERICA SPIDER-MAN $2.99 MAR
5 3 244.14 DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BORN #5 (Of 7)* $3.99 MAR
6 7 238.92 JUSTICE LEAGUE O/AMERICA #10* $2.99 DC
7 5 207.88 JUSTICE #12 (Of 12)* $3.99 DC
8 9 200.14 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #541 $2.99 MAR
9 10 197.64 INCREDIBLE HULK #107 WWH $2.99 MAR
10 11 189.32 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #4 $2.99 DAR
11 12 183.18 CAPTAIN AMERICA #27 $2.99 MAR
12 14 170.67 AVENGERS INITIATIVE #3 CWI $2.99 MAR
13 8 162.60 X-MEN ENDANGERED SPECIES ONE-SHOT $3.99 MAR
14 15 157.24 WORLD WAR HULK X-MEN #1 (Of 3) $2.99 MAR
15 16 155.97 WORLD WAR HULK FRONT LINE #1 (Of 6) WWH $2.99 MAR
16 17 150.60 UNCANNY X-MEN #487 $2.99 MAR
17 18 143.25 COUNTDOWN 47** $2.99 DC
18 19 142.06 FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #13** $2.99 DC
19 20 141.14 COUNTDOWN 46** $2.99 DC
20 21 138.80 IRON MAN #19 WWH $2.99 MAR

This is a list of the top 20 comics of june, 6 of them are DC and 14 of them are Marvel. Marvel also has now almost 20% more of the market than DC does, and you try to say Marvel's sales are hurting? Are you stupid?

http://www.newsarama.com/marketreport/june07sales.html

If you don't believe me, check it out yourself.