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?
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Last edited by roughrider on Jul 9th, 2007 at 05:51 PM
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, [ie. make money].
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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).
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.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Have DC & Marvel become too alike?
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
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Jul 9th, 2007 05:48 PM
