Four-Color Thursday
Okay, there’s a good chance the titles of the days may change. I am open to suggestions. But for now we’ll go with this one.
In the early-90s I had a very simple pull file at my local comic shop; it read: ‘all Marvel’. I read next to no DC books. I tried Dark Horses line of heroes when they came out and I tried all the Image books in the beginning… but the bottom line, I was a part of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. This is how I ended up with books like Darkhawk, Sleepwalker and other such gems. I even sold off all my old DC books for store credit to buy more Marvel books.
Now it’s ten years later and I look at the book I brought home yesterday: 52, Superman, Nightwing, Firestorm, Battle for Bludhaven, Albion and Captain Atom. The only Marvel book I bought was an Ultimate Spider-Man trade but I also got a Hawkman trade to balance that out. I even picked up the Alex Ross JLA figures. So what happened? When did I change from a devoted Marvelite to a DC reader?
Around the mid-90s I went through two lay-offs and really got screwed up money wise and then ended up buying a condo. Needless to say, my comic buying curtailed greatly. There were months I didn’t buy anything. So when I did start shopping regularly again, it was about the time the Joe Quesada took over Marvel Knights. I REALLY liked what Kevin Smith did on Daredevil and the new direction for the Punisher but the rest of Marvel seemed lacking. So when Quesada became Editor-in-Chief, you would think I would be on board completely. But it went the other way.
I found myself buying Batman because of Jim Lee and the Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. The quality of DC’s art suddenly started matching the quality of the stories. Where Marvel started going in different directions. As much as I liked Smith and Quesada on Daredevil is how much I didn’t like Bendis and Maleev. Daredevil has always been my favorite character and I just stopped buying the book. Now, I’m not saying that what they did was bad… it just wasn’t the Daredevil I wanted to read. But Smith was now doing Green Arrow and I was happy as could be.
So last year when DC did Identity Crisis and Marvel did House of M, I found myself buying more DC books and less Marvel books. Now DC is doing 52 and ‘One Year Later’ and Marvel is doing Civil War and Annihilation and it’s the same thing. I’m dropping the few Marvel books I was buying (New Avengers, Captain America) because I have no interest in Civil War. Yet I eagerly go to pick up Infinite Crisis and 52. I find for my dollar, I’m enjoying more of what DC is doing. Again, this is not saying that Marvel’s work is bad… it’s just not to my taste.
I think the issue is ‘escapism’. I read comics to see fantastic stories that will take my mind off of my own problems. I watch movies and TV for the same thing. If I want to see civil wars I could turn on the news or the History channel. I want to see heroes fighting villains not each other. I want stories of hope. I want to put down a comic and feel that I was entertained… not shown a four-color version of the real world that just happens to have super-heroes. But I sincerely hope that Marvel is successful with their Civil War just as I hope DC is successful with 52. Not every comic is supposed to be to everyone’s taste and at the moment, my taste runs more toward DC than Marvel.
So for now: Make Mine DC!
Okay, there’s a good chance the titles of the days may change. I am open to suggestions. But for now we’ll go with this one.
In the early-90s I had a very simple pull file at my local comic shop; it read: ‘all Marvel’. I read next to no DC books. I tried Dark Horses line of heroes when they came out and I tried all the Image books in the beginning… but the bottom line, I was a part of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. This is how I ended up with books like Darkhawk, Sleepwalker and other such gems. I even sold off all my old DC books for store credit to buy more Marvel books.
Now it’s ten years later and I look at the book I brought home yesterday: 52, Superman, Nightwing, Firestorm, Battle for Bludhaven, Albion and Captain Atom. The only Marvel book I bought was an Ultimate Spider-Man trade but I also got a Hawkman trade to balance that out. I even picked up the Alex Ross JLA figures. So what happened? When did I change from a devoted Marvelite to a DC reader?
Around the mid-90s I went through two lay-offs and really got screwed up money wise and then ended up buying a condo. Needless to say, my comic buying curtailed greatly. There were months I didn’t buy anything. So when I did start shopping regularly again, it was about the time the Joe Quesada took over Marvel Knights. I REALLY liked what Kevin Smith did on Daredevil and the new direction for the Punisher but the rest of Marvel seemed lacking. So when Quesada became Editor-in-Chief, you would think I would be on board completely. But it went the other way.
I found myself buying Batman because of Jim Lee and the Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. The quality of DC’s art suddenly started matching the quality of the stories. Where Marvel started going in different directions. As much as I liked Smith and Quesada on Daredevil is how much I didn’t like Bendis and Maleev. Daredevil has always been my favorite character and I just stopped buying the book. Now, I’m not saying that what they did was bad… it just wasn’t the Daredevil I wanted to read. But Smith was now doing Green Arrow and I was happy as could be.
So last year when DC did Identity Crisis and Marvel did House of M, I found myself buying more DC books and less Marvel books. Now DC is doing 52 and ‘One Year Later’ and Marvel is doing Civil War and Annihilation and it’s the same thing. I’m dropping the few Marvel books I was buying (New Avengers, Captain America) because I have no interest in Civil War. Yet I eagerly go to pick up Infinite Crisis and 52. I find for my dollar, I’m enjoying more of what DC is doing. Again, this is not saying that Marvel’s work is bad… it’s just not to my taste.
I think the issue is ‘escapism’. I read comics to see fantastic stories that will take my mind off of my own problems. I watch movies and TV for the same thing. If I want to see civil wars I could turn on the news or the History channel. I want to see heroes fighting villains not each other. I want stories of hope. I want to put down a comic and feel that I was entertained… not shown a four-color version of the real world that just happens to have super-heroes. But I sincerely hope that Marvel is successful with their Civil War just as I hope DC is successful with 52. Not every comic is supposed to be to everyone’s taste and at the moment, my taste runs more toward DC than Marvel.
So for now: Make Mine DC!
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