DC versus Marvel: My preferences

Over on Reporting on Marvels and Legends, Calvinpitt talks about the DC dominance over the blogsphere. It's an interesting point and one I don't really have any theories/opinions on. I know why *I* primarily blog about DC, and that's simply because I like DC better.

It's a question of style and tone, I guess. I actually prefer 1960s Marvel to 1960s DC, but in modern times, I don't have much patience for most Marvel comics.

Part of it is the emphasis on characters I don't like. Wolverine for example does absolutely nothing for me. And he's *everywhere*. If I want to read about my favorite X-Man for example, I have to wade through the book and through every other character's turmoil and drama until I find a handful of scenes with Cyclops. (I am the only person I know who's favorite X-Man is actually Cyclops.)

In DC, most of my favorite characters are either in solo lines, or in team books that contain a lot fewer members. So I don't have as much frustration.

Part of it is tone. See, to me, Marvel is very revolutionary/reactionary/radical. It pushes the boundaries, it bristles against authority. DC is different. Where the X-Men for example are revolutionary and anti-authoritarian, the JLA/JSA *are* the authority. They're all about the ideals and the symbols: democracy, justice, et al. They hold up the ideals of civilization, or something like that. And me, I was never much of a rebel growing up. But the idealism, the devotion to a pure ideal even if the execution doesn't always work, that's something that resonates with me.

On a more abstract level, both series have the feeling of particular colors to me. Marvel's all bright and loud, neon orange, purple...a clashing cacophony. DC feels like black and white, with some grey, and dashes of red, blue, green. And the latter appeals to me more.

Finally I *despise* alliterative names. Clark Kent and Lois Lane are forgiveable. Beyond that. No.