No Right Answer: Best Comic Book Universe Ever

[ANImaniac89]

I'd have to go with the DC Universe, I just have a much easier time fallowing it. Even when I miss a few months of books I can usually get caught up really quick. On the other hand with few exceptions (Punisher Max, Marvel Zombies, Deadpool) I have a real hard time with Marvel.

 

[James Hammond]

For your consideration, Valiant comics.

They are my favorite comics company with a lot of talent and some great characters.

Their universe is really accessible, and there are paperback collections of all of their ongoing series's. You always know your entry point.

Each book has a different style or an angle with the military thriller 'bloodshot' being quite different to the Sci-fi action of 'x-o manowar', Unlike marvels often interchangeable avengers and x-books.

their events never make you feel like you're missing out if you don't read the other titles. Try reading AvX without reading the tie-ins (it's atrocious).

They launch new books when they have built a base for them, rather than how DC just throws out new books to see if they sink or swim.

The creators stick around and you really get their stories unlike DC where writers are made to play musical chairs seemingly at random leaving a lot of their books in a state of perpetual wheel spinning.

if this reasoned argument is not enough to get your attention just remember; they got goat.

http://assets1.ignimgs.com/2013/03/26/qw001coversookjpeg-e212a7.jpg

 

[Lightknight]

Still no love for Astro City or Invincible's Image universe?

 

[lastjustice]

Make mine Marvel true believers. I find the characters of the marvel universe so much more relateable.(Cap, the hulk, Thor, Wolverine, Collusus are all chaarcters I strongly relate to for different reasons.) Marvel takes a character and super imposes some sort of flaw or idea on to their powers. It becomes the governing mechanic that means them go. The setting might be fantastic, but generally the characters in the marvel universe react and deal with each other like real people do more often than not.


DC, characters just kind of exist. Superman just is better than everyone at everything, and never given any compelling character development to why he is. There's never been any true hero's journey for him. He is entirely too powerful, and his powers are innately part of him to even allow for it. He's often a marty stu/mary sue as a result. You can't really say why he is who he is, besides well his parents just did that awesome of job...Okay sure. Say Marvel's resident paladin character, Captain America is someone who follows a very simliar mind set, but you can see how he got there. He had to earn his stripes, was bullied for years. He's seen what happens when good men do nothing. Superman is too far removed from humanity to truly ever grasp our plights to get who and what we are. He just has super humality because he does. He's basically space jesus, and is not a very compelling character because of it.

Wonder Woman is sent by the gods to defend us. Again her character really has no motivation beyond doing good because I was told to. Take the character who's of simliar origins to her, descendent of the gods sent to earth, Thor, you can understand why he is who he is, and why he wants to protect the world. (For one, like many marvel characters is a bit of a mama's boy, and the spirit of Earth Gaea is his mother heh. Don't mess with his mama.)He is an arrogant ass at times, and doesn't always feel like listening to laws of man. His father has made it a point to teach him humility many times because great power does require great responsility. I can relate to Thor because I have had my father pit me against my fathers in a simliar fashion odin does to Thor with his rival characters(Hercules, Beta Ray Bill.) then foten meddles with the results.

DC has characters I like, and enjoy, but marvel will always be my favorite.

 

[Jayemsal]

No, I wont do your job for you.

You two are the ones who tell us what you somehow find better, then we tell you you're wrong.

Fine, fine. Which between the two would you pick? Because we just decided the opposite.

I guess I'll say DC, so that my actual favorite will be confirmed.


I didn't tell you that.

 

[ShadowHamster]

DC has done the following:
Created an honestly amazing major storyline with Darkest Night, fixed up there Batman problems, and brought back awesome characters who were killed for really dumb reasons(Cassandra Batgirl, and Spoiler for example), and then reset almost all of it with New 52 anyway.

Killed off Superman and then brought him back in the next story arch. Killed off Batman and then brought HIM back in the next story arch.

Given some of their characters so many background stories that it's hard to know who they are anymore. Seriously, who the hell is Wonder Woman? She has been 7 different characters over the last 20 years.

Dropped their female writing staff from 12% of their total staff to just 1%, not because their books weren't selling, but because they were redoing everything for the awesome "NEW 52!!!" They also recently fired Gail Simone, the writer of the new Batgirl(one of their better books after this New 52 B.S.), and the original writer of the award winning Birds of Prey series. This firing was done via e-mail despite her book being in the top 10 selling comic books.

Marvel has done the following:
Made the decision to kill off major characters, and for the most part keep them freaking dead! Marvel Girl, and the original Captain Marvel are examples of this.

Had a continuous storyline for the last 10 years or so that has actually had huge impacts and major changes on the topography and history of the Marvel U.

Has advanced their character's complexity over time. In this video he says at the end that "Iron Man is a drunk" but Iron Man has been completely sober for some time, and the Iron Man story has moved on with that being an element of his past that adds complexity. He also says that "Bruce Banner is angry" but currently Bruce has full control over his emotions and is more concerned about writing wrongs his personality disorder has caused in the past.

DC has become somewhat of the casual favorite, because they have all the characters you think of when you think of comics if your not involved in them. They have Batman, the icon darknight vigilante hero. They have Superman, the iconic superhero(period.) They have Wonder Woman, the most recognized female hero. If you want depth go to Marvel, it has back history, and layers of depth. If you want to watch monolithic characters punch each other even though their powers would have suggested they could come up with more suitable answers(Superman has crystal computers he grew out of Ice, that hold his entire planet's history in itself. It has also been mentioned that his mind works faster, and is better at complex thought than a human's. Despite this, he punches stuff.)

DC used to be better than this, but DC burns me within 6 months of getting involved in any of their books. Think I'm done with em.

 

[dystopiaINC]

Best Comics? I would say Manga. Japanese Comics.

Sorry, but when you have to pay 50 bucks for a comic that isn't even 5 years old at this point, just to understand the story or to "collect" them, it is fucking sad.

Thankfully, Manga isn't expensive. I can buy 27 VOLUMES for less than 200 bucks. It costs 30 to 40 bucks to buy a single volume for most Comics, while I can spend 10 to 15 for a single volume. Cheaper if I buy in bulk.

I would love to read comics, if they weren't so fucking expensive for not reason other than people are stupid and putting way to much worth in a couple coloured pages of dudes/gals punching each other.

What comic that's less than 5 years old costs 50 bucks? If you're not a collector and just want to read the story, go for trade paperbacks. The pricing is pretty comparable to manga collections. 10-15 bucks is pretty much the standard for 1 volume. The only collections I've seen cost around 30 were hardcover deluxe editions.

The Deluxe Hardcover editions are the only ones they sell around here, other than the "singles", or whatever people call them. The ones that they sell for 10 bucks for a single chapter, each month. Also, the hardcover's cost around 40 to 50 around here in any store. Might just be the hell that is South dakota though. I can pick up a volume of any Manga for around 9 to 10 here as well. Again, might just be SD.

Yeah it's like that in Mass too. only comics i've ever been interested enough to actually fork over money for are the Dresden files comics made based off the novels. Those are pure win. I haven't bought managa in a while but when i did it was only around 7-8 for a volume, I walked out of Borders with over 3 volumes a trip for under $20. Plus a volume can be easily 4-6 chapters, one chapter in the American comics are the same price or more than a whole manga volume.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I am not a comic book fan; I don't have any.

That said, I am well versed in pretty much EVERY game/movie/TV show both marvel and DC have put out, and I got to say, it's a perfect flip of the coin here. I really want to say Marvel since I grew up with the Xmen cartoons, but you know all the marvel cartoons as of late have been GARBAGE, just garbage. While the recent DC stuff has been mind-blowing. Justice League slowly grew on me, Justice League Unlimited wowed me, and Young Justice is basically the pinnacle that all super hero shows should strive to achieve. That said, on the movie front DC has always had horrible movies, save for Watchmen and The Dark Knight, which were pretty damned amazing in every sense of the world. The current Marvel movies, while entertaining, are very summer-blockbustery and kind of void of any substance. They are very watered down versions of each story and character altered for mass appeal. Heck, the Avengers movie was basically just a bunch of stuff that happened. I found it very hard to stay interested because of how simplistic it all was.... I was hoping for some Watchmen-level of intrigue, but eh, got to keep the dumbdumbs happy to I guess. It's sad because I did like the newer Avengers cartoon, the first season anyway. That was so much more complex and compelling.

If I am in the mood to see boring, regular people with their boring regular problems (+ super powers) I tune into Marvel stuff. I honestly like their character design much more to, since it's less... well, "fruity". When I am more interested in moral quandaries, universe juggling and other intriguing problems the common man is not burdened with, I tune into DC. Marvel and DC both have their ups and downs. I would say They're equal.

 

[Revolutionary]

Deadpool.
That's pretty much it as far as I'm concerned.
I do like DC and some of it's characters.
But...
Deadpool.

 

[Firefilm]

Oh God, Dan, it's you who makes the graphics, right? I love you. I love you so much.

Yes, I do the graphics. And yes, I love you too. Glad you like the graphics! It takes the longest of each episode, so it's always nice to hear that people appreciate my stream-of-thought associations.

 

[ShadowHamster]

Then I grew to like this guy:

Then Marvel killed him and replaced him with a dubstep-loving annoying little teenage version that nobody wanted...

Well he's not dead, he's trapped in the Cancer Verse (a plot point Bendis and crew feel like ignoring) but your point still stands

To be fair, yeah, they gave themselves an "out", but every comic that's come out keeps saying he's dead and sacrificed himself, and nobody has explained why Thanos and Star-Lord are running around and got out of the Cancerverse but Richard didn't.

if it makes you feel better, i'm just as pissed about that

But we'll see. Marvel was hyping up the new Nova as "the next big thing" but his book is selling less than the prior Nova did at the same point. And, yeah, comic book logic of "no body, no death", but history has proven unkind to all my other favorite heroes. It took them nearly 10 years to confirm that Azrael was dead...

damn, forgot about that one.

Star-lord hasn't confirmed Nova dead, and he's the only one who really could. He's also been very hush hush about what happened with Nova and him in the cancerverse, even though the question was asked directly to him recently. This means to me that this is a story thread that is set to develop further.

That doesn't mean they will bring back Rick Rider, but it does mean that there is more to Rick's story still.

 

[ShadowHamster]

I am not a comic book fan; I don't have any.

That said, I am well versed in pretty much EVERY game/movie/TV show both marvel and DC have put out, and I got to say, it's a perfect flip of the coin here. I really want to say Marvel since I grew up with the Xmen cartoons, but you know all the marvel cartoons as of late have been GARBAGE, just garbage. While the recent DC stuff has been mind-blowing. Justice League slowly grew on me, Justice League Unlimited wowed me, and Young Justice is basically the pinnacle that all super hero shows should strive to achieve. That said, on the movie front DC has always had horrible movies, save for Watchmen and The Dark Knight, which were pretty damned amazing in every sense of the world. The current Marvel movies, while entertaining, are very summer-blockbustery and kind of void of any substance. They are very watered down versions of each story and character altered for mass appeal. Heck, the Avengers movie was basically just a bunch of stuff that happened. I found it very hard to stay interested because of how simplistic it all was.... I was hoping for some Watchmen-level of intrigue, but eh, got to keep the dumbdumbs happy to I guess. It's sad because I did like the newer Avengers cartoon, the first season anyway. That was so much more complex and compelling.

If I am in the mood to see boring, regular people with their boring regular problems (+ super powers) I tune into Marvel stuff. I honestly like their character design much more to, since it's less... well, "fruity". When I am more interested in moral quandaries, universe juggling and other intriguing problems the common man is not burdened with, I tune into DC. Marvel and DC both have their ups and downs. I would say They're equal.

Wolverine and the X-Men is not a bad show. Avengers:EMH was also not bad. Now they did do a season 2 cancelation of EMH in favor of some stupid movie tie-in line to follow Ultimate Spider-Man(which is god awfully bad), but DC kind of treated Young Justice the same way. I do love the Young Justice show, though, and really feel it died before it's time.

On the same front, the Batman Begins line of films was far from perfect, but probably the best live action Batman to date.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Wolverine and the X-Men is not a bad show. Avengers:EMH was also not bad.

I couldn't stand the second season of EMH. It had zero continuity so there was little in the sense of scope. The fact that they were able to take down galactus easier then most other baddies was also silly. But I agree about Wolverine and the X-Men; that show seems like a lifetime ago though, same with Spectacular Spider Man which I also enjoyed.

 

[Varya]

Even though I like them pretty ,much equally I'm gonna throw my vote down for DC.
The problem with the Marvel superheroes is that because they are more grounded, realistically flawed and relatable than DC is that when they never grow, they cease to be relatable and just become whiny annoying man-children. Peter Parker is the best example of this. The flawed young teenager he started out as was very relatable but since that was what made him popular he was never allowed to grow out of it and learn from his lessons. So he's just this adult who have been given infinite lessons in adulthood and responsibility yet never learn to grow up. The same thing can pretyy much be said about the DC characters but because they are presented as more archetypes, myths and Gods, we don't really expect them to grow. Their stand-still is acceptable because they are not real-
Also, DC had Sandman.

 

[Antwerp Caveman]

Best Comics? I would say Manga. Japanese Comics.

Sorry, but when you have to pay 50 bucks for a comic that isn't even 5 years old at this point, just to understand the story or to "collect" them, it is fucking sad.

Thankfully, Manga isn't expensive. I can buy 27 VOLUMES for less than 200 bucks. It costs 30 to 40 bucks to buy a single volume for most Comics, while I can spend 10 to 15 for a single volume. Cheaper if I buy in bulk.

I would love to read comics, if they weren't so fucking expensive for not reason other than people are stupid and putting way to much worth in a couple coloured pages of dudes/gals punching each other.

I think your local comicbookguy is just ripping you off, I've never heard of such prices. Ever. Look on eBay.

OT: There are some great manga out there, Monster is one of the finest works ever made.

 

[Rellik San]

As an aside I can't bring myself to like Marvel too much, sure they occasionally do weird pulp stories; but any company that has in it's catalogue 2 of the greatest super hero teams ever and doesn't use them aside from their single short runs doesn't deserve respect in my opinion;

I'm of course talking about the criminally ignored;

Next Wave: Agents of H.A.T.E. - I mean... c'mon, in the first issue they fight a purple shorts wearing Fin Fang Foom cloned bioweapon who loves to eat people as they are the and I quote "Elvis of snack foods."

Livewires - A government black ops project designed to take out other government black ops projects gone rogue, whom happens to be made up of distinct LMD's with unique personalities.

 

[LordMonty]

If purely on consistant story telling and avoidence of reboots Marvel has done it better on all account. It's prime universe makes the most sense... that is as a comic can, especially compare to the DC universe. With that said some of my favorite comics come out of DC i'd sit on the fence for the which is better arguement as both are cooland have there ups and downs in quality and so on.

 

[Sergey Sund]

Marvel.
DCs continuity is just too confusing, and its main heroes (especially Superman) are a tad to bland. In mayor storylines it's just no fun to see everyone fall into their pre-determined roles. The short series, and one-shots are very good, too, though.

There's also the point of "how does X treat their workers" and I must say that I'm really dissatisfied with how DC treats their creators. Marvel was one of the first to credit their writers on the covers, and only through that did DC have to do it, too. Before that, the people who made up our stories, our modern myths, were not even getting credit where credit was due.
(This goes back to the Kirby-era, and I could be wrong. I know that Kirby was one of the first writers to get credited, but since he switched between Marvel and DC a bunch of times I'm not 100% sure.)

But yeah: Marvel - more interesting heroes. The Punisher, for example. My fav.

Elfquest is great. But nowadays, what tends to be regarded as "comic" only has to do with American superheroes in capes and tights. I def. recommend it though. I have almost everything of it.

I love Image Comics. But I love even more one of their off-shot universes: Wildstorm.
It's pretty great.
Because Image Comics was founded by people previously working for Marvel. (DC was just as bad for the creators back then, they had no choice but to go rogue.)
The Wildstorm Universe has a Superman- and a Batman-pastiche. You could call it analogies or copies. Only they are more awesome, because they have the Marvel-flaws. Oh, and they're gay and a couple.
I recommend the early issues of The Authority. It is awesome.
It contains other characters, even more powerful than solar-powered, laser-eyed, flying strengthmen. Imagine an ex-junky with the power to bend reality.

 

[go-10]

damn that's difficult since I'm a fan of both universes, I mean one has Spider Man and the other has Nightwing so choosing one or the other would contradict with who I am and how I grew up I know they're fictional characters in fictional universes but
and sure I LOVE Superman, Power Girl, and Black Bat to death but at the same time I'll buy anything with X-23, Shadowcat, or Scarlet Spider because I care so much for them as characters and I want to see them grow and interact with the world around them, I could say Green Lantern offers a lot of space adventures that I love in comics but at the same time I get Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy which from time to time are way better than Green Lantern, and I could go on saying why I'm such a big fan of both universes but for the sake of conversation and since I have to choose one universe only I'm going to go with DC because of diversity in its stories. Marvel tends to follow one story per book that culminates in a yearly event that immediately starts the next one, so while all books are allowed to tell their own story in the end they have to answer to whatever event Marvel has planned, DC on the other hand gives freedom of story telling to each book and events are planned for when they feel right rather to a yearly hero battle; of course they have yet to give us the return of Cassandra Cain which is really annoying but I guess I can overlook that... for now!

 

[XavierPrice]

ERMAGERD! MY OPINION IS THE RIGHT ONE! And that is... Actually, I have no idea. Both have a lot of greatness too them, both have a lot of... awkwardness to them... To quote Movie Bob: COMIC... ARE... WEIRD! And that's kind of the best part. Each one has its own flavor, each universe has its own stuff to it.

I think Marvel's is easier to dive into, personally. DC's is a little too confusing right now for a new reader to just get in and learn. Marvel went through that, too, and DC has tried to clear it up and condense it, but it doesn't... seem to be working... Give them time.