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Cliché for the Day: Marvel vs. DC

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JediBendu:

--- Quote from: RobbieOC on 08 May 2008, 01:18 ---I've always been a Marvel fan. I find Batman and Superman to be pretty boring, and the most interesting characters DC has never get used. If they had a good team on Wonder Woman, I'd be real interested in it, but they never do.

DC occasionally does interesting things (52 was a cool idea, but was just too much of an investment for me to care much about), but they never seem to stick. You can't have DC without Superman or Batman. It just doesn't work. There's nothing really wrong with that, I just don't like it much.

--- End quote ---

Hang on, let me see if I'm getting this right. You don't like Superman or Batman, but you don't think DC can exist without them? Even though the two characters did appear in some capacity in 52, I think the biggest accomplishment of that series was doing interesting things with minor heroes, and renewing reader interest in them. 52 was basically the launching point for the new Booster Gold series, if I'm remembering correctly, which has been doing well critically. And not just Booster Gold, but The Question, the former Elongated Man, the Marvel family, the Metal Men, Animal Man, Steel, Adam Strange, all pretty minor DC characters that they used wonderfully throughout that series. It wasn't just taking out Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, it was shifting the focus to other characters and telling a great story. (And as if to balance, the new weekly series, Trinity is coming which is focused on those three heroes.) It is an investment, but in my opinion, a very worthy investment.
 
And DC has done pretty major things with their characters over the years. It's just that recently Marvel did so much in their events that it looks like DC is unwilling to do anything interesting. But Batman R.I.P. is coming up, which is promising a big shake-up for Batman. And in the 90s Superman was killed and was replaced for a pretty significant run of issues. And he was depowered during 52, after all.

That reminds me, the Death and Return of Superman Omnibus came out about a year or so ago. A perfectly acceptable way to spend 70 dollars, if you have it (at least I think that's what I paid). It is a lot better than you might think, and I already thought it was going to be pretty good. But I thoroughly enjoyed it, and Steel became one of my favorite characters after reading it, even before his role in 52.

On a side note, yesterday when I went to the comic book shop I bought the Thor one-shot. I thought it was pretty good, and I might have to check out more of Thor, and definitely finish the story the one-shot started. Anyone have an opinion on the state of Thor lately? Is his current series worth getting into? I am genuinely interested in the character as well, if that's a factor.

0bsessions:
The funny thing about 52 is, though enjoyable it was, all those characters? Booster is the only one who maintained any relevance after it was all said and done. The Question and Ralph Dibny were both killed (With Montoya replacing the former and quickly fading back into obscurity), the Metal Men were destroyed, Animal Man and Strange have both gone back to relative obscurity, the Marvel family has been effectively ruined by Countdown and World War III and I don't think Steel has even popped up since 52 finished.

One could hardly count Superman's depowerment for 52 as it ran concurrent with the abysmal One Year Later. Sure, he was depowered in 52, but within a two month span after losing his powers in Infinite Crisis (Which I feel is where DC really jumped the shark), they were back.

Just because they CAN tell a good story without the big three doesn't mean they're not essential. If you ditched the three of them, DC wouldn't have a single viable franchise anymore. They'd have some good stories, but sales would hit rock bottom pretty quick.

In terms of Superman's death, I believe it should be noted that that was quite obviously never meant to be permanent. He was only gone for about six months (A month of Funeral For a Friend and four or five of Reign of the Supermen). As far as Batman R.I.P. goes, well, the jury's out on that. Face the Face has really been the only enjoyable Batman story since the One Year Later jump.

I'd definitely recommend Thor. It's got nothing to do with the one-shot, but it's one of Marvel's best reads right now. I'd recommend picking up the Thor: Avengers Disassembled trade first, though. The Ragnarock story lends a lot of background and understanding to what's going on and it was very good, too.

JediBendu:
Green Lantern's a pretty viable franchise away from the big three. And JSA (even though, okay, Kingdom Come Superman is in the current story arc). But I'm basically just saying that to be contentious. I definitely do see your point.

And even though Superman's death wasn't permanent. It was still a pretty big shake-up in the Superman universe, and was handled much better than many other comic book deaths and resurrections, in my opinion. And I think it's just fine that nothing that's quite as big as that has happened to Superman since, in my opinion too many big events just start to lose their meaning, (a lesson DC as a whole could learn, I suppose.)

And that's all I needed to hear, I'll definitely be checking out Thor, then. As soon as I get the money I'll probably buy the trade you recommend as well.

0bsessions:
How could you call that a shake-up? When all was said and done, he was right back to status quo inside six months. That's not much of a shake-up.

JediBendu:
I'm not necessarily speaking in terms of it has to change the character forever. Much of the time comic companies will return their characters to the status quo, especially DC. But it was a large, very entertaining and interesting event. I'm probably just using the wrong term. But it was an interesting thing they did with the character, even if he did get back to normal.

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