Why do Some Prefer Marvel and Others Prefer DC?

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Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is an American entertainment company formed from the merger of Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. and Toy Biz, Inc.

A corporate predecessor traces its origins to the May 1933 publication of Western Supernovel magazine. That magazine was only published for one issue before the title was changed to Complete Western Book magazine in July 1933.a+ certification, The company's oldest character is Ka-Zar, introduced in 1936. In 1939, the company began publishing comic books as Timely Publications with Marvel Comics.

I like both Marvel and DC characters, though I'm not really crazy about the comics right now. My favorite superhero is Spider-Man, but I hate how the character is sometimes written. In the best stories, Spidey's a decent guy who has a lot of problems but who ultimately deals with them in a responsible way. Unfortunately, a lot of writers seem to think that in order for him to be relatable, they have to make him an whiny emo who cries all the time. For this reason, I tend to stick to Batman, who rarely whines (at least in the 90s cartoon) and just defines cool.

The funny thing about Marvel having a NYC feel and DC having a more Midwestern feel is both are companies based from the beginning in New York City. It probably comes from the fact that Marvel was really a small company at the beginning of the 60’s so most of the characters and stories came from basically two people. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who created most of the Marvel superheroes in the 60’s and were both NYC born and raised.

DC had talent from all over North America one of the people that developed Superman was from Toronto the other from Ohio. Even though it is true most of DC’s talent was also from NYC they were from a more educated background Lee started at Marvel in the 40’s as a teenager (Do not remember the company name then) and Kirby came from a poor background and he was mostly self taught.

People born and raised in NYC have the bad habit of thinking that the city is the center, the biggest and best of everything in the world.

New York exists in the DC Universe, though the geography of it all is pretty flexible. Gotham (Which is obviously supposed to be New York) is generally very near New York, frequently said to be on an island just off the coast of Northern New Jersey, just outside of New York Harbor. Sometimes it's on a conveniently nonexistent bay, but for some reason they've made a point of saying New York is real (Though generally unimportant), and Gotham is more like a weird twin city (Right down to its origins as a Dutch colony), despite the fact that some aspects of it feel a bit New Englandy.

Metropolis is even more confusing. At times it's another New York doppleganger, at times it's Chicago, sometimes it's a sister-city to Gotham. At present, if I recall correctly, Gotham and Metropolis are sister cities on opposite sides of a nonexistent bay, kinda' like San Francisco and Oakland, only somewhere in North New Jersey.

So basically, in the DCU, you've got three world-class Manhattan-sized cities within 10 or 20 miles of each other. I'll be the first to admit that's unlikely.

And I'm not really saying that Marvel inherently sucks, or is inferior, just that - as you said - it speaks the language of kids from the greater NYC area, so it's got a different appeal than the more breathless DC approach. Being able to go see the real place where the fictional Gwen died is far easier than going to the fictional place where the fictional Waynes were murdered.

Some of it maybe when you started to read the comics I started in the sixties and Marvel was I don’t know less silly than DC was back then. I stopped reading comics in the late 70’s and restarted just last year. Now I like the new DC comics more than what Marvel is producing but that just maybe that I do not like the retcons that were done in the 80’s and 90’s at Marvel.

Now when I was in high school I had a job at a comic shop and even in the 70’s Marvel in the city I was in was the big seller with collectors. But as you said Marvel was New York centric and I was in Rochester New York so with most stories taking place in NYC and the New York state area might have been a factor. Marvel had a more East Coast feel to it so it was talking the language of the people living there.

I notice that the new Power Girl comic from DC takes place in NYC and not Metropolis. Having real locations seemed to help Marvel in the early years it’s one thing for a story to happen in a place I know (I was born in NYC and spent a lot of time there) compared to a place that is totally fictional but is trying to have the feel of a real place. Having Spiderman’s girlfriend killed on the Brooklyn Bridge (Washington Bridge depending on the version) has a more emotional impact than from a made up bridge in a made up city.

Scenes of The Thing (Ben Grimm) from the Fantastic Four walking around and going to bars in NYC felt like it could happen the city has famous and weird people falling out of the sky so New Yorkers would probably think it no big deal after a few weeks. But you have to have spent time in the city to understand that.

That was one of the interesting things about the FF (the first comic I collected) that they had no secrete identity it was different than DC superheroes. Also the idea that Spiderman would be thought of as more of a criminal than a good guy was also more believable in the real world a guy in a mask usually gets hunted by the cops not praised.

To me Marvel when I was a kid had a more concrete feel to them than the DC comics of the day. Sometimes real events would be incorporated into the stories and that made them feel more real. Marvel was not afraid to have Ironman’s origin take place in Vietnam or to have LBJ or Nixon call the FF or Nick Fury to do a job. It made it feel like it was happening in the real world and to a kid or teenager that was fun.