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MARVEL AND DC: Feelings About the Major Comic Companies
I have to give props, first, to Marvel and DC. They gave us some of the most iconic characters in the media today. You all know them. They gave us major crossovers (I love crossovers when they make sense and tell a story and aren't just done for the sake of a crossover). Major plots and storytelling and some of the greatest artists and art the world has ever seen in a book.
Since DC had the live action series THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (which started in the 1950s and ran continuously throughout the next forty years) and, of course, the iconic series BATMAN (which started in 1966 and ran continuously throughout the 60s and 70s, and, then, after that, on and off for almost fifty years), I tended to favor DC. I was young when these series aired and, of course, as a kid, was given comic books to read from both companies but more from DC.
By contrast, Marvel had few series on TV that lasted very long. There was one series that had a revolving set of Marvel superheroes in jerky, so called animation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marvel_Super_Heroes
The personalities of the characters did not come through and the stories were simplistic and, frankly, boring. Plus, when you really got into one character, another would soon be on in their stories. You were never really guaranteed you would see your favorites, or, least, that is how it felt. It was mostly, awful. Don't get me wrong, Marvel had some fantastic side titles, comic wise, including monster titles but for some reason, I just could not get into their shows or their main titles, while thinking all of them were great ideas.
One thing they did have was the amazing SPIDERMAN animated cartoon that started in the 60s (1967) and which had many episodes, many well done. This box set has them all: http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-67-Collection-Animated-Set/dp/B0001I55O2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1451317869&sr=8-4&keywords=amazing+spiderman+tv
The music is positively fantastic, the voice acting wonderful, and the plots, while varying, were interesting and different as well as engaging. It's hard to imagine today that this was just about all they had until the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno THE INCREDIBLE HULK in the very late 70s and early 80s. Another fantastic series with wonderful music and acting. http://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Hulk-Complete-Bill-Bixby/dp/B001ECDVH2/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1451318005&sr=8-11&keywords=the+incredible+hulk+bill+Bixby
Why is it hard to imagine? Because, today, there are so many Marvel movies (and I think their movies far outshine the DC movies in positive tones, plot, dialog, and interaction between the characters. After a stunning three movie set about Spiderman (Tobey IS Spiderman and I won't get into everything that was wrong with the first Andrew Garfield Spiderman movie---suffering to say it was horrible) ...
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Set-Tobey-Maguire/dp/B00520L1D8/ref=tmm_dvd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1451318196&sr=1-1
Marvel went all dark on us and their X MEN movies seemed to tell us that friendship was bad and non existent. I really hate the messages the second and third X MEN movies give us. Everyone betrays everyone else or kills their friends or both. It's not a good trilogy. And that message seemed to continue in the prequels.
http://www.amazon.com/X-Men-Wolverine-Collection-X2-Origins/dp/B00FLML7HW/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1451318339&sr=1-1&keywords=x+men+collection
While I really liked the Wolverine character in the first X MEN movie and I liked his first movie, where others did not, I didn't think much of his recent movie series.
In any event, Marvel has come alive in the 2000s and given us movie series such as THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRONMAN, THE AVENGERS, and ANTMAN.
But before all that, DC was much more alive to me and much more colorful and positive.
http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Superman-Collection-George-Reeves/dp/B000HWZ4GQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1451318824&sr=1-1&keywords=the+adventures+of+superman+complete+series
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Complete-Television-DVD-Various/dp/B00LT1JKN2/ref=sr_1_4?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1451318851&sr=1-4&keywords=batman+box+set
and continued into the 70s with...although it was a slow burn for me, I really liked it when it moved the year the series took place in... to the 1970s ...
http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-Woman-Collection-Lynda-Carter/dp/B000X07SQ6/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1451318930&sr=1-1&keywords=wonder+woman
Of course later, both Marvel and DC gave birth to many other shows, most of them, fantastic but that's for another post.
Back to the comics themselves. DC did a lot of super fun multi hero crossovers which brought universes together to fight a team of villains from various titles. I found that fun and exciting, especially when everyone had something to do. Batman and Superman fought ever increasingly outrageous villains and monsters, went back and forward in time, changed their personalities to fight each other and had covers that cried things like, "Death of Superman" or "Robin leaves Batman for good!" For some reason, I cared more about these characters and what happened to them than I did about Marvel's.
I later learned that Marvel threw angst into their characters. This intrigued me and I tried to get into their titles but I fear it was too late. I just couldn't. I still don't care about their characters in their recent titles but I care a lot of them in their movies and TV series (although I really can't get into Marvel's Agents of SHIELD or Agent Carter).
Another post will be about how the independent comics of the 1980s and 1990s were very experimental, fully engaging and shocking to some extent, and how these are all but gone nowadays. Artists like Barry Blair and comics like The Lost (where Peter Pan is an evil vampire) were just two examples of the wonderful art and stories being sold.
Nowadays, DC and Marvel seem to reboot their line every five years or so and with varying but usually disappointing results. The characters I liked, change. The artwork is sketchy and not to my liking but more often than not, okay, but accompanied by tired plots and boring gimmicks (Robin's dead! Batman's not Batman! Jason's back but he's NOT evil!) and unusually unengaging crossovers or multi part stories across various titles (not to mention alternate covers).
I tend to not buy many comic books any longer, not even manga. A few titles spark my imagination, especially in the manga ranges but, alas, most of them don't stay interesting enough for me to continues. I tend to buy the TV (and occasionally movie) tie ins (mostly Doctor Who, of which there are some five different titles or more) but I have even given up on those. The Godzilla range, which started out so promising many years ago, has deteriorated to hell (literally as Godzilla went to hell in GODZILLA IN HELL). The BUFFY and ANGEL ranges I've given up on. CHARMED occasionally releases an issue here and there and the artwork is far superior to most comics these days, however, they keep focusing on characters I don't care about and straying from characters I do. Oddly enough in CHARMED, it is the original characters I like more. I liked the gay couple and how they were portrayed. Similarly, a fantastic storyline in BUFFY about a gay Slayer and his love was cast aside, possibly for reader response, which I find abominable on so many levels from all involved, readers AND the company. It was then, that I gave up on ALL BUFFY comics because, frankly, I kept collecting because I loved the shows BUFFY and ANGEL and these seemed like a solid continuation, backed by Joss Whedon. They really were not very good. I was wrong and I collected them for at least a decade and a half!
More on that another time. DC, thanks for entertaining me for so long but the friendship seems VERY over.
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