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Forums - General Discussion - The Comic Book Thread

Kasz216 on 05 August 2010
d21lewis said:

I love Marvel  but I LOVE DC.  DC gets critcized (not really but, I've seen it recently) for having characters that are too powerful.  I don't get it.  Silver Surfer can fly through the sun at the speed of light and not get hurt.  Magneto can bend the entire earth at its axis and flood New York City.  Sentry or the Hulk are strong enough to break the planet apart.  And don't get me started on people like the Beyonder, Red Skull, or Thanos who've had the power to change the world just by thinking about it (in previous Marvel storylines).  The fact is that BOTH universes have characters that are over-powered.

It's up to the writers to make the characters likeable, put them in challenging situations, and just tell good stories.  I think that DC tends to do a better job of this with their characters.  Plus, DC has the icons!  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash--these are the characters that people who don't even read comic books think of when the think of a comic book character.

And the best storylines of all time tend to feature the DCU.  I just wish they'd stop with their recent trend of storylines so epic that nobody can read them (Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Infinite Crisis) and scale things back just a little bit.  Nobody has $100,000 to spend on a storyline!!


Marvels main power guys just aren't as popular is what it boils down to I think.

I mean.   Marvel has Thanos.   Thanos would destory Darkseid.

The most popular 3 DC characters are Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman.

Three most popular Marvel characters are Spiderman, Wolverine and... actually I think Captain American oddly by the numbers.  Maybe Deadapool at the moment.



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Mr Khan on 05 August 2010
Kasz216 said:
d21lewis said:

I love Marvel  but I LOVE DC.  DC gets critcized (not really but, I've seen it recently) for having characters that are too powerful.  I don't get it.  Silver Surfer can fly through the sun at the speed of light and not get hurt.  Magneto can bend the entire earth at its axis and flood New York City.  Sentry or the Hulk are strong enough to break the planet apart.  And don't get me started on people like the Beyonder, Red Skull, or Thanos who've had the power to change the world just by thinking about it (in previous Marvel storylines).  The fact is that BOTH universes have characters that are over-powered.

It's up to the writers to make the characters likeable, put them in challenging situations, and just tell good stories.  I think that DC tends to do a better job of this with their characters.  Plus, DC has the icons!  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash--these are the characters that people who don't even read comic books think of when the think of a comic book character.

And the best storylines of all time tend to feature the DCU.  I just wish they'd stop with their recent trend of storylines so epic that nobody can read them (Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Infinite Crisis) and scale things back just a little bit.  Nobody has $100,000 to spend on a storyline!!


Marvels main power guys just aren't as popular is what it boils down to I think.

I mean.   Marvel has Thanos.   Thanos would destory Darkseid.

The most popular 3 DC characters are Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman.

Three most popular Marvel characters are Spiderman, Wolverine and... actually I think Captain American oddly by the numbers.  Maybe Deadapool at the moment.

Thanos and Darkseid have fought before, and seemed reasonably well-matched against one another. Though that was the mid-90's, and both characters may have changed considerably since then.

 

You had a Thanos avatar for like forever, didn't you?



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Xbbjf9s on 05 August 2010
d21lewis said:

I love Marvel  but I LOVE DC.  DC gets critcized (not really but, I've seen it recently) for having characters that are too powerful.  I don't get it.  Silver Surfer can fly through the sun at the speed of light and not get hurt.  Magneto can bend the entire earth at its axis and flood New York City.  Sentry or the Hulk are strong enough to break the planet apart.  And don't get me started on people like the Beyonder, Red Skull, or Thanos who've had the power to change the world just by thinking about it (in previous Marvel storylines).  The fact is that BOTH universes have characters that are over-powered.

It's up to the writers to make the characters likeable, put them in challenging situations, and just tell good stories.  I think that DC tends to do a better job of this with their characters.  Plus, DC has the icons!  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash--these are the characters that people who don't even read comic books think of when the think of a comic book character.

And the best storylines of all time tend to feature the DCU.  I just wish they'd stop with their recent trend of storylines so epic that nobody can read them (Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Infinite Crisis) and scale things back just a little bit.  Nobody has $100,000 to spend on a storyline!!

Marvels characters are closer to reality than DCs, Spider-man is currently jobless and living off of unemployment, MoonKnight is battling his multiple personality disorder and Ironman is rebuilding his company from nothing. Captain marvel died of cancer...yes cancer. Spider-man relates to everyday people more than most heroes, hence being jobless.



Kasz216 on 05 August 2010
Mr Khan said:
Kasz216 said:
d21lewis said:

I love Marvel  but I LOVE DC.  DC gets critcized (not really but, I've seen it recently) for having characters that are too powerful.  I don't get it.  Silver Surfer can fly through the sun at the speed of light and not get hurt.  Magneto can bend the entire earth at its axis and flood New York City.  Sentry or the Hulk are strong enough to break the planet apart.  And don't get me started on people like the Beyonder, Red Skull, or Thanos who've had the power to change the world just by thinking about it (in previous Marvel storylines).  The fact is that BOTH universes have characters that are over-powered.

It's up to the writers to make the characters likeable, put them in challenging situations, and just tell good stories.  I think that DC tends to do a better job of this with their characters.  Plus, DC has the icons!  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash--these are the characters that people who don't even read comic books think of when the think of a comic book character.

And the best storylines of all time tend to feature the DCU.  I just wish they'd stop with their recent trend of storylines so epic that nobody can read them (Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Infinite Crisis) and scale things back just a little bit.  Nobody has $100,000 to spend on a storyline!!


Marvels main power guys just aren't as popular is what it boils down to I think.

I mean.   Marvel has Thanos.   Thanos would destory Darkseid.

The most popular 3 DC characters are Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman.

Three most popular Marvel characters are Spiderman, Wolverine and... actually I think Captain American oddly by the numbers.  Maybe Deadapool at the moment.

Thanos and Darkseid have fought before, and seemed reasonably well-matched against one another. Though that was the mid-90's, and both characters may have changed considerably since then.

 

You had a Thanos avatar for like forever, didn't you?


Yeah, pushing down a kid during the amusing lowpoint of his career when he fought hellcat and had a helicopter with his name on it.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.the-isb.com/images/SSS-ThanosCopterBig.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.the-isb.com/?p=76&usg=__3f076WgsolUdO561MDtD8uFIkYg=&h=325&w=650&sz=82&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=q9BHogUfHq72wM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=234&prev=/images?q=thanos+copter&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1152&bih=654&tbs=isch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=363&ei=0U5bTI3RMYyksQOJvNiNDw&oei=0U5bTI3RMYyksQOJvNiNDw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=182&ty=28

The thing about comic book Crossovers between companies is they never go as they should because both sides need to look good and have their "untouchable characters".

For example, Superman isn't going to lose to anyone on Marvel, despite Thor being like the perfect anti-superman being nearly as strong and magical.

Spiderman I believe beats Superboy in a crossover too.  Batman beats the Hulk with a kick in the gut and a gas grenade.

Batman and Captian America fight to a standoff, and the best they can do is have Batman admit he'd probably lose if the fight went on...

Thanos did get a couple power upgrades since that crossover.  Though then he died, and was reborn... and really haven't kept up with what level reborn thanos was at.

At the end there though Thanos was doing things like going toe to toe with Galactus for a while.



Smeags on 05 August 2010

I think that the Marvel Universe fits much better together (ala the Avengers and Co.) than the DC Universe does (Justice League), moreso because the Avenger's stories seem relevant. Everytime I read something about The Justice League it's about some extradimensional threat bent on destroying the universe (coming from *shock* another alternate Earth) and... uh... zzz... gurgle... hm? I just don't see it being relevant to me, so I can never get into it (However, Tower of Babel was great... because it takes place on one Earth, and Batman theoretically kicks butt).

For the avengers, we have stuff like Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Seige which I find to be fantastic stories that incompass all of the Avengers.

Still, if it's one comic universe I love beyond all others, It's gotta be Batman's universe. Gotham City is wonderful to be a part of (although I would never want to live there, and I continue to wonder why anyone does. ) Batman is great, and the villains are ever greater. Besides Jim Gordon, I'm not too fond of Batman's supporting cast (Batman always works the best when he's alone ).

My favorite Batman Graphic novels are...

1. The Long Halloween
2. Year One
3. The Killing Joke
4. Dark Victory
5. Arkham Asylum

My favorite Batman Villains are...

1. Scarecrow
1. Two-Face (I really can't put one in front of the other, they're both so great!)
3. The Joker
4. The Riddler
5. Hush



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d21lewis on 05 August 2010
Smeags said:

I think that the Marvel Universe fits much better together (ala the Avengers and Co.) than the DC Universe does (Justice League), moreso because the Avenger's stories seem relevant. Everytime I read something about The Justice League it's about some extradimensional threat bent on destroying the universe (coming from *shock* another alternate Earth) and... uh... zzz... gurgle... hm? I just don't see it being relevant to me, so I can never get into it (However, Tower of Babel was great... because it takes place on one Earth, and Batman theoretically kicks butt).

For the avengers, we have stuff like Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Seige which I find to be fantastic stories that incompass all of the Avengers.

Still, if it's one comic universe I love beyond all others, It's gotta be Batman's universe. Gotham City is wonderful to be a part of (although I would never want to live there, and I continue to wonder why anyone does. ) Batman is great, and the villains are ever greater. Besides Jim Gordon, I'm not too fond of Batman's supporting cast (Batman always works the best when he's alone ).

My favorite Batman Graphic novels are...

1. The Long Halloween
2. Year One
3. The Killing Joke
4. Dark Victory
5. Arkham Asylum

My favorite Batman Villains are...

1. Scarecrow
1. Two-Face (I really can't put one in front of the other, they're both so great!)
3. The Joker
4. The Riddler
5. Hush

Yeah.  That's a pretty legit claim against the DCU.  Read Identity Crisis.  It was a truly human story that involved a lot of the DCU's most powerful characters and the enemy was just one person with no super powers (READ THIS STORY!).  Then, they tried to hard to top themselves.  Infinite Crisis-threat against all reality-but it was well done.  Sinestro War-threat against the entire galaxy.  Okay.  Fine.  Final Crisis-threat against the entire world.  Didn't make any sense.  Blackest Night-threat against the entire world AND everyone who died has come back.  Add to that the Zero Hour (reboot everything again), Underworld Unleashed (The Devil himself makes deals with the villains), and the other earth shattering storylines, and suddenly those storylines lose their luster.

But Marvel isn't totally innocent, either.  Their stories of late have been better but then they have their Age of Apocalypse, House of M, Heroes Reborn, etc. stories that always end up being a dream/alternate future.  They have their Watchmen/Incredibles rip-off's where superhumans are outlawed.  They have their WTF moments like Spiderman making a deal with the devil (the actual Devil, too!) to change reality and get out of being married.  And overpowered characters like Galactus and Thanos (when he had the Infinity Gauntlet) are abound, too.

You just have to pick and choose.  Both universes have their human stories.  Even Superman has some of the most down to earth stories you can find.  Both have their time traveling, hero killing, "we're going to change everything" stories, too.  But DC has Batman .  DC wins.



Smeags on 05 August 2010
d21lewis said:

You just have to pick and choose.  Both universes have their human stories.  Even Superman has some of the most down to earth stories you can find.  Both have their time traveling, hero killing, "we're going to change everything" stories, too.  But DC has Batman .  DC wins.


Quite right good sir, quite right indeed.



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FaRmLaNd on 05 August 2010

I only read graphic novels. So I like reading complete stories basically.

But I've read a few in the last few years.

Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Kick Ass, Sincity part 1, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns etc.

The usuals really, I love greaphic novels though I can't see myself collecting the actual comics.



EntilZha on 05 August 2010
Mr Khan said:
EntilZha said:

Comic were so much better back in the day when the cover price was 25 - 50 cents. Printed on crappy news print and available in every corner store it was great entertainment. Then the direct comic book shops came along with books on high quality paper and a cover price of $1 - $2 each. Collecting was fun until the hard core fans got carried away and bought up EVERY copy of "special" issues so they could sell them when the value went up. It got so bad you had to put your name on a waiting list to reserve a copy IF the store got enough copies. Some comic book stores would bag brand new first issues and sell them at double the cover price or more. That is when I gave up on what was a very enjoyable hobby. Lately, I have not even seen comic books for sale. Where can you buy them and what is the going price? Oh, I am not including graphic novels which I have seen in book stores.

The comic book industry crashed in the early '90s for the very reasons you left. Speculators rushed the industry upon learning how much old Golden and Silver Age comics were worth (not realizing that they were worth that much because people just threw comics out back then, causing few to survive and thus scarcity), and the industry responded by going apeshit with collector's editions and such, but the speculative bubble collapsed precisely because the industry over-responded (and since everyone was collecting the collectors' editions, they were worth little), found themselves overextended, and crashed. DC and Marvel both declared bankruptcy (i think. I'm positive DC did), and the industry has found itself locked in a niche world of collectors ever since, never recovering to the mainstream pull they had before it.

 

That's what the rush to make superhero movies is for. The comics themselves make no revenue, so its only worth anything if you can license the character out into a property that actually makes money

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! You mean the seven boxes of mint condition double bagged and backed first editions of the likes of Machine Man, X-Factor, Micronauts, and BattleStar Galactica are not worth $$$$?? Oh, there goes my retirement plan.....



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adriane23 on 05 August 2010

Can't believe no one made this thread yet (or have they??). I used to collect comics back in the day and I even have a lot of comics from before I even existed (late 70s-80s), but then most retail stores stopped carrying them and I kind of fell off on the storylines.

I just recently got back into comics, and I gotta say trying to catch up on the YEARS that I missed is 1) time consuming and 2) expensive. Buying graphic novels that collect entire arcs on Ebay helps though.

 

Also........

GAMBIT FO' LIFE!!!!



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