COMIC WARS!

[Kriven]

Let's get a couple things straight:

DC has the same relationship with Warner Bros. as Marvel does with Disney. Neither is a solitary entity anymore (and DC hasn't been for a very long time).
Popeye is considered the "Original Superhero", so if you want to play "Better Because First", Popeye takes the cake. If you reach out beyond comic books, there are pretty sound arguments for Heracles or Jesus being the first superheroes.

That stuff aside...

I can't say I really care that much for either company where print material is considered. I like a lot of the side stuff, like Marvel Zombies. I really liked Spider-Man Noir. The most recent main universe series from either company I enjoyed is Runaways, but that's on hiatus now and probably won't be coming back (not to mention that Marvel's other creators don't seem capable of properly handling the characters ie: using their "codenames" which were nothing more than a single-page joke). Back in 07 I got big into comics and liked the heck out of the Bart Allen "Flash: The Fastest Man Alive" series and Green Lantern Corps. (just before the whole War of the Rings thing happened). I also picked through one-shots like the Legion of Monsters Swamp-Thing issue, which is among my favorite books primarily for the Zombie back-up story.

Looking into the history of the big two, I really don't care about DC that much. Marvel put out better material for a longer period of time, and occasionally still does. DC has managed to catch up in terms of quality, but neither company is really "Up There" with their main worlds. Really, I'm having a better time with the cartoons and movies than the comics. Spectacular Spider-Man is something special, and so is Young Justice as well as the DCAU (eerrtgghhh why is Static Shock not on DVD yet?). Both companies have pretty solid video games on a regular basis, I just wish the Ultimate Alliance and Justice League Heroes games were still being made/a yearly release.

Basically, with comics, here's what we got: nothing good. Both companies are pretty much garbage right now. While cartoons have traditionally been a safe place for better superhero stuff, the crud is starting to drip into Teen Titans Go! and the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. I'm pretty unimpressed with the ways the companies handle things, and that's kind of pushed me out of comic books for the most part. Actually, entirely. I haven't purchased a comic in five or six years because of this noise. Compilations aside. I've been considering some subscriptions but... they're to Archie's Sonic and Mega Man monthlies, not Marvel or DC. *Shrug*.