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DC vs Marvel as a kid
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76 posts in this topic

When I was a kid I only bought DC.   I had a couple Marvel books, and the stories were always continued.  I didnt get to buy comics that often so it was pointless and traumatizing to have a book with no ending.  The few DC books that had a continued story traumatized me.  I always wondered what happened.  The Aquaman where Mera got kidnapped and the World's Finest where Superman lost his powers and became Nova stand out.   I wonder if the Marvel fans were mostly kids who got to buy comics every month.

Edited by kav
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I kind of really took off on Marvel in 1972, and yeah, I hunted them down relentlessly each month.

I was mostly just buying DC stuff that were just starting, like the Kirby trilogy, etc.  Oh, and Kamandi was one of my faves - I don't remember, but wasn't that a big sprawling continuous story?

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4 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

I kind of really took off on Marvel in 1972, and yeah, I hunted them down relentlessly each month.

I was mostly just buying DC stuff that were just starting, like the Kirby trilogy, etc.  Oh, and Kamandi was one of my faves - I don't remember, but wasn't that a big sprawling continuous story?

Yes but I was almost an adult by then.  Also, I didnt like the way Kirby drew so would not have bought them.  I loved Jimmy Olsen and when Kirby took over I was depressed.  

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I never thought about it from that perspective before.  Quite possible. I would buy some Marvels, but only an issue, here and there, and so the continued story aspect might've stopped me connecting to them as much as I did with DCs. 

When I first started reading comics, around 8 or 9 years old, it was primarily DCs, just before and, very luckily, during the classic 100 page era, along with a small number of Marvels. At the time, distribution of Marvels to the UK was very patchy, and a title I'd been following would suddenly, unexpectedly, disappear from the racks; problematic if it was a multi-part Marvel epic, whereas DCs didn't really suffer from this irritating problem.  One reason I never read Starlin's classic Captain Marvel / Thanos in its entirety until much later.

That said, I completely switched polarity in the late 70s, once imported cent copies were more widely available, I was older, and so more complex, extended narratives such as the Claremont and Byrne X-Men saga became more appealing, and no longer quite so daunting to complete runs of.

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6 minutes ago, kav said:

...   I wonder if the Marvel fans were mostly kids who got to buy comics every month.

My classmates and other kids I met who thru the enjoyment of collecting comic books were all DC crazy as they preferred the issue story to end.  I was one of only a few Marvel fans in my neighborhood that enjoyed the continuing cliffhanger storytelling.  Similar to Prince Valiant and Steve Canyon in the Sunday Funnies where I couldn't wait for next week's reveal, serial stories published in monthly installments appealed to me more for the adrenaline anticipation of what was going to happen to my hero the next issue. :ohnoez:

 

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Strangely enough I became a big Spider man fan after they started re running the cartoon in 1975.  Also a comic shop opened so I could get every issue, as well as back issues.  I still bought DC, but was mostly interested in Marvel.  My buddy had every issue of Avenges that he let me borrow.  He did not take good care of his comics however so the books were ragged.  From him I became interested in Barry Smith and Conan as well as Jim Starlin.  That was when I started paying attention to artists.

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2 minutes ago, Mr.TawkyTawny said:

My classmates and other kids I met who thru the enjoyment of collecting comic books were all DC crazy as they preferred the issue story to end.  I was one of only a few Marvel fans in my neighborhood that enjoyed the continuing cliffhanger storytelling.  Similar to Prince Valiant and Steve Canyon in the Sunday Funnies where I couldn't wait for next week's reveal, serial stories published in monthly installments appealed to me more for the adrenaline anticipation of what was going to happen to my hero the next issue. :ohnoez:

 

I never met another kid who read comics till 12th grade.  as a child I sorta thought I was the only kid who read comics.

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My dad bought me comics every week from 1975-1978. He was a DC guy, so he rarely missed JLA, Superman, Batman, GL/GA etc.  He was much spottier with Marvel and he hated the X-Men so I only got about 2 out of every five UXM. I slightly preferred marvel, but really loved both almost equally.

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By 1971 I was able to buy comics every month but I completely ignored Marvels.  Man i loved them 25c DC giants every month-often with the Neal Adams cover.  Since I could buy any comic I wanted by then I started buying the Strange Adventures and really liked the Sci Fi stories.  

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3 minutes ago, KirbyJack said:

All Marvel as a tyke.

The first comic I ever bought with my own money was Marvel SuperHeroes 45, a reprint of Tales To Astonish 90. Neither story had a conclusion, and both heroes lost the fight!

Didn't bother me a bit. 

jaw-dropping.gif

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When I was really little I grew up reading my uncles old comics that were a mix of 80s DC & Marvel. I liked the characters in the Marvel comics (particularly Spider-man) more. So once I was old enough to realize there was a distinction between DC and Marvel Comics I would stick to Marvel except for the odd DC comic that caught my eye. Any of the DC comics I did read, (Superman in particular) were always so boring. 

Honestly I still lean heavily towards Marvel, but I am more open to DC now and understand what people like about them. I even read the odd one from time to time. Snyders Batman is great, and I really dug the first 10 or so issues of the New 52 Flash but then I got bored of it.  

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2 minutes ago, Shawnismaximus said:

When I was really little I grew up reading my uncles old comics that were a mix of 80s DC & Marvel. I liked the characters in the Marvel comics (particularly Spider-man) more. So once I was old enough to realize there was a distinction between DC and Marvel Comics I would stick to Marvel except for the odd DC comic that caught my eye. Any of the DC comics I did read, (Superman in particular) were always so boring. 

Honestly I still lean heavily towards Marvel, but I am more open to DC now and understand what people like about them. I even read the odd one from time to time. Snyders Batman is great, and I really dug the first 10 or so issues of the New 52 Flash but then I got bored of it.  

My favorite DCs are the Curt Swan world's finest and adventure comics.  Great art and interesting stories.  Usually 3 part stories instead of the DC three short stories per issue.

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As a young child I really had no choice. There were no Marvel super heroes when I first started reading comics. I primarily read the DC war books and sci-fi ones. I also liked Batman and the Marvel fantasy titles. Oh, and MAD Magazine, I loved MAD the most. Got real bored with the Superman titles other than the Bizarro world. One day, I spotted Spiderman #3. I picked it up and was hooked. I loved the fact that he was a real person like me. I soon discovered FF4, Hulk and the rest. Never got into Thor and had marginal interest in the X-Men. I was very soon trading with my friends for Marvels and never looked back.

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My dad started me off on Batman (as that was his favorite character).  I don't remember any of the stories, but I did go get a book about once a month.  Back then I was more concerned with art and characters so I didn't really buy up arcs...just whatever book happened to grab my attention on the shelf.  That turned out to be mostly Spider-Man and Silver Surfer.  As a result, I have some incomplete arcs/runs that I've had to go back and fill in the gaps.  I think it wasn't until Maximum Carnage that I focused on buying up the whole story.

I leaned heavily on Marvel as a child and that preference is still prevalent today.  However, I'm more focused on story now and as a result my current monthly sub is probably 50/50.  DC would make up most of my subs if not for Marvel's constant fresh start (so I guess their gimmick of renumbering is working on this poor insufficiently_thoughtful_person here.  :insane:

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I read some DC growing up (late 80s/early 90s), but was definitely solidly in the Marvel camp. I was started by my dad on Spider-Man and X-Men, and just enjoyed them much more. I knew DC was post-Crisis reboot so the decades of continuity before then didn't matter as much, but I think I just found it harder to find entry points to the DC titles. And having so many cross-title storylines (when they were doing that diamond numbering thing) didn't really help. Granted, the X-titles were doing that as well, but I was already getting and reading those, so it didn't bother me there, heh.

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1 hour ago, kav said:
1 hour ago, lizards2 said:

I kind of really took off on Marvel in 1972, and yeah, I hunted them down relentlessly each month.

I was mostly just buying DC stuff that were just starting, like the Kirby trilogy, etc.  Oh, and Kamandi was one of my faves - I don't remember, but wasn't that a big sprawling continuous story?

Yes but I was almost an adult by then.  Also, I didnt like the way Kirby drew so would not have bought them.  I loved Jimmy Olsen and when Kirby took over I was depressed.  

Yeah - to me Kirby worked on some stuff, and didn't on others.  I liked his old FF stuff at Marvel, and it worked for the new stuff at DC (for ne), but when he went back to Marvel and did Captain America and Black Panther :sick:

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