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Marvel vs DC Comics: What’s the Difference Between Marvel and DC?

Up to this point, probably we all have known the two famous comic brands: Marvel
and DC Comics. Both are giants in comic market, which take up about 42.82% (Marvel)
and 31.76% (DC Comics). Of course, there are other comic brands. Yet with the great
shadows of these big guys, unless you are comic enthusiasts, you probably only know
these two.
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These comic giants did not only succeed in comic industry alone, nowadays they even
have influence in movie industry with tons of Marvel and DC Comics movies each
year. As the results, more and more people are getting to know about Marvel and DC
Comics, including those who are not into comics. Many are Marvel fans, many others
prefer DC Comics. Occasionally, we like to discuss which one is better: Marvel or
DC Comics? But this time we have a far more interesting question: what’s the
difference between them? Let’s find out with us in this “issue”: Marvel vs DC
Comics: What’s the difference between Marvel and DC?

*Note: The ideas and information shown here are not necessarily reflect our
personal opinion, but rather, a round-up of many constructive opinions from various
comics readers and enthusiasts. So, enjoy!

Table of Content:
1. Marvel vs DC Comics: The Starting Point
2. DC Comics vs Marvel: Characters Theme
Idealistic vs Realistic
Mythology vs Mankind
Gifts vs Curses
3. Marvel vs DC Comics: Some other differences
4. Final Thought
1. Marvel vs DC Comics: The Starting Point

For starters, let’s return to history a little bit. Marvel and DC Comics’ beginning
point were pretty close, in which DC Comics first began in 1934 while Marvel
started in 1939.
DC Comics

In terms of DC Comics, initially it started under the name National Allied

Publications in 1934. DC was the results of the merging between National Allied
Publications and Detective Comics Inc., along with the affiliated All-American
Publications. During this time, it was named as National Comics, yet people often
called it DC due to the DC logo on the comic covers, and also due to the popularity
of its famous series Detective Comics. The company still maintained the old name
until 1977 when it officially changed its name to DC Comics.
Marvel

On the other hand, Marvel began as Timely Comics, created by magazine publisher
Martin Goodman in 1939. Timely Comics featured various superheroes like Human
Torch, Sub-Mariner, and more typically, our famous Captain America. From 1940 to
1950, things seemed not to go well for Timely Comics, and in 1951, Goodman started
his own distribution company and changed Timely Comics’ name to Atlas Magazines.
Then finally during early 1960s, Atlas Magazines’ name changes to the famous Marvel
Comics as we know today.
War and humor
marvel vs dc 1
A typical… Superman joke. (Source: kerrycallen)

If you have noticed, both Marvel and DC Comics began during 1930s, just before
World War II a few years. World War II definitely had an extreme impact on the
world, and US in particular. Of course, many aspects were affected, including
comics. As the results, Marvel and DC Comics shared a pretty similar theme: war and
humor.

In such a depressing war time, people needed something to lighten their days and
what can be better than a comic book? Therefore, both Marvel and DC Comics released
many funny and bizarre issues. In addition, there were recurring war theme with
superheroes; typically we have Captain America in Marvel, and Superman in DC
Comics.

Of course, after the war, both publishers gradually changed their main focuses. The
most significant changes were made during 1960s. With DC Comics we have Silver and
Golden Age. And with Marvel, we have our famous author Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
2. Marvel vs DC Comics: Characters Theme
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Right at the beginning, Marvel and DC have had totally distinct characters design:
Idealistic vs Realistic

Okay, frankly speaking both Marvel and DC Comics are unreal. All characters within
Marvel and DC are too… unrealistic and they totally don’t exist in real life. That
said; Marvel characters still feel more… realistic than DC Comics.
DC Comics characters

In DC Comics, most characters are kind of… take-for-granted beings with power of
gods. Here are several prime examples:

Superman: a super powerful Kryptonian right at birth.

Green Lantern: a normal human being but “suddenly” gifted with a super powerful
ring.
The Flash: a scientist who unexpectedly gained the “speed force” which granted
him extreme speed and thinking.
Wonder Woman: a daughter of Zues who has the divine power of the God of War
Ares.
Aquaman: a man who “naturally” has the power of the ocean, and later on becomes
king of Atlantis.

And so there are much, much more examples for this recurrent characters design.
Still, there are few exceptions, most typically we have Batman – a pure mortal, yet
can stand among the rank of other superheroes.
Marvel characters
marvel vs dc 4

“Looking cool!…. Freaks!” (Source: Internet)

On the other hand, Marvel features more realistic characters that can be partly
explained by science. And to for more “realistic” element, Marvel characters often
have a tragic trade for their power, typically the X-Men, mutants who have insane
power yet resented by the society (wonder if this truly applies in real life
though?). Some iconic Marvel characters are:

Captain America: a normal soldier enlisted in a super-soldier program,

eventually became a super human.
Spider-Man: How to make Spider-Man? Simple! Let a radioactive spider bites a
normal college student!
Iron Man: Needless to say, he is a genius scientist, a powerful hero with his
suits.
The Hulk: A scientist who was exposed to gamma rays, resulting in him becoming
a green, raging giant.
The entire X-Men crew: All X-Men characters are mutants (for whatever the
reason) and they all are resented by normal human.

Of course, there are few exceptions such as Thor, son of Asgard, yet this type of
character are not as many as characters we have seen above.

So, we have seen a great distinct theme between two character themes, which leads
us to the second point:
Mythology vs Mankind
marvel vs dc 3

Seriously, this guy is literally a godlike being! (Source: Internet)

This is probably the core difference between Marvel and DC Comics characters. While
Marvel follows the theme of mankind trying to achieve the higher power, DC Comics
mostly focuses on characters representing gods and other mythical beings.

If we look at DC Comics, we can easily see the relation between the heroes and
Gods, for example:

Superman is like “Messiah” or “Son of God” who protects mankind,

Wonder Woman is the daughter of Zues, ruler of Olympia Pantheon in Greek
mythology,
Aquaman is like a representation of oceanic force, which is more likely
representing power of Poseidon,
And of course, we can’t miss Shazam – a mortal but received the power of
Olympia.

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On the other hand, Marvel encourages the power of mankind. Most of Marvel
superheroes are all mortal, yet they thrive, they learn their power to become the
Earth protector themselves. Let’s look at these iconic heroes:

Captain America – “born” to become a soldier fighting in WW II, and later on a

symbol of America and protector of the Earth.
Tony Stark – a billionaire, a genius scientist who invented unique Iron Man
battle suits with power rival even Thor, god of Asgard.
Bruce Banner – a scientist affected by gamma rays and become The Hulk. He
gradually learned to control his power and become one of the most (if not the most)
powerful protectors of Earth.

In the end, we can see huge difference between two character themes here. Yet,
let’s not compare which one is better theme. After all, they are still fictional
stories for entertainment purpose. Which theme is more interesting? Let’s leave the
question to each of us to answer.
Gifts vs Curses
marvel vs dc 5

Tony Stark – he is a hero, but he is still just a man. (Source: Internet)

Previously we discussed about idealistic and realistic aspects, yet there is one
more thing we haven’t talked about which are gifts and curses.
In DC Comics, powers are taken for granted without suffering risks. Some may argue
that there is Barry the Flash who messed up the timeline with Flashpoint. But let’s
remind that this Flashpoint happened because Barry tried to return to the past. If
he had not done this, Flashpoint would never happen.

So what Marvel characters? As we mentioned, many heroes among their rank had some
serious trade-off. Is Spider-Man awesome? Yes, he is! But he always has to bear the
“curse” of responsibility. Not to mention he has radioactive… “seeds”, which
literally mean he can’t have “fun” with his girlfriend or even have kids. Is The
Hulk insanely strong? Absolutely! But it isn’t what we wished in the first place.
It happened to him due to radioactive exposure, which literally mutated him into a
green monster with mental insanity. And again, we have X-Men, they are cool! But
many of them had their powers through vicious and painful past. Furthermore, they
are considered as “freak shows” among society and they are often resented.

As the results, Marvel characters generally have to struggle more with their daily
life and society than DC Comics characters.
3. Marvel vs DC Comics: Some other differences
Location
marvel vs dc 6

The legendary Gotham city… sorry you won’t find it in real life. (Source: Internet)

Some people many not notice this, but generally DC Comics takes place in more
fantasy locations than Marvel. Of course, let’s put aside other fictional out-of-
Earth places like Asgard or Apokolips. We mainly talk about locations on Earth.

In DC Comics, we see quite a number of “fake locations” like Metropolis and Gotham.
These are two popular cities in America in DC Comics Universe; however, they don’t
exist in real-life America.

On the other hand, Marvel straight out uses real-life cities like New York,
Washington D.C.
Movies
marvel vs dc 7

Remember when The Hulk smashed Loki like a pulp? (Source: Internet)

In terms of movie adaptation, Marvel and DC Comics have fairly close amount of
movies and films, both cartoon and live-action. But since we live in current 21st
century, let’s only consider movies and films of this era.

Generally, Marvel has a… more funny tone than DC Comics. Often the time, Marvel
movies and films have more funny events, especially in recent movies like The
Avengers or Guardian of the Galaxy. On the other hand, DC Comics brings out more
serious theme throughout the movies. Typically we have the Dark Knight Trilogy
directed by Christopher Nolan, especially The Dark Knight movie which puts Batman
into an extreme mental battle with the Joker. In the recent movies like Batman vs
Superman Dawn of Justice, we also see a serious topic between Batman and Superman.
4. Final Thought

At the moment, it seems Marvel is more popular than DC Comics. Some people may
disagree, and they are true! Both Marvel and DC are close rivals in this
entertainment industry. However, in general Marvel still seems to have more total
audiences than DC Comics. That said; overall popularity doesn’t always mean better
quality, especially in this case.

This is purely subjective opinion, yet there is a “hidden” reason for this slight
difference in popularity. Basically it is relativity aspect. With Marvel, readers
and viewers can easily relate themselves more to Marvel heroes. Meanwhile, DC
Comics seems to be harder to relate. Why is that?
In Comics
marvel vs dc 8

“How much times do we have to see Uncle Ben dies again?” (Source: Internet)

Let’s recap: Marvel generally has a more realistic element than DC Comics. DC
Comics focuses on godly beings like Superman, Wonder Woman, etc… All of these
heroes are so… unreal in terms of power and origins. From our perspective, most of
DC heroes are so out-of-this-world. They are like aliens (well… some of them ARE
aliens) and therefore, somehow it felt really hard to relate ourselves to them.

On the other hand, Marvel deals with normal human with relatively normal life.
Marvel heroes come from normal human just like us. Though their powers are
abnormal, they still have human-like troubles. Like Tony Clark, he is a genius but
he has serious mental breakdown issue. X-Men, a team of superhuman yet also viewed
as “freaks” in real life (does this remind you of racism and discrimination?).
Peter Parker, or Spider-Man, is an awesome superhero but he had to learn
responsibility in extremely hard way (okay let’s be real… how many times we have to
see Uncle Ben dies again?).
In Movies
marvel vs dc 9

The Joker, the greatest enemy of Batman! (Source: Internet)

In terms of movies, relativity is not the only factor. In fact, we have to consider
the other factor: audience-friendly element. This is quite important since comics
and movies have quite a huge gap in terms of audience types. Generally, those who
read comics are more likely to be people who actually prefer reading comics. While
with movies, even people who don’t a thing about comics can watch. Movies serve a
much wider audience range.

So how does this relate to Marvel and DC films and movies? As mentioned above,
Marvel movies have more funny elements. This means they are friendlier for vast
amount of audiences, from children to adults. On the contrary, DC Comics have more
serious tone and topics. Although this seriousness is what makes the movies more
interesting, not many people prefer this kind of element. Especially in the current
era when people often get stressed due to work, an entertaining movie is still more
relaxing than a serious movie.

Combining with relativity element, which Marvel seems to be more relatable and they
attract more audiences.
Conclude

So, those are the differences between Marvel and DC Comics. Although subjectively
we think Marvel is more popular than DC Comics in general, that still doesn’t mean
Marvel is better or superior than DC. Again, popularity doesn’t always mean better
quality, and it can’t be truer in this case. Disagree with our opinion? Please tell
us what you think!

Still, we love both Marvel and DC Comics nonetheless. Each of them is awesome in
their own way, and we expect to see more awesomeness from Marvel and DC soon.

For now, thank you and stay tune for more news in the future!

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