Marvel vs DC

[billd91]

Wasn’t Northstar (Alpha Flight) also revealed to be gay? And I believe Marvel retconned one of their cowboy characters as gay as well. All back in the 1990s, as I recall.

Yes, Northstar was one of their earliest gay characters, I believe. The story of him coming out was back in 1992.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I assure you I'm not. I understand the point fully and exquisitely, and comprehend it in its entirely; it's not a difficult concept to grasp.

I just don't really agree with it. I accept that that is how you feel about it. I personally don't find that list of real locations more relatable than the fictional ones, other than NYC because it's just so recognisable. Maybe London would have a similar effect for me, but I can't think of anywhere else that might.

So yeah, for me, it's just NYC. That's the point -- I'm describing my personal relationship with the fiction, not yours.

I grew up in NYC. I've been here all my life.

This page is from THE PULSE #3 by Bendis and Bagley
The setup is a reporter is going to meet one of her contacts who works in the city morgue. She knows where he's going to be because she knows where he takes his breaks, in a alley behind the building where he works. At one point during the conversation she asks him why does he keep looking at his watch. He just says: "Wait for it..."

Then you get this page.

I'm not daft. I've lived here all my life and NOPE no superheroes. But NY is a real place and when I was a kid as far as I knew I just wasn't in Manhattan enough to see THE AVENGERS or SPIDER-MAN. On the other hand, Metropolis and Gotham might as well have been Narnia. They werent real places and as silly as this sounds? It created a bit of a disconnect for me for a long while as a kid. (I got over it).

I used to work not too far from the building where the Quinjet crash landed in the first AVENGERS movie. Hell, one of those huge beasts from the movie nearly sideswipes the building I used to work in on Park Avenue.

My point is for some of us? This is where these heroes were created. Hell, I used to LIVE in Forest Hills where Peter Parker is from. They a part of NY as much as Grand Central or Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden. I get that it's not the same for everyone, especially if you don't live stateside or even in NY. Just needed to put this POV out there. A romanticized POV admittedly but a POV nonetheless.

 

[Morrus]

I grew up in NYC. I've been here all my life.

This page is from THE PULSE #3 by Bendis and Bagley
The setup is a reporter is going to meet one of her contacts who works in the city morgue. She knows where he's going to be because she knows where he takes his breaks, in a alley behind the building where he works. At one point during the conversation she asks him why does he keep looking at his watch. He just says: "Wait for it..."

Then you get this page.

View attachment 134315

I'm not daft. I've lived here all my life and NOPE no superheroes. But NY is a real place and when I was a kid as far as I knew I just wasn't in Manhattan enough to see THE AVENGERS or SPIDER-MAN. On the other hand, Metropolis and Gotham might as well have been Narnia. They werent real places and as silly as this sounds? It created a bit of a disconnect for me for a long while as a kid. (I got over it).

I used to work not too far from the building where the Quinjet crash landed in the first AVENGERS movie. Hell, one of those huge beasts from the movie nearly sideswipes the building I used to work in on Park Avenue.

My point is for some of us? This is where these heroes were created. Hell, I used to LIVE in Forest Hills where Peter Parker is from. They a part of NY as much as Grand Central or Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden. I get that it's not the same for everyone, especially if you don't live stateside or even in NY. Just needed to put this POV out there. A romanticized POV admittedly but a POV nonetheless.

You literally just made my point for me. You have a personal resonance with the depicted locations, and 75% of the time they’re NYC. Thank you. It was getting tiresome being berated for saying exactly that.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Wasn’t Northstar (Alpha Flight) also revealed to be gay? And I believe Marvel retconned one of their cowboy characters as gay as well. All back in the 1990s, as I recall.

Yup THE RAWHIDE KID for Marvel's MAX line in 2000(?)

 

[Ryujin]

I grew up in NYC. I've been here all my life.

This page is from THE PULSE #3 by Bendis and Bagley
The setup is a reporter is going to meet one of her contacts who works in the city morgue. She knows where he's going to be because she knows where he takes his breaks, in a alley behind the building where he works. At one point during the conversation she asks him why does he keep looking at his watch. He just says: "Wait for it..."

Then you get this page.

View attachment 134315

I'm not daft. I've lived here all my life and NOPE no superheroes. But NY is a real place and when I was a kid as far as I knew I just wasn't in Manhattan enough to see THE AVENGERS or SPIDER-MAN. On the other hand, Metropolis and Gotham might as well have been Narnia. They werent real places and as silly as this sounds? It created a bit of a disconnect for me for a long while as a kid. (I got over it).

I used to work not too far from the building where the Quinjet crash landed in the first AVENGERS movie. Hell, one of those huge beasts from the movie nearly sideswipes the building I used to work in on Park Avenue.

My point is for some of us? This is where these heroes were created. Hell, I used to LIVE in Forest Hills where Peter Parker is from. They a part of NY as much as Grand Central or Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden. I get that it's not the same for everyone, especially if you don't live stateside or even in NY. Just needed to put this POV out there. A romanticized POV admittedly but a POV nonetheless.

I work on the street that was thoroughly trashed by The Hulk and The Abomination, That Batman chased The (crappier version of) Joker on, and that The Suicide Squad fought pseudo zombies on.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Re: cities

I think how we interact with cities in fictional works depends on the individual. Personally, I have slightly different expectations between fictionalization of real cities- even those I’ve never been to- vs those made up from whole cloth. I think it’s because even the relatively unfamiliar ones are still going to be more familiar than those made of whole cloth.

I mean, while a lot of truly ginormous critters can be found in various sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction settings (Dune, Star Wars), real kaiju stories are almost ALL set on Earth. And I think it’s because a majority of the audience relates more to a critter towering over Tokyo, NYC or the like as opposed to how they’d react to similar action occurring on Tatooine.

See also alien invasion stories. I can only think of a few good ones- like Avatar & that one episode of Twilight Zone- in which the invaders were terrans on alien soil.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It depends on how much of the characters publication history you look at. A lot of characters- even (especially?) major ones, get rewritten. Multiple times.

The original Supeman literally leapt, and didn’t fly. Some versions of the character could literally fly through the hearts of stars and move planets by himself. Thor was NEVER like that., despite being the Asgardian god of strength, etc.

Flash? Breaks the time barrier in almost every incarnation. Quicksilver, not so much. There’s this panel:
View attachment 134282

Quicksiver never- nor any other super-speedster from another publisher- makes claims like that.

So, yeah, DC has a tendency to have more epic built into their characters at some point.

Thor actually can move planets by himself, IIRC. There was a video about whether Hulk or Thor is stronger that features it.

And of course in some comics Thor can open portals through reality, and is just...literally an actual god.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thor actually can move planets by himself, IIRC. There was a video about whether Hulk or Thor is stronger that features it.

And of course in some comics Thor can open portals through reality, and is just...literally an actual god.

I never saw Thor exhibit that level of strength, It all depends on the writers. In the original Secret Wars, even Thor was amazed that the Hulk was holding up a billion ton mountain that had been dropped on them. And in their own cataloging of their characters, Marvel listed Thor as being able to lift 100+ tons.

Adam Warlock has stated that he considers Thor as one of the physically strongest beings in the universe.[221] He has been stated to be at the 95-ton level,[184] then at 100 tons.[11][177] However, his Power Grid also indicates a capacity to lift well over 100 tons.[156][157]

But leaves how much more than that unclear.

Of course, there a couple other characters like that in Marvel. Besides the aforementioned Hulk (with no known upper limit), there’s also Guardian of the Shi’ar Imperials, who can psionically augment his strength to levels as yet unknown.

His dimensional travel ability goes back a ways- at least to the 1970s, if not the earliest days of the character- but AFAIK, is always limited by the requirement that he use Mjolnir to open the portals.

 

[Shadowedeyes]

Pretty much all the "Class 100" characters have gone way past 100 tons by a ton. Heck, The Thing is, what, Class 70? He has also gone past 100 tons at times. Probably in part by comic writers not going out of their way to find out how much stuff weighs for the cool story they are writing, but still.

Power wise nowadays I don't think DC characters outclasses Marvel's in any real appreciable way.

 

[Campbell]

The biggest difference in my eyes is who the characters see when they look in the mirror. Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Oliver Queen, Dick Grayson, Arthur Curry et. al. are all most themselves in their heroic personas. Their secret identities are their real masks. Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, T'Challa, and even Steve Rogers are people before they are heroes. Their heroic identities are part of their lives, but not their whole lives.