The Difference Between Marvel and DC

Female Marvel characters who have had their own books: Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Squirrel Girl, the Wasp (Nadia van Dyne), Moon Girl, Black Cat, Storm, She-Hulk, Gamora, Elektra, Jessica Jones, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Valkyrie, Jean Grey, Silver Sable, America Chavez, Shuri, Mockingbird, Domino, Angela, Ironheart, Magik, Gwenpool, Thor (Jane Foster), Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Mystique, X-23, Dazzler, Red She-Hulk, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Silk, Hellcat, Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker), Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon).

Female DC characters who have had their own books: Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Catwoman, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Black Canary, Starfire, Mera, Hawkgirl, Supergirl, Batwoman, Raven, Zatanna, Huntress, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Vixen, Amethyst, Katana, Power Girl, Stargirl.

Yeah, Marvel wins no contest. It's just that the DC characters have been around longer, so Wonder Woman and Black Canary are more well known.

Edited by alliterator on Jun 18th 2019 at 7:58:21 AM

Also more issues with fewer characters published than Marvel has. Longevity and long investment in female characters is more constant with DC than Marvel historically.

Only in the case of Wonder Woman. No other female superhero has had their own book for a long amount of time. (Hell, Batgirl never got her own book until Cassandra Cain.)

Wonder Woman has had over 500 comics appearances which alone is greater than all those Marvel female hero titles combined.

Catwoman has had multiple solo titles that go over 200 comics.

Supergirl is also in the high 200-300 range.

Birds of Prey also 200 issues.

Harley Quinn has more than 100 issues across 2 series.

Again, all of those except Wonder Woman are recent. Supergirl had one comic in the '80s that was because of her movie, but it didn't last long. Catwoman only got her own comic in the '90s, same with Batgirl.

Oh and the only reason that they kept publishing Wonder Woman continuously is because they had to or else they would lose the license.

Hey, I had this question for a while, but what does make Tiny Titans and Mini Marvels different, aside of the obvious “mostly only sidekicks” and “all heroes” and the release date?

Facepalm

Edited by JTTWlover on Jul 21st 2019 at 10:33:26 AM

If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

• Tiny Titans is mostly only the Titans and other sidekicks.
• Mini Marvels is all of Marvel's heroes.
• The release date.
• The writer and artist are also different.

I think the biggest fundamental differences come down to when the core of their respective Universes were created.

Golden Age characters tend to be relatively simple archetypes, with each character being based on a basic central conceit. (Superman is really strong and can "leap buildings in a single bound", works at a newspaper, has a girlfriend, etc). Everything else that we associate with the character came later (in the cartoons, radio shows, comics, etc), and was built around that.

In contrast, Silver Age characters, especially Marvel characters as created by Lee/Kirby/Ditko etc, tended to be much more distinctive and have their own unique worlds and voices right from the beginning. Stan also created a lot of his characters to play with and deconstruct a lot of the superhero tropes of the time, which had been well established by then.

Compare Action Comics Number One to Amazing Fantasy 15.

Also, very unrelated, but does this sound familiar to anyone?

Edited by megaeliz on Feb 16th 2020 at 10:47:04 AM

Maybe that's how they started, but these days there doesn't seem to be much difference between a given character from Marvel or DC. Even back in the 90's you had Aquaman The Barbarian and Dirty Ollie.

Not that it isn't true. I just read one of Captain Marvel's early stories from his Fawcett days and he's as simple a character as you can get. He still has certain characteristics that would be expanded into a full character later on, but he wasn't much more than 'The Hero'. Whereas Spiderman and most of the rest were fully formed upon their inception, or close to it.

Edited by kkhohoho on Sep 9th 2019 at 2:41:27 PM

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around

I mean, 1) that was Fawcett Comics, not DC and 2) that was the Golden Age, not the Silver Age, when Spider-Man and most other Marvel superheroes first appeared.

You really have to compare like-to-like, so compare Fawcett's Captain Marvel to Timely's Captain America to National's Superman.

Fine. I actually read the first appearance of SA!Hawkman today which came out the same year as Fantastic Four, and compared to even Marvel's earliest stuff (as in once they became Marvel), it's still a bit behind. The art helps elevates it, but the Hawks are still very much 'The Heroes', even if they do have a bit more attention and nuance than the Big Red Cheese.

Edited by kkhohoho on Sep 9th 2019 at 7:49:53 AM

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around