Why I'm a Marvel Boy

   Well I just had to after that New 52 bashing article didn't I! Yes this will surely get the internet raging. It's why I have always preferred Marvel to their Direct Competition. This isn't just because I tried Marvel before I tried DC. There's a whole bunch of reasons and I hope there are people out there who think alike.

Mullet Superman VS Camp Builder Hulk

I was never this
cute.

   Let's face it, in my youth the Batman films, and cartoons were all the rage in the playground and I grew up pretending to be Mr Freeze using the condensation of my winter breath as a freeze ray against a dozen other kids wearing their coats, hanging by the hood, off of the top their heads, as a cape and cowl. In my none comic reading years the Batman was the only mainstream super hero I had any knowledge of. So all signs pointed to DC being more prominent in my life. I was very jealous of my friends having Sky TV so they could watch the 90's X-men cartoon and that's what made me pick up my first Graphic Novel a few years later in my early teens. They were colourful as opposed to the Darkness of Gotham. It felt more appealing to me. I wanted to be swept away with awesome stories not depressed beyond belief by seedy murderers and mad men.

A great read. Typically high concept
Grant Morrison at his best.

   The book I picked up by chance in Ottakars in Sheffield's Meadowhall Shopping centre almost a decade ago was E for Extinction by Grant Morrison (hell of a first comic amiright?). I didn't question where the colourful costumes had gone, maybe because they had been wearing leather in the films or maybe I looked past it due to the grandeur of the writing. I soon spent most of my money from my part time job on getting the full run of New X-men and Uncanny and needed more of a fix so it just snowballed from there onwards.

   And what writing it is, eh? In recent years the Marvel Architects as they are called, a small hand full of writers that direct the whole Universe of stories in one coherent direction, towards every other years big event. Each in charge of their respective franchises either writing wholly or plotting and working with multiple other writers. Now I'm not pretending that DC doesn't have the writers retreats to get together and plan the next years direction also, but you very rarely see it come into fruition. The Court of Owls in the Bat books for example. They had this great story and then each crossover was little more than a glorified cameo and punch up. There's more than that to be had from a shared Universe. I want to be able to read a book where, oh-no when science strikes!, you can go and knock on Reed Richards' door and ask for help, and not be forced to buy several interconnecting issues between two series that wind up been a mediocre story anyhow.

They make a point to advertise who's in their writing team.

Another great if bizarre read.
Indie comic goodness!

   The architects aren't the only ones given a chance though. It has always felt to me that Marvel is more willing to give new writers and artists a go even through mini series like Strange Tales, filled to the brim with Indie artists and as I've been following artist Jamie Mckelvie for years I'm just thrilled at how easy he broke into the marvel ranks. You can look to the films too, Marvel announced a Guardians of the Galaxy film at SDCC this year. An almost unheard of group with a talking Raccoon and a living tree that can only say "I am Groot", then I look to DC and see that the Rock is rumoured to be playing Lobo in a film. You know when you just sit there thinking WTF? Why? What are they thinking? Surely they learnt their lesson with that Catwoman flick? Then you just sigh and carry on with your life. It's clear who's making bold choices to build a bigger cinematic universe and who's churning out films to cash in on a few fan boys. But I'll wait to be proved wrong and I give most comic book adaptations a chance before fully hating them. This is why when people say Marvel have ran out of ideas, look at the crossover with the two Spider-men, they said they wouldn't do it and they've clearly ran out of ideas. I say, have you actually read it though? The last issue had Pete unmask to Aunt May and Gwen, the sheer emotional story possibilities here are insane. It very much warrants it's own existence. And Marvel is very much still the House of Ideas in my mind.

It's actually happening! 

Paul  Cornell greatness again.
Beginning to see a pattern yet?

   The Shared Universe is very much the fuel of my love for Marvel. It's something to do with the world they live in. They live very much in real world places. I knew New York City like the back of my hand even before I visited it for the first time for my 18th birthday. But it's not just there, we have the Great Lakes and the South Coast covered too, not to mention the world wide scale of super hero teams, Excalibur and Big Hero 6, plus the global origins of the mutant teams. It's a place you can visit not a place that exists only in the realms of fiction. There's no Gotham, Emerald or Star City in the real world. They cant be depicted the same twice by two different artists. It leads to inconsistencies.

So far still another New 52 victim.

   The Characters know each other in Marvel, they know to go to Reed for scientific help, Dr Strange for magical help, Tony Stark for tech help or Steve Rogers for leadership and strategy. In DC there isn't that feel anymore, they don't think oh a mystery I'l go to Ralph Dibny or Batman. Everyone seems to work alone and it goes against the grain when they do. Think about the feel and tone of each character's book or movie Universes.. The reason the Avengers Assemble film worked so well was they were all made by the same studios and had a similar feel and tone throughout. Can you imagine the grit and violence of the Dark Knight (as amazingly told as the trilogy is), the jock-humour and out of this world of Green Lantern and the retro feel of Metropolis from Superman returns clashing in a film? I can't. If they want to get to a Justice League film it'll take one hell of a writer or a complete over hall of each character again to get there.  Not to mention a mainstream Wonder Woman wont ever take off teh way the Dark Knight films have.

Still ruling the larger scale movie universe at the moment.
Dark Knight may break it's records but it's the last in a set trilogy anyway.

 The history of Marvel. The long long winding history covered with ret-cons and inconsistencies is still something I prefer to DC's it's-been-a-while-let's-just-reboot-again way of writing. I don't want to learn to love the stories only to have none of them count a decade down the line. I know that the characters are the same deep down but starting from scratch is a bit of a cop out isn't it? Now to compare the New 52 to Marvel's Spiderman One More Day, where Spidey's marriage to Mary Jane is erased from continuity. At least those stories in-between STILL HAPPENED- the only difference being that they didn't have rings on their fingers. Plus honestly I didn't agree with the way they went about it but that marriage had to end, it was holding the stories back and now with Dan Slott's Big Time stories I'm glad it did. With DC you get New 52 revelations like Red Robin was never a Robin to Batman before he went off with the Titans, he just picked Red Robin as a code name. And with that all of that Robin's stories are wiped off the board from continuity.

We already have a retcon. Not even a year in. Why? Because f*ck logic?! 

Need a place to start.
Try the Season one GN's across the range.

  Ret-cons I can live with, because after so long it does seem unreasonable to have Tony Starks origin in a war so long ago so yep just change that to Afganistan. That's fine. All you need is a quick miniseries to get that done. Marvels long history when you learn to live with the odd sensible ret-con or two makes for a much more fleshed out, lived in world. Where EVERYTHING MATTERS. You don't have to have read all 600 issues of Spider-man to get him, find a jumping on point, read an origin story mini series if you wish and your good to go.

   Marvel has more believable characters with back stories you can relate too. Sure there are aliens, space police, ninjas, Gods and billionaires too but Marvel's arguably most iconic hero, Spider-man, is just a kid from the streets. A typical teenager whose stories are as much about getting through school, work and girl troubles as they are fighting a nutter on a glider dressed as a goblin. There are tones of Marvel's "street" heroes too. Luke Cage, Cloak and Dagger, Shang Chi and so on... Not to mention this world has a lot of prolific scientists. It's very much sci-fi driven world for acquiring powers or having adventures. Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Bruce Banner even Peter Parker gets to flex his brain in the horizon labs stories nowadays. I cant put my finger on it but it just feels more believable if a little bit delightfully eccentric.

Anything goes in the Ultimate U!

   All that continuity must be a hard act to follow? How are they staying up to date without a reboot? Marvel NOW! and other reshuffles amongst creatives, when the time is right, do wonders. Or if you feel that way inclined you can read the Ultimate Universe comics. Launched in 2000 they were a more up to date, anything goes story telling with the same characters you know from regular Marvel books. there was no reset, it was there if you wanted it. Take it or leave it or take both, they're running simultaneously.

   Now the constant Events are another typical reason to hate Marvel and I admit following all of the tie ins isn't the most fulfilling reading experience and seriously hurts your bank balance. This year with AVX it feels like it's changed it's ways. I have been saying for years to get a much longer main event book to warrant less tie in's and here we are. 12 issues and one purely fight driven tie in. With events spilling out into half the x-books and the 4 Avengers books. It's much more tightly written, has much bigger stakes and clearly has a big fall out to warrant the Marvel Now! reshuffle afterwards. This crossover is the first one I've bought all the books for. ALL of the books. I was reading all the X-books and only had to pick up Avengers Academy to complete the Avengers tie ins. Maybe it's just this event but it actually really is keeping me hooked. Plus the big event every couple of years that effects the hole cast of characters goes a long way to creating the lived in universe and large scale continuity moving forwards steadily. I may even go so far as to say: I like events!

Runaways will blow
you away!

   Speaking of Avengers Academy, Marvel's youth characters feel better than DC's too. We have Runaways, Avengers Academy (picked from the best of the bunch of the 50 state initiative), Young Avengers (each one having major links to main Avengers) amongst others. These are characters that are worthwhile and that are here to stay. Although their ongoing series never seem to last, at least they don't grow up so fast. We are onto our 4th major Robin for Batman and DC has a very much lacking young adult accessibility for new readers to get into the comics. Marvel has a much bigger all ages audience and feels the need to keep newcomers steadily coming into comics. With the New 52 I honestly think that DC set itself up solely for a grown up audience and left the kids to watch the cartoons till they are old enough to transition to the books. Not the best business plan in my eyes.


  So to re-cap and summarise, I love Marvels shared Universe it feels more fun and accessible. It feels more real and lived in. It feels like these characters are always moving forward, and going towards something bigger and better. I'm just more wiling to invest in these characters. I may not be able to put my finger on all of my reasoning but there it is. Also just to leave a lot of Nerd rage brewing: I like events, I don't think a Justice League movie will work and I enjoyed Carlie Cooper and Peter Parker together. That should get your nerd juices raging!

Dang, I heart Carlie and Peter!