Nowadays they're both bad examples of how comics shouldn't be written by fans. I stopped reading comics some time ago because I just couldn't stand the pandering and how fanfic-ish the plots were. Though, from what I've read, DC's been having the edge and Marvel's getting worse by the year.
Now, if you're talking the "classic" periods (which I'd say from the early 60s to 1989), Marvel wins hands down. The writing was miles ahead in many aspects. There was good characterization, mostly good plots and dialogue (admittedly it depended on the writer) and a sense of continuity and progress. Meanwhile, DC was often inconsistent, overly silly and pretty ridiculous (save for a few good stories, most of them Batman). Until the end of the 80s, Marvel was truly a House of Ideas.
Having said all that, as a guy who researches a lot of comic history and behind the scenes stuff, I think it's not fair to judge whether a company is better than another, because in the end it all depends on who's writing the stuff, and most writers (and artists, too) have worked on both companies. For example, a lot of stuff came from Jack Kirby alone - in Marvel he was responsible for the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk etc. and in DC he came up with the New Gods, Darkseid, Challengers of the Unknown and a few others. I've seen some comic fans who don't really know what they're talking about say the X-Men are a rip-off of Doom Patrol, but the Doom Patrol itself is a rehash of Jack Kirby ideas (mostly from Challengers of the Unknown which he made at DC and Fantastic Four which he made at Marvel). Thanos, too, is often criticized as a ripoff of Darkseid, who is a Jack Kirby creation. A lot of big comic ideas can be traced back to Jack Kirby, who worked on multiple companies.
About movies, cartoons and all this stuff that doesn't matter - most of it doesn't interest me anyway, but I can say that DC has better cartoons. I really really really don't like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I think all modern DC movies are terrible, so I guess that's a draw.
Nowadays they're both bad examples of how comics shouldn't be written by fans. I stopped reading comics some time ago because I just couldn't stand the pandering and how fanfic-ish the plots were. Though, from what I've read, DC's been having the edge and Marvel's getting worse by the year.
Now, if you're talking the "classic" periods (which I'd say from the early 60s to 1989), Marvel wins hands down. The writing was miles ahead in many aspects. There was good characterization, mostly good plots and dialogue (admittedly it depended on the writer) and a sense of continuity and progress. Meanwhile, DC was often inconsistent, overly silly and pretty ridiculous (save for a few good stories, most of them Batman). Until the end of the 80s, Marvel was truly a House of Ideas.
Having said all that, as a guy who researches a lot of comic history and behind the scenes stuff, I think it's not fair to judge whether a company is better than another, because in the end it all depends on who's writing the stuff, and most writers (and artists, too) have worked on both companies. For example, a lot of stuff came from Jack Kirby alone - in Marvel he was responsible for the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk etc. and in DC he came up with the New Gods, Darkseid, Challengers of the Unknown and a few others. I've seen some comic fans who don't really know what they're talking about say the X-Men are a rip-off of Doom Patrol, but the Doom Patrol itself is a rehash of Jack Kirby ideas (mostly from Challengers of the Unknown which he made at DC and Fantastic Four which he made at Marvel). Thanos, too, is often criticized as a ripoff of Darkseid, who is a Jack Kirby creation. A lot of big comic ideas can be traced back to Jack Kirby, who worked on multiple companies.
About movies, cartoons and all this stuff that doesn't matter - most of it doesn't interest me anyway, but I can say that DC has better cartoons. I really really really don't like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I think all modern DC movies are terrible, so I guess that's a draw.
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