Marvel is better than DC?

“Why is Matt Fraction more popular than Marc Andreyko even though they more or less cater to the same audience, write equally superb comics and have indie backgrounds surrounded by some of the industry’s current greats?”

This was the question I asked (well…not exactly but close enough) a couple of friends of mine when we were discussing how Countdown needs some more high profile writers to get anywhere near the same number of sales that 52 had. Yeah…I know, none of these two are more high-profile but I never said our conversations progressed in a particularly linear fashion, now did I?

So, we started to think about what differentiates Andreyko, who is primarily a DC writer, from Fraction, who is (at least right now) primarily a Marvel writer. Well, the first difference is the company divide. While this may seem minor right now, it becomes the crux of this post later on so pay attention.

Now, on Fraction’s side, we have the ultimate shilling in the form of the Basement Tapes, which he did with Joe Casey for like a year over on CBR long before he started writing for the mainstream. This got him some much-needed exposure (hell, like a friend said, it was the main reason behind me reading Casanova) and gave him an in with the comic reading public in advance. He also established himself as a collaborator through this and it worked in his favour for Immortal Iron Fist, a book that he is co-writing with Ed Brubaker, who is the current media/comic “star”. Fraction also had a boost from writing a new ‘all-ages’ Punisher title that had been missing from the line-up for years. He has written the critically acclaimed Five Fists of Science and the superb Casanova as solo efforts. He also, in a surprising move by Marvel, got his hands on Spider-man and wrote an awesome Annual devoted to the marriage Quesada seems to hate so much.

On the other hand, Andreyko has the support of Bendis, Mack and Oeming, people that praise him to no end and encouraged him to shift to mainstream work from his previous excellent work on Indie crime comics (like Sam and Twitch and Torso). He has also been writing Manhunter for DC, a book that has become the company’s Spider-Girl with two cancellations and renewals to date already in its 30-issue history. The book even got a boost from DC’s Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis and Wonder Woman developments as it truly was allowed a chance to become a real part of the DC Universe. He is also well-regarded in gay community with interviews in the Advocate and through Prism Comics. He also got the chance to explain away what, for me, was the most glaring missing continuity in the recent Nightwing Annual in which he, surprise, wrote an excellent examination of Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson’s relationship.

Now, based on that, the two seem fairly evenly based no? Sure, Fraction has slightly more works to his name, but Andreyko makes up for that with creating a new character for a Big-Two Universe. Yet, nine times out of ten Fraction is far more known than Andreyko. This isn’t a slight against Fraction, whose work I adore, but more a questioning of the public that hasn’t embraced an equally talented writer like Andreyko.

Now comes the theory…Marvel supports and promotes its creators a lot more than DC. I can possibly come up with a load of examples of this, but I’ll go with only the ones we discussed. First off, Marvel seems to have, at least from the Jim Shooter era if not earlier, believed that if you market the creators the books will sell better while DC has mostly (with the exceptions of I think Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns) believed that if you market the characters the creators don’t matter. There are of course exceptions…but this is the focal point. Marvel has had the Ten Terrifice, the Young Guns, and various other creator-boosting programs that focus on the creators behind the book. Their success might be debated, but there is no doubt that this honours the workers…the people behind the pen and pencil rather than the people they have been hired to bring to life.  

What does this mean? DC is a great company to work for if you are an established talent in your right and a ’star’ while Marvel is the place you want to go to when you’re starting out on your mainstream career. Let’s not forget some of the previous creators Marvel has pushed to the mainstream forefront: Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld (nothing when he was on Hawk and Dove…instant success as soon as he started New Mutants), Ed Brubaker (he wrote one of the best Batman runs ever, made Catwoman truly kickass for the first time in the character’s history, and wrote an awesome crime book with real characters in Gotham Central, yet didn’t become a ’star’ until he wrote Captain America and X-men), and of course Mark Millar. Let’s face it, Millar was known but not FAMOUS! during his days on the Authority for DC, yet as soon as he he took over Ultimate X-men, his star took off and he became THE STAR. This already seems to be working for a few other people currently on Marvel’s writing staff; Mike Carey was well-regarded on Hellblazer and Lucifer, but X-men is making him a star with the Endangered Species crossover, Dan Slott wrote some of the best all-ages Batman titles, but Marvel pushed him and has made him a viable name in the comics biz.

Now, some disclaimers before people point them out to me. Brian K Vaughan became famous because of Y – The Last Man yes…but his mainstream popularity came from Runaways. Much the same way, Bill Willingham, who had been around for over 20 years before the book even started, truly came to fame with Fables, but still struggles with mainstream acceptance (I’m sure War Crimes/Drums/Crap didn’t help but whatever). This proves that Vertigo has different rules than DC/Marvel proper.

So, basically what I have been trying to say…Marvel is better than DC…if you want to be a famous, truly mainstream creator.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #1 For Free!!

Woot! For everyone who has heard all the excellent things about this book but has been afraid to check it out…go here: http://seanmckeever.com/blog/3063/Read-SpiderMan-Loves-Mary-Jane-1-FREE/

McKeever gives a link to the legal dotcomics version of the first issue as well as link for the sixth issue. Trust me, the issues are all pretty much self-contained and rock! Read them and buy the hardcover (I know I will.)

50 Ways ‘Civil War’ Will Change Marvel Forever – Pt. 2

Before we continue with the remaining 25 ways that I’m sure will change the Marvel Universe forever (and were a part of Civil War to boot!) I thought I’d mention my first and probably only scheduled post for tomorrow. It’s the return of the Butt-Shots!! I swear I didn’t want to do this again…it’s more than a little disturbing to be looking through books and trying to find ass-shots in them but it’s been over 2 months since the last butt-shot post and it’s still the most popular post on the blog. I firmly believe in giving the people what they want so I’m preparing a new *maybe* weekly feature with the Butt-Shots. I figure I owe it to the loyal Butt-Shot followers.

Anyway, with that out of the way, let’s resume our look at the 50 Ways Civil War changed the marvel universe with:

25. WINTER SOLDIER: AGENT OF NICK FURY

50 Ways ‘Civil War’ Will Change Marvel Forever – Pt. 1

…Right…I probably had the same reaction as you when I saw that headline. It’s directly lifted from an article by Wizard and I thought I’d go through each of the 50 and see how many are actually a result of Civil War, how many all conventional wisdom says will be reversed by year’s end, and how many are actually valid and will in fact change the marvel universe ‘forever.’

So, without further ado, let’s start with 1. IRON MAN WINS

The Final(?) Goodbye

So…it finally happened. I was actually expecting this in Civil War #7 so I wasn’t all that shocked. (And the spoiler news posts didn’t exactly help). But did it work? Was it nothing but a waste of paper along the lines of Civil War: The Return…or was it the usual goodness that Ed Brubaker is so famous for? Answers, comments and thoughts after the spoiler cut.

Massive Spoilers Within!

End of an Era?

I finally got done reading Runaways #24.

Wow.

Spoilers Under the Cut

Amazing Spider-Man #535/Fantastic Four #540 (Or “What Marvel Did Right”)

I read these two issue pretty much back to back and discovered something in them that I’d actually been missing from Marvel Comics and shared universe comics in general for quite some time. Unfortunately it is heavily spoiler-laden so the rest of the post is behind the cut…

Agents of Atlas Restrospective

I think it’s safe to assume that all 5 regular readers of this blog know that I’m a huge fan of the Agents of Atlas series by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk that is currently being published by Marvel Comics. In a world of Civil Wars, 52s, and Infinite Crisis, it’s nice to just sit back with a good, solid book about out of this world adventures, a kick-ass spy tale, and Goddesses who can get away with offering sex to their friends.

What people may not know is that I’ve been a fan of the Agents since their first appearance oh so many years ago in What If #9: What If The Avengers Had Fought Evil During the 1950s? While I’m not old enough to have been around when this book was originally published, it was one of the first “classic” Marvel books I bought when I got into comics. This, while being the first appearance of the team, was also fated to be their last until Kurt Busiek, god of Marvel continuity that he is, managed to remember them and devote a whole issue of his seminal Avengers series, Avengers Forever to the fantastic team. For that, and that alone, Busiek will always be revered by me even if I didn’t already have respect for him that rivals my love of Katherine Heigl (a story for another day).

With this little retrospective, I hope to educate all the new readers of the Agents of Atlas on their past incarnations, their previous dealings with the in-continuity Marvel heroes, and their need in the Marvel Universe proper. So, without further stalling, let’s get to it. First, the What If issue that launched a new team…

Civil War #4 Thoughts

I was planning on putting this in the regular reviews, but this couldn’t wait. I have some very strong stirrings of apathy for this book and I figure I’ll dwell on why I have this problem instead of offering a regular review for it. That being said…Spoilers Below!

Runaways No More?

It’s official. Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona are leaving the Runaways with issue #24 of the second series. First of all, let me start off by saying, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”

Ahem…now that that’s out of the way…

I love Runaways. I’ve been reading it monthly since issue #3 of the first series and I have never, ever been as curious about the mysteries in any book as I have been with this one. I followed the Alex storyline from start to finish, looking for the clues, hoping it wasn’t Karolina or Molly (my two favorites). I read with worry when the first stories about the cancellation of the first series came in, and silently rejoiced when it’s relaunch was quickly announced. I even stuck with it in the lackluster begining of the second series and am still with it when it’s back on top. But what was keeping me there was the fact that BKV, and Alphona would be there. As far as I’m concerned, they are the team supreme, and I cannot imagine this book without them.

BKV especially has made these characters so unique, and so…real…that I honestly cannot think of any other writer who could handle these characters with the same level of skill and passion as he did. Alphona’s artwork was also a pleasant surprise. I loved how cartoony and expressive it was and still do. In fact, I wish them both the best for whatever future project(s) they may be planning. But I still wish Runaways didn’t have to be a casualty.

I’m not saying I won’t be reading this book anymore. Of course I will. I love Molly, Nico, Karolina and all the rest. I need my Runaways-fix! But it just won’t be the same.

Here’s hoping that the team due to be announced in a week is one I, and especially the reading population at large, will enjoy and will enable Runaways to have a long, and healthy future as a series.