Marvel vs. DC: The War Continues?

So I'm reading the latest Comics Buyer's Guide today and they had this article on the news of upcoming events the Big Two dropped at the Baltimore Con (note to organizers: Baltimore Con? Really? That's... look, I'm just asking, but - that's the best you could do?) and I noticed a two-page spread of DC news, with a little sidebar blurb of upcoming Marvel news. And it brought-up some childhood bitterness.

Now, I have been planning to make a post concerning this for some time now, but I wanted to drag out some of the old comics and look through the letter pages to quote a letter or two to make my point. But there's no need now because CBG did me the favor of a two-page DC-centric spread with a dinky little word balloon of Marvel news at the top.

That's just the way Marvel "Zombies" have been treated for as long as I could remember. To be fair, when we were kids, we Marvel "Zombies" could be pretty critical of DC readers too - no need to lie - but the acrimony truly came from the other side of the fence. I can prove that very simply: go look through your old Uncanny X-Men and Teen Titans letters pages. See!? See what I mean?

DC folk: what's with all the hostility?

I mean, if there had been a good "zinger" for Teen Titans fans, it would have stuck as well as "Marvel Zombies," but we just didn't care as much.

See, here's the thing - and I'm far from the first one to point this out: Marvel titles - the Marvel Universe, in general - while certainly fantastic, is generally more "realistic." It's a hyper-realism for comics, where people die and stay dead (even if they sometimes come back to life) - a universe in which a blind superhero's former girlfriend winds up hooked on smack and turning tricks, then sells his secret identity "for a armful." DC is pure escapism, no matter who dies or how many times.

Marvel loves to employ that science-fiction descriptiveness that made Star Trek so famous: that "reason for everything" to make it all sound somewhat plausible, even if it's completely unbelievable. Mutants, for example: it's just this side of "believable" that someone could have a genetic "x-factor" that gives them the ability to breathe fire. I mean, the breathing fire bit is a little much, but people do have genetic x-factors which give them some pretty amazing differences from the rest of us.

All of DC's heroes come from other planets, other dimensions, and other galaxies. Nothing wrong with that, just pointing out the differences.

As I've said before: now that I'm older, I really appreciate the total escapism of the DC Multiverse, but if I were still an adolescent, I think I would still be drawn to the "this-could-just-maybe-really-happen-ness" of the Marvel Universe.

Not to mention that all the big sci-fantasy of the period reveled in this speculative "what-if." The RPGs, no matter how fantastic, had semi-plausible reasons for whatever bases they presented (ala Gamma World and Star Frontiers). DC had such established characters with such long histories that they couldn't easily reinvent them like Marvel constantly did. Not just that, but DC had found such major success with their properties in other formats that they simply couldn't do that, anyway (Superman the Movie, the Batman TV series).

Thankfully, much of the acrimony between the fans of the Big Two has subsided - the one, real positive change to the industry I can grant Image Comics from the start (though they are doing much to redeem themselves since their beginning) - and I doubt any of the younger fans are even aware of the whole matter, but this article in CBG reminded me of that and gave me a good reason to finally post this entry.