Over at Filing Cabinet of the Damned, Harvey Jerkwater has a fun post about the differences between Marvel and DC, and being a Marvel fanboy:
As a wee tadger in the late seventies and early eighties, I was exposed to the standards from both companies. Superman, Batman, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four were the most common funnybooks you’d find on my bedroom floor. How I remember them from yonder days can best be summed up with a hypothetical.
Monstroso the Giant Robot Earwig is attacking [insert city name]! [Insert superhero] has attacked the beast head-on and been rebuffed, his body smacked into a building! What’s the first thing that comes into the hero’s mind as he climbs from the rubble?
SUPERMAN: “Great Rao! I’ll use my super-[insert power] to hurl the Giant Robot Earwig into the depths of space and into the heart of the sun!”
BATMAN: “Hmm…I’ll have to head to the Batcave and develop the Bat-[unstoppable super weapon]! I’ll stop this beast yet!”*
SPIDER-MAN: “Oh come on! How the heck am I supposed to stop that thing? It’s bigger than Shea Stadium!”
The DC heroes met setbacks with iron-jawed resolution. The Marvel heroes met setbacks with exasperation, then iron-jawed resolution. That moment of hesitation added a lot.
Lots more over at his blog, even if we never find out the fate of the giant robot earwig.
September 15th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Stories can be ridiculous the way they deal with problems, not necessarily the companies.
Marvel - Xmen have access to lots of Shiar tech but NEVER thought of installing shields on the damn house. They just whine that their house was knocked down - AGAIN!
Marvel = whine and ignore solution
Now with DC - the shields will work (see JLA) or forgotten when the story demands it (see JLA)
DC = have solution and ignore its use