When the votes were tallied for the publisher of the decade category, it was a dead split. We had two people voting for Marvel and two voting for DC, with second place going to the one each person had not voted for. It was Gil and David versus Brandon and Matt, and neither side would budge and give credit where credit was perceived to be due. Of course, it was a huge decade filled with upstarts coming up the ranks, Robert Kirkman bringing Image to the forefront, and Dark Horse continuing to do what they do best.
Yet it still was impossible to argue against one of the Big Two not being one of the best two publishers in comics.
What’s your take? Make sure to leave a comment, as everyone has their own preference. I do want to note one thing – all four of us read everything, whether it is DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, or whatever. If it is a good comic, we’ll read it.
Now on with the show.
The case for Marvel – Matt: Excelsior! Make mine Marvel! Marvel: your universe.
When I was a wee lad, all I ever read was Marvel comics. All I ever needed to read was Marvel comics. Sure, I’d read the occasional Batman. Heck, I even collected Spawn. But all the books I really loved? Spider-Man, Venom, Excalibur, X-Men, Deadpool, Wolverine, Avengers — these were all Marvel books. My favorite heroes? Wolverine, Cyclops, Spider-Man, Deadpool, Captain America. All Marvel heroes. My favorite villains? Mr Sinister, Magneto, Cyber, Sabretooth, Venom, Doctor Doom. All Marvel villains. Time and time again, when I look back on what I always read and still what I always look forward to most every week — I’m looking at Marvel comics.
As I look into the future, what do I see? I see an exciting future for all comic publishers, but only one calls to my inner child. The events of Siege which I assume lead to the reformation of the TRUE Avengers, as well as a return to a general status quo, excite me more than anything. House of M and Messiah Complex restored my faith in X-Men titles, and Second Coming will only help to solidify why. Heck, I’m even excited for Doom War! And while there are definitely various exciting things going on in the future of DC, all of which I plan to pick up as well, I can’t help but take notice that I am always more excited for the Marvel books.
Now, one could of course debate the merits of Marvel vs DC. In fact, that is exactly what we’re doing. It all comes down to personal preference, though. When I look back on the past decade, I see Avengers Disassembled, Civil War, the Ultimate books, Brian Michael Bendis’ reign, New and Young and Mighty Avengers, Astonishing X-Men and Joss Whedon/Warren Ellis, Thor, Invincible Iron and the Eisner Award, Amazing Spider-Man and One More Day/Brand New Day… I see some of the best comic books in the past decade all on one single publisher.
Marvel. My universe.
Brandon: While it’s easy to look at Marvel and DC and come up with a list of reasons why each deserves the title of best publisher of the decade I believe that Marvel wins the title cleanly. Some of the best events and titles have come out of Marvel over the course of the last decade. Add to this the amazing talent that has graced their titles and it’s surely a win for Marvel. So in an attempt to convince those who needed convincing of Marvel’s supremacy over the last decade I’ll provide my reasons individually and explain them as best as I can.
Bankruptcy
Coming into the decade Marvel was not sitting so pretty. Creators have talked about how bad it was in the offices with such an air of uncertainty. Marvel then took a chance on Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada to turn things around. Both have said that they were given carte blanche to try new things and basically throw things against the wall and see if they stuck. Some things didn’t, Marville anyone? Other things though stuck like Spidey to a NYC building and became staples of Marvel’s publishing. Things like the Ultimate line, Grant Morrison’s New X-Men and Marvel’s more interactive nature with fans became huge building blocks of Marvel’s success over the course of the decade.
Continued belowNow, all these changes along with the other points I’ll get to have helped Marvel not only out of bankruptcy but into a whole new tax bracket if you will. I feel that Marvel’s ability to pull itself from the trash heaps to the money heaps where they now swim with Scrooge McDuck at Disney is a point for them in the win column.
Ultimate Comics
Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics was the little comic imprint that could. It was a line that many believed would be a failed attempt at rebooting Marvel’s characters for a new generation. Peter Parker website manager for Daily Bugle? Many scoffed. (I personally bought into the idea very quickly and loved it for many years. Just saying.)
It would not be a major failure. It would instead be a huge success propelled by up and coming writers Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis. The art of a Kubert and Bryan Hitch didn’t hurt things either. The Ultimates title was hugely popular that despite it’s, to be kind, unreliable shipping schedule remained a beloved and much drooled over fan and critical favorite.
It was such a success that it could be argued that DC even tried it’s hand at the concept by doing it’s All-Star line which, again to be kind, failed miserably aside from the beautifully done All-Star Superman. When another company feels the need to mimic you than you’re probably looking at success. All-Star Superman or as I like to call it ASS owes it’s existence to Marvel’s Ultimate line. Trend setting equals another win for Marvel.
Creators
Marvel over the course of the last decade employed ALL of the best creators from the decade. If you can think of a single creator that you though was amazingly great in mainstream comics they worked for Marvel. Brian K. Vaughn, Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, Bryan Hitch, Ed Brubaker, Grant Morrison, Frank Quietly, Robert Kirkman and on and on and on. DC can’t make this same claim, as a multitude of these creators did not work for DC in the last decade.
Win for Marvel.
Digital Comics
When it comes to digital comics Marvel is the clear winner here. Marvel at the beginning of the decade had already begun offering their comics in a digital format on their website. DC still hasn’t grasped this concept and shows no signs of getting on board as we enter the next freaking decade.
I will admit that when it comes to original content DC does win with their free independent comics through Zuda. Zuda is a new program for DC though and while it’s still growing and looks to be very prominent it really hasn’t been around long and will more likely have a greater place in comics as a whole in the next decade.
So despite Zuda’s very welcome presence in the comic community Marvel in my opinion still wins in the category of digital comics for the previous decade. When people look back they will agree that Marvel’s digital comics were ahead of their time much like Sega’s Dreamcast, which boasted online play well before anyone else.
Marvel Win!
Events
Marvel’s events were some of the best of the decade no doubt. Civil War, Messiah Complex, House of M and Planet Hulk were great events. Aside from the great content of these events in and of themselves the real greatness of them came after they were complete. The after effects of Marvel’s events had lasting implications. This was something that rarely happened in the 90’s and was a huge problem fans had with that decade. It was one of the reason s I feel that “even fatigue” came about.
Marvel event’s over the last decade finally made good on the ridiculously overdone promise of decades past that long term change would occur. After these events real change did come about. Changes such as Superhuman Registration, Avengers Disassembling and the mutant population being decimated all occurred over the last decade and have held in place over the long term. Marvel effectively brought back the Claremont style of telling stories by having dangling plotlines that over time payoff but on a line wide scale. The stories have been great and the changes have been welcome for the most part. Best of all the changes have all built on each other to make for a much more cohesive and enjoyable Marvel Universe where continuity is welcome and built upon instead of reset every other Crisis.
Continued belowSales
Sales are indisputably on Marvel’s side. Month in and month out over the course of the decade Marvel has dominated sales. DC constantly finished in the second spot while every once in awhile stealing a month here and there. Not much to say here I think this one sells itself.
Icon
What does a major publisher do to try and keep their talent with them? By appeasing their talents need to try and do creator owned work along with their corporate monkey work of course! Thus Marvel’s ICON line was born. Since it’s inception late in the decade it has produced fan favorite titles such as Kick-Ass and Incognito with more to come. One such soon to come title is the just announced title Nemesis by Mark Millar and Steve Mcniven. With so many great creators under one imprint creating original content how could you go wrong? As this line grows so does Marvel’s breadth of content and ability to entertain the masses of geekdom.
While this line is comparable to an extent to Vertigo my point isn’t that it’s ridiculously original but instead that it’s freaking awesome and shows Marvel’s growth as a publisher.
Extra Curricular Activity
While it was brought to my attention that this is the best publisher I personally feel publisher is an outdated name for a comic company as a whole. Regardless, I configured this whole thing to nail traditional publisher aspects and made it this separate point for everything not traditionally associated with the publisher.
Marvel has really pushed the boundaries of comics and the media that deals with their comic properties. They have also propelled the medium into the mainstream through news bytes, blockbuster movies, direct to video movies, excellent video games and so much more. In an attempt to wrap this up I will list some of said things instead of going into depth on them.
Death of Captain America paired with Quesada giving Colbert his shield
Cartoons such as Wolvie and the X-Men and Spectacular Spider-Man
Marvel’s blockbuster movie hits Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, X-Men, X-Men 2, and Blade among them.
Civil War made headlines as many interpreted it as a political statement on the war on Iraq and Bush’s administration
Marvel Studios being formed and quickly revitalizing comic movies by adding a continuity aspect. Which is fucking huge BTW!
Lastly, being bought by Disney, which was joked about constantly. Despite the jokes Disney’s purchase of Marvel I assume will help to broaden their mainstream awareness and provide them with uncanny financial stability and flexibility to potentially do just about anything they set their minds to. Well, as long as it makes money because in the end that is all Disney cares about honestly.
Based on all the points I think the argument can be strongly made that Marvel dominated the last decade everywhere that counts. If DC did it this last decade Marvel did it and most likely did it better. Don’t get me wrong DC had some great things occur there but when totaled up Marvel’s pluses far surpass DC’s. Now that I’ve hopefully convinced you dear readers of the Marvel’s validity as best publisher of the decade. If not than this terrible case of hand cramps I’ve got now from all this typing is for naught.
The case for DC – David: Growing up, I was 100% a Marvel guy. My earliest memories in comics involved Larry Hama’s run on Wolverine, X-Tinction Agenda, Chris Claremont and Jim Lee launching the new X-Men title, and much, much more. Yet, as I grew up and started getting interested in different types of comics, my interest started flowing towards DC.
Well, not really DC, but different sections of DC Comics.
While Gil will be focusing mostly on how DC superhero comics were better than Marvel’s over the past decade, I want to take a look at the real reason why DC was a better publisher over the past decade.
While Marvel had more success in a lot of arenas (digital comics and film to name a couple), DC did something far better than Marvel did – comics.
Continued belowSimply put, with their Vertigo output alone DC outproduced Marvel. My top ten is highly comprised of Vertigo titles, and the ones that didn’t make it are simply because of the lack of issues that were released in this decade. Let’s think about this…what titles were released by Vertigo in the 2000’s that I would have no problem calling all time favorites?
Well, let’s count them out: Y the Last Man, Fables, Preacher, 100 Bullets, Transmetropolitan, DMZ, Scalped.
That is seven titles that I would have absolutely no problem placing in my top twenty comics of all time that were released in this decade by DC.
That doesn’t even include Hitman, which was released by DC proper but for all intents and purposes belonged under the Vertigo umbrella. It also doesn’t include the highly esteemed original graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon – Pride of Baghdad.
These comics are alternately brilliant, emotionally true, intensely violent, eloquent, intelligent, controversial, thought provoking, and any number of other words you can think of. These titles inspire a virtual mad libs of exceptional adjectives when you speak about them, because they are just damn good comics.
These titles are made by industry giants too…written by BKV, Bill Willingham, Garth Ennis, Brian Azzarello, Warren Ellis, Brian Wood, Jason Aaron…drawn by Pia Guerra, Mark Buckingham, Steve Dillon, Eduardo Risso, Darick Robertson, Ricardo Burchielli, R.M Guera…these are titles that have towering skill sets behind them.
Then you take a look at Wildstorm, an imprint that became part of DC at the turn of the decade and one that brought us other personal favorites like Planetary and The Authority. Those two titles by themselves turned the superhero world on their head, as led by the mad genius Warren Ellis. You had The Authority simultaneously deconstructing the superhero genre and perfecting it, and you had Planetary creating a new breed of cerebral hero, one that was part Indiana Jones, part HP Lovecraft, part futuristic sci-fi, and all awesome. Other creators involved with these titles included luminaries like Bryan Hitch, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, and John Cassaday.
These are not just throw ins, but top fifteen comics for yours truly.
So when you get down to it, DC between just two imprints released ten of my top fifteen or twenty comics of all time in this past decade. Think about that for a second. That is just one small fraction of the total comics they released, yet it encompasses more than half of my all time favorites.
Such is the power of the distinguished competition. Of course if this was a competition, the decade that we’re closing on wouldn’t be much of one at all. It’d be a slaughter, with DC standing heads and shoulders above all comers.
And that is coming from a self professed Marvel guy.
Make mine…DC.
Gil: Despite growing up Marvel when I was a kid, I’ve come to respect DC on a whole other level in the past ten years. Why? Well, there are a few reasons that I think DC is now the publisher to beat.
It builds on its characters
At the beginning of this decade, the two emerald heroes were dead. One was buried a villain, and the other wasn’t buried at all. You would have had to have remains to bury, in fact. But DC in their wisdom decided that these heroes weren’t done the justice they deserve. Not only did they bring back The Green Arrow with one of the most famous comic geeks in the world (the illustrious director and over-sharing twitterer Kevin Smith) but they redeemed Hal Jordan and turned him into a legitimate first-tier hero. Not only did they do that, they structured a whole event dedicated to this one-time host for Parallax.
They respect their characters (now)
So, does anyone know how Marvel got into the mess it’s in now? Scarlet Witch went crazy and killed two Avengers. Then she destroyed 99.9% of the mutants. This was a “fix” to destroy the overall plot momentum that had been covered for the past 40 years. The same goes for Spider-Man, when we lost the one thing that made Spider-Man modern and grown up. His marriage to Mary Jane was erased because “it aged him too much.” And finally, Iron Man turned on his own peers by implementing a law that bitterly divided the superhero community at large.
Continued belowMeanwhile, DC has made a lot of forward momentum with their characters, letting them grow in organic while sometimes surprising ways. The aforementioned Hal Jordan has grown in so many ways, along with the rest of the Corps. Superman has had a hell of a past few years, and it’s shown. What’s going on with him now? He’s dealing with the return of his formerly deceased world, bringing about a conflict in Kal-El that we’ve never seen in him before. And if or when New Krypton is destroyed in its own right, he’ll have a whole new level of grief possibly worse than anything we’ve ever seen before. Even if New Krypton is here to stay, we have a whole other side of Superman. It’s really fantastic. And guess what? He’s still married. DC knows the triangle between Clark, Lois, and Superman had run its course, and it was time to bring them together. It didn’t hurt the relationship at all to strengthen it. Now they’re one of the epic couples for the ages. No one has forgotten them due to a deal with DC’s version of the Devil.
Dick Grayson, formerly in a strange Not-Robin/Not-quite-Batman level, has now hit the big leagues. He used to be a character that had a name taken from silver-age Superman stories (as evidenced by the characters Nightwing and Flamebird), but now he’s beyond that. The list goes on and on. My point should be clear at this point.
Events
Sometimes less is more, and DC knows this. All of their events have provided a single narrative, while Marvel’s are jumbled, and sometimes lack a point. Sure, Planet Hulk was good, but World War Hulk? What HAPPENED? Right, we got Rulk. Point: Loeb. Identity Crisis begat Infinite Crisis, and that begat Sinestro Corps War( along with 52), and that begat The Blackest Night, etc., etc. There was even Final Crisis, which is Matt’s favorite crisis! You really can’t argue that Final Crisis aside (maybe), there was not a bad event in the bunch.
One word: Batman
This decade, after a long hiatus from the big screen, DC brought Batman back to the theatrical prominence that it had lost in the 90’s due to character mismanagement. This ONE character, after being handled by the talented Christopher Nolan, made Batman into one of the most important cultural forces in recent history. Both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight made serious dough after being released, but The Dark Knight made over $1B US. That’s 25% of the entire price Disney paid for the rights to THE ENTIRE MARVEL UNIVERSE, for a single franchise. That’s just astounding.
Vertigo and Wildstorm
David will go into this a little more detailed, because he’s a bit more knowledgeable on the subject, but DC even cultivated their own indie powerhouse, which prints stories that wouldn’t normally find their way into the mainstream comic store. Marvel tries, sure, but aside from Icon, what else have they done? They even landed another indie owned by Jim Lee in Wildstorm.
In Closing
Look, I love Marvel too. But lately I’m more excited to read my DC centered books than Marvel’s (Hercules and Psylocke not withstanding). I think they handled their characters better; their events were more satisfactorily structured, and they have the best non-superhero publisher on the market too. I think the case is really open and shut.
