I figger, Rich, Marvel had a great ah-deer in the early 60s: appeal to young guys who are tired of DC. Give 'em heroes they can identify with, want to find out more about. "Yeah...I feel like that too, but nobody understands." Hence we got some great characters--the FF Human Torch, Spidey, and for jocks, my man Ben Grimm. And let's not forget an entire =crew= of outcasts, the X Men. You were smart, but didn't fit in? No problemo. There was a Marvel hero just like you.

That was me. I was young, in grade school, learned to read by reading Superman comic books, lived in France, no English language television and only one radio station, and Superman was getting pretty boring with Mr. Mxzyxpltk stories and all the different colors of kryptonite and suddenly...

...there was Marvel. I never much liked the Fantastic Four (but Dr. Doom was pretty cool), and Spiderman was just friggin' excellent. He would get a cold. He would worry about why girls didn't like him, he would sit in a windowsill and look out over the city. And there was Hulk. Hulk Smash! Dr. Strange. Iron Man. Daredevil. I didn't much read X-Men at first. Even then I was more into the "lone hero" genre and not too much interested in teams.

Eventually, there was my favorite: Deathlok the Demolisher!

Marvel was just so much more interesting than DC.

"Nuff said.

That was me. I was young, in grade school, learned to read by reading Superman comic books, lived in France, no English language television and only one radio station, and Superman was getting pretty boring with Mr. Mxzyxpltk stories and all the different colors of kryptonite and suddenly...

...there was Marvel. I never much liked the Fantastic Four (but Dr. Doom was pretty cool), and Spiderman was just friggin' excellent. He would get a cold. He would worry about why girls didn't like him, he would sit in a windowsill and look out over the city. And there was Hulk. Hulk Smash! Dr. Strange. Iron Man. Daredevil. Eventually, there was my favorite: Deathlok the Demolisher!

Marvel was just so much more interesting than DC.

"Nuff said.

Well, True Believer, I liked both Marvel and DC. (I also liked Richie Rich and Little Dot. So sue me!) But maybe one difference was, the aces of DC, Superman and Batman, were hard to identify with. They were bugfuck nuts! Marvel, though...aaahhh! As you point out so righteously, Spidey was our kinda guy. In the very first issue, he fucked-up big time. BUT HE DEALT! Daredevil, blind. BUT HE DEALT! Tony Stark, heart condition. BUT HE DEALT!
The only DC hero I liked as much as the Marvel guys was Green Lantern. He was just...cool. "In brightest day, in darkest night..." 'Scuse me for a moment...gotta wipe my eyes...the wind...my eyes have always been sensitive to it...

The story I got from various collectors and real die-hard comic fans was that the powers that be at Marvel (Lee?) didn't like the trend at DC or the indies like "SPAWN" etc and wanted to keep the Marvel line pretty much in tone like in the last 40 years. Even the graphics, as explained to me, were kept in tone at a certain level (I understand Marvel had quite a few writers/artists who defected due to conflict with managment. ).
I'd like to hear from various collectors/fans who can really set the story straight.

The story I got from various collectors and real die-hard comic fans was that the powers that be at Marvel (Lee?) didn't like the trend at DC or the indies like "SPAWN" etc and wanted to keep the Marvel line pretty much in tone like in the last 40 years. Even the graphics, as explained to me, were kept in tone at a certain level (I understand Marvel had quite a few writers/artists who defected due to conflict with managment. ).
I'd like to hear from various collectors/fans who can really set the story straight.

I'll ask me colleague Torsten Adair. He's a true fan and collector. If I can get any sense out of him. See, he was born on July 7th, like meself. And us 7/7 hombres are loathe to use one clear word when ten will serve hard duty to confuse, obfuscate, and confound, muddy the waters of a limpid pool over which dragonflies hover (see what I mean?:p ).

I'll ask me colleague Torsten Adair. He's a true fan and collector. If I can get any sense out of him. See, he was born on July 7th, like meself. And us 7/7 hombres are loathe to use one clear word when ten will serve hard duty to confuse, obfuscate, and confound, muddy the waters of a limpid pool over which dragonflies hover (see what I mean?:p ).

huh?

huh?

What?

No! He's on -third~!

I'll ask me colleague Torsten Adair. He's a true fan and collector. If I can get any sense out of him. See, he was born on July 7th, like meself. And us 7/7 hombres are loathe to use one clear word when ten will serve hard duty to confuse, obfuscate, and confound, muddy the waters of a limpid pool over which dragonflies hover (see what I mean?:p ).

Ohhhhhh!!!! In other words your gonna lay it down and see what comes up.....

Ohhhhhh!!!! In other words your gonna lay it down and see what comes up.....

What comes up
What goes down
Not a whole lotta difference
On a merry-go-round
Gonna give the owls a hoot
Shine my boot
Squeeze the fruit
Stretch my toes
As I count the loot

Something like that, anyway...

The story I got from various collectors and real die-hard comic fans was that the powers that be at Marvel (Lee?) didn't like the trend at DC or the indies like "SPAWN" etc and wanted to keep the Marvel line pretty much in tone like in the last 40 years. Even the graphics, as explained to me, were kept in tone at a certain level (I understand Marvel had quite a few writers/artists who defected due to conflict with managment. ).
I'd like to hear from various collectors/fans who can really set the story straight.

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about, but I'll take a stab at it.

There was a period of time where some artists and writers created their own companies like Top Cow, Image, and Dark Horse, because they wanted more money, more independence with how they deal with characters, and more artistic freedom.

Both Marvel and DC have "canon", which basically is the history of each character and its development, including costumes and so on. You cannot mess with "canon" too much or the character begins to act "out of character" for what readers expect from him/her/them. It can be frustrating to a new artist or writer that wants to explore something new.

Several years back, Marvel looked like they were going to "explode" canon and "reset" the "Marvel Universe," starting all the characters over.

Many of the heroes "apparently" died or disappeared at the end of a story arc called "Onslaught" that ran mostly in X-Men and Avengers. Some of the independents like Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee were hired to do "new takes" on some of Marvel's most popular heroes. It was very very cool, interesting, and exciting. Then Marvel said, "Whoa!" -- and acted like this was never the intention and brought all the re-imagined heroes back to the regular Marvel universe.

"Heroes Reborn" got me re-interested in comics during its run. When they pulled the plug on it I was pretty disgusted and stopped reading again. Plus, some of the more interesting independent comics that garnered my interest during that time had really poor production schedules and seemingly creating "special issues" aimed directly at collectors.

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about, but I'll take a stab at it.

There was a period of time where some artists and writers created their own companies like Top Cow, Image, and Dark Horse, because they wanted more money, more independence with how they deal with characters, and more artistic freedom.

Both Marvel and DC have "canon", which basically is the history of each character and its development, including costumes and so on. You cannot mess with "canon" too much or the character begins to act "out of character" for what readers expect from him/her/them. It can be frustrating to a new artist or writer that wants to explore something new.

Several years back, Marvel looked like they were going to "explode" canon and "reset" the "Marvel Universe," starting all the characters over.

Many of the heroes "apparently" died or disappeared at the end of a story arc called "Onslaught" that ran mostly in X-Men and Avengers. Some of the independents like Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee were hired to do "new takes" on some of Marvel's most popular heroes. It was very very cool, interesting, and exciting. Then Marvel said, "Whoa!" -- and acted like this was never the intention and brought all the re-imagined heroes back to the regular Marvel universe.

"Heroes Reborn" got me re-interested in comics during its run. When they pulled the plug on it I was pretty disgusted and stopped reading again. Plus, some of the more interesting independent comics that garnered my interest during that time had really poor production schedules and seemingly creating "special issues" aimed directly at collectors.

And Captain America was killed? How could that be?
Betcha moveon.org paid somebody off.:eek: