More matter-of-fact brilliance about DC and Marvel from Scipio.
Saturday / 09.27.08 / 11:59PM / Joe / comments: 0
Scipio of The Absorbascon recently wrote another post with elements of his well-thought-out and clearly delineated comparisons of DC and Marvel. As companies, as characters, as storytellers... Scip has this down and it is fascinating. Plus, it's an excuse for me to run some great George Perez art.
Scipio has been banging this drum for a while now, but here's his latest:
As I've mentioned before, Marvel's heroic roots are in the paranoid pessimism of the 1950s/60s (the Silver Age), whereas DC's heroic roots are in the cockeyed optimism of the 1930s/40s (the Golden Age).
This fact colors everything each company does. There are literally thousands of examples, but I'll recap just one from this season's biggest crossovers. In the DCU, zillions of heroes fight a seemingly hopeless fight against Evil (or the Depression, or the Axis; it's all the same) but never give up. Meanwhile, in the Marvel World, disguised aliens infiltrate our world and turn heroes against one another. It's a nearly perfect example of one of the essential paradigmatic differences between DC and Marvel: DC heroes are in conflict with villains, while Marvel heroes are in conflict with one another.
He is just. So. Right.
What is especially brilliant about it is that he has found a way to hold the discussion without attacking either side. There's no fanboy extremism here. It is entirely logical and acceptable to imagine preferring either side of the equation.
Paranoid Pessimism vs. Cockeyed Optimism. That twist of phrase instantly summons of images of gangly, harried Peter Parker, set against the squinting, oblivious Clark Kent. It makes me proud to be a comics fan. | 
