| Posted: 15 June 2011 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | 9
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I've said this before, but my earliest Marvel experiences were unsatisfying and off-putting. Cap's costume being the same front and back made him appear anatomically wonky to my very young eyes. The police were after Spider-Man. My dad was a police officer. I was certain he wouldn't approve of my reading about some buggy super-hero who stole from people, or worse. Later, as I got older and began reading a variety of titles, Marvel included, the Marvels were always the one that came in on the middle of the story, usually in some villain's techno-wallpapered complex, told you things "were happening too fast to catch you up," showed you heroes running hither and yon, dodging ray blasts, punching out faceless multitudes of dumb minions, shock, cut-away to subplot 1, cutaway to subplot 2, surprise, plot twist, aaaaannnddd... to be continued, next ish, effendi!! Next issue, oh, hey, look, they're in some villain's techno-wallpapered complex running around... I liked the characters well enough, but the stories? Show me a story, and I'll try to like it... Even then, Marvel was an endless morass of long, drawn-out affairs like the Secret Empire, The Story of Doom's Clone-Son, The Ring of the Nibelung, or The Korvac Saga... Good luck coming in on the start of anything. DC conversely gave you complete stories most of the time, and for my money, far better artwork. Marvel had no one on the titles I was reading that could match the facial subtleties and emotions like Curt Swan. Plus, hey, gravity! Those characters looked like they were actually affected by the world around them. Cloth looked like cloth. I couldn't get enough of Curt Swan's stuff. Just next to that: Joe Staton! Fun characters, excellent storytelling. The next book over: Jim Aparo! Nobody beats Jim Aparo! And again, that Staton book may have been part of the Earthwar Saga, but they did flash back to what had occured previously, and the Swan and Aparo books were stand-alones, sometimes with back-ups to boot! Yes, Marvel had John Buscema, but he was on Conan at the time I was coming into all this, and I didn't (and don't) care for Conan. I did buy several of his Thor issues, in the middle of some interminable Ragnarok storyline... There were reprints, and I picked those up occasionally... Usually they started in the middle of a story, in the midst of some villains fortress. The heroes would sneak around until they found his techno-wallpapered lab... the "present-day" Marvels were cookie-cutter looking affairs from Sal Buscema, Ron Wilson, or Frank Springer. Give him credit, at least the Springer stuff looked different... You could see how hard Alan Kupperberg was trying to match that vibe sometimes... Ross Andru characters held awkward, jagged poses. I liked John Romita when I saw him, but never the inking. Mike Esposito of the 70's never did it for me. Not one of them would I trade for Aparo. Writing-wise, I never read a Marvel story during my formative years that grabbed me, shook me, and demanded my further attention. Usually I stuck to the team-up books, trying to get a beginning, middle, and end for my thirty-five cent investment. Plus, team-up books were cool. You got one guy you know you liked, the Thing, Spidey, Batman... and someone else you were likely just finding out about... Unfortunately, while the Brave and the Bold had great stuff month to month, Marvel treated their team-up books like farm teams, and it showed. I never hated Marvel, although the tedious self-aggrandizing and heavy-handed slams at the "Distinguished Competition" made for nauseating reading at times. Stan was nimble enough to pull that off without sounding like a jerk. The rest? Not even close. Marvel struck me as arrogant at best. Snotty and discourteous the rest of the time. DC was where the better characters were, with solid, imaginative stories the writers could actually finish. Characters with a wealth of history behind them, but not in any way inaccessible. Everything you needed for the story was laid out right there. I read that Marvelites can't hack multiple Earths and wonder how they wrap their heads around A.) Marvel's multiple Earths (Counter-Earth, Earth-S, & Earth-A back then...) or B.) which army of green or yellow suited buffoons worked for which Mega-Villain at any given time. DC had better characters. Better stories. Better art. And with their numerous tabloid editions, Dollar Comics, and back-up features, you got you money's worth and more from them. Marvel... could never finish a story. Eventually, I bought enough issues of What If to get a handle on most of the Marvel stable's backstories to enjoy them. My local library had a number of books on Comic History, so I enjoyed reading classic Lee, Kirby, and Ditko stories along the many EC reprints those contained. But that didn't translate into books bought off the stand until X-Men #113, and Defenders #62 found their way into my hands. From then on, I'd buy Marvels without the previous aversion I had for them, but DC continued to put out far better stuff. I chalk up Marvel Zombie-hood to the Politics of Inclusion. Marvel tells you they're your buddy and your pal. They rub your tummy and pat your head for supporting them and their entirely self-serving ends. They care enough about you to tell you who your enemies are and ought to be. They point across the street and sneer while telling you how smart you look in those shoes of your's. Are those new? My goodness, don't you look good! So, let's get back to laughing at those substandard clowns across the street... Marvel is Fox News.
Edited by Brian Hague on 15 June 2011 at 8:11pm
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