DC definitely has Marvel beat by a long shot. I don't know if anyone else is very familiar with Jim Robinson's run with Starman, but reading that series the first time around was incredible. The attention to detail, concerning the city that the characters lived in, was just phenomenal. Not to mention how much of the books talked about the collectibles that the protagonist sold in his store. That was just really cool and it was nice to see conversations in a comic book that weren't about the bad guy or the good guys, but about the city they lived in and the things (movies, books, TV shows, etc.) that these superheroes liked in their time not spent saving the world. (Where else will you find out what Batman's favorite Woody Allen movie is?) The villains in DC also seem to be better written, they're more interesting and deep. Sandman is definitely responsible for shaping the whole comic book scene at the time, and Vertigo in general has been pretty good about being original, not just mature. Then we have the Justice League International. In the late 80's/early 90's comic books were getting really dark and edgy, heroes were turning into anti-heroes, and in general they were a lot more violent and gritty for the sake of being edgy. It was really brave of DC to make a light-hearted series with characters making jabs at each other and joking, pretty much the whole time. On the whole I think DC has been a lot more influential than Marvel in terms of refreshing and producing new concepts in the industry. Don't even get me started on Darwyn Cooke, whose artwork in New Frontier was just plain beautiful.

When it comes to comic books I'm going to have to go with DC. I grew up my entire childhood as a Marvel boy and couldnt stand DC. BUt now that I'm older and have a much better understanding of the stories and I'm in touch with the art I'd say DC blows marvel away. Really old Marvel had much better artwork than DC but at some point over time marvels artwork started seeming lazy and childish and DC matured in new fantastic way. Since early 2000's DC's stories have improved also making them better than Marvel. As long as geoff Johns is in DC I dont think Marvel will be half as good. Marvel is good for little kids but as an 18 year old I will have to say DC is much more appealing to people of my age and older.

I grew up with both equally, and for most of my youth I didn't really have a consistent favorite. In the mid-80s DC was redefining themselves, and as a kid who didn't have much pre-Crisis attachment to the characters, I really appreciated the universe-wide restart. Also DC was edgier at the time, and with comics like Sandman and the other Vertigo titles they helped establish the idea that comics could be mature.

In the 90s, Marvel edged up with better art and more interesting characters. But at some point they went too far. Almost everyone stopped being a traditional hero and the whole company seemed to be one-upping DCs mature titles with pure shock value.

These days I don't read comics, although I still keep up with what's going on in both universes. Overall, I've got to give it to DC. They have more history and more genuinely heroic characters, they know when its time to clean house, and there is a greater sense of epic wonder.

I have tried analyzing both universes heroes and events and I think DC universe is better. While Marvel has more powerful characters and all that, Dc has smarter ones that are capable of defeating those of Marvel Universe. So I'm saying, DC had more logic than Marvel. I have also heard of this theory that Marvel tends to bring out characters very similar to that of DC-I mean look at Flash and Quicksilver

However, I also enjoy the Marvel Universe at times but I still like DC a lot.

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