Favoratism
for one, Abandonment of the other
Is Marvel a sacred cow, and DC a
sacrificial lamb, for some comic book fans?
March 1, 2005
By Avi Green
I’d been thinking about this already for some time, that the
legitimization of Identity Crisis by some would-be fans of comics
was because of a pro-Marvel bias, while DC on the other hand is
considered expendable, and anything bad that happens to that
universe is throughly acceptable for anyone who thinks Marvel is a
better company and universe.
Well, it’s true that, if you know where to look, you’ll find some
think-tanks with those very exact positions on both companies and
their respective characters and universes. And that, I fear, is
what’s ultimately allowing for the DCU to be abused as it was this
past year by not just the company, but also some of the fans
themselves.
On Comic Book
Resources once, one poster said that, “Most comic readers are bigger fans of
Marvel than they are DC. It's harder to be critical of something
you like, so fans are more willing to be critical of DC than of
Marvel.” While this is certainly true, it also goes the
opposite direction, and that some Marvel fans are willing to
tolerate whenever something like the rape scene in Identity Crisis
takes place within the DC Universe than they are if it does in the
Marvel Universe.
On Hero Realm, which I’ve long
since left for the most part, as I recall, a lot, perhaps even too
many, people were Marvelites than they were DC fanatics. They seemed
quite capable of criticizing something like J. Michael Strazcynski’s
hack work on Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn in Amazing Spider-Man, in
a story titled “Sins Past” (more like "Sins Present," if you ask
me), yet they seemed quite tolerant of what was done with Sue Dibny
in IC. Which, if so, makes them a perfect example of the favoratist
position taken by Marvel fans towards the House that Stan Built, and
weirdly thus in favor of anything done to the House that Julie
Built.
It can even be the other way around, to be sure, wherein DC fans
could object to what’s done with the DCU, but are in full favor of
whatever’s done with the MCU. But either way, one thing is clear:
it’s not just a foolish path to take, it’s also taking the risk of
endangering either universe by allowing damage to be done to the one
you’re less a fan of. Or, in other words, let your less favorite be
abused, and you can be running the risk of allowing/encouraging that
is your favorite to be damaged as well.
And to say the least, the misuse of Dr. Light in Identity Crisis may
have very easily been what led to the misuse of both Gwen Stacy and
Norman Osborn in Amazing Spider-Man, and an interview which Joe
Quesada gave to Newsarama certainly suggested that.
There were also claims that a lot of the audience that read Identity
Crisis were also migrants from Marvel, supposedly because readers
from that end were interested in the “humanity” that took place in
IC. But while it’s certainly possible that some readers were Marvel
migrants, even that may have been a bit exaggerated in a manner of
speaking. Either way, I do have to question what anyone thought was
humanity, meaty personalities, or a human aspect in IC, given that
the women all came off very badly, so much in fact, that it’s hard
to say that they were in any ways depicted in a believable – or even
a human – way. And when you see that the rape of Sue Dibny was
trivialized and the mini’s overall viewpoint one-sided and almost
exclusively masculine, you know that even that whole claim was
otherwise false.
It was on Hero Realm, to say the least, that I saw some of the
arguments that would suggest that it were the “humanity” that led
some Marvelites to read IC. But then if that particular miniseries
really had something like that, well then, don’t any of the other DC
books have humanity in them as well?
In fairness, it’s all according to one’s own perception. But either
way, let’s be clear: DC has had some form of deeper personality ever
since the Bronze Age, when Denny O’Neil for one took to dealing with
such characters as Green Arrow. And when the post-Crisis era began,
Superman and Wonder Woman, in their incarnations since then, have
certainly had some kind of a personality, if that’s what the
question is. And certainly more in depth storytelling to boot. And
the teen protagonists, well, they most certainly had personality
when developed, that’s for sure.
Unfortunately, whatever be the situation with DC, not everyone sees
it that way, and, from my experience with what I read on HR’s own
forums, because they don’t want to see it that way! It’s almost like
the reverse of what an anti-Americanist, or an anti-Israelist, wants
to think or believe, even though that’s more in relation to what
goes on in the real world, not in literature.
In any case though, this is why I would like to point out that I for
one do not read even Marvel comics simply because the characters
there have personalities and personal problems to deal with every
now and then. Nope, I don’t worry solely about those things. Rather,
I read both DC and Marvel, if anywhere, for the themes that they
were known for in their time: action, adventure, and suspense.
(Mystery too, in fact.) If there’s anything I do appreciate in such
comic books, it’s that the characters be likable in what character
traits they do have, and I certainly wouldn’t appreciate it if they
were written as nasty and treat the innocent societies they’re in
the business of protecting like dirt. It’s that precise latter
description there that’s one of the reasons why I can’t dig Batman
nowadays, ever since virtually every Bat-writer started trying to
imitate Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns when the mid-1990’s came
around.
But to say the least, from what I picked up in the attitudes being
shown on Hero Realm since 2003, that’s why I realize that a couple
of the posters there who claimed that Identity Crisis was better
than any of the other DCU because the characters had more
personality than in the other DC books (and the handful I speak of,
interestingly enough, weren’t exactly what I’d think of as very
moral people), were not reading books like Identity Crisis for the
humanity, or any DC books for that matter, but rather…because
they’re more mature in tone. (At least, that's my perception.)
That’s not what even every single Marvelite reads even the House of
Ideas’ books for. Most certainly not the ones who have more sense.
Copyright 2005 Avi Green. All rights reserved.
Home FAQ Columns
Reviews
Links
Favorite
Characters Special
Features Politics
Blog Comics
Blog Food Blog