by James Shimoda

Created on: June 04, 2009

Like the Operating systems of the world, there are two main competitors: DC vs Marvel. The questions always is who is the better producer of comics. Both have memorable superheros with Spider-man, Ironman versus Batman and Superman, but it's the story of the characters where these two publishers diverge.

Marvel Comics tended to have characters who had superpowers, but they still retained a human quality. For that matter, most of their characters usually had problems. There was no happy surrounding really. A great example was Spider-man. He was bitten by a dying radioactive spider which endowed him with super agility, strength, and an ability to stick to walls. Peter Parker a.k.a spider-man also created a device that would allow him to create artificial webs. In reality, Parker was a honor student and in high standing with his teachers. All in all, it seemed like Parker had the perfect life, yet Marvel threw in qualities that allowed people to relate with him. Parker lived with his aunt because both of his parents were killed. His uncle was murdered and the sad part was it was by a criminal he could of stopped. He was constantly worried about money because being Spider-man took up a lot of his time and his aunt didn't have a steady income. His role as Spider-man was a plague to him because it strained his social life greatly. Even some of the villains were problems because he had a personal connection to them. He doesn't have a happy life exactly, but it's because of those problems that people are able to connect because some of those occur in real life.

Another interesting thing about Marvel is the fact they're willing to do crazy stuff. It's like the idea is to prevent characters from having happy endings. Marvel has been known to kill important characters and it's usually shocking because you never expected them to die. A great example was the death of Captain America a.k.a Steve Rogers. Rogers had been Captain America for a long time and it was a great shock to see that he was assassinated. While his role has been taken over by his sidekick, Bucky Barnes, it remains to be seen whether he'll come back to life. Another point of Marvel is that when characters are killed, they usually don't come back. One of spider-man's girlfriends, Gwen Stacy, was killed by the green goblin. While Gwen has made appearances after her death, they're explained that it's a clone or an illusion. There has never been a successful revival.

DC characters are not as human oriented

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