People always go
when I point out that DC wants you to strive to be better people. Marvel wants their people flawed, and staying there. Problem is, going through the same problems over and over again just pisses people off. How many times do we hear of Peter Parker and his financial woes? How many times we hear of Wolverine and his memory loss? It would make for a great origin story, but to be going through that for 10 plus years after your superhero career began, just gets a Lil tiring.
Even Batman and his loss of his parents, he becomes something greater. He upholds justice for everyone else. He never makes excuses for his shortcomings. He understands, eventually, of having a team in Gotham (Bat family) and worldwide (Justice League). That's the improvements that he and other DC characters do as time goes on. I only get that sense from Captain America, Panther, and Cyclops and maybe even Thor from Marvel.
I read comics to escape and to be inspired to a certain extent. NOT TO BE REMINDED OF REALITY AND FEELING HOPELESS.
I'd been trying to find this post for a minute. This is why I've gravitated more towards DC over the years (not including Vertigo). DC, at its core, is about heroes striving to be the best versions of themselves, both in and out of the costume. The best DC stories (across all media) are the ones where we get to see the characters grow into the great heroes they'll become, even if they stumble and go about it the wrong way. Stories like
The episode of Static Shock where Static goes into the future and meets Terry McGinnis, who tells him he grew up to be one of the world's greatest heroes
Booster Gold having to humble himself and learn to be a hero for the right reasons, not just his own self-promotion
Pretty much the entirety of 52
Bart Allen being looked at as a screw up who never takes things seriously, so he reads every book in the San Francisco Public Library in an hour and uses his knowledge to help fight bad guys.
Kyle Rayner literally fighting his inner demon to prove that he belongs in the Justice League and deserves to be a Green Lantern.
That last one is a personal favorite of mine. "Green Lantern: Circle of Fire" is an absolutely beautiful story, and it perfectly embodies everything I love about DC Comics. It helps that it was written by Brian K. Vaughan, my favorite comics writer. In that comic, Adam Strange says a line that resonated with me: "Life isn't about deciding what one thing you already are... it's about discovering the endless things you can still become." That line is DC Comics at its finest.
All this being said, DC/Marvel, it's all the same shyt, and a lot of the "differences" between the two are just cosmetic. Just like how a lot of people who like Marvel may find Batman to be the only DC character they can identify with, Spider-Man is in a lot of ways just like a DC character, just in the Marvel universe.
