If you were to survey the customer base of an average comic book shop, you would probably find that most of the patrons buy from several of the major publishers.  There exists, however, many who would proclaim themselves as either “Marvel only” or “DC only” readers, and for one reason or another they can usually tell you why.  For some, a certain story arc turned them off to a company, or perhaps a character’s death (read “death”) was the proverbial straw for them, making them swear off any title that Marvel or DC published from there on out.  While they may not read a certain company’s titles, they probably are aware of what the other is doing, and if they’ve paid attention to current trends in both companies, they may find the lines between companies starting to blur.  Perhaps merge is a better word.

Over the past two years, the stories, character directions and events from the two biggest comic book publishers are becoming increasingly similar, almost strangely similar.  It’s hard to say if this is purely intentional, as both DC and Marvel have enough devoted readers to not feel the need to riff on each other in a way that elicits obvious comparisons.  There are several notable incidents of this, and it doesn’t always work for the respective company.  At some point, each company has pulled off the theme/event better than the other.  Consider the following cases in point: read more….

The rumors of an untimely demise may have been untrue for Mark Twain, but the same can’t be said for Marvel’s struggling series S.W.O.R.D., a spin-off of the hit series Astonishing X-Men.  S.W.O.R.D. stands for Sentient World Observation and Response Department, and while the group played an interesting role during the Secret Invasion storyline with its work against the Skrull threat, it appears that the perceived popularity of the characters and the series did not translate into enough sales power to justify a series of its own.  The fifth and final issue will ship in March. read more….