DC and Marvel are both in pretty great places right now. They are respectively one and two years into their new alternate universe storylines that are successes across the board. Some of their biggest names are in the middle of incredible new runs, such as Joe Kelly’s The Amazing Spider-Man run and Al Ewing’s Mortal Thor, versus the start of Matt Fraction’s Batman run and Joshua Williamson’s Superman. Both companies are pushing the boundary and igniting excitement in fans, new and old, but while they’re both doing great, it’s also fairly clear that DC is kicking Marvel’s butt right now.
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This isn’t in terms of sales, given that the top comic books sold per month slot tends to be split pretty evenly between the Big Two, but in general quality and identity. Simply put, both companies are outputting an unprecedented quantity of quality comics, but DC has one thing that Marvel doesn’t, and it gives them a major edge. DC has a very clear, consistent identity for its universe that permeates every single comic they are releasing right now, which Marvel lacks. That lack of identity is exactly what’s holding them back.
Hope Is the Center of Everything in DC
Over the past several years, DC has spent considerable time and effort asking and answering what it means to be a hero in their universe. They’ve defined their brand of heroism as standing up for what’s right, no matter how dark the odds, and always having hope for a better tomorrow. They’ve outright stated Superman is the center of their entire multiverse. He is the living embodiment of hope that drives heroes forward, and every hero in DC derives some piece of themself from that ideal.
Marvel, meanwhile, lacks a central identity. They have figures who represent the ultimate standard of heroism in Spider-Man and Captain America, but their ideals are far from universally accepted. Whereas DC has nearly every hero fall under the umbrella of the Justice League as one community, things are very segmented in Marvel. The Avengers feel entirely different from the X-Men, who feel different from the Guardians of the Galaxy, who feel different from magic users like Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch. This individuality isn’t a bad thing at all, but it can make the universe feel slightly disjointed, which prevents them from reaching their ultimate storytelling potential. The best way to examine what I mean is by digging into both companies’ alternate universes.
An Absolute Identity vs a Messy Execution
The Absolute Universe and the new Ultimate Universe were both built on a singular idea from which everything spawned. In the Absolute Universe, Darkseid’s influence turned the natural order of everything to despair, meaning heroes had to struggle to be beings of hope and positive change. The Ultimate Universe saw the Maker change the world to fit his sick designs, with heroes whose destinies were stolen rising to fix the world. On the surface, this is a similar concept, but the important distinctions show themselves in the execution.
Both universes have a central story that they are building to, but while DC has a theme that is guiding it, Marvel has an idea that they are messily reaching for. The Absolute books all feel distinct from each other, but they share several of the same themes of hope and rebellion against the powers that be. They all build towards something from their own direction, but you can feel Darkseid’s influence in every single issue. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Universe is building towards its own big clash with the Maker, but hapazardly and unevenly.
The Ultimate Universe makes far more direct calls to the Maker and his people than the Absolute Universe does to Darkseid, but Darkseid feels more present in the Absolute Universe. This is because all of the books commit themselves to generating one atmosphere, while giving each of them the freedom to explore what the themes they all have in common look like for their specific hero. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Universe is heavily structured in month-by-month tellings in an attempt to make its own identity. That could be a great way to show the Ultimate Universe’s identity, but instead, it causes books like Ultimate Spider-Man to fall apart because the story it wants to tell is at odds with what the universe wants.
The Ultimate line almost feels like it’s fighting its own books some of the time, which is something the Absolute titles don’t go through. Where the Absolute line has a strong sense of purpose and ethos, the Ultimate titles have a strong structure. That type of structure only works when the structure helps elevate the emotional message and themes of the works using it, and while that works for some, it fails for others. That’s not an identity, that’s an attempt to make one. In essence, the Ultimate Universe knows what it wants to be, but doesn’t push that identity, and so it winds up falling flat, even from massively successful beginnings.
DC has spent a lot of time creating its own identity theme for its works, whereas Marvel has gotten by without one. This is not to say that Marvel’s books or execution is bad, but it is clear that this central emotional structure elevates DC’s stories higher than any physical structure could, and that’s what makes DC stronger right now.
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Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm.
