DC and Marvel: Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Only It's One Of Those Trick Coins That's The Same Thing On Both Sides

I love mainstream comics and I always will. I will always enjoy keeping up with the Spider-Manses and Batmen and everybody else. They've got me hooked and I'll always be interested.

That being said, THEY NEED TO STOP DOING THE SAME THINGS. ALL THE TIME.

It's really getting out of hand.

Three years ago, Captain America got shot and died. Last summer, they revealed/made up that he had really just been shot with a time gun and was "unstuck in time." He eventually fought his way back to the present, only to find that his former sidekick had taken on his mantle.

Last year, Grant Morrison wrote about 120 pages of blather that didn't make any sense and then killed Batman at the end. And then he wrote another 160 pages of nonsensical blather and killed Batman again! Now it seems that Batman is stuck in the timestream and attempting to get back to the present. Once he gets here, he'll find that his former sidekick has taken up his mantle (and become more interesting than he has).

See what I mean?

And now, after about a decade each of "dark" stories and "putting their characters through the wringer," both companies are promising a more optimistic universe after each ends their current big event. Marvel is ringing in "The Heroic Age," which will put their classic teams and line-ups back together, restore classic heroes to their classic situations, and hopefully have Punisher stop being Frankenstein. DC is releasing "Brightest Day" and claiming that theirs is just another story and not a company-wide change like Marvel's, but I doubt it. They are still promising universal changes and I seriously doubt something called "Brightest Day" will bring about a less Heroic Age.

These are only two big examples, of course; there's literally thousands of similarities. For a while I followed both companies' titles, but it really is the same stories being told twice, and I gotta say...

Make Mine Marvel!

Except for Batman and a few other cool things, Marvel just has better characters than DC and that's all there is to it!

Now, if you make me pick out of all current comic-bookdom, it'd probably me more like "Make Mine Umbrella Academy and Also RASL Whenever It Does Actually Come Out" or something, but between the Big Two (One?) Marvel's just a little cooler, right?

The Lost Dark Tower Island

So I've been slowly poking my way through The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'm currently reading Part 3, The Waste Lands. So far, the series is about a cowboy, a junkie, a mad black lady and a little kid searching for The Dark Tower, which is the nexus of reality. The group is connected by coincidence and destiny, and the world they explore is full of mysteries and hints of a technologically advanced group of people that used to live there.

The TV show "LOST" is about a group of plane crash survivors stranded on an island. The group is connected by coincidence and destiny, and the world they explore is full of mysteries and hints of a technologically advanced group of people that used to live there.

The dudes behind "LOST" have said more than a few times that they're influenced by King, especially Tower, and in fact they were going to work on a film adaptation of the series once "LOST" is done but that fell through. That's too bad for them, but someone really needs to make it into an HBO show. It'd be amazing.

Now, I'm not fully through either story yet, but I'm guessing that The Island and The Dark Tower end up being the same thing to their respective universes (universii?). Obviously, I'll find out what The Island is first, since there's no way I'm reading the remaining FOUR THOUSAND pages of The Dark Tower before "LOST" is over.

Also, the two series seem to have something else in common: making it up as they go along. But they're both entertaining as well as kind of almost deep, so whatever. I love it.

I'm Back

Hey look! I started writing in this again! Hooray!

Well, I'm not going to Comic Con in San Diego. I really wanted to but it's not happening. Trevor gets to go though, so scratch one friend.

I found out today that Justice Society of America, one of DC's best titles, is about to get a crazy new teammate: KINGDOM COME SUPERMAN! That's ridiculous, right? I've been catching up on all this Multiverse stuff lately since DC has brought it back, and this (along with Anti-Monitor returning) is the kind of stuff I want to see! Both have been done by Geoff Johns, and I'm beginning to think he should just write EVERY DC TITLE.

Tomorrow two long-delayed Batman stories com out: Batman #666 and All-Star Batman #6. Both are being written by maniacs who are doing crazy things with Batman and I can't wait to see what's next.

I wrote back in May that I would be following "World War Hulk" and counting the bodyslams. Well, every issue so far has had body slams, but it's the same one! Almost every issue so far has been different characters watching the same thing happen, so we'll see where else it goes since several more pieces of the story come out tomorrow.

I bought an Animal Man action figure. I'm pretty sure it's the nerdiest thing I've done, which is saying something.

I got the huge Madman collection last week. I read the new title, which is CRAZY and existential and stuff, but haven't read the old stuff before. I'm really looking forward to it.

This was kind of a boring post. Sorry I didn't come back with a bang.

Homework.

So it looks like Warner Bros. has started doing some cool internet campaigns for "The Dark Knight," the new Batman movie coming out next year. Going here shows you a Batman logo, and then clicking on it brings you to a Harvey Dent campaign poster. It looks like the movie will be about him becoming District Attorney, which, as with most positions of power,leads to him getting a face full of acid, which leads to him becoming Two-Face.

What we really care about in this movie, though, is the Joker, right?

Clicking here brings you to a defaced Harvey Dent poster that slowly decays, revealing something underneath. Put your email address (Yahoo and Hotmail ones don't work apparently) in the thing on the bottom and enter the code, then follow the directions. This will help deteriorate the picture more and show us what's underneath. I'm pretty sure it's a picture of what Heath Ledger will look like as the Joker, and I for one am a big enough nerd to go through all of this just to see it.

Hopefully he looks like a cool and different take on the Joker and not just Heath Ledger in a Jack Nicholson mask Actually, that would be pretty cool too.

Watch me on TV talking about comics!

Hey everybody! I'm gonna be on The Sauce on FUSE on Wednesday talking about comic books! Watch me nerd it up with Steven, one of the co-hosts of the Sauce! Watch the other host look on in horror as Steven and I say things like "X-Men" and "Batman!"

6pm ET!
Wednesday, May 16th!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE!

Tomorrow's Wednesday!

Not a lot coming out tomorrow that I follow, but the couple things that are being released are pretty dope. Or chill. Or...yeah.

Ghost Rider #11 - This title has been teetering on my "stop reading" list for months, but every month it keeps me on board with fun action and awesome art. And really, I don't think there's ever been a Ghost Rider title that was very good, so the fact that this is at least readable every month is pretty awesome. This one is pretty fun, and in this issue Ghost Rider fights an undead Jack-O-Lantern, this pumpkin-headed villain guy that the Punisher killed a while back. Should be good.

Punisher War Journal #7 - Speaking of the Punisher, this series is pretty kick-ass! Garth Ennis writes a series called "The Punisher" for Marvel which pits the Punisher against real-life foes like terrorists and slavers, but this one has Punny fighting ridiculous Marvel c-list villains like Stilt-Man and Shocker! The way Matt Fraction writes the Punisher is very similar to Ennis', but it's awesome that we get to see this bad-ass vigilante fight real-life assholes in one title and ridiculous jerks in costumes in another! I'm all for it, and someday I want to be the Punisher. Is that weird?

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2 - This is a fun little miniseries that takes place outside of Marvel continuity, where Spider-Man is all depressed and "back in black" and The Fantastic Four broke up. No, here we get a classic Spidey and a classic Four fighting a bunch of aliens bent on destroying the world. The setting is contemporary but the writing has an awesome old-school feel (it's written by Paul Jenkins, who also wrote the fantastic Agents of ATLAS mini last year)and it's only four issues, so why not?

Green Lantern Corps #12 - One of my FAVORITE books right now! And it's totally underrated! This book is totally fun and is basically like "Law and Order" in space! The book follows six or seven different Green Lanterns on different adventures, and although it jumps from story to story several times an issue it never feels choppy. Dave Gibbons, the dude that drew Watchmen, writes this and proves that he can do TWO things, which I find impressive (I can only do one thing well and it's being naked).

Countdown #51 - The next huge DC thing starts tomorrow! I think they're gonna kill Jimmy Olsen, which normally I wouldn't approve of, but Paul Dini can do whatever he wants.

Countdown? Countdown!

Yeah, tomorrow DC starts their new weekly series Countdown. I'm not normally one to buy into big events; I normally just buy comics that are written by someone I really like, but this one is! Paul Dini is masterminding it, and supposedly it will contain every character in the DC Universe!

I hope Superman's in it!

But anyways, yeah, it sounds fun. I can't wait.

Speaking of big comic book events, I'm also thinking of maybe following Planet Hulk when it starts. The story is so simple and full of promise, I should at least check it out. Basically, a year ago the Hulk was shot into space by Professor X and other smart guys (Iron Man, Dr. Strange, etc) to keep Earth safe from his rampages. Now he's coming back with an army and he wants revenge. That sounds good to me, and since the Marvel Universe is now chock full of superteams following the Civil War, there should be tons of sweet fights. If not, then Marvel has totally lost it. Actually, they have enough good titles out there, that they won't have "lost it," but c'mon. If this Planet Hulk thing doesn't contain at least five body-slams per issue, I'm out.

In fact, let's up the stakes a little: I am going to buy Planet Hulk, and keep track of the body-slams RIGHT HERE ON MY NERD BLOG. We'll keep track of this thing together.