For a long time, I was a hardcore DC comics reader. Throughout the months leading up to the New 52 and following the relaunch, my saver was exclusively DC. I had some serious issues with Marvel and the decisions Joe Quesada was saddling the company with. My biggest problem was that they would alter the comics every summer to match whatever movie was in theaters that year. I assume the reasoning behind this was to make it easier for casual readers to pick up the books after seeing that year’s big Marvel movie. But for long-time readers, it was just annoying.
That wasn’t the only problem I had though. Civil War was a cool idea for the mythos, but that big crossover marked a major downfall for Marvel. Firstly, it demonized Iron Man and turned him into a dick and that turned off a lot of readers. Then, the two major results of Civil War; Spider-Man revealing his secret identity and Cap’s death, were quickly retconned. Cap’s resurrection was expected, but retconning Spidey’s reveal by eliminating the marriage is still something that’s hard for most readers to look past.
So for the longest time, I had trouble reading Marvel. Then The Avengers arrived. For the first time, there was a comic book movie that was good enough to warrant altering the comics for. I’m still hoping Marvel wises up and gives us a Tony Stark/Bruce Banner team-up book to expand on that relationship that Whedon was so brilliant for finally creating.
But the biggest reason I’m glad to have Marvel on my saver again: Free digital comics.
Providing a bonus digital copy has been a common practice with DVDs and Blu-Rays for a while and with comics going digital, it’s something that’s almost a no-brainer. However, DC jacks up the price of a comic with a digital copy to $4.99, while Marvel doesn’t. Instead, every Marvel $3.99 comic includes a free Digital Copy.
Marvel’s Digital store usually runs Monday .99 cent deals to build up your digital library, and now they’re really giving people a digital library with free digital copies with the weekly books. The digital reader, both via web and mobile device, also works great.
Right now, DC is just reacting to Marvel in stupid ways. They made Alan Scott gay in a knee-jerk pandering reaction to Northstar’s wedding in Astonishing X-Men, and it just feels like they don’t have the same customer-friendly attitude Marvel has.
That’s why I make mine Marvel.
