Quote:
I thought superhero comics were mainly to be read as action-centered escapism, not for interminable soap opera type sub-plots.


The reason that Marvel Comics began to be so popular in the late sixties was that "action-centered escapism", as delivered by DC Comics at the time, was specifically targetted at kids, and as such usually had a tone which spoke "down" to the audience.

For example, if in the Flash strip it was necessary to mention something about the formation of a tornado, Schwartz would devote a large footnote or perhaps even an entire panel to define the terms necessary; or if a new word was used, Schwartz would use a footnote to define the word. Lee, on the other hand, seemed to expect his readers to know stuff, and if they didn't know it he wasn't gonna explain it, it was up to the reader to look it up.

To bring in a personal anecdote, I can recall clear as a bell seeing the word "wound" for the first time in a Superman comic when I was 7 years old, circa 1962. Because this was a fairly common word, no definition was provided in the comic itself, so I needed to look it up. And I was pleased with myself at being able to look up and understand a new word all on my own. Having it spoonfed to me in Schwartz's books would not have been anywhere near as satisfying.

As I got older, the DC books seemed to be talking down to me more and more, whereas the Marvel books seemed to be growing with me.

Now, part of growing up is understanding that things don't always come to a neat resolution in 12 pages. Part of growing up is also beginning to be bored with seeing the same old things reiterated over and over. And frankly, those were the frustrations that I had with DC comics from 1965 onwards. Even BEFORE I discovered Marvel in the summer of 1966, I was looking for something besides the same old same old from DC.

Now, I can surely understand how frustrating it must have been for people who DID like what DC was presenting, to see DC trying to emulate Marvel. Because when I saw Marvel begin, in 1969, to abandon the stuff that had brought me to the line in the first place -- the absence of word balloons on covers, long continued stories, a regular stream of new villains rather than recycling the old -- I got frustrated as well.

But the point of this thread was when DC began as a whole to resemble Marvel. And Lee, your aversion to Crisis, and post-Crisis DC, surely chalks up even more evidence for 1984 or so being the dividing line.