Marvel's Plethora of Team Books VS DC's Individual Books

The Marvel characters have better chemistry with each other than DC characters. They have better chemistry that even works on small teams (West Coast Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, X-Force). Most DC characters don't work well together even on small teams or team ups. Batman hates everyone but Superman and doesn't trust anybody to work with them. Everyone thinks Superman is smug or just "scary" to be with. Captain America and Hawkeye work well together unlike Superman and Green Arrow working together.

When that time came for me to finally delve into the world of comic books and to pick a side i veered towards DC for one reason. Their team books didn't all share the same title and thereby confuse me. (batman did though... and now there are more of them.... still like it though :P). Having a plethera of X-something books of Avenger-something books is confusing to new readers esspecially as they most likely don't know the difference between Astonishing or Uncanny (to pick a few titles) while looking at DC (or at least when i started reading) you had different titles "teen titans", "justice league of america", "doom patrol" "justice society of america" etc. which didnt all sound the same (ok, maby JLA and JSA, but still) so were easier to pick out. But now though, with DCs -1 year plus 2 month 52 line their starting to follow the marvel concept of naming their team books after one and other (JL, JLI, JLD, JLA, JLA:Vibe) which is getting a wee bit annoying.

Marvel did get more of its success from titles with numerous members (with spider-man being the obvious exception) as before the avengers title came out Iron man, Thor and Hulk were pretty much B-list characters in the shadows of the infanantly more successfull Fantastic 4 and spiderman (X-men weren't that successfull in their first incarnation) so sticking with the idea of teams pretty much strengthans those solo titles. DC on the other hand did it the opposite, example: back in the golden age Batman and Superman were only honourary members of the Justice society, so never appeared in the titles, and Flash and green lantern disapeared after the first 2 issues. why? because they had their own solo titles. DC's original idea was that team books would be a good place to introduce some new characters to the market, see how the readers took to them and if positive launch them their own title and take them out of the team book (the only acception was Hawkman who was the books anchor). So their idea was to launch as much solo titles as possible from the popularity of team books. To this day i think it's the same formula (for the most part).

Now honestly I think that team books should be the titles that people who are unsure about what solo titles to read should pick up to gain a taste for how certain characters feel to them. It worked for me... for the most part (i picked up legion... no solo titles there, but then i picked up teen titans and JSA and much solo titles were read as a knock on affect)

@The Mast said:

I think the biggest problem with team books is that they end up being a storage space for characters people just don't know how to handle.

Nobody can consistently writer Surfer or Wonder Man, for example. So, stick them in The Defenders and Uncanny Avengers respectfully. They deserve solo series', but if they can't have one, don't have them anywhere. Don't let them become furniture.

I would say that's my favorite part about team books (well, without a negative connotation of storage/furniture). There's many characters who I enjoy themselves but don't care for their supporting cast or the details of their own world. (Ex: I like Superman, his cast like Jimmy & Lois, working at the DP, are things I also like. However, Green Arrow is a character I like, but his own book right now has me tuning out when it's dealing with his "support/surrounding"). Place that character on a team where the support/surround becomes other "stars" (another caveat of my opinion, I prefer teams of well-knowns) and I get to enjoy the whole story & that specific character. I'm glad DC's getting a 2nd JL book soon. GA on a team, and finally Martian Manhunter back in the "normal" DC world. Now we just need Captain Marvel & Plastic Man on a team & I'm good to go.

I chalk it up to the fact that almost every hero in Marvel is based in New York City, different areas in NY mind you, and every hero in DC has his/her own city minus the Bat Family (they share one which makes sense for humans). The only exceptions I see in Marvel for solos and team-ups in DC is when the character travels around they world for something (Marvel example Agent Venom) or they visit a city already occupied (DC example any hero who enters Gotham). I like Scarlet Spider because he is in Houston so his book allows for growth and possibly new characters if presented right. Great article too

@Shamelesslysupportinaznballers: More characters doesn't always ensure a quality story.

cause the only reason to read dc is supes and batman :D

Very good analysis that you put forth here and I think that's essentially why you can make the argument that neither DC nor Marvel are superior in the types of books they put out. DC has more individually centered books whereas Marvel has more team centered books. I honestly never thought about it that way before but it makes sense now to me. Personally for me though I've always been more about individual center books than team ones, which is probably why I'm more of a DC guy as far as taste goes.

I like solo books a lot more than I like team books. The stories in solo books seem to be a lot better and the stories focus on character development more. I like team books like Uncanny X-men but I wish Marvel did have more solo books.

I don't really like team books for Marvel side.It's because if a person gets invested in a character, then that character gets send to comic book limbo.X-Books do this a lot.

I feel like in team books, a lot of characters lose personality or become poorly characterized if they are big name heroes i.e. Geoff Johns' JL. But Marvel's never had major success until the OG Spider-Man trilogy and the forming of the Avengers. Same goes for it's comics. Marvel also has an event every 2 months, while I could count the major DC crossovers on both hands. DC also has had the issue where, if you don't read issue _ of ____ then you understand what's happening in the next issue of ____. This has happened in the Bat-Family comics, specifically Knightfall, and with Final Crisis and Superman Beyond. Marvel is good at having its books still connect with others while still keeping the story contained in one book. DC does great stories, but has to play catchup if a writer decides to make a huge change to continuity.

always preferred solo books..however dc is going the avengers way with so many Justice League books

Awesome article!
 
I actually like both solo series and team books, as long as they are written well.  I like solo books because you could focus on one character and that character would be able to develop much more since they wouldn't have to worry about sharing the spotlight with other characters in a team setting.  I like team books because I like to see interactions between two or more characters and if written right, could make really interesting stories involving each different character.
 
The biggest problem I do have with team books is that some team books don't focus on all the characters and therefore, we're left with some characters being thrown in the background, doing nothing and that usually annoys me to no end.

solo or team, good reads are good reads... doesn't matter what it is.

Wow, you just made me understand why I would take DC over Marvel any day.

@HempKnight757: solo books can be equally as horrible as team books.

DC has the perfect blend of solo and team books.

I find that I don't like team books as much because there is such a heavy focus on characters I usually don't care for and if you don't like enough of the characters, the book can get boring very fast. I also hate that every team book falls into the inevitable trap of expanding the group too much. It sometimes feels like everybody is a member of the group and if everyone is on the team, it loses what makes it so special.