The rivalry between the two publishers goes back to the Golden Age of Comics (roughly 1938-1950), when DC was still National Comics and Marvel was known as Timely Comics. But the real battle began in the late 1960s, when Marvel topped DC for the first time.
The two heavyweights have been slugging it out ever since.
In recent years Marvel has been Big Cape on Campus, more or less since it emerged from its late '90s bankruptcy and was bought by Disney (in 2009). It doesn't hurt that Marvel Films has virtually owned the box office with movies like "Captain America: Civil War."
Meanwhile, DC Comics shot itself in the foot in 2011 with a lame reboot called "New 52." While the idea was to make iconic heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman younger and hipper, the result was DC erasing some of the greatest stories, relationships and legacies in its own history. Longtime fans were not pleased.
Realizing its error, DC tried another reboot in June called "Rebirth," which fixed many of its previous fixes. In addition to simply making the books better _ always a good move _ DC reduced the number of titles it was publishing, while increasing the frequency of its better-selling ones. That is to say, instead of publishing "Batman" and a lesser title monthly, DC is simply shipping two issues of "Batman" each month.
This "less is more" strategy _ publishing more than a dozen popular titles twice monthly, and reducing the line overall _ turned the board over. In July, DC pulled slightly ahead of Marvel in market share, according to numbers from Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. But in August, they dropped the hammer _ DC's lead in market share over Marvel was more than eight points, 39.27 percent to 30.78 percent.
If your eyes glaze over at the sight of math, just take my word for it: That's a lot.
Where the carnage is really obvious, though, is in the Top 100 list. In August, Marvel only had one title in the top 10, three in the top 30 and nine in the top 50. DC had all the rest, except for Image's "The Walking Dead" at No. 13.
You know it's gotten ugly when "Red Hood and the Outlaws" outsells every book Marvel has except for "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Star Wars."
And it's not like Marvel hasn't been trying. They've had a big summer crossover going that's supposed to be dominating the sales charts. It just hasn't worked.
It's called "Civil War II," and it's a sequel of sorts to the source material for the "Captain America" movie that just burned up the box office. In this story, an Inhuman named Ulysses has come along, a fellow who can (possibly) see the future, which divides the Marvel superhero community into two camps. One, led by Captain Marvel, wants to arrest people before they commit the crimes seen by Ulysses, "Minority Report" fashion. The other, led by Iron Man, sees fascism in that approach.
This being comics, a philosophical divide can have only one solution: fisticuffs a-plenty. Everyone has taken sides, and mayhem has ensued.
So it's a big story, affecting most of the Marvel superhero line. And it's consequential. We've already seen _ Spoiler Alert _ the deaths of Bruce "Hulk" Banner and Jim "War Machine" Rhodes. And Jennifer "She-Hulk" Walters has lost control of her big, green alter ego (which is now gray and mean).
Still, you don't have to be a cynic to see why Marvel planned this particular storyline at this particular time. People leaving "Captain America: Civil War" with a song in their hearts and money in their wallets could walk into a comic shop and see multiple titles with "Civil War II" on the cover. Bazinga!
The problem is, it didn't work.
While the main "Civil War II" title is selling very well, the tie-ins are not. For example, in the Top 100 list for August, "Amazing Spider-Man" #16 is at No. 4, but "Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man" #3 is at No. 65. As should be obvious, one is CWII-related, while the other is not _ and the big summer crossover book is the one with the weakest sales.
"Whatever its reason," writes Rich Johnston at bleedingcool.com, "whatever the analysis (and there will be plenty), despite having a movie on the screen, a Free Comic Book Day launch, the might of Disney and a far more able marketing department, 'Civil War II' is a bust."
But don't break out the crying towels just yet.
For one thing, the "Rebirth" event has just about come to its natural end. DC is still in the process of revamping its superhero titles, but the big guns have already been fired. The titles receiving the "Rebirth" treatment in the last few weeks have been the likes of "Blue Beetle," "Batman Beyond" and "Deathstroke." Those titles won't stay in the top 20 for long.
And Marvel may not have any bragging rights, but it's still making money. In fact, virtually all the publishers are still making pretty much the same money they were before DC's "Rebirth."
That's because, while DC is gorging on market share, it's not really cutting into anyone else's profits. According to trade magazine icv2.com, "Rebirth" is bringing in, for lack of a better term, new money.
"Sales to comic stores by Diamond Comic Distributors in North America were up a whopping 31.62 percent over the same month a year ago in August," ICv2.com said. "With DC's Rebirth re-launch driving sales, periodical comics were up 44.58 percent, while graphic novels were up a more modest 5.53 percent."
It's a rising tide, and it's lifting everybody's Bat-boat. But where is that money coming from? Is "Rebirth" bringing new customers into the comic shop? Are existing customers simply buying more books? Are retailers simply ordering more and getting stuck with product they can't move? The answer to that question will also answer whether the current sales trends are meaningful, or just a summer fad.
Meanwhile, Marvel is fighting back. They're already pushing the re-launches of several titles prompted by the events of "Civil War II," with one of them _ "The Champions" #1 _ already in the 400,000 range on pre-orders. (That's more than both August issues of "Batman" put together.)
One of the reasons for the big orders is a promotional gimmick called "retailer exclusives," which is shorthand for a variant cover that is specific to a given comic shop, available if the shop orders a very large amount of a specific book. Marvel has at least eight more of these in the pipeline, including "Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows" #1, "Avengers" #1, "Black Panther: World of Wakanda" #1, "Ghost Rider" #1, "Iron Man" #1, "Thanos" #1, "The Unworthy Thor" #1 and "Venom" #1. Expect more if they have the desired sales impact.
So Marvel vs. DC continues. One has to wonder if their mothers are both, by some chance, named Martha.
