Clash of the Comics Titans

Whereas to love (and stay in love) with DC Comics, you have to stay focused on the symmetry of good and evil. Deliberations give way to monologues.

You must also buy into DC's overriding plot device -- that there is a system of infinite, parallel Earths. On one Earth, Superman could be 30 years old; on another Earth, in a different comic book, he is nearing 60. The true DC loyalist would have no problem with the fact that the company is now on its third or fourth version of the Flash. (And you don't even want to know about all the Green Lanterns over time.) Superman and Batman just got their umpteenth "relaunch" tweaks and makeovers. So did Wonder Woman.

DC fans never stumble on these intricate distinctions; right now, many of the company's titles bear the stamp "One Year Later," indicating that their plots occur after the "52" plotline currently in progress.

In Marvel's world, things are no less complicated. To be a Marvel reader is to believe in neither good nor evil but to appreciate shades of gray. Say it's been 15 years since you last read "The Uncanny X-Men." You go into the comic-book store and look for the latest issue. What you don't know is that nobody's reading "Uncanny X-Men" these days. They're reading "Astonishing X-Men." There's also just plain old "X-Men," and "New X-Men" and "X-Men Unlimited." There is also "X-Factor."

And that's just the X-Men -- perhaps next you'd like to catch up with the Avengers?

You'd never have enough time.

A New Golden Age?

Among comic-book readers, allegiances now routinely shift. "It's really about who has the best stories at the time," says Peter Casazza, standing behind the counter of Big Planet Comics store ("Serious About Comics") on Dumbarton Street in Georgetown.

It's a Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday has always been new-comic-book day, and Casazza unpacks the latest issues, gives them a prominent spot, winnows out the old stuff. There are more people buying comics this year, he says, than in any recent year he can recall. The only problem now is there is no way to stock them all, especially in his 800-square-foot store. DC and Marvel, Casazza says, each used to put out around 35 titles every month; now it's around 70. (To say nothing of many more indie publishers of comics and graphic novels, or the growing shelf of Japanese manga.)

Around 100 regular Big Planet customers get weekly "pulls," in which the store sets aside a copy of each title a customer regularly buys and reads, in a nice, ready-to-go stack. Casazza says that when a comic book costs three or four bucks, as they now do, it's hard for a reader to stick with a title or brand if it's not working the same old magic. Some years they read more Marvel; some years they read DC; and for a long time, they have read a lot of both.

Imagine two churches across the street from each another, only the congregants keep running back and forth on the rumors of better Scripture.

"It's DC right now," Casazza says unequivocally. "Just the stories they're doing right now are so good. It's the writers."

'Nuff said?

Never.

Peter Parker has just unmasked himself to the world in "Civil War" [Ish #2 -- Ed] and the fast-selling series is hard to keep in stock. "More readers are coming back. People are talking about comics more," Casazza says.

"A lot of retailers argue if this isn't the Golden Age, right now."