Marvel Comics and DC Comics have been competitors for decades. DC struck first in the superhero wars, creating the first superhero in Superman and the first major icons in the Trinity, as well as mantles like Flash, Green Lantern, and, to a lesser extent, Hawkman. In the Silver Age, Marvel would bring a heaping helping of humanity to the superhero comic and since then, the House of Ideas has mostly been the most popular publisher overall. Right now, DC is creaming Marvel in sales, to the extent that it barely feels like a competition, but there’s always a chance that things could change completely. However, this victory only came after years of DC defeats, with the future of the publisher being in doubt several times over the last decade.
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The comic industry is at its best when the two companies are neck and neck, something that we haven’t had since the ’00s. The first decade of the 21st century saw Marvel and DC redefine the superhero after the doldrums of the ’90s, with the two companies competing for the same creators. This led to some amazing books; in my opinion, the first half of the ’00s is one of the greatest periods in comic history. The competition came to a head in 2004, when the two publishers went head to head with their major summer event comics – Marvel’s Secret War, from then-rising star Brian Michael Bendis and Italian painter Gabriele dell’Otto, and DC’s Identity Crisis, by novelist Brad Meltzer and artist Rags Morales. The two publishers went to war, leading to one of the most exciting summers in years. Contests like this don’t always have obvious winners, but 24 years later, we can easily pick a winner in this contest. Each of these books played a huge role in comic history, but one of them was the definitive winner of their contest.
Marvel and DC’s Summer ‘04 Face-Off Got Hot
The ’00s were an amazing time to be a comic fan. The ’90s had given the industry its biggest successes but these successes were completely and totally unsustainable, leading the industry in some bad directions. Marvel suffered much worse in the ’90s, with the ’00s seeing the publisher rebuild its writing corps by pilfering the one that DC had built up over the ’90s, while bringing indie creators like Brian Michael Bendis, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, and many more. The rise of the Ultimate Universe would see Marvel pull ahead, leading to summer ’04’s face-off.
The summer event comic had been a big part of the industry since the ’80s, but the ’90s had seen them become less popular. Back then, the summer events would usually be crossover events, running through the various books of the line, like 1996’s Marvel Universe-shaking book “Onslaught”. While there were traditional event miniseries in the ’90s – Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Infinity Crusade, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Final Night– they weren’t the dominant event paradigm. Both companies going back to the event series well at the same time was a big change and it’s one that define the industry of the day.
One of the things that returned in the ’00s was the spirit of competition between Marvel and DC. This was mostly fostered by then-Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada. Joe felt the combative air spurred on creators and readers, making them excited for what was coming down the pipe. WizardMagazine played a big role in this, as the writers there were friends with people at both publishers and helped play up the competition. In their summer 2004 preview issue, the magazine placed Secret War and Identity Crisis as its two most anticipated releases, planting the seeds for their showdown.
Secret War and Identity Crisis were both integral to the directions of Marvel and DC in the mid ’00s. Secret War was all about a group of heroes who discover that they were part of a secret war in Latveria against Lucia Van Bardas, one that they were recruited for by Nick Fury. The story would end with Fury leaving SHIELD, introducing new Director Maria Hill, beefing up the B-list tech villains of the Marvel Universe, leave Latveria without a leader, and kicking off Bendis’s mega-plot that would run through New Avengers, House of M, Mighty Avengers, Secret Invasion, Dark Avengers, and Siege. Meanwhile, Identity Crisis was about a Justice League member’s wife being murdered, leading the superhero community to band together to find who done it. Eventually, the Justice League mindwipes were revealed to readers, pushing the League – and the superhero community – closer to its breaking point, paving the way for Infinite Crisis and the changes it would bring to the DC Universe.
Back then, strictly from a buyer’s standpoint, Identity Crisis was the winner of the contest. All of the issues came out on time, the seven-issue series becoming one of the most talked about comics on the market. Its murder of Sue Dibney and the changes it made to DC history were massive at the time. The story was hugely controversial back then, much like now, but it was overall looked at in a rather positive light by readers who liked the maturity it brought to DC. Meanwhile, Secret War was heavily delayed. The five-issue series wasn’t published monthly and its delayed angered readers. Months went by in-between issues; it wasn’t helped by the very slow-paced writing of Bendis, so it felt like nothing was happening in this expensive book that barely came out. Even its ending barely had any impact back then; fans were so annoyed by waiting so long that they stopped caring about the book.
However, looking at the aftermath of both books and what they did for their publisher, Secret War was the obvious winner. To begin with, Bendis’s longterm Marvel plot is one of the most successful in Marvel history. From 2004 to 2010, Bendis’s Avengers books and event series were able to make the House of Ideas the sales leader of the day. DC was still competitive at the time, but Marvel was on top. Meanwhile, in the years since, fans have completely turned on Identity Crisis, pointing to its treatment of women as a reason to hate it. Everyone hates the book and there’s some revisionist history that everyone always hated it, which wasn’t the case. Secret War led Marvel to one of their most successful periods; while it isn’t as highly thought of as what came after, it was the right direction to go. Identity Crisis has aged like milk by comparison.
Secret War Won By Losing
Back in ’04, I was excited for both books, but at the time I was more into Secret War. My DC fandom wasn’t as strong back then and I was more interested in the direction that the House of Ideas was taking their characters. However, Identity Crisis would end up being the book that made me take notice of what DC was doing with their heroes (I first started reading comics in the ’90s, so edgy ’00s books were what I loved back then). Secret War‘s delays hurt the book a lot for me, killing any anticipation I had for the book’s end. I had literally forgot about it by the time the last issue came out.
However, judging from the longterm consequences of both comics, it’s plain to see that Secret War and Marvel handily won this competition. In the short term, DC had a completed event comic that fans were talking about constantly, while Marvel had a delayed event book that annoyed readers. However, Secret War proved to be the most successful of the two longterm. It kicked off a story that allowed Marvel to pull ahead of DC and hasn’t been written off by modern fans for its edginess. Marvel and DC went head to head in 2004 and 22 years later, it’s clear that Marvel won this face-off.
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