Superstar comic book writer Jonathan Hickman - currently celebrated for his remarkable X-Men run - has weighed in on one of the greatest debates among comic book fans: which publisher is better, DC or Marvel? The comic book industry has long been dominated by the two publishers, each with their own massive shared universe of superheroes and supervillains. Fans love nothing more than a good versus match, and that naturally means the superhero worlds are often pitted against one another.
Step forward Jonathan Hickman, one of the biggest names in comics today. Although Hickman grew up reading books from both publishers, he's gravitated towards Marvel, where he's been responsible for some of the biggest arcs and events in recent years. He created Thanos' Black Order, the fanatics who became part of the MCU in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Hickman was the architect of Secret Wars, a multiversal epic many believe will become the climax of the MCU's current multiverse story. Until recently Hickman even served as head writer of the X-Men line, responsible for a phenomenal relaunch that kicked off in 2019 and has completely transformed the mutant status quo. All this means he is most certainly well-positioned to express his views on DC versus Marvel.
Hickman recently marked the end of his X-Men run in an interview with Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, and there he segued into the debate. He opened by commenting on the motivations of Mystique, a traditional X-Men villain who's played a key part in his X-Men: Inferno miniseries and whose motivation - her desperate desire to resurrect her beloved wife Destiny - is so pure. "It's the same thing with Doctor Doom," Hickman added, pointing to another character he has experience writing:
"It's why you can get away with presenting Doctor Doom as noble and all of that kind of stuff, because the motivation is easily understandable. Look, that's the beauty of Marvel Comics. That they're street-level, and in the real world, and therefore ultimately more relatable than the DC books. Which, y'know, doesn't matter to me, that's why I love the DC stuff - but I think you've seen, in pop culture, especially with how successful Marvel's been over the past ten years, how much people lock in to those characters."
It's something of a truism in the comic book industry that Marvel tell stories of men who become gods, while DC tell tales of gods walking among men. That's an oversimplification, of course, but there's an element of truth to it; and, according to Hickman, it explains why Marvel has flourished more than DC. Marvel's superheroes are relatable; their struggles are our struggles, with Tony Stark battling alcoholism, Peter Parker desperately trying to make ends meet, and Ms. Marvel exploring the cultural themes common to Muslim-Americans. This has been true in the MCU as well, with writers going to great lengths to ensure even Thanos' story was a personal one.
Jonathan Hickman's contribution to the debate isn't especially original, but it is a valuable one nonetheless, coming from one of the most celebrated writers of the current time - and a man who loves both DC and Marvel. Fortunately, as noted, his comment does oversimplify to a degree; there are indeed many DC heroes who are supremely relatable. The most prominent of these is Batman, who embodies the quest for justice and vengeance, which explains why so many DC comics and movies star different versions of Batman. Hopefully DC will learn to focus on other characters in the same way, so both their comics and their movies can become rather less Bat-centric going forward - allowing them to truly compete with Marvel.
Source: Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men