Why does DC have so much more critically acclaimed comics than all other companies?

apart from classic Calremont X-men run, Marvels and Kirby Fantastic Four I really struggle to find any Marvel that comes close to this body of work.

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You left out by far the best work Marvel ever had, the Lee/DItko/Romita Spider-Man.

even those aren't as "prestigious" as most of DC's most well known titles.
I think, as small of a thing as it may seem, a lot of it has to do with the fact that most highly praised Marvel stories happen in NYC

Miller Daredevil
Gerber Howard the Duck
Miracleman (if V for Vendetta counts so does this)
I'd say Secret Wars is on par with COIE.

But DC does have more big name "must read" standalone stories than Marvel. I think it comes from their need to reinvent their image after the Silver Age, while Marvel established themselves as innovative in that time. Many of DC's big hits of the 80s were built upon the foundation set up by Marvel in the 60s and 70s.

DC ran a looser ship at the time because they needed to hype up their brand in the market. For a period they weren't as concerned with continuity or keeping content kid friendly, or even really how strict the timetable of new issues of books came out back then. Vertical line was highly successful because of this and convincing manchildren that 'graphic novels' were for men and comics for babies.

Obviously this form of thinking kind of damaged comics and IPs (including DC's own) for a generation, but yeah there were a couple good stories that came out of it.

You probably have to look harder but there's plenty of good/better Marvel runs.

British Invasion era DC was way more experimental than Marvel, who were alwats focused on making superhero comics.
It's the thing I miss the most nowadays, where no matter whose comic you're reading they all feel the exact same.

Marvel has always been more about the ongoing monthly books, and keeping audiences coming back for the next issue than they have been about trying to create standalone "critically acclaimed" comics. A good number of the acclaimed DC books aren't DCU superhero books, and if they are, they're usually Elseworld stuff, while virtually all Marvel does is in-continuity cape books.

DC hired a lot of British Invasion writers in the 80s and early 90s, gave them a level of creative freedom they'd never have got at Marvel, and published a lot of stuff outside their main wheelhouse of cape books. Threads like this are basically just asking why did all the 'critically acclaimed auteur' writers go to 80s DC instead of 80s Marvel, and to a large extent the answer is that 80s Marvel wasn't even trying to sign guys like that, let alone give them the freedom to do whatever they wanted to Marvel characters.

They had a better editorial staff. Jenette Kahn, Len Wein, Karen Berger, Paul Levitz etc. had a common goal of making more sophisticated comics. Whereas Marvel's editorial was only concerned with office politics and promoting their buddies

>A good number of the acclaimed DC books aren't DCU superhero books, and if they are, they're usually Elseworld stuff,
That's true. I noticed that while comic book continuity is very fucked up, DC tends to be the worst offender between the two companies. I tend to stick mainly with graphic novels and steer away from regular runs.

A lot of these comics are "Critically acclaimed" by Warner themselves. I realized that con when I kept seeing watchmen and DKR being cited as being one of Time's best novels...Warner owns Time and DC comics.

The big problem is, while DC always promoted a handful of comics at the expense of their mainline stuff, Marvel, at least in their good years, just focused on keeping their main titles solidly written and didn't bother much with out of continuity stuff. The porblem is,republishing decades of comic stories is a nightmare and buying them even more so, so casual readers prefer having bitesize, "critically acclaimed " stories

It's ironic given how much more legacy there is at DC, which would work better and make it more meaningful if continuity was a thing and the new generations could actually take over.
But then again it's not like Marvel allows it either (looking at Johnny Blaze's ending getting dragged through the mud because he's the name normies remember).
It's just sad really. The shared universe gimmick is what attracts a lot of new readers but it never gers properly realized, with all its consequences, because it'd alienate those same potential readers.

Crossposter detected

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Nice job outing yourself as a redditor

Excellent points. Truthfully, the Moore/Miller stuff did more harm than good. It made the characters boring, was often more pretentious than actually good, and set a precedent for each writer to essentially be allowed their own continuity. This eventually happened to Marvel to but by that point comics stopped being an important source of income. The reason the Lee, Shooter, and MCU (up to Endgame) eras were the peak of Marvel is because of their strong focus on continuity.

I'm working on the inside

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Cleaned up list from previous thread:
Alpha Flight by Bill Mantlo / by John Byrne
Avengers by Busiek and Perez / by Stern and Buscema
Black Panther by McGregor and Colan
Captain America by Englehart and Buscema / by Mark Gruenwald
Captain Britain by Alan Moore
Captain Marvel The Death of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin
Cloak & Dagger by Bill Mantlo
Conan by Thomas, Windsor-Smith and Buscema
Daredevil by Ann Nocenti / by Frank Miller
Defenders by Dematteis
Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment
Fantastic Four by John Byrne / by Mark Waid
Hulk - Sensational She-Hulk by John Byrne
Hulk by Bill Mantlo / by Peter David
Iron Man by Michelinie and Layton
Man-Thing by Steve Gerber
Marvels
Micronauts by Bill Mantlo
Namor by John Byrne
Nick Fury by Garth Ennis
Power Man and Iron Fist by Duffy and Gammill
ROM by Bill Mantlo
Shang-Chi by Moench and Gulacy
Spider-Man including Lee, Conway, Wein, Wolfman, Stern, DeFalco, David and DeMatteis
Squadron Supreme by Gruenwald
The 'Nam by Doug Murray
The Punisher by Chuck Dixon / by Garth Ennis
Thor by Simonson / by DeFalco and Frenz / by Jurgens and Romita
Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman
X-Men - Excalibur by Claremont
X-Men - New Mutants by Claremont and Sienckiewicz
X-Men - New X-Men by Grant Morrison
X-Men - X-Statix Peter Milligan
X-Men by Chris Claremont

>X-Statix
Current Any Forums probably hates this book but I will always be thankful for 2012 Any Forums for introducing me to it.

Watchmen is both on the Time 100 best novels and Time 10 best graphic novels. It was also on NPR's 100 best genre books, and tons of other lists.
I honestly can't think of a better candidate for a "best" superhero comic book.
> It made the characters boring
It made superhero characters interesting past their origins.
>MCU (up to Endgame) eras were the peak of Marvel
That makes sense.

>Secret Wars is on par with COIE.
Only the original, surely.

>Time

NTA and I hate marvelfags but user, Time and Warner are under the same banner

Why is killing joke considered good? Is it the first/only time Joker has been shown before his life of crime, and the only story that decided to cripple Barbara? I don't find it that good and its being iconic just because everyone wants it to be iconic.

IMO, what makes Watchmen great isn't the plot itself (as in it wouldn't make a good novel) but the way it uses comic art to tell the story.

This list is infuriatingly bad. Crap that ignores character development like Byrne and Waid's FF but no Kirby?
Hipster overwritten garbage like Ann's DD but no ONeil?
It's also obvious you stopped paying attention in the 00s.

Brian Bolland's art. It made Tim Burton, who hated comics, want to direct a Batman movie, which led to Batmania including BTAS and the entire DCAU.

It's so fucking tiring hearing this comment over and over. Fucking read it. It's a meta story about Batman and Joker realising they hate each other for no reason because of comic book conventions and trying to escape it, each by showing the other his perspective in life, but failing because comics are eternal. The joke at the end about crazy people escaping the asylum but not trusting each other enough to go through with it sums it up.