If you do any digging on the Internet about the business world of the comic book industry, you will hear that DC Comics is regularly losing ground to the monster that is Marvel. Recently it was released that DC was $2 Million dollars behind projections of revenue. Hugely planned crossover events and attempts at revitalizing and re-branding are falling short of projections. Even with some of the most widely recognized creations on the face of the earth, Detective Comics (that’s where the DC comes from) continues to lose ground to Marvel Comics.

But why? Why does the company that owns Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman—arguably three of the most iconic comic book creations in the history of the medium—continue to fall behind their competitors? I’ve got a few ideas on the subject.

An Amalgam of Universes vs. One Shared Universe

Marvel comics has, since the Fantastic Four, been a unified world that is shared by all of its heroes and villains. Johnny Storm and Peter Parker are real life BFFs. Wolverine has fought with the X-Men and The Avengers. Doctor Doom has terrorized...well, everyone. (His name is Doctor Doom, the hell did you expect from the guy?) The point is they have always been in the same world, our world. Manhattan is the center of the Marvel universe. That’s where 90% of the heroes live and tragedies take place.

DC, on the other hand, is a smashing together of stand-in cities and cross-pollinated histories. DC comics has acquired comic characters from other companies year after year. Watchmen was originally supposed to be DC Prime characters but editors wouldn’t let Alan Moore portray Batman as a sad, depressed, sex starved vigilante on the verge of retirement and suicide. Instead, he co-opted the Charlatan characters. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold—now popular characters in the DC Universe—were originally created for American Comics. Even recently, all of the Wildstorm Characters were incorporated to DC comics from their own universe. The problem here is trying to smash together the histories and stories of several different canons. That would be like Disney buying Star Wars, Marvel, The Muppets, Days of Our Lives and Happy Days and insisting that The Fonze, Kermit and Captain America all teamed up to defeat Magneto and Luke and Laura. That’s a sweaty, mashed potato mess of a storytelling world.

Editorial Assholes Part One: They Keep Changing Creative Teams

I’ll be the first to admit that until the launch of The New 52 (called Nu52 by fans of ‘90s rap metal), I almost never picked up a DC title unless Jim Lee was listed as the artist in the credits. The New 52 was an amazingly fresh jumping on point that allowed people to get invested in the stories that the creators were telling. Interesting creative teams that had bold new approaches to characters that desperately needed to be brought into the modern era. For the first time in ages, people had a chance to read about great characters like Apollo, The Midnighter, Grifter and they even gave a shit about Aquaman. Seriously, pick up the first two volumes of Aquaman written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Ivan Reis. Aquaman is a straight-up face stomping badass who knew what the world thought of him and didn’t give a damn.

Then “something” happened. Something called “editorial shakeup.” It seemed like every couple of months the writers and artists that you liked were ejected from their titles with seemingly little to no notice. Creative teams were split apart and not allowed to finish planned story-arcs. If you were interested in certain characters the tone and tenor of their adventures changed dramatically. Over on the Marvel side, Johnathan Hickman ran a three year gambit on Avengers and New Avengers simultaneously, crossing at least one event driven comic story and leading to another one. Matt Fraction, David Aja and Annie Wu were allowed to complete their revolutionary—yet perpetually late—run on Hawkeye. Only one creative team on the DC side has been together since the reboot, and of course they’re working on the best-selling Batman.

Lack of Adoption of a Digital Platform

I pay $100 a year for my Marvel Unlimited subscription, and it allows me to read an unfathomable amount of comics. I can easily work through the value of my subscription in one weekend of binge reading. Without risking $3.99 per single issue, or $20 per trade paperback, I can catch up on stories about characters I love and ones that I only had a tertiary interest in. Marvel has let me examine their back catalogue uninhibited, and any books that I find to be intriguing or beautiful I will find the means to purchase a physical copy. Marvel gets my dollars both coming and going and I’m fine with that arrangement. 

DC, on the other hand, only gets about $30 from me two or three times a year so that I can keep up with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman by purchasing each and every trade paperback. Yes after the launch of The New 52—DC’s line wide relaunch in 2011—there were quite a number of monthlies that I picked up on the regular but those titles were weaned down, week over week, until there was nothing. DC comics has a rich history of interesting stories to tell—Grant Morrison’s epic five year run on Batman being one that stands out—but the gateway to get to those stories are cost prohibitive. There are still characters in the DCU that I care about and am interested in (hello failed Stormwatch reboot) but I’m far enough behind that I’m not going to invest the cash just to see if they didn’t screw them up.

DC could follow in Marvel’s footsteps and create their own Netflix-esque comic delivery service, and I would be the first to sign up. If they included their creator-owned catalogue from Vertigo, and the entire Wildstorm library, they would routinely receive a direct payment from my credit card and I would possibly learn to give half a shit about Booster Gold. Until then, they’ll keep not getting about 40% of the market share.

DC aint got this.

Editorial Assholes Part Two: Editorial Mandates Keep Altering The Landscape

The New 52 was a brilliant move on the part of DC Comics. At a time when Marvel was dominating on both page and screen, DC changed the conversation from the shared MCU cinematic universe to their groundbreaking reboot. Then they began to question themselves when the shine of newness wore off. They changed line wide creative direction, created crossover events that seemed to only fill issues and not tell stories. There was the New New 52. Then, when that failed, there was Multiversity and Convergence—stories that seemed to be told to bolster the hopes of DC fans that the old world wasn’t dead but merely parked somewhere else in an alternate universe. Then came DCyou—a character-driven mandate from DC Editorial meant to ape the crazy things that Marvel was doing with characters like Hawkeye, Marvel Girl and, somehow, The Amazing Squirrel Girl.

Each time DC Editorial tried to marketize the trends in readership instead of anticipate the wants of the reading public, while Marvel was taking chances in order to raise the bar. DC has refused to let stories find an audience and instead tried to tailor their approach to what they think the audience is clamoring for. Yes, Marvel has done soft reboots and editorial changes of direction, but these changes have always been served by the stories. Doc Ock swapped brains with Spiderman to become The Superior Spiderman—a move panned and criticized by fans until it became a bestseller. The least popular Avenger was given a solo book about what he does when he’s not an Avenger, and it sold like hot-cakes. The bottom line is that Marvel chases interesting stories, changes tone and tenor based on character driven motivations, and occasionally takes risks that may or may not pay off. DC is like the stock broker that showed up ten years too late to tell you about this “Google” thing you might wanna dump money in.

Men vs. Gods

This may be the biggest discrepancy between the two companies that most people may not really recognize. The world of DC is populated with god-like beings that stand above the populace that they swear to protect while the Marvel heroes are people —extraordinary people, admittedly—but not above the fray. Compare the world’s of each group of heroes. The Justice League watches the world from a satellite above the earth called The Watchtower. From their perch they look down upon the world, deciding how they shall intervene on the problems of the pleebs below them. The Avenger’s operate out of Avenger’s Mansion, located in the heart of Manhattan. They’re amongst the people, on the ground, experiencing the trials of the human race.

The primary characters of each world personify these differences. Superman and Wonder Woman are literal gods, personifications of all things that are the greatest of their species. Even look at their names Superman, Wonder Woman—in their names alone they are better than you. They’re above you. Captain America was a weakling that just wanted to help because he felt that he had no right to shirk away from his responsibility to his fellow man. Spiderman is just a kid who, upon receiving his powers (and maybe fucking up a little bit), decides that his power should be used for good. Regular people, doing the right thing, because it’s the right thing.

Some day DC will learn how to make all of these things right, and some day they’ll start reclaiming the interest of the reading and viewing public but until then...well who really gives a shit about Booster Gold?