Man, I got into comics in the early '70's as a pretty young child. I didn't even know how to read when I first started "reading" comics. As a kid I had really bad allergies, and lots of them, so I had to go to the doctor three times a week for allergy shots. To keep me quiet in the waiting room, my mom used to buy me a few comic books (cover price - 25 cents
) to look at while we waited to be called in. When I would get home, I would take my dad's tape recorder, and make up my own stories while following along with the pictures. I think my parents still have some of those tapes somewhere.
Anyway, since I was young, and didn't really pick out my own books, my tastes were started early on by some odd choices by today's standards. They have changed over the years, since most of the titles from back then aren't even published anymore, and haven't been for quite some time. So I'll give you my then and now picks:
Favorite Character Then: Like I said, I really didn't have much in the way of say about what books I was reading, so my mom bought me what she thought I would like. Since I spent my afternoons watching monster movies on Saturday matinees every weekend, she went with books like Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night mostly (anbybody even remember those?) Anyway, one of the characters that spun out of Werewolf by Night was
Moon Knight who then later on got a book of his own. I guess since it was in my head since childhood, I just loved Marc Spector.
Favorite Character Now: Lately I've really been digging the
Spider-Man books. Well written, well drawn, good books all around I think. Amazing, Ultimate... they are all good. I don't agree with the "changes" in Spidey's history, but I guess if I can live with George ******* with my trilogy then I can live with them screwing around with Peter Parker's history a little.
Favorite Team Then: OK, again, realizing that I didn't have much say in my reading choices, I used to love
Powerman and Iron Fist. Iron Fist is still one of my all time favorite characters, right behind Moon Knight.
Favorite Team Now: I would have to say
X-Men. Which X-Team, I don't really know, but defintely one of the 8 or 12 or whatever that they have running around currently.
Favorite Book Then: Werewolf by Night - gotta love those old school horror Marvel books.
Favorite Book Now: 100 Bullets - just a really gritty, crime oriented masterpiece, month after month.
Favorite Universe Then: Had to be
Marvel - they had Dracula and Werewolf by Night!!
Favorite Universe Now: Still
Marvel, even though Dracula and Werewolf don't appear nearly as often as they should
That said, I'm still a fan of the DC universe, but to me the DC universe is way more driven by the artist/writer working on a particular character. Batman is a fantastic character, but I've seen some artist/writer combos totally screw him up, and make it so that I can't/won't/don't wanna read that book usually. I mean, the same happens to books in the Marvel Universe as well, but I just feel that the talent level is higher on a whole on the Marvel side. Take Green Arrow - a character I have no interest in at all - but when Kevin Smith wrote that arc a few years ago, I jumped on it, and it was fantastic. Now, it might just be 'cause I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's work, but I thought those 15 issues were great. As soon as Smith was done, I stopped reading that book. I picked up the Azarello/Lee Batman issues recently, and while they were really good, that book has gone back down to an average lever since Lee and Azarello left. The Marvel stuff goes through lulls from time to time, but I think it's a lot less than the DC stuff does.
