Monitor Duty by Randy Lander "DC vs. Marvel" Some of you may remember a series published a few years back called DC vs. Marvel, in which the icons of the big two companies warred with one another for the edification of fans. They're doing it again. No, this isn't a news story announcing DC vs. Marvel 2, half-written by Howard Mackie and half-written by Greg Rucka. Nor is it a commentary on the childish playground taunts that DC and Marvel representatives have exchanged in a variety of forums, most notably after the 9-11 attacks. Instead, I'm talking about a positive phenomenon, the competition of big name characters for reader attention, both mainstream and industry-insular. And in this competition, it's the fans who are the winners. Batman: Some have accused DC of standing still while Marvel grabbed the excitement and the talent in most of 2001, but DC has answered that challenge with a one-two punch of promotions genius in December and January. December sees the release of Frank Miller writing and drawing a new project for DC called The Dark Knight Strikes Again, a sequel to one of the most popular mainstream graphic novels of all time, The Dark Knight Returns. The orders on this one have broken all sorts of recent sales records even at $7.95 a pop, and DC is promoting it with retailer-friendly shipping schedules, a boiler-plate press release for local media and advertising in Entertainment Weekly, among other places. They're following up with an unprecedented project in January, Batman The 10-Cent Adventure, a standard sized comic which will cost ten cents a copy. That's if you need to buy it, as this is being produced as a loss-leader and marketing opportunity for retailers. It's cheap enough to buy and give away, and DC's marketing department has cooked up a promotion in which retailers can instead pay 17 cents a copy and get a paper overcover with the information directing readers to their stores for more comics. Many of the larger retailers, and even a few of the medium-sized ones, have seized on this opportunity to do an insert ad and have the comics put into their local papers for free. That means a wide distribution to the mainstream, who will know without a doubt where to get more of this kind of thing if they like their free comic. And I think they will like it, since it's written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Rick Burchett, two of the most accomplished creators on the Batman books right now. Of course, all of this means nothing if the comics people are being driven to aren't any good. Fortunately, the Batman line is strong right now, some of the strongest comics that DC has to offer. Greg Rucka (soon to be joined by Whiteout artist Steve Lieber) is writing fantastic crime/cop stories in Detective Comics, Ed Brubaker and Scott McDaniel are turning in solid super-hero/crime stories in Batman and Devin Grayson and Roger Robinson are exploring the psyches of the Bat-family in Batman: Gotham Knights. The ancillary books, such as Birds of Prey, Robin and Nightwing, are all going through a bit of artist trouble these days due to the Crossgen defections, but they're solid enough and should get even stronger next year with the addition of unusual choices like Jon Lewis and Terry Moore to helm them after Dixon's departure. Spider-Man: On the flip side of the coin, we have the character that many thought was completely doomed only a few years ago. Reinvented in Ultimate Spider-Man, revitalized in Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker and re-examined in Tangled Web, Spider-Man hasn't looked this good in a long, long time. Maybe not even since the days of Stan Lee and John Romita, but at least not since the days of Roger Stern. The beautiful part of this is that unlike DC's multiple flagship books, there are no crossovers. There's no need to read more than one title, and each one stands much stronger on its own as a result. A reader can select only one Spider-Man title and read it, ignoring all the others, and the only downside is missing out on some fantastic stories, rather than some bits of helpful continuity. While Spider-Man doesn't have anything as innovative as a 10-cent adventure or Dark Knight Strikes Again to bring in mainstream focus, it does have the advantage of a movie coming out next summer, which has a pretty good buzz and looks pretty interesting so far. Also, the choice of television success story J. Michael Straczynski to helm Amazing Spider-Man has brought a lot of folks to the character who wouldn't have given him a second glance previously, and the decision to have Straczynksi handle the story that brings the 9-11 tragedy home to the Marvel Universe has proven to be a media attention-getter as well. Basically, if you're not reading at least one Spider-Man and Batman comic right now, you're missing out on some of the best super-hero comics on the market, which is as it should be. These are the flagship characters, the ones with name recognition that could be picked up at any time by a casual reader looking to see what comics have to offer. And take it from me, once one of the big icons has hooked you into comics, there are pretty good odds that you'll be sticking around for a while. Email Randy Lander comments about this column, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.