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Now that 52 and Civil War have ended I've been sitting around taking a look at the current list of titles that I'm buying. While I think it would be more "fair" to say that I'm looking at a post Infinite Crisis DC, the reality is that now that 52 has finished things actually REALLY seem to be kicking into get. Of course this works out fairly well as Marvel's horrible handling of the actual Civil War title allowed for each company's respective "impacts" to really get going at the same time, which allows for a nice comparison.
For me, the comparison right now is largely about money. You know, who is getting it out of my wallet. In the consideration of who gets it I'm looking at two things. First, is the title I'm reading strong on its own? This of course is a given. I mean, if a title isn't actually catching my attention then why the heck am I reading it? Second, how well is the "aftermath" of each major even being dealt with in the title I'm reading? The easiest thing would be that the title doesn't have to deal with any kind of aftermath effects and I can just continue reading the title without any hiccups to flow. Yet, right now both Marvel and DC seem committed to showing how impacting and important their recent major events were, so it's getting difficult to find a title that isn't feeling some level of impact.
Without giving the names of specific titles I'm reading that are dealing with after effects I will say that I think DC is doing a much better job of truly "weaving" the effects into the stories without disrupting the flow of them. In fact, many times I've found myself thinking, "Woah! I'm so glad that I'm reading this because I think I just picked up a major clue." The reality is that I probably didn't (especially since the word/term "52" is getting thrown around everywhere), but I like the way references to after effects seem to happen naturally in the titles. Marvel just isn't pulling the same things off in my eyes.
To be fair, I'm really not sure if Marvel is trying to be subtle anymore though (seriously, could we get more civil servants/protectors to tackle Captain America in New York?...no, no 9/11 heart strings being blatantly pulled there). With the lines being drawn of "us" versus "them" regarding registration every Marvel title right now has the palpable taste of a fishhook in it (except Cable and Deadpool . . . mostly because it made fun of the Civil War in my eyes). I'm really trying to enjoy Iron Man now that he has the subtitle of being the "Director of SHIELD" but I'm getting sick of the "Iron-ettes" that have been following him around (yeah, I know they're "cape killers" but they're useless). But, with current developments specific to THAT title (as far as I know) I'm still inclined to stick with it.
However, after having moved recently I find that I really do need to start looking at cutting back on things. I'm getting into the lesser "major" companies such as IDW and Dynamite and my enjoyment of their titles greatly outweighs what I'm getting from reading Marvel stuff. I think I'll wait to see how badly the Marvel titles I read are impacted by the Hulk's return (cross the event into Ghost Rider Marvel?...REALLY?). I think that will give me a much better idea of where Marvel plans on going with the registration act in the near future (if anywhere).
With that said, I'm going to be really looking at what DC and Marvel are trying to pull of with their little "connect the dots" work here. Is each company going to be able to pull off something that when I see it all put together I'm going to say "Wow!" or am I going to finally reach the points of "You know, I have to wait for trades to come out but they are cheaper . . . and that's really all that matters now?" I'd hate for that to be the case. I am talking about my main hobby here, so I'd hate to become uninspired and bitter regarding it (that's what relationships are for). I guess I'll just have to ride out the faith I still seem to have and hope my wallet can take my commitment to my hobby.
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