Poll: Which would be a worst world to live in, the main DC universe or Marvel's 616?

[Zontar]

Living in a fictional world can be awesome, living in one which is filled with madmen with superpowers destroying whole cities at a time, and that's the good guys. That and the magical dangers, gods among us, constant alien invasions, living dead, eldritch abominations and countless other unspeakable monstrosities, leads me to wonder if there are any positives to living in either universe (unless you subscribe to the theory that it's only the mid 70s in the Marvel universe and the early 60s in DC's due to comic book time, in which case tech actually DOES move forward if true).

So, of the two worlds, which do you guys think would be the greater evil to live in and why?

 

[jademunky]

The DC universe seems to have a higher civilian body-count. Seems like every few months a medium sized city is wiped out. (Bludhaven, Coast City)

With the Marvel universe, an explosion killing 600 people was enough to trigger a massive anti-superhero government backlash.

DC is a lot more civilian-unfriendly.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'd rather live in a world where Superman can just turn back time to amend whatever.

 

[Eddie the head]

If Man of Steel is any indication I'm going with DC. (Yeah I still didn't like that move). But anyway yeah DC. I think the fact that city's aren't real has something to do with that. If you blow up half of Star City who the fuck cares? There's no emotional attachments to it at all. There is emotional weight to blowing up New York.

Another way of saying it is the fact that these places are made up in DC distances them form us. That in turn makes people more willing to blow it up.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'd always choose a world with Wolverine in it over a world without Wolverine.

 

[Auberon]

The one where a clown doesn't escape his "prison" on weekly basis and massacre the entire population of his current city, while a man dressed as bat sends him back there for another escape-and-massacre the following week.

So Marvel-616, I wouldn't mind Frank showing up on patrol either.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I feel like I read a lot more apocalyptic scenarios in the DC universe than in the Marvel one. I'd also much rather live in a city patrolled by Spiderman than Batman, who seems to care more about "justice" than about people. Batman would batarang your ass for jay walking, but Peter Parker is just your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. I'll also take a world with Man Thing who is a somewhat innocent creature who doesn't speak versus Swamp Thing who occasionally decides he's a god who wants to wipe out mankind. I always found DC a bit more interesting to read with characters who are more morally grey, but I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Tough call. Both places can be pretty damn dangerous (especially where say, the Joker is involved)... on the other hand, the Marvel universe is full of idiots who hate mutants but give say, the Fantastic Four a free pass. Yes, maybe they have a good press agent, but it's still baffling...

 

[Fappy]

DC would be waaaay safer. Think of it this way: DC only destroys fictional cities like Metropolis and Gothom on a weekly basis while Marvel destroys real cities like New York and Hong Kong. If you live in the DC universe you just need to live in one of the "real" cities and you'll be safe!

 

[Eddie the head]

DC would be waaaay safer. Think of it this way: DC only destroys fictional cities like Metropolis and Gothom on a weekly basis while Marvel destroys real cities like New York and Hong Kong. If you live in the DC universe you just need to live in one of the "real" cities and you'll be safe!

Wait I though Metropolis was New York, and there wasn't a city named New York. The way people talk about the city's I never figured there where "real" city's. If there is a New York that brings up the plot hole of: Why the fuck would you live in Metropolis? For reasons already stated.

God now I have to figure this out. Ok it appears that New York dose exist in the DCU. Power girl apparently lived there.

 

[FPLOON]

DC, most likely... Mainly because of my subscription to the Daily Planet...

That, and I know more DC than Marvel, anyway...

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Isn't the DC universe being constantly rearranged? What is life like for the ordinary people on Earth in the DC universe where every few decades, your universe is merged with others, or reset, or beset by zombies or whatever.

 

[AliasBot]

At least from what I've seen of and read about the two continuities, Marvel seems to focus a lot more on how the heroes interact with each other and with the general populace: superhero registration, everything that goes on involving mutants, etc. DC's heroes seem to work with each other much better, with one big, unified league, and though there are a few clashes involving the government (Project Cadmus being the main one that seems to crop up in a bunch of different DC shows), they mostly involve being able to combat the league as a whole, which means bigger, larger-scale answers to them, which is basically the only way a unified group of powered beings can be "beaten." Perhaps as a result, DC's Earth seems to have a lot more heavy hitters...which means a lot more collateral damage when they fight or invade or whatever. Not to say Marvel doesn't have heavy hitters, but they're mostly left to the "cosmic" side of the universe (Thanos, Galactus, etc.). Marvel's heroes aren't as unified, so Marvel villains seem more likely to drive a wedge between them than to try to just overpower them. And since that's what leads to the additional collateral damage, the continuous power creep, DC would probably be a much worse place as a civilian. The city, the country, the world, whatever, is just in danger far too often. (As a hero, DC is much better, because of all of the things I just mentioned about the situation for the Marvel heroes.)

 

[Ieyke]

Wait I though Metropolis was New York, and there wasn't a city named New York. The way people talk about the city's I never figured there where "real" city's. If there is a New York that brings up the plot hole of: Why the fuck would you live in Metropolis? For reasons already stated.

God now I have to figure this out. Ok it appears that New York dose exist in the DCU. Power girl apparently lived there.

Gotham, Bludhaven and Metropolis are all near each other south of NYC.

Gotham appears to be located on a fictional island that occupies what is Great Bay in real world New Jersey, while Bludhaven is just south of Atlantic City. Bludhaven may also BE Atlantic City in the DC Universe.
Metropolis is across Delaware Bay from Bludhaven where Henlopen State Park is in Delaware.

Sometimes Gotham is said to occupy Bludhaven's place on the map, but that actually makes no sense since Gotham is an island. Maybe if you consider Bludhaven part of the "Gotham Metropolitan Area" then it makes sense mostly kinda?

In any case, no, they don't replace real cities.
DC just has a lot of extra huge cities.

 

[sovietmisaki]

The DC-Earth is slightly larger to make room for the extra cities like Gotham and Metropolis. I guess that could probably be due to allowing for more creativity in regards to geographical aspects of the DC comics, especially when it comes to city layouts, among many other things.

 

[Vausch]

DC by a long shot.

More powerful villains, Earth is the centre of all the bad shit that happens, Superman is vulnerable to mind control, and there's a race of Amazons that once invaded for reasons they forgot so they made up other ones.

Oh, and the universe gets rebooted every decade or so, so it's quite possible you would be erased from existence at any given time. Or worse, be in the New 52.

 

[Erttheking]

Hm...actually when I think about it in DC there isn't much of an anti-supervillian organization headed buy the government (That I know of) and while it would suck to live in the Marvel universe if you were a mutant or another super hero who got no respect (Poor Spiderman) if you were an average day civilian all of those anti-super policies might look a bit friendly.

 

[Ieyke]

As long as you don't live in NYC, living in the Marvel Universe would be pretty awesome. Like having new Marvel movies every day on the news.

 

[The Hero Killer]

I think Marvel would be safer since everything is focused in New York, but try to live in Gotham without dying or Metropolis without suffering through an alien invasion or massive collateral damage. I'm sure Central City would be a fairly safe place to live if you wanted to live in a hero protected city.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Hrm. Which is the hardest world to get decent super powers in? I mean once you have decent super powers, you're a lot safer, yeah?
At the least you might have more fun with your world.

You might go into the world as yourself, but there's no rule saying you can't do something to change that.

Until I figure that out, I'm hard pressed to have a definitive answer.