Views of the Sidekick: DC vs Marvel 2 2

[BA773]

do you prefer the vision of dc which gives some sidekick to their heroes or the vision of marvel who have more independant heroes?

Look, i just realized about that now: Batman have Robin, Superman have Superboy, Flash have Impulse, and a lot of other, DC litteraly created some teams for the sidekick like Young Justice and in every teams of teens, like the titans or the outsider you find some sidekick! 

And now we re going to speak about supporting charachter in Marvel Universe, so, well, uh... 

But the question can be asked is: Are DC publicate too much content about sidekick, are you bored of every of this charachter who cannot do the work by themselves and which are not opposite against great vilains because they are SIDECKICK?

Edited October 9, 2023 by BA773

[Artboy99]

both publisher's do sidekicks but my preference is without. 

 

[shadroch]

Real heroes don't need a sidekick. They have followers.

[Pantodude]

On 10/9/2023 at 10:09 AM, BA773 said:

do you prefer the vision of dc which gives some sidekick to their heroes or the vision of marvel who have more independant heroes?

Hi.  Just saw this interesting thread.  Vision of DC as existed to-date or vision of DC divorced from its rich history dating back a century?

Real heroes presented to the younger population, as practically ALL the offerings by DC and Marvel have been in the GA and SA, wisely included a sidekick.  While DC embraced it more broadly, Timely did too.  After DC enjoyed a doubling of sales of Detective Comics due to Tec38, many publishers/titles from DC to Timely to etc added sidekicks to their leads, which revolutionized the industry. And rightly so, as we are talking about comics intended for the much younger crowd.  Make it more relatable = success.   

If you are talking about vintage content/back issues, I appreciate the importance of sidekicks in comics history but also MY history.  For example, growing up enjoying Batman AND Robin ( Grayson), as that was the version of the shows I saw (RIP Adam West) and the comics I came across, Robin is integral to my experience of The Batman.  Naturally, as a kid I related to Robin, not Batman, so they were inseparable to me.  And now as an adult, I learned and appreciated that Robin is also everywhere in the GA and SA, and since then has become his own standalone hero as Nightwing, who remains important today.  For many readers at the time, Grayson literally grew up with them.  That must have been very cool for fans.    

If you are talking about newer content that is divorced from the foregoing history (a new hero from likely a new publisher), then anything goes so long as the quality is good.  If a sidekick makes sense, and it's done well, then why not?  I have no default rule about whether there should be a sidekick for new stuff I might want to read (as opposed to collect) as an adult.    

But to me GA/SA = sidekick era, and it was special and appropriate for the younger crowd...and very profitable for publishers, needless to say.  In the end, especially in light of the industry woes we have been seeing of late, what is good for the industry is ultimately good for me, too.  If it turns out that the industry needs to increase readership by the younger crowd, I'm all for it returning to the tried-and-true sidekick formula, as it would likely get the parents involved, too.  Those parents might rekindle or discover they like comics, so a potential win there.  And their kids, as they get older, could then seek out more mature content, whether or not it involves sidekicks.  

So I'm all for material including sidekicks, particularly for younger readers.  It just works for that crowd and would likely garner more approval from parents (who would or could be doing the buying), which is why it likely translated to much higher sales in the past, as in the case of early Detective Comics.  The vintage stuff, while still cool for young'uns, is probably too expensive/fragile for bedtime storytelling with the kids, so it would be cool to have new offerings with sidekicks that parents could read to their children as they put them to bed.  Seems like a no-brainer to me.  

[Yorick]

I consider "Superboy" to be the younger self of "Superman".  The same person/being.  That's how Superboy began (correct me if I'm wrong).