A better question is "Are Marvel's superheroes severely downgraded in terms of power?" At this rate, everyone in Marvel will be barely above street-level in a decade or so. They're overly obsessed with "humanizing" or making their powerhouses "relatable." No matter how many late payments Petey Parker makes on his rent, or how drunk and embarrassing Tony Stark might get, I still can never "relate" to a filthy rich super-genius with crazy technology or to a kid bitten by a radioactive spider and gaining its powers in the process. I read comic books for escapism, not for emotional solace or identification.

I voted yes, but I should probably explain a bit more. On paper, most DC heroes seem pretty godly compared to most Marvel heroes. Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter are a few examples of heroes who should be powerful enough to stand on their own without needing assistance from others (two that I mentioned are planet busters). With that being said, DC does manage to present them enough challenges to the point where I'd say they don't seem more OP than Avengers characters. They're vulnerable to making mistakes, personal problems, strange weaknesses, and villains that are pretty powerful themselves. Basically, my point is that DC characters are more overpowered but due to CIS (and sometimes PIS) they are held back from their true potentials... at least enough to make the story interesting.

DC just has a higher standard than Marvel.

Yes they are but new 52, has kinda nerfed them, but they're still only superheroes to me i dont think of them as actual people like i do with marvel, I see the tights and capes and only the tights and capes when i look at DC.

No, they may be more powerful as a general rule but I wouldn't say they are overpowered because they go up against powerful threats. Though admittedly, before I properly got into DC, I did believe them to be overpowered.

I voted no because Marvel has Hulk, Sentry, Doctor Strange, Thor and many other characters too. I think they're about same.

There about the same marvel has drax,hulk,sentry gladiator and more

Yes DC has more overpowered characters. But Marvel is cooler imo. I like both but Marvel will always be my favorite.

No, DC's popular characters are just more powerful than Marvel's.

correct

Lol yeah.

I'm not big on DC at all. Marvel has a lot of interesting characters with cool powers and equally cool origin stories. DC: well uh superman can punch really hard and uh flash can steal your speed so you would die in 0.0000000000001 seconds. Seems to me like a lot of their characters are given Superman physical attributes and flight but just put a minor twist on it. The few that interest me include Batman, Green Lantern, but even then not by much.

yep. dc has a thing for 100+ tons characters. and bat-people.

Well, the average superhero from DC is more powerful than the Marvel One, but Marvel still got powerhouse that would make Superman think twice about a fight with them : Celestial, Galactus, etc...

A good grip is to compare Quicksilver with the Flash, sure, Quicksilver is quite impressive, but Flash is so much faster that he could come make time travel...

ç@guttridgeb said:

Yeah, this. The day batman bitchslaps darkseid is the day you can call them overpowered

Love generalizations

DC has far more very powerful characters than Marvel but, DC's villains are also more powerful to compensate. Everything is relative.

@stormbox: not generalizing, just from a quick skim of the DC website and acquired knowledge all I hear is Justice League, with the occasional adapted Greek Mythological God thrown in. I guess the point I'm making is that I like to know the character I'm reading can actually be injured/die. And I hate all this FTL can rip molecules up steal speed crap I hear all the time. Same goes for Marvel in that department but it's much less common.

Edit: Before I begin to sound biased I'd like to point out that I also don't like Thor that much as a character for similar reasons.

@i_like_swords: Uh... dc heroes have died (superman, batman, wonder woman, green lantern, flash, aquaman, etc.), and of course they get injured, what kind of character never gets injured? This is the reason you dont make assumptions without having read anything from them

No. Hulk could've smashed most of the Dc heroes. Especially Batman. Puny Batman have no superpowers.

I'd say Dc is more expressive about it ,when it comes to feats .

@stormbox: maybe I was too plain in what I said. I meant more along the lines of can draw blood or have a broken arm easily. Can be hurt by gunfire. Not just have their stamina depleted. I understand all of that probably happens to them a lot but probably under quite extreme circumstances, no? Doesn't appeal to me personally

Yes and they were boring before New52 nerfed them ( slightly). A lot if them have the same powerset based on Supes with slight twists.

@i_like_swords: So you want them to get their ass kicked all the time? You know, theyre called superheroes for a reason

The Avengers currently have a thunder god, a near omnipotent being, a Superman clone and a Hulk all on one team, no, DC isn't, their popular heroes just happen to be more powerful than Marvel's popular heroes.

Guys guys, srsly.... They're both op.

It's kind of even. To the casual fan, however, DC probably has more powerful superheroes while Marvel's popular characters are more street level. But to the hardcore fan of Marvel and DC, you would see it COULD be about even. Marvel has guys like Sentry, Thor, Hulk, and Silver Surfer while DC has Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Martian Manhunter.

@stormbox: you can be super without having the ability to sneeze and destroy whole galaxies (or whatever it was)

Lolno

beyonder > your god

Dc only has the heroes on the mid level

but in terms of grander cosmic scale marvel has it in a bag

their supreme being is infallible unlike the presence (GEB anyone)

stop DRing the street level folks

Pre-52 DC was generally more powerful than Marvel, I think. (I won't say 'overpowered' cause that carries negative connotations)

Heck, they'd given Flash so many abilities that he was basically a Speed-Force wizard who could do almost anything.

At the moment, I'd probably still rank DC as more powerful, but its a LOT closer these days.

Oddly, now the Hulk seems to be in the Flash's shoes; only he's a Rage-Wizard instead of a Speed-Force one.

@i_like_swords: Superman cant do that since decades ago. I think they got rid of that even before crisis on infinite earths, which was in the 80s

See, this is the reason you properly inform yourself about certain characters

Most DC characters are overrated and over powered. Look at batman, superman and green lantern all of these are unstoppable. That's only a few.

DC have so many overrated and overpowered superheros like superman, green lantern and martian manhunter @captainsaul batman is just obsessionally rich !

I Would not say Manhunter was overrated?

I think they both have there powerhouses Eg: Hyperion,Supes

In some ways they are but in other ways they aren't.

No, Marvel has telepaths who could solo DC.

It's equal imo

On paper DC characters are ridiculous. But obviously during story arcs the writers tone them down so everyything isnt so easy for them. Take the green lantern corps for example, you literally have to think of something and you can create it. You can literaly do anything you want. But i read green lanterns being tossed around by crappy manhunter bots with sticks

Yes.

No DC's more powerful heroes are just more popular

I said it once and I'll say it again. Most of Marvel's really powerful characters are COSMIC...DC on the other hand has some of it's most powerful characters based on Earth. If you took DC's powerhouses and Marvel's cosmic lineup you'll see how even they really are. I'd probably say Marvel has a slight edge with Silver Surfer, heralds, Galactus and the Celestials all being in the Marvel lineup.

Yes they are, but that is what sets them apart. IMO it's comparing apples to oranges. I just happen to prefer DC's characters, but I enjoy both. Marvel has some really awesome characters (Black Panther, Thor, Iron Man, Nick Fury, etc.).

This.

Generally speaking and at first glance, DC has overall more powerful characters than Marvel but it also has, in comparison, more powerful average villain so it would be only natural for the hero to be slightly overpowered. Some people like to read about powerful characters and others like to read about, to a sense, relatable characters, in the end it's all a question of taste and opinion.

Hulk's greatest strength feat is perhaps stopping a mountain from crushing him, while Superman can move a planet out of orbit.

Quicksilver can run faster than the sound barrier, but Flash can run faster than the speed of light.

The difference is quite vast.

Nope

Cosmics/Omnipotents > Marvel

Mid tier heroes > DC

This is so true that people can't make a fighting game with DC characters without having to create a plot to empower/weaken some of the characters, yet, marvel fighting games never had this problem and I never saw anyone bothered by that!

No marvel actually has more cosmic tier heroes. the JL just sets the standard higher than the average avenger.

How can you say that DC is more OP than Marvel when you're got people like Hulk, Thor, Dr Strange, Silver Surfer, Scarlet Witch, Galactus, Loki, Thanos, Ghost Rider, Frosty the Fireman etc... same as DC has Superman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Doomsday, Darkseid, Bizarro etc.

Both universes have their really powerful characters and less powerful characters. But DC isn't more OP than Marvel, no...