Every brand has its kryptonite or adamantium!

It has been years now that DC Comics and Marvel are settled. But like their heroes, our two brands have their strengths and weaknesses and have to deal with their environment. In this article, I will focus on this analysis that is fundamental if you want to understand the main problems that are faced or why it is working well or not.

If DC Comics is as big as Marvel, they seem to have more weaknesses but to improve lately. Nothing surprising when you read their story. As a reminder, Marvel is now owned by Disney while DC Comics belong to Warner, which just realized that DC Comics products and stories were not consistent and not competing enough with Marvel's. DC Comics has been through many negative feedbacks on their casting and their choices of stories, but it seems to get better since Man of Steel that came out in 2013 and the last Batman movies by Christopher Nolan.

Both Marvel and DC Comics have a strong range of recognizable sub-brands and products, but DC Comics on its own isn’t as well-known as Marvel. They also have a strong fan base but Marvel is better at being interactive on social medias with their community. DC Comics still have to improve to get the best of community management.

Nowadays, comic books and movies are a huge market and science-fiction is very popular. It appeals to everybody and it is not a male thing anymore. Female customers are becoming a large portion of comic books sales.

If they both face the same threat of the independent comics gaining a large following such as The Walking Dead or Hellboy which respectively did a TV Series and a Movie. People are waiting for new characters fitting with our time, even if they are attached to old ones.

Marvel and DC Comics competing together represent a threat to each other. Actually, as you can see on the previous schedule, Marvel has planned many movies for the next five years. In 2015, three Marvel’s movies will be in theaters while DC Comics won’t be represented. But DC Comics is coming back in the competition in 2016 with at least two movies per year. Also DC Comics has to be careful with Marvel filling the female readers’ market.

To sum up, you will find the two SWOT tables behind.

Marvel and DC Comics have the same points of parity, they're both american comics publishers known worldwide with a wide range of superheroes and releasing films.

What differenciate DC Comics is that the characters were created earlier and they are living in a more magic environment. DC's prices are low compared to Marvel's.

On the other hand, Marvel is in a "realistic world" with real cities such as New York. The brand can also be differenciate thanks to the strategy of having only one writer on a serie to make it consistent. But the main thing is that Marvel is paying more attention on the team stories, as the Avengers, X-Men....

By Super Morgane

Sources:
http://www.dcplanet.fr/cinema/reviews-cine/
http://www.newsarama.com/15576-10-worst-things-about-the-current-marvel-universe.html
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/12/28/the-best-of-independent-comics?page=2
http://www.cracked.com/funny-6460-marvel-vs-dc/
http://www.superheronation.com/2010/11/09/differences-between-marvel-and-dc-comics/
Picture from
http://9gag.com/gag/ad68vw2