"Let's Be Friends Again" -- one of our favorite comics-centric webcomics -- recently posted what they call "the latest in our ongoing series of 'Let's never get hired to do real comics!' comics." Which is to say that they take -- I'm not even sure you can call them analogues, they're pretty much just Dan DiDio and Joe Quesada standing behind podiums with the names of their respective companies, saying that that all they do is copy each other.



It's not a new criticism; plenty of bloggers and fans have observed more than a few similar themes emerging from major events at both companies: The dead rising in "Marvel Zombies" and "Blackest Night" and "Necrosha"; the Batman/Captain America deaths/resurrections; the sidekick ascensions of Dick Grayson/Bucky; the sunnier approach of "Brightest Day" and the "Heroic Age" books, and so on.

Of course, this sort of phenomenon is hardly unique to comics -- or necessarily intentional -- and straight up saying that neither Marvel or DC want to do "something different" does a bit of a disservice to the content at Vertigo and Icon, and initiatives like "Girl Comics," "Strange Tales," not to mention genre outreach like the Soleil and Minx imprints. Not all of these projects have been successful (or well-supported in every instance) but they're certainly efforts to reach beyond the status quo, either by bringing in new readers or bringing existing readers something different.

But hey, it's a four-panel comic strip taking a broad swipe, not a detailed critical analysis. Oversimplification aside, do you think its core point about Marvel and DC reaching out to new readers and trying "something new" is a good one?