When it comes to comic books, two brand names stand out above all others: Marvel and DC. Over the past 75 years, these two companies have fought back and forth to deliver fans with heroes of all descriptions. Devout collectors know most of the characters, but can casual fans tell a DC Comics hero from a Marvel Comics one? Here’s your chance to find out!
Take the Quiz: Marvel or DC?
Comments (15)
Comment
- subscribe /
- give a gift /
- terms of service /
- about /
- contact us /
- write for us /
- ad info /
- subscriber services /
- press /
- privacy policy /
- rss /
© 2012 Mental Floss Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mental Floss is a registered trademark owned by Felix Dennis. mentalfloss.com is a trademark owned by Felix Dennis.
Disclaimer: All submissions made to mental_floss become the property of Mental Floss Inc and may be used without further permission by the submitter and without compensation to the submitter. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not submit anything to mental_floss.
As a devout collector, I breezed through this one, but it was still a fun way to jog the ol’ brain cells.
Geek Cred: The Phantom (the purple guy in the quiz image) has been published by both companies at various points during his career in funny books.
posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 9-9-2009 at 12:40 pm
Conan is no longer published by Marvel. Dark Horse has the rights. Yes, I am a comic book geek.
posted by kevin on 9-9-2009 at 12:42 pm
Only missed Sub-Mariner. I should have guessed the answer just based on who published Aquaman.
Here is a good rule of thumb for the non-geeks: Marvel is generaly people who have been mutated in some way. DC is generaly people of diffrent races and teched out vigilanties.
Lots of exceptions to the rule, but go with that and you will get more right then wrong.
posted by Zed on 9-9-2009 at 12:58 pm
I’m probably (almost certainly) being nitpicky, but Shazam! is not the name of a hero from either company. While is is a name used for the comic, it is not the character’s name.
Of course, this will probably only matter to people who knew most of the answers to this quiz, anyway.
posted by Craig on 9-9-2009 at 1:43 pm
Wow, I was tripped up by Shazam! whose real moniker is Captain Marvel. Alas, published by DC!
posted by Johnny Cat on 9-9-2009 at 1:44 pm
Hey, this is a quasi comic geek who’s pretty proud she only missed two! Great quiz. Zed, you’re right, that’s a good trick. I mostly tried to remember who was a member of the Avengers (at any given point) vs the Justice League (at any given point)
recaptcha: millponds pureness (sounds like an oxymoron just waiting to create a marvel hero)
posted by Hastings on 9-9-2009 at 1:59 pm
This was a good quiz I only got 2 wrong well I guess I am a comic book geek after all:)
posted by Kari on 9-9-2009 at 2:14 pm
20/20! My husband is clearly a bad influence!
posted by Fruppi on 9-9-2009 at 2:57 pm
20/20 – still reading comics after all these years!
Thanks to SpaceMonkeyX regarding The Phantom; I was wondering why he was in a Marvel/DC quiz!
posted by Steve in San Diego on 9-9-2009 at 3:46 pm
“Shazam! is not the name of a hero from either company” — on the contrary, Shazam is the name of the wizard who gave Billy Batson the power to transform into Captain Marvel.
posted by Jeff on 9-9-2009 at 7:10 pm
quiz was too easy. got all 20. only tricky one would have been lobo. picture for quiz is the phantom by lee falk published by king features syndicate.
posted by rick on 9-9-2009 at 7:59 pm
shazam is called shazam because marvel already had a captain marvel when dc bought the rights to captain marvel (the shazam version) from fawcett.
posted by rick on 9-9-2009 at 8:00 pm
i was unaware that the phantom had been published after my time by dc and marvel.
posted by rick on 9-9-2009 at 8:03 pm
My small knowledge of HeroClix helped me through this one! 90% I stumbled on Conan and Lobo. For the longest time, I kept thinking about Hawkeye when I was looking at Hawkman.
reCaptcha: quasi-public thumb, he shows ‘up’ on occasion. I laughed at myself for that one.
posted by Steven on 9-9-2009 at 10:21 pm
20/20, I thought the quiz would used obscure heroes. However, it did took me a while to remember which company Sub-mariner came from. I also thought of Hawkeye when I saw Hawkman.
posted by Joy on 9-14-2009 at 8:00 am