>DC has tried to adapt to this by Marvelifying their heroes
>ever since Marvel got more popular.

DC has actually gone the OPPOSITE route over the past couple of years.

i don't know exactly when it started happening (and i was actually gonna make a post about it)

since the 1960s, DC has to various degrees tried to make their heroes less "god-like" and more "human" in order to compete with Marvel. you could see it with Teen Titans, with the various incarnations of the Justice League (the stripped-down, "underground" version with Vibe, Vixen and Aquaman and then the hilarious, self-parody version) as well as John Byrne's Man of Steel

but now it seems DC actually *embraced* the god-like, iconic status of their characters. i think this really started with Grant Morrison's run on JLA where he worked to make explicit parallels between the JLA and the ancient pantheons of gods.

Mark Waid seems to have a lot to do with it as well, bringing back a lot of the Silver Age values. (Alan Moore also did this during his tenure at DC, even though he is credited with spawning the "dark and gritty" era of heroes)

basically, they're saying "yes, DC heroes ARE like gods. now let's explore what would happen in a world where such gods walk among men."

i think that's a much better approach, a much original approach... because the mistake a lot of people make is in thinking that the genus of Stan Lee was that he created "human" superheroes with everyday problems who bickered amongst themselves.

Stan Lee's genius was that he presented something original, that had never been seen before. i'd rather see fresh perspectives on the idea of the superhero than endless retreads of Stan Lee - at DC or at Marvel