Well, as a reader for both American Comics and Manga, I have a thing or two to say.
First, while most american comics are about superheroes, some that aren't about superheroes are just as awesome.
And if you're talking about imaginary powers, i'm sure you can find that both in manga and in comics. As for character development, while most manga are written by a single (or a team of mangaka), a lot of American Comics characters is written by different creative team (writer, artist, inker, colorist, letterer, cover artist). Thus, you'll have a variety of character development. For example, Peter Parker started as the skinny nerd that no one cares about. He then becomes Spider-Man and he's Peter Parker, the Daily Bugle photographer, science teacher, avengers member and etc. Though he is the Spider-Man, he still faces many problems like we all do, such as paying rent, school tuition, fixing his ripped costume. Therefor we have a long development of characters.
It's the same with manga. Naruto started as that below the average ranking gennin striving to be a hokage. He then faced so many battles, heart breaks and heartaches (mostly caused by Sasuke). Then after hundreds of chapter, we got Tsunade-sama saying that Naruto is a likely candidate for hokage. Ichigo Kurosaki started as the substitute shinigami and now he can at least go up against a 6th ranked espada.
As for stories, there are comics written by famous sci-fi writers, like Ron Marz or Orson Scott Card; or pulitzer winner like Brad Meltzer; or tv show creators like Jeph Loeb (executive producer for Heroes), Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel), Damon Lindeloff (Lost), and Allan Heinberg (The O.C.).
And artwise, comics artist can whip up an art that can drop your jaw. Look at works by
Jim Lee (who graduated from Princenton with a degree as a medical doctor),
Andy &
Adam Kubert,
James Jean , Michael Turner (whom is currently struggling from cancer while still coming up with awesome comic covers week after week),
Greg Horn,
Adam Hughes and the name that equals awesome drawings,
Alex Ross (do click the link to visit his site).
So, what i'm saying is, don't hate it before you really get to know it. We got an
American Comics Section, visit it, ask around for recommended titles, open up. Thanks.
