At the movies with Marvel (D.C., not so much)

For every Marvel comic I buy, I buy 10 DC titles. I've always been more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy. I like my heroes iconic, not ironic.

Back when I was a kid, I bought my fair share of Marvel stuff. But I essentially stopped buying Marvel back in the late 80s early 90s because the quality of the books just went downhill. They started treating their readers like dolts (and then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter said about as much).

But I find myself really liking some Marvel titles: Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, Thor and Daredevil. But I find myself buying some D.C. titles out of habit. There are few that I buy because I simply cannot wait to get my hands on the next issue.

D.C. is rapidly becoming what Marvel was to me a decade ago: A producer of unreadable comics with bad art, lackluster plotting and writing, and over reliance on multiple crossovers and year-long mini-series that must, MUST affect every single character that ever existed. "Countdown" anyone?

And here comes more evidence of D.C.'s decline: The theaters are filling up with movies based on Marvel characters, while D.C. keeps screwing up. I had high hopes for several of them, including the Justice League. But the Justice League movie is officially tabled. Meanwhile, Marvel is slowly bringing every single original member fo the Avengers to the screen.

Feh.

So some advice: I mentioned those Marvel comics I like. Any suggestions? What gems am I missing?