Between DC and Marvel, who won the '80s, hands down?

Marvel by a nose.

Marvel's X-Men was kinda good in the 80s also.

Indeed. Byrne FF mentioned, Claremont X-Men not mentioned.

Poll fail. I boycott.

Swamp Thing not mentioned.
Ronin not mentioned.
Moore's Superman not mentioned.
Man of Steel not mentioned.
JLI not mentioned.

Both had solid outputs and I imagine it seemed like Marvel won at the time but the combined efforts of Frank Miller and Alan Moore gives DC the victory.

This is a tough one. DKR and Watchmen are two of my favorite things ever, but Marvel had some damned good output too.

I'm going with DC.

Marvel had greater highest, but also greater lows.

Wait.. no, DC had greater highs. Marvel just had the lows.

The 80's ended with Batman premiering as the blockbuster movie of the decade.

So... Hollywood won.

The 80s---it was the best of times for comics,it was the worst of times for comics.

Highlights of the 80's for me...

All Star Squadron
Infinity Inc.
Swamp Thing
Alan Moore's Superman
Outsiders
New Teen Titans
Blue Devil
Blue Beetle
Who's Who in the DC Universe
JLI
Dave Gibbons' Green Lantern
Dave Gibbons' Batman

Marvel. Dark Knight and Watchmen didn't age well for me.

Tough call. I only read all those Marvel 80s runs in the last decade (other than the unmentioned X-Men, which I read in the early 90s), and to me they hold up very well. However, I have Dark Knight and Man of Steel to thank for my getting back into comics as a young adult, which led me to everything else, including being on here today, so I'll go with DC, by a nose.

DC:

New Teen Titans
Legion by Levitz & Giffen
Batman by Conway, Colan and Newton
All-Star Squadron
Atari Force
Brave & Bold/Outsiders by Jim Aparo
Superman by Ordway, Stern, Gammill, et al
The Shadow by Howard Chayken
The Shadow by Helfer, Sienkiewicz & Baker
Wonder Woman by George Perez
Green Lantern by Englehart & Staton
The Killing Joke
Dark Knight Returns
Batman Year One
Swamp Thing
Secret Origins
Watchmen
Ronin
Camelot 3000
Hawkworld


Marvel:

X-Men by Claremont
Avengers by Stern & Buscema
New Mutants by Claremont & Sienkiewicz
Daredevil by Miller and Janson
Alpha Flight by Byrne
Thor by Simonson
Wolverine Mini
Handbook of the Marvel Universe
Death of Captain Marvel
FF by Byrne
Epic Illustrated

I was a Marvel Zombie throughout the '80s and '90s, hardly touching DC at all (almost never), so I'd have to go with Marvel. I didn't get caught up with stuff like NTT until college and, in fact, bought my first DKR trade at a local game store at Purdue.

Again?

Always.

Cerebus by Dave Sim
Flaming Carrot by Bob Burden
Grimjack by John Ostrander
Ms. Tree by Collins and Beatty
American Flagg by Howard Chaykin
Wordsmith
Elementals by Willingham
Normalman by Valentino
TMNT by Eastman and Laird
Nexus and Badger by Baron and Rude
Concrete by Paul Chadwick

Miller's Daredevil offsets Miller's Batman. Tie.

Tiebreaker? Alan Moore. Instant win for DC.

Marvel had shitty paper and DC had a lot of cool stuff on Baxter Paper.

Little know fact:

"Baxter Paper" was named after Mr. B on the television series Hazel.

It's true!

Month in, month out, X-Men rocked in the 80s. This is what puts Marvel over the finish line by a nose. I hope Claremont was appreciated for this.