There's much more to comics than DC and Marvel
Rogue vs. Parasite (212/365) by JD Hancock (cc by)
MeFite Narrative Priorities talks about a decade working in the comics industry.
Marvel and DC aren't the primary sources of forward momentum within the comics industry. Arguably, their relevance to the working comics community as a whole is at an all-time low. I have worked in comics for years, and the only thing that Batman makes possible in my life is a pile of movies I don't watch and books that I don't read.