Both Marlin & Winchesters are good guns.
Back in the 19th century, Winchester used to drive John Marlin & Co. nuts. Marlin came out with lever rifles that were stronger and could handle BIG blackpowder cartridges while Winchester was still churning out the toggle-link lever designs. Marlin would come out with a rifle in a proprietary caliber, and then Winchester would come out with a similar rifle .... and Marlin, in order to keep up a healthy amount of market share would wind up producing its rifles in the Winchester caliber.
Until Winchester started buying John M. Browning designs (like the 1886 & 1892 designs) Marlin really had the superior rifles .... but Winchester was a marketing genius. He (and his salesmen) knew how to push their rifles, popularize them, and get the name in peoples' minds. It worked. "The rifle that won the west" is the Winchester 1873. Except there were plenty of other guns out there .... and if you were a real hunter, out for buffalo, you would have a heavy single shot like a Sharps or Remington Rolling Block style rifle.
My only problem with Marlins when I first got into shooting circa 1991 was their .30-30s had a BIG chunky fore end. I prefered the Winchester 1894. But Marlin has other rifles that are real nice, and Slamfire1's Marlin is one of 'em!
In all the western TV shows, the Winchester 1892 seems ubiquitous. Paladin in HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL, however, did have a Marlin like the one above (with the Knight's symbol on its stock) and Marlins were also seen in the Lee Majors western, BIG VALLEY.