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Marvel ruining it for everyone?

Started by romanheart,

99 posts in this topic

newshane

newshane

Posted
Posted
I actually agree with most, if not all of them.

 

I know they touched on it, but this should have been #1: The constant stopping and rebooting a series at #1 only a year or two after it's previous #1.

 

Before, volumes would reach 500-600.... now? Some series restart after 18 issues. It's become impossible to know the full history and volumes of most of their characters now.

 

I agree about the paper stock (specifically the cover). I agree they try to make Z level characters as A listers. I agree creators have abandoned them.

 

Overally, its pretty much spot on to be honest.

Yep.

 

How many Spiderpersons are in the Marvel Multiverse?

 

The blatant diversity mandate and pandering. Female-every-character and suddenly it's a better story or character? Ugh. Lack of creativity is trying to be covered up by changing the gender/race of existing characters. Retreads are lame. Simply switching costumes with another person is not creative. X--this.

 

The All-New-Now-Even-More-All-New-Now restarting of every frickin series so that, how many Spider-Man or Thor #1s are there?

 

Basically, they keep going to the same old well and people just get tired of it.

 

 

 

 

 

I agree. They are definitely trying way too hard and it comes across as fake.

 

I also agree with the article posted by the OP.

 

Marvel is total garbage right now.

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bababooey

bababooey

Posted
Posted

The survival rate of the poor quality covers is probably a positive thing that people aren't considering properly - having trouble finding a new comic without a few dings in the spine because of the poor quality? Well, so is everyone else.

 

It's too bad all the stories are unreadable because something that catches on could possibly be worth some dough to those of us you who walk into the store with a watchmakers monocle and white gloves while handling these modern gems like 2000 year old artifacts, while refusing to hand our freshly printed treasure over to the sweatpants wearing checkout dude eating a slice of Gino's pizza due to our fear of a thumb print on the back cover.

 

:insane:

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waahehe94

waahehe94

Posted
Posted

 

Disagree with most all of it, but then again the article is written by a wet behind the ears, almost fresh out of college kid from England with what seems to be little to no real experience in the industry. This kid needs to check and see if Chuck at Mile High is hiring for a new Tales From The Database writer, would probably be a perfect fit!!

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RCheli

RCheli

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure why people are complaining about creators changing. This is not a new thing.

 

There are obvious exceptions (Claremont on X-Men, David on X-Factor, Lee/Kirby on FF), but Marvel has had numerous creators on a book over a short period of time.

 

I was re-reading my Power Man issues over the past week, and over a period of 12 issues (36-48), the writers for this series were:

 

Don McGregor

Marv Wolfman

Steve Englehart

Bill Mantlo

Ed Hannigan (didn't know he wrote -- only knew him from his terrific covers)

Roger Slifer

Chris Claremont

 

The pencillers were:

 

George Tuska

Ron Wilson

Bob Brown

Lee Elias

John Byrne

 

(Also, those Power Man issues were not that great.)

 

Also, I think most creators would like to live in both worlds -- their own creations and working on company-owned characters.

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

Posted
Posted

I think the main thing is price point for covers.

It`s just really unappealing to pay $3.99 or $4.99 cover when you can pay $9.99 a month for Marvel Unlimited,Netflix or HBO.

 

Also I can buy Kindle books all day for $2.99 that have 300 to 500 pages to read.

This makes paying $4.99 for a 10 to 15 minute comic book read unappealing.

 

I think really what`s keeping the monthly comic book afloat is the LCS. They buy the majority of monthly comics and not the readers.

 

Another crash that wipes out many LCS could doom the monthly floppy.

So appreciate your LCS or the monthly comic book could go the way like the horse and buggy.

 

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drotto

drotto

Posted
Posted

What the author is saying is also a double edge sword. I am not saying writer and artists should not have more liberties, but I think fans reactions if creators were given 100% free reign would not be positive either. Then we would be getting complaints that certain writers changed my favorite character too much, and continuity would go from bad to absurd.

 

The bottom line is with the current fanbase, no matter what you do is going to tick somebody off. Marvels editorial may be too strict, and DC's may be more lax, but that has not stopped DC from rebooting just as much.

 

As for the money being in owned IP's, that sounds great in principle. But the only creators that get "rich" are the ones who have long standing chops to begin with, and do these titles on the side. Or the lucky ones where their title gets optioned. No owner of an IP comic that has a sub base under 10k monthly sales, and no movie or TV option is getting rich.

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chewy106

chewy106

Posted
Posted

I saw the link was to whatculture.com as a multi-page list and immediately knew it was clickbait for page views, and was not disappointed.

 

I do agree with the constant relaunch problem, though as others have pointed out, this isn't just a Marvel issue, with DC just as guilty. It's unnecessary and frustrating. Feels like we're soon going to be at the point where every title is just a miniseries numbered 1-5 or 6 and then restarts again and again. Makes me appreciate more the longevity of books like TWD and others that have preserved their sequential numbering in this era of endless reboots.

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted

Eventually every single book will be a one shot and basically an issue of 'What If'

What if aunt may was galactus

what if the avengers were bad guys

what if gwen married stan lee

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drotto

drotto

Posted
Posted
Eventually every single book will be a one shot and basically an issue of 'What If'

What if aunt may was galactus

what if the avengers were bad guys

what if gwen married stan lee

 

That will never happen. The writers can't execute a deconstructed writing style in one shots!!! So the 4 to 6 issue mini series thing seems more like it, plus they need that number of issues in order to do the TPB.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

Marvel and DC are only caretakers for IP owned by Disney and Warner Brothers.

 

As such, the mandate is only "don't do anything too drastic, just make sure you continue to publish (to maintain our IP rights.)"

 

Comic book publishing is not a money-making venture, and hasn't been in a long time.

 

Disney and WB could not care less about the comics industry...Batman and Spiderman are worth billions of dollars, but not as comic book characters.

 

Therefore, all this sturm und drang about what Marvel and DC are doing to their characters is like shouting into the teeth of the hurricane. They don't care, because they don't have to.

 

Frankly, that Disney and WB haven't figured out a way to do away with print comics altogether, while still preserving the rights to their IP, is what is the interesting part. They're certainly making inroads in that direction.

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miraclemet

miraclemet

Posted
Posted

Hasn't Mignola been doing selfcontained hellboy arcs (restarting with #1 each time) for years?

How is that ok (he seems do be doing fine, as is Hellboy), but to do something like restart Avengers 3 times in 5 years is an abomination to the form?

 

I agree doing it for the #1 issue bump, but most times its to signal a new creative team, a new direction, or a new arc... why not start with #1?

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
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And for those who doubt, consider:

 

The entire comic book industry, new comics, trades, statues, magazines, etc sold about $780 million worth of printed material in North America for the year 2013.

 

http://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales.html

 

That's every character, every comic book, newsstand or otherwise, throughout North America.

 

On the other hand, licensing revenue for Spiderman alone in North America was about $400 Million.

 

That's one single character, in North America, vs. the entire comic book industry. Now, granted, Spidey is the #1 licensed character on the continent (and, indeed, the world)...but in North America, he's not that far ahead of Batman at around $350 Million.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/superhero-earns-13-billion-a-748281

 

So, two characters, just on licensing (that's merchandise like toys, key chains, bumper stickers, back packs, lunch boxes, pajamas, etc.) equal or nearly equal the entire comic book publishing industry in revenue.

 

And that certainly doesn't count the massive amount of money that film and TV are bringing in.

 

Disney characters in total, by the way, had $41 BILLION in licensed merchandise sales in 2013. That's against their subsidiary Marvel's roughly $200 Million in comics sales in 2013 (including everything Marvel prints.)

 

That is, just in licensing alone, Disney makes 200 times what Marvel Comics makes by publishing comics.

 

No, comic books are a drop in the bucket now.

 

 

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CAHokie

CAHokie

Posted
Posted
And for those who doubt, consider:

 

The entire comic book industry, new comics, trades, statues, magazines, etc sold about $780 million worth of printed material in North America for the year 2013.

 

http://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales.html

 

That's every character, every comic book, newsstand or otherwise, throughout North America.

 

On the other hand, licensing revenue for Spiderman alone in North America was about $400 Million.

 

That's one single character, in North America, vs. the entire comic book industry. Now, granted, Spidey is the #1 licensed character on the continent (and, indeed, the world)...but in North America, he's not that far ahead of Batman at around $350 Million.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/superhero-earns-13-billion-a-748281

 

So, two characters, just on licensing (that's merchandise like toys, key chains, bumper stickers, back packs, lunch boxes, pajamas, etc.) equal or nearly equal the entire comic book publishing industry in revenue.

 

And that certainly doesn't count the massive amount of money that film and TV are bringing in.

 

Disney characters in total, by the way, had $41 BILLION in licensed merchandise sales in 2013. That's against their subsidiary Marvel's roughly $200 Million in comics sales in 2013 (including everything Marvel prints.)

 

That is, just in licensing alone, Disney makes 200 times what Marvel Comics makes by publishing comics.

 

No, comic books are a drop in the bucket now.

 

 

Wow, those are interesting stats for sure

 

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drotto

drotto

Posted
Posted
I was in total agreement with the author until he dissed Squirrel Girl. The character and the book are both awesome and the Squirrel Girl TPB collections are HUGE sellers for Marvel.

 

I can honestly say some of the somewhat offbeat Z character stuff coming from both DC and Marvel is at the top of my read pile right now.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

 

Glad to see I haven't missed anything in the last five years or so.

 

It's not near Halloween.......

 

Everyday is Halloween in comic books. :makepoint:

 

It's been a year and a half since you last posted. Good to know you're not dead.

 

When I die, I don't know that I'd want anyone to post about it here.

 

Just "I wonder what happened to that old ..?"

 

:cloud9:

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