MARVEL COMICS NO MORE
It is not a good time to be a comic book collector. Well, at least that's how it appears to me.
The comic book industry is currently in a terrible state as of August 2020. COVID19 certainly plays a big role in the comic book industry's current predicament, but I feel this current state was inevitable, pandemic or not, given the way the industry has been headed for many years now. It's a great shame as myself and a great many others around the world have poured much of our funds, time, and passion into this medium for years. The comic book industry has been running for over 100 years and in less than twenty years to come many favorites such as Superman, Batman, and Namor, the Sub-Mariner will be celebrating 100 years of publication. But maybe this coming demise is for the best.
I started buying comic books, specifically Marvel comic books, in the late 1980's and early 1990's. I stopped buying for seven or eight years following the comic market crash in the 90's but resumed buying in 2005. I have been buying Marvel comic books uninterrupted now for over fifteen years. For a number of those years I was obsessed with Marvel's characters and universe, expending much of my time, thoughts, and money buying and reading back issues and staying caught up on current issues. Comic book collecting, reading, and learning about these characters wasn't just a hobby but a passion.
I can't say that these years have been all good though. There was a period from 2005 into 2011 in which the current comic book offerings from Marvel were incredible. Not only myself, but many of my friends began collecting Marvel comics, feeling genuinely enthusiastic about the stories and characters. We looked forward to every Wednesday (New Comic Book Day), even traveling to the comic shop together and sharing our passion with our fellow comic patrons. We weren't happy with everything coming out, mind you. Iron Man wasn't written very well at that time and neither was Hulk (it was the time of Red Hulk and Skaar, blarg!). Even if our main heroes weren't doing so well, there were still many amazing books coming out.
THE LATE 2000'S WAS THE INDUSTRY'S LAST GREAT ERA
Starting in 2010, most poignantly after 2011, we all began noticing a drastic shift in quality from Marvel. It began with the writing. The people writing at Marvel seemed not to care as much about previous continuity nor character continuity. Writing superstars like Brian Michael Bendis seemed more interested in placing their own personal take on the story rather than a story that honored the characters and the work of the creative teams from the past (the people who created and or built up these legendary characters). To us it appeared as if a general laziness had taken over with the writers room or a lack of appreciation for what they were doing (not every writer but most it seemed). The artwork was still more or less good but the writing only seemed to grow worse every year.
One by one my friends began dropping off the Marvel wagon and then later the comic book wagon altogether. One would move to a different town and it seemed to be just the excuse they needed to pull the plug on Marvel and comic book collecting. But when the friends still living in the same town stopped buying, their enthusiasm completely dried up, this change in Marvel was never more apparent. Not long into the 2010's it became only myself and one other friend who were still buying new comics. This friend and I share wildly different opinions about comic books and often butt heads on our views. But the group that I shared similar opinions with had all left Marvel comics behind. And by all rights I should've followed them too.
So why didn't I? Well, suffice it to say I'm not the smartest among my group of friends, not by a longshot. I also tend to take things too far, especially my passions. I always overdo things, as my friends can attest to. I just couldn't pull that trigger. I disliked the majority of what Marvel was putting out, with only a smattering of comic books satiating the passion. I guess I just wanted to believe that this was a "bad run" or rough patch that would eventually get better (as they always did in the past). I wanted so desperately to believe that the next great story was right around the corner. I wasn't ready then to abandon my love for this universe and its characters.
POLITICAL INVASION
Sadly, things have not gotten better. The writing has shifted again in the last five to seven years. Marvel no longer seemed interested in quality storytelling nor continuity or the saga. Stories now more than ever feel politically motivated (which isn't necessarily a bad thing as some classic comic stories are highly political). This political permeation is more pervasive than I have ever noticed before leaving fewer books that just seem interested in telling good stories. Now the industry feels as if all it is is a platform for political activism. And one-sided extremist politics as well with no opposing view points even entertained, nor rational discussion allowed. Social media has only made things worse.
These writers take to social media and spout their political beliefs like fanatics. And then if someone disagrees with them or their take on Marvel characters that someone is labeled a Nazi, misogynist, homophobe, racist, and etcetera. So, even if you were to think while reading a comic, 'this story is kinda politically charged,' upon seeing the writer's Twitter account the whole experience of the comic becomes sullied. The comic book you just read wasn't merely a political story but rather the writer using their job at Marvel as a soapbox for their political agenda. Whether you agree with their politics or not doesn't matter, they're using their job to further their personal agenda, not that of the characters or universe they're working within.
ABOUT THE WRITER NOT THE CHARACTERS
Marvel has been pushing politics at the expense of their characters and universe. I never bought comic books for the writer or creative team, nor do I care about their personal views. I bought comics for the characters and the ongoing saga. But over the last decade the characters haven't felt like themselves but rather reflecting the personality of the writer's. And continuity is either used or discarded at the writer's convenience. Brian Michael Bendis illustrated this prominently to me and more and more writers, trying to achieve some of BM's superstardom, have followed suit. So no matter how good the art is, if the story makes no sense or doesn't fit with the character or history, the comic book ultimately comes across as meaningless to the overall narrative.
THE ARTWORK SPIRALING DOWNWARD
The same is true for the artwork. You can have a great story, but if the artwork is atrocious then the book fails. Comic books are a visual medium. Without good art to showcase the story the experience is stunted. Artwork, and the quality inherent therein, is one-hundred percent subjective. What's good and bad artwork is all dependent on the viewer. However, the identity of super hero comics is grounded in a predominantly realistic art style. Abstract artwork works on occasion when the story warrants such an experimental approach. It's true that one flavor can grow stale over time and something different can be nice once and a while to keep things fresh. But you'll go back to vanilla ice cream because ultimately it satisfies more than any other flavor. An all art-house approach doesn't beget mainstream entertainment.
As the years have progressed since 2010 there have been an increasing number of abstract art books, or books that lean more towards the abstract in their art. Then there are the artists that are shamefully bland and sketchy compared to even five years ago. Every year the interior art for Marvel comics becomes rougher and dirtier. Even industry veterans who have shown gorgeous artwork many times in the past are now delivering lackluster and bland artwork compared to their previous offerings. It is hard to find a book with high quality art these days, let alone one that has good writing as well.
TOO GOOD TO LIVE AND THE DOMINO EFFECT
Surely there must've been some good books over these many years to keep me reading, right? Sure, there have been some great books here and there. Do these books last though? No. Quality has become so spotty that it can be hard to find a good book anymore and with so many Spider-Man books or X-Men or Avengers books filling the stands few readers are willing to take a chance on more obscure titles nor do their wallets allow for more expenditures. Odds are that these obscure books will have terrible art and story anyway. So when a good book does come out or a book that I enjoy, it usually doesn't last much longer than ten issues if I'm lucky. Or the book will have good to decent art for the first five issues and then a terrible artist takes over for the next arc and erodes the readership until the sales are so low that the book is cancelled. Or a good book is interrupted by an "Event story" in which they're forced to tie into, sidelining the main narrative the book was originally building toward. Most barely make it beyond two story arcs anymore, so the tie-in issues with the events essentially end the book with four or five superfluous issues that waste your money.
When you find a good book you hope and you pray that it will last. You want it to continue on as books used to in days long passed like thirty or sixty or even one-hundred issues long. But then they get cancelled after twenty issues. Then they're cancelled after thirteen issues. Then cancelled at ten, then six, then five. A character that once carried a book for over eighty or one-hundred issues now can't keep a book going beyond six or seven issues. Nowadays when I find a good book I doubt it'll last five issues and I'm more discouraged than ever because it won't amount to very much in the long run. Nobody cares about the books that I do anymore, because on the outside looking in it seems like Marvel themselves don't care about them either when they typically show little advertising support or creative team support for their books.
Gone are the days of high issue numbers (with a few exceptions). Most books today end with a low number of issues which barely allow for a story to build and characters to grow. To compound the damage of these lower number issue volumes, the stories are painfully drawn out, with one issue's worth of material drug out over five to six issues. After one story arc, as a reader, you're feeling like only the barest amount of story has been explored and you're chomping at the bit to get into the meaty story that's to come. But then comes a tie-in story arc with an event that has nothing to do with where the comic book was headed and the book is cancelled afterwards. My discouragement as a reader is only deepened. And this discouragement is felt across the readership too as evident by the sales.
A good book comes out and sales are good for that first issue, but plummet immediately upon issue two and so forth. There is no perceived value in current comics beyond those issue #1's. This results in rampant reboots and a revolving door of creators. These new creative teams start their own stories with their own unique take on the characters, in a sense making the previous volume moot. You need a new creative team to find that new angle that'll make the book a hit, but such tactics hinder the overall saga, storytelling, and characters though. The character and saga feel like they're juttering and something isn't jiving.
The idea behind the new number #1's is to give new readers a nice jumping on point for a book because there is a belief that more people are inclined to jump onto a book at number #1 rather than issue number #87 or #234. The logic makes sense but there is a downside to this as well. With low numbers also means low importance. If a book has lasted for hundreds of issues it shows staying power, indicative of consistent quality, and bares a deeper lore and breadth of story. A new number #1 has none of that. And not to mention that new readers had been jumping on regardless of high numbers for decades prior, the rampant reboots being a relatively new phenomena from the last several years.
Circling back to placing politics and agendas ahead of quality storytelling and characters, let's talk about the dawn of the...
LEGACY CHARACTERS
A legacy character is a new character adopting the mantle of an older character. Legacy characters can work really at times, if the story is written well and the original character is still honored and respected. A particular legacy character is among my all-time favorite comic book characters: Danny Ketch. But there is a way to fail at making legacy characters... and Marvel has become experts at it.
There was a time in the not too distant past where Marvel pushed heavily on the idea of Legacy Characters. First came Captain Marvel, then Nova, then another Ghost Rider, then Thor, then Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, and of course, Spider-Man. These were new or different characters taking up the names of these classic heroes. Spider-Man and Wolverine had many many legacy characters running around at one time. Some of these characters were previously established while some were invented brand new for the purpose of taking the mantle of another. And it wasn't merely one of these characters at a time but all of these characters at once.
Where some legacy characters feel organic and work well within the story, the effort here felt immensely forced, lazy, and disingenuous. New characters that no one cared about were created at the expense of older beloved characters all in an obvious push for diversity. Diversity is great and representation is needed, but there is a difference in perception when the effort feels like an agenda rather than story-driven and organic. It didn't feel natural. Readers became upset. But if you complained about these changes you were labelled either a racist or a misogynist or simply told, "well, this isn't for you." Suddenly Marvel comics weren't "for" the majority of comic readers anymore? These new characters weren't their own, but rather inheritors of a white male character's legacy and following. As new characters they were lacking. As legacy characters they were in deficit. And the fact that Marvel tried this with the majority of their characters all at once appeared like a back hand to everyone who worked on these characters and this universe prior. These "new" characters were hollow.
Blade, Brother Voodoo, Shang Chi, Red Wolf, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Frankie-Ray Nova, Elsa Bloodstone, Colleen Wing, and Misty Knight are all characters I love dearly and characters I would and have supported in multiple books in the past. These characters are original, intriguing, and exciting and they fit all of the diversity criteria Marvel seemed to be pushing at the time. Yet these characters were barely given any showcasing compared to what these new hollow characters were given. No, I'm not a racist, misogynist, Nazi, or homophobe. I just don't like these new crops of characters Marvel is forcing down my throat. I hated Red Hulk with a passion too and he was a white guy. Does that make me racist against white people too? If so then I guess I hate everybody equally.
No, this has nothing to do with racism and hate and everything to do with bad storytelling and forced politics. Even if I believe in the same politics as you, I don't like someone using their position to force their own personal agenda, unless, you know, they're a politician campaigning in which case I'll change the channel.
ENDLESS EVENTS
Event fatigue is another thing that has diluted Marvel comics over the years. Events are sales juggernauts for Marvel Comics and a large source of revenue for the company. I used to get excited for events but now I get discouraged by them. Rarely did I enjoy them in the 2000's but it only grew worse in the 2010's. Each of these events was "supposed to" change the status quo of the Marvel universe and the characters would never be the same. But before the new status quo could be explored there was another universe changing event. Then another and another until the Marvel universe was being plagued with such events two to four times a year. These events began to mean very little in the grand scheme and ultimately served to invade the regular titles and or cancel your regular titles in service of new books spiraling out from the event (oh how I hated Secret Wars 2015 for forcefully cancelling some of my favorite books). Instead of being sources of excitement and intrigue these events became sources of frustration.
THE MCU EFFECT
And last but not least is what I like to call, "film to comic synchronicity." I was so very excited for the Marvel Cinematic Universe for many years. There was a period in the 2010's where it felt incredibly amazing to be a comic book fan and general all around nerd. As the MCU expanded with each new film there was a swell of enthusiasm and fervor surrounding the characters and the comics. But as the MCU grew in prominence and popularity so too did its influence over some unexpected areas.
The MCU has a tendency to change elements and characters from the source material. Sometimes an origin story is reworked or a character is completely altered from their comic book counterpart. These changes aren't necessarily bad and can work well within the structure of the film and overall MCU. Where the problem comes is when the films change something from the comics so drastically and then the comic books follow suit. The Marvel comics themselves suddenly changed characters and story elements that have existed for fifty years in some cases to match the recent changes made in the films.
Some changes are minimal such as starting to refer to Tony Stark's chest piece as the "Arc Reactor." But when an MCU film chooses to portray a character drastically different from their comic book version, and then that character changes similarly in the comics, it feels like a slap in the face to the fans and longtime readers. There are a great many characters in the MCU that are representative of their comic book counterparts in name only. These "in name only" versions of characters then take over the classic versions in the comics. The feeling is that Marvel Comics doesn't care about their own history and is willing to sacrifice it to gain MCU dollars.
The terrible irony is that the people who flock to the MCU films don't buy comics. If a mere 1% of the audience who goes to every MCU film then went to the comic shops it would save the comic industry. But those who support the MCU don't support the comics. So when the comics change to match the movies, like altering a favorite character, it frustrates and potentially removes an actual comic book patron. Changing the comics to match the movies doesn't result in more readers and actually removes what readers would've been there in the first place.
Another comic book reader may not care about Drax the Destroyer or Captain Mar-Vell and make fun of those who do, saying crap like, "It's not like they're Batman or Superman." By saying this they're trying to imply that these characters aren't important and no one cares if the MCU changes them or not. This argument is beside the point. If there is someone who should care it should be Marvel Comics. But when they change their characters in the comics to be synchronized with the movies, the impression is that Marvel doesn't care about their own characters nor the fans of those characters however few there may be. Again, another slap in the face.
Kevin Feige's mission statement used to be "to bring the Marvel comics universe to the screen." However, as the MCU grows it becomes increasingly less faithful to the comic books. After the unprecedented success of the MCU's 2019 season and the forthcoming announcements they've made, it seems that the MCU feels they no longer care about the source material. Where I used to be excited for new MCU projects I am now nervous. If the MCU is no longer interested in being faithful to the comics then I dread what will happen with my beloved characters. And after seeing what some directors have done to my favorite characters, I consider it a relief when they don't include my favorites. I used to whine about Adam Warlock's absence from the MCU. Now I'm thinking it's a mercy that he wasn't included. Who knows what pale imitation the MCU would cook up?
That would've been more of a critique of the MCU, but what changes the MCU makes tend to follow into the comics. It's bad enough that the movies mess up Marvel's IPs, but when those changes follow into the comics it becomes a real shame.
A DECADE WASTED?
All of this basically sums up my experience with Marvel Comics over the last decade. A consistent and steady decline of both writing, artwork, and care. And lately when I've found a good book with decent writing and passable art, it's only a matter of time before one-sided politics invade the book.
There have been good books during this time, some books that I genuinely loved. But Marvel doesn't ever seem to support these books and sometimes they even sabotage these books themselves with inaccurate solicitations, no advertising promotion, higher price tags, and half of the promised content missing.
THE END?
Quitting Marvel Comics has been on my mind for many years now. The completist in me (a terrible thing to have) kept me going along with sheer stubbornness (another terrible thing to possess... sometimes). I've endured a lot from Marvel over the years, but something about this current era disgusts me. It really set in deep last year and by January of this year I had refused to buy any more books by certain writers. I was buying three to four books and contemplating quitting one of them. Now, after the COVID19 delays and general industry upheaval, Marvel has cancelled three of those four books. Ironically the only book left on my pull list is the book I was thinking of dropping back in January.
To be clear, I haven't given up collecting comic books. My years of patronage at my local comic shop has resulted in friendships with the proprietors that I wish to keep. I like the people there and I will still support them and their business by buying back issues. But what I will no longer do is support Marvel Comics as a company. As long as they keep treating their characters badly, ignoring their history, and disrespecting the previous creators' efforts I don't see things improving. And as long as they continue to inject their political agenda, using the medium as a sociopolitical soapbox, I want nothing to do with them.
The more Marvel Comics continues down this path the more I am beginning to despise these characters and universe that I once loved so dearly. I don't want to hate these characters. I don't want to look at these characters and feel upset. And I feel if I keep reading current Marvel books that my first thoughts upon seeing these characters' images will be distaste. As things are I may not be able to escape that fate as even the MCU has been showing signs of heading down the same path as Marvel Comics, transforming into a platform for political activism. I hope not, but there are numerous indications of this happening.
TIME TO MOVE ON...
I've heard collectors/readers older than myself who seem to share the same feelings I have about today's comics in regards to the 90's era of comics. I've even heard from readers who jumped ship in the 80's citing a similar distaste with the industry. The 80's and 90's were some of my formative years and I have a strong appreciation for the comics from that era (not all mind you, but a select few). I have come to love many books from the 70's as well. Maybe this is just a transition that all Marvel readers go through. Eventually there will come an era in which readers can no longer tolerate certain industry changes. Perhaps I have found such an era. And perhaps readers who fell in love with comics in this current era will one day hail this time period as Marvel's best. It won't be me but who knows?
I know, this is my problem, my personal feelings and no one else's. I know there are those who really enjoy this current era of comics. I'm not saying anyone is wrong for enjoying these new books. If these are the types of stories and creators you prefer then by all means enjoy. I wish you better luck than I had with this current Marvel era. I can't control what Marvel Comics does with their properties. All I can control is where my dollar goes and what things I wish to support. I'm not a supporter of hate. I'm not a supporter of people using an entertainment medium as a means of distributing political agendas or those same people engaging in modern day McCarthyism (doxxing, cancelling, slandering, and destroying people's careers and lives for not agreeing with them). Thusly, I no longer am a supporter of Marvel Comics in their current state.
With sadness in my heart for what I'm about to do and a bitterness in my mouth for what this industry has become... this is my goodbye.
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