Marvel Going Back To "Meat And Potatoes"

[The Laughing Fish]

It would be a very sad day if the medium were to disappear. This industry needs a purge. There are too many people in charge of the industry who are simply too opinionated, too arrogant and not as talented as they think they are. It's not fair for comics to be severely undermined all because of jackasses who spend too much time arguing on social media trying their hardest to "save" the world in their own self-aggrandising mind, instead of doing their jobs.

Speaking of Marvel, it was reported last October that despite Kevin Feige has become the company's Chief Creative Officer (which theoretically would include Marvel Comics), he still has to deal with the current stakeholders in the comics division.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/will-kevin-feige-rethink-marvels-comic-books-1247841

This section here caught my eye.

So, is this a case of much ado about nothing while the status keeps being quo, then? It depends how such things as measured. More likely than the sudden cancellation of Marvel's entire comic book line before a reboot called The Feigeverse is a slow and, in likelihood, subtle shift towards Feige's vision, in multiple ways, matching the movement of Marvel Studios post-Perlmutter emancipation. After Feige's break from [Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike] Perlmutter, it took a few years for projects like Captain Marvel and Black Panther to come to fruition. However, since movies take much longer to develop than comics, theoretically if Feige ordered a change in the comic book status quo today, we could see that reflected on stands in a matter of three months.

Given Marvel publishing's success — in cultural, if not always financial, terms, at least — with characters such as Miles Morales, Kamala Khan and Lunella Lafayette in recent years, it doesn't seem like too much of a leap to imagine more focus on creating new characters with a more diverse background than, simply, "white guy who's probably blonde." Not only will it keep Marvel culturally relevant, it also will create more material for Marvel Studios to pull from in future projects.

In my opinion, if Marvel Comics were to reboot their characters to resemble their MCU counterparts, that's going to be far worse than Geoff Johns and Gary Frank aping Christopher Reeve every time they do a Superman comic.

Colors, I think you know this more than anyone else here, just because somebody has seen S78 and SII a thousand times, it doesn't make them a Superman expert. Let alone a comic book expert. The same thing goes for Marvel. If you ask me, I think Superman is being held back from going forward as a franchise because everyone can't get over their nostalgia for the Reeve era, and the last thing that Marvel Comics needs is pandering to comics for people who can't get over the MCU. We've seen enough of Iron Man-related media aping Robert Downey Jr such as in the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! cartoon and the last couple of Marvel vs Capcom games, can you imagine if they double down by aping ALL of the Avengers and Spider-Man characters to the movie versions? Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth's current interpretations of Hulk and Thor in comic book form? f*** THAT!

If this happens, the MCU's influence won't be a very good one for the Marvel Comics brand. Because as you know, comic book movie goes doesn't necessarily translate comic book readers. If anything, it could piss off the existing readership even more.

As for the little puff piece about the diversity of characters, well, they can spin that all they want. So far, it appears only Miles Morales is the only successful and popular character they've got. If they do create new character, hopefully they create BRAND NEW ones instead of hijacking an existing character name for a blatantly cheap political point.

But the opinion piece's assumption in building new characters as a launching pad for movie adaptations only brings to mind what Alan Moore once said: "Comics have become storyboards for films". That's assuming if Marvel will still invest in comics for much longer. By the sound of it, Marvel is first and foremost a film company. Just how long can they milk the formula for much long is anyone's guess at this stage.

[thecolorsblend]

Rejiggering the Marvel Comics universe to essentially be a photocopy of the MCU can't possibly be much worse than what Marvel Comics has been up to lately.

The comics industry has many problems. Content is merely one of them.

[The Joker]

You know, there would have been a time where I would be pretty vocal against any Marvel Comics reboot to even further restructure the comic universe to resemble the MCU formula, but these days? I simply do not care.

There has been so many missteps and shenanigans over the decades with the comic industry that there is simply no going back. The horse has already left the barn, so to speak.

Wasn't there some report not all that long ago about how single issue reprints of older material is actually outselling some, or a lot of the current material by a noticeable margin? That's pretty damning. But not all that surprising either.

It's actually pretty much where I am at. Trades and hardback omnibus collections is what I've concentrated on for about 2 years now, and the overwhelming majority of that is material from the Golden/Silver/Bronze age of content.

[thecolorsblend]

You know, there would have been a time where I would be pretty vocal against any Marvel Comics reboot to even further restructure the comic universe to resemble the MCU formula, but these days? I simply do not care.

There has been so many missteps and shenanigans over the decades with the comic industry that there is simply no going back. The horse has already left the barn, so to speak.

Wasn't there some report not all that long ago about how single issue reprints of older material is actually outselling some, or a lot of the current material by a noticeable margin? That's pretty damning. But not all that surprising either.

It's actually pretty much where I am at. Trades and hardback omnibus collections is what I've concentrated on for about 2 years now, and the overwhelming majority of that is material from the Golden/Silver/Bronze age of content.

Yeah, Dan Didio gave that quote to somebody at San Diego or something. And it seems to be true.

It's weird how DC and Marvel have such different problems. DC's continuity is swiss cheese. Literally nothing makes sense and every attempt to fix the problems only exacerbate them.

Marvel Comics these days mostly feature superpowered characters who would hunt down and physically harm/imprison/murder certain parts of the American voting public if these characters existed irl.

Between the two companies, the industry has atrophied to such a level that it's not mathematically impossible for any comic book to consistently sell 100,000 copies anymore. 100k used to be the cancellation line. Now it's a miracle if any comic book can sell that many copies even once, much less repeatedly, much less consecutively.

Not long after Disney bought Marvel, I suggested that those Mouse dollars might be enough to save the comics industry. But if anything, Disney seems determined to pour gasoline on the fire.

There are comics that sell ridiculously well but either they're manga or else they're American comics created by people blacklisted from the mainstream industry.

Such a pathetic waste.

[Silver Nemesis]

'Meet Snowflake, Marvel's First Non-Binary Superhero'

https://screenrant.com/marvel-snowflake-non-binary-comic/

Snowflake... Safespace...

[thecolorsblend]

I prefer to think of Snowflake and Safespace as the death rattle of an industry that may only have two months of life still remaining.

It is interesting tho that basically nobody is excited about those characters. Nobody, zero.

[The Dark Knight]

What do you even say to something so laughable? Hijacking the entertainment vehicle for blatant political statements rather than honest storytelling is exactly why audiences have tuned out.

[The Joker]

Snowflake and Safespace, huh? Are they like the emotionally stunted version of the Wonder Twins?

Who are the villains? Toxic Manosphere? Boomer? The Mansplainer?

Since we're all painfully aware Marvel comics, clearly, doesn't give a s***, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see a title like "The Adventures of Cuckold and Soyboy" appear in the near future.

Good God, this is like a South Park parody.

[thecolorsblend]

I prefer to think of Snowflake and Safespace as the death rattle of an industry that may only have two months of life still remaining.

Looks like I was off by about two months.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/steve-geppi-announces-diamond-is-ceasing-the-distribution-of-new-weekly-product

Diamond is the only distributor of comics. If they, uh, stop distributing comics then that's ball game for the industry, y'all. This is it. Extinction Level Event.

First, Diamond folds. Then the retailers fold. After that, choose your own adventure in terms which order the publishers go out of business. One model is just as valid as another.

[thecolorsblend]

I prefer to think of Snowflake and Safespace as the death rattle of an industry that may only have two months of life still remaining.

Looks like I was off by about two months.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/steve-geppi-announces-diamond-is-ceasing-the-distribution-of-new-weekly-product

Diamond is the only distributor of comics. If they, uh, stop distributing comics then that's ball game for the industry, y'all. This is it. Extinction Level Event.

First, Diamond folds. Then the retailers fold. After that, choose your own adventure in terms which order the publishers go out of business. One model is just as valid as another.

Twenty four hours later and I'm still royally p!ssed off about this. The comic book publishers, particularly Marvel, have been forcing all this woke bs down our throats for years in spite of a proven and undeniable history of record low sales. The industry has been hollowed out almost entirely to the point where Diamond, an effective monopoly, can't survive one bad week of worse-than-usual sales.

The NBA? I'm sure they're hurting right now but they'll survive this time of zero money. But Diamond couldn't withstand one week of very little money. That's how bad things were in what was left of the comic book biz.

So. Freaking. Angry!