Top Ten - Reasons why Marvel Comics suck

"Disclaimer - If your not a fan of comics or have not followed what Marvel has been publishing throughout the decades, your probably not going to understand many of the references contained within". 


Some of my first comics as a child of the 80's were Transformers, a few issues of Conan, and a badly mangled copy of the Incredible Hulk which was missing the cover that was probably torn off by me (also during this time I was getting Superman and Batman, but lets keep this strictly Marvel Comics based). My undeveloped brain still wasn't quite 'self-aware' of it's self or surroundings.Very much like a little monkey running wild and throwing poop. I have no memory of actually reading these comics between the ages of 5-7. I must have just really enjoyed the pictures. But that was the early start to what would become a cherished hobby to this day.

My appetite for comics started to take form in the early 1990's. At that time I was really into horror movies (Friday the 13th's, Puppet Master, Army of Darkness, Nightmare on Elm Street...etc) and my taste in comics was reflecting that. I started collecting issues of Ghost Rider during the 'Spirit's of Vengeance' story arc. Ghost Rider was such a cool looking hero with his flaming skull, leather, chains, spikes, and motorcycle.Then you had Johnny Blaze in his trench coat looking rugged with his 90's hair cut and shot gun in tow. A lot of interesting things was happening in the comic at the time.  It was on the Fox Network that the animated series of The X-Men hit the tube and that is when I officially became a comic book addict! Not just watching the cartoon, but buying every single X-Men based comic I could get my hands on. I had missed the Jim Lee years when I first started reading the X-Men and I had started reading the books when writers Scott Lobdell, Larry Hama, and Fabian Nicieza were shaping the X-titles along with artist such as Andy Kubert, Adam Kubert, and Joe Madureia to name a few. It was a great time for comics.

Quite-a-bit has changed since the 90's. And I will argue most of it for the worst. I love the Marvel Universe so I write this not as some hit piece but more as a appeal to sanity and common sense on the part of Marvel. Though I doubt they would ever read this or even care. This article is for all of you that are as annoyed as I am. I've tried to search the internet for people who shared my views, but far too often the focus of many peoples opinions on what Marvel is doing wrong tends to be on one or two things.
I believe that is entirely in-correct. There is actually in my view a huge growing list of things that Marvel is doing wrong that is attributing to the eventual overall decline and health to Marvel Comics and the comic book industry itself.

Things such as $5 comics with prices continuing to rise, comic creators not staying on a book for longer than 6 issues, constant relaunches, lack of continuity in all the books of a shared universe, and lack of creative restraint (as odd as that may sound). Both Marvel and DC are guilty of this. And as a fan of both companies I think it is fair to say that both of them are following the same self-destructive idiotic path but in particular Marvel is currently the biggest offender of the two (with DC not far behind).
This traces back to the decision to make Joe Quesada Editor-in-Chief at Marvel which has had some positive and negative consequences to the books they publish. Things have only gotten worse since Disney purchased the company.

Below I provide at least 10 reasons why Marvel currently 'sucks'. 

#1 Too Many Relaunches - Just how many relaunches do we need before Marvel realize that they are mentally fatiguing their fans? And what was wrong with the books in the first place to even need relaunches? Marvel seems to be going through some type of undiagnosed disease called Rebootis First Issueidous. Some people are selective readers and maybe they haven't noticed in the past, but I think people are starting to take notice now that things have gotten out of hand with Marvels constant relaunches and reboots. Editors at Marvel have admitted that the all new #1's is nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell comics and further more they plan to continue the trend! The problem with that is it is only a temporary boost in sales with no lasting positive impact. Every time Marvel relaunches a series they are essentially alienating hardcore fans of that respective title. Often these relaunches don't pick up or acknowledge where the book left off and these relaunches don't keep the previous creative team. Basically it makes every other first issue you bought of a particular series feel more and more worthless than the one before it and those to come after.

Now lets take a look at a long winded example of Marvel going overboard with relaunching a series. The Incredible Hulk was first published in 1962. The series continued on for decades up to issue #474 in 1999. That is a long time. From the 60's to the 90's it was common both in Marvel and DC to have comics that were numbered in the five to six hundreds! But that was in a time when the 'Big Two' had saner heads at the helm.
So from 1962 to 1999 The Incredible Hulk had 474 issues. Then the book was relaunched  under the title 'Hulk' in 1999 with a all new #1 issue. Eventually the title 'Incredible' was added to the name. The book continued to be published from 1999 to 2007 when at issue #112 the Hulk was kicked out of his own book and it was renamed the 'Incredible Herc'. From there it gets more confusing. In 2008 the comic series 'Hulk' was released with a all new first issue. However this book didn't feature the Hulk, but a character simply referred to as the 'Red Hulk'. Yet again the fan favorite Hulk was kicked out of his own book and was used as a supporting character to Red Hulk. Marvel churned out a whopping 57 issues of 'Hulk' in 2008. So for roughly a year the real Hulk didn't have his own book. Way to go Marvel.


And then, in September of 2009, to make a quick buck, Marvel pretended they never did any previous relaunches and they came out with the Incredible Hulk issue #600. So since issue #474 they had to count all the other relaunches and reboots, and still the math doesn't quite add up right to equal 600 issues. The overdone multiple first issues and bizarre make believe issue #600 was a insult to long time readers who were quietly leaving the book that had become as bi-polar as the character himself.
So from issue #600 to #606 the book had a major change yet again. The title was changed from 'The Incredible Hulk' to 'The Incredible Hulk's'  (in the plural sense). The book had shifted to focusing on the Hulks family and supporting cast. This continued until issue #635 when in 2011 the book was relaunched again! Apparently sales were taken a dip due to story arcs that may have been over the top, filled to the brim with too many Hulks, and essentially no longer resembled the book that long time readers had enjoyed for decades. So of course sales probably dipped, and as usual it's time for an all new first issue, yay. This next relaunch of Hulk (Volume 4) only lasted for 15 issues before being relaunched and relaunched yet again. This time Marvel was doing a reboot of all their titles regardless if they had already been rebooted, relaunched, repackaged, and rebranded previously.
So in 2012 Marvel gave us The Indestructible Hulk, which wiggled it's way to issue #20. And by 2015, the Hulk was relaunched again as The Totally Awesome Hulk and as of the writing of this article is currently ongoing.

The Incredible Hulk (Volume One 1962-1999)  issues 1-474
Hulk (Volume Two 1999-2007) issues 1-112
Hulk (Volume Three 2008-2008) issues 1-57
The Incredible Hulk (2009-2011 mysterious return to Volume 1) #600-635
The Incredible Hulk (Volume Four 2011-2012) issues 1-15
The Indestructible Hulk (Volume Five 2012-2014) issues 1-20
The Totally Awesome Hulk (Volume Six 2015-?) Issues 1-? 

Six relaunches and the last couple a year or two between them. Wow. A bit much?!?

So how do you go from some 400 issues from 1962 to 1999 and  then to constant relaunches that happen every couple of years more frequently from the last relaunch?
If you do too much of the same thing then it takes away from the uniqueness of the action. When Marvel came out with all new first issues of Spider-Man and the X-Men in 90's, well those books had been on going for roughly 3 decades. So it had a big impact. And those books would not be relaunched again till almost a decade later. But now with relaunches every 2 to 3 years, its too much. Way too much. Maybe instead of relying on gimmicky marketing to boost sales for these books why doesn't Marvel try to focus on good storytelling with great creative teams who are invested in the respective books they are working on for at least 24 issues? How hard is that? I had just given the example of the negative impact constant and frequent relaunches have had to the Incredible Hulk title. What Marvel has done to that series is what they've done to their entire line of books (X-Men, Spider-Man, Avengers, Captain America, Thor...etc) and it's going to hurt them long term as a publishing company and the readers who are rapidly loosing interest.

#2 Price - You don't need me to tell you that comics are just too damn high. Really. As we all know comics from Marvel cost $4.99. That's Five dollars for a single book! So yeah we're all gonna be selective and take fewer chances on newer books that we are unfamiliar with. Disregarding the fear of sounding old, I remember there was a time where I could dig for change in the couch and what I could find laying around loose in the house after which I could easily afford 2 or 3 comics at gas station, grocery store, or local pharmacy. I have lived to see the time when comics were 60¢, $1.25, $1.50, $1.75 and $1.99. It was in the late 90's (I keep going back to that don't I?) and the early millennium that comics cost $1.99 an issue. That felt a bit high back then, but still affordable. Roughly two bucks an issue. You could see the writing on the wall back then. So It came as no surprise that the cost for comics would continue to rise. But now, gee, publishing companies just don't mess around no more. They used to raise the price in increments, but now it goes up a full dollar every few years.

Either Marvel doesn't care (which I don't think that they do) or they are oblivious, the price of comics is outrageous. I remember in the 90's I would buy every X-book I could find along with Spider-man and Hulk. At that time the X-books were X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Cable, X-Factor (that sometimes I would skip), X-Man, Generation-X, and few annual's here and there. In total, I was buying roughly 10 to 12 books a month (some from other publishers).

How many books do I buy now a month? On average, 0. In my case I buy comics every three months and usually I only buy two at the most. That is a big drop in both quantity and frequency of purchase in my case and I don't think I am alone in that.

Most comic fans can grasp simple economics and understand that comics is a business and usually the price reflects the needs of that business. But, there comes a time when you start to question things. I understand inflation, but come on! What has brought us to this point?

Many people have forgotten the impact Diamond Comic Distributors had on the comics industry once they became the sole, one and only distributor for comics! The savvy Steve Geppi and his staff at Diamond Comic Distributors had started buying out their competition since the early 1980's. This continued all the way up 1995, when Marvel Comics challenged Diamond by purchasing Heroes World Distribution and started printing their comics in-house. But this failed for Marvel due to bad management and a couple of other failed ventures on the part of Marvel.



And after 1995 Diamond bought Heroes World Distribution from Marvel making them the one and only distributor for the entire comic book industry!

Now, let me say that I have no problem with big companies buying smaller companies and making smart investments. There is nothing wrong with that. That is how you know a company has really good smart management at the helm doing what they are supposed to be doing. The problem, however, becomes when there is no more competition in the market place. Which is what has happened. Without competition from other distributors, Diamond is free to charge what they want, which in the end reflects how much you pay for comics. This is why monopolies are bad for the consumer.

In 1997 this got the notice of the U.S Justice Department.  In the end nothing came of it. And in the words of a Wikipedia article that best sums it all up, "The investigation was closed in November 2000, with no further action deemed necessary on the basis that, although Diamond enjoyed a monopoly in the North American comic book direct market distribution, they did not enjoy a monopoly on book distribution (books including non-comic books)."

So basically the Justice Department agreed it was a monopoly, but because they don't take comics seriously, and it don't affect regular book publishers, well, they just laughed and closed the case. Government looking out for the small guy. (Sarcasm).

Don't get me wrong, I think Diamond Distributors is a fine company with probably some good people in their employ from top to bottom, but there can be no denying that having one distributor for all the comics in the civilized world is not a good thing and the rise in prices shows.

One other thing to consider about the price of comics. Warner Brothers and Disney. To film studio powerhouses. Warner Brothers who own DC Comics and Disney who owns Marvel Comics. These two film studios have vast amounts of money. They have enough money to where each could start their own distribution companies for comics if they wanted too. However they won't. Want to hear my opinion as to why? Because Warner Brothers and Disney don't give two flying craps about comics. They don't. What they do care about is intellectual properties that have a established fan base that they can make movies, merchandise, and cartoons about. That is where the money is at for them. Comic books represents to them an endless well of ideas that are cheap to pull from to make millions on the big screen. So that is another reason why the price of comics is never 'reeled in'. They are not worried about competing for your dollars at the comic shop because they are competing for your dollars at the cinema.

Either Marvel doesn't care (which I don't think that they do) or they are oblivious, the price of comics is hurting the entire industry. I remember in the 90's I would buy every X-book I could find along with Spider-man and Hulk. At that time the X-books were X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Cable, X-Factor (that sometimes I would skip), X-Man, Generation-X, and few annual's here and there. In total, I was buying roughly 10 to 12 books a month (some from other publishers).

How many books do I buy now a month? On average, 0. In my case I buy comics every three months and usually I only buy two at the most. That is a big drop in both quantity and frequency of purchase in my case and I don't think I am alone in that.



#3 Creative teams leave too early -  The days when you could pick up your favorite comic and know you will be greeted by the masterful works of a creative team that you really like are over. Of course I am referring to the Writer & Artist duo's that bring life to some of your favorite characters in comics. It's a rare thing to see two comic book creators staying on the same book for a extended period of time. Remember what it was like when writer Larry Hamma and artist Adam Kubert worked on Wolverine together for several years? How about writer Chris Claremont and artist John Bryne on the Uncanny X-Men? Or Roy Thomas with John Buscema on the Avengers? And on and on it goes. But near the start of the new millennium that was the beginning of the end of that trend. Now creative teams only work together for 5 or 6 issues. That's it. Usually the writers will stay on a book for a full 12 issue run, but not the artist. On a business standpoint you want to keep the creative teams together that make you the money. Common sense. Sports teams have players sign multi-year contracts and although Marvel has something similar they do not however try to keep creative teams on the same book for an extended period of time. This is in part due to Marvel wanting to double their output of comics a month by having multiple artist contribute to a single series (a terrible mistake and just an all around dumb idea).  That decision was made several years ago, though I'm unsure if they stuck with it. Apparently it has had a lasting impact as you don't see mainstay creative teams anymore. One quick example is the creative team of Rick Remender and John Cassaday who did great work together on Uncanny Avengers. It was a great book where both the writer and artist were equals creating a story that was worth returning too and might I add, respectful to the roots and nature of these well established characters of the Marvel Universe. However, they only worked together for like at least 5 issues and 7 at the most. Really disappointing as this creative team could have done great things together.

 Rick Remender (writer) & John Cassaday (artist) only did a handful of issues of Uncanny Avengers

As I said before, usually it is around 6 issues that a writer and artist team will work together. There are some exceptions, but increasingly rare. Artist will tell you that it takes a while for them to build 'a stride' or a comfort level with whatever book they are drawing. It took Jim Lee several issues of drawing Batman before he found a good approach to rendering the character. There are so many advantages to keeping a creative team together than the constant in & out that we see today.



#4 Lack of Continuity - From the 1960's all the way up to the late 90's Marvel had continuity between all their books. The Marvel Universe truly was a shared universe where all the Marvel characters could interact and there was consequences for those interactions no matter how benign. Here is a couple of examples off the top of my noggin: In the 90's Wolverine lost his adamantium laced skeleton in the pages of the X-Men and this story continued in Wolverines own book. In a another storyline the X-Men were fighting Onslaught who had just taken over New York with the use of Sentinels and in the pages of Spider-Man Spidey was fighting or avoiding the very same Sentinels. While these two examples are not the best in the world they do however illustrate a shared universe between all these characters, hence the word Continuity.
Sometime in the early 2010's a decision was made by Marvel to disregard continuity and focus on self contained stories. This, in my opinion, had a disastrous effect on the company and some long time readers such as my self.
I remember during this time Wolverine had been brainwashed by Hydra into assassinate various characters in the Marvel Universe. At some point he killed then X-Man NorthStar. However in the pages of X-Men published the same month Wolverine was fighting with the X-Men against some type of supervillian. What?!? He just killed a team mate, and it's business as usual? Even though self contain stories do offer some creative freedom, lack of oversight on the part of the editors is inexcusable.
One other selling point to have a continuity between all the books is the fact it leads to great sales. Sometimes to find out the rest of a storyline you have to read another title altogether. For example, in the past you could read any of the Spider titles (Peter Parker Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider...etc) and all the story's would interconnect with one another in complete harmony. The same could be said for any of the X-Books (X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Generation X, Cable...etc).

Continuity in my opinion leads to better stories with bigger pay off. Sure, from a writers perspective it can be a bit restraining, but anything worth doing isn't always easy.



#5 Over Saturated Market - Just how many Deadpool titles does Marvel need? How many Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man....etc?  At one point before Wolverine was being milked for all he was worth (before they killed him) and they were publishing around 4 books on the character. FOUR BOOKS?!? Thats a bit much for one character an't it? Let see if I can remember, there was Wolverine, Weapon-X, Wolverine & the X-Men, and Savage Wolverine. There may have been another, but I really don't feel like doing the research on it.

Deadpool is the new cow Marvel is milking and it's only going to get worse. Over saturating the market with the combined lack of continuity between the books leaves readers feeling confused, overwhelmed, and uninterested in what Marvel is putting out. I propose this: How about Marvel put out one Avengers book, one Deadpool book, one Spider-man book....etc? There is an old expression 'sometime less is more'.

Instead of focusing on quantity the emphasis should be on QUALITY. Top notch writers and artist sticking to one title for a one or two year commitment where the focus is on telling great stories instead of marketing ploys and flooding the market with too many titles.



#6  Too Many Big Events - Some people would use the terminology 'Crossover' , but I believe I believe 'Big Event' might be a somewhat better word. These huge crossover/big events may have started with Jim Shooters Secret Wars from 1984-1985. A big shared universe event, to my knowledge, had never been done in Marvel up to that point. What is a 'big shared universe event' or 'Big Event'? Basically any large grand scale event where all the protagonist or in this case superhero's from different backgrounds/books come together to fight a common foe nor deal with a earth shattering crisis. In the case of Secret Wars it involved the entire Marvel Universe which consisted of Fantastic Four, X-Men, Hulk, Avengers, Spider-Man...etc. It was a fresh new exciting thing that I don't believe the company had ever tried before or at least at that magnitude.

Secret Wars (2016)

Since that time big block buster events in the Marvel Universe happen every year. EVERY YEAR. As sure as Summer is around the corner you can expect a major villain or earth shattering event to threaten the hero's of the Marvel Universe. With frequency of these big events there is no recovery period for neither the heroes of the Marvel Universe nor the readers to digest or process the experience. The problem with these 'big events' is that when you do too many of them they become fatiguing. And some cases they actually make light of the events that happened before.
Reminds me a bit of the cartoon Dragon Ball Z where the hero's face off against a foe who is the strongest opponent they have ever faced. They beat the villain and life returns to normal. Then there is another villain who is even stronger than the last. They eventually beat him and life returns to normal. This vicious cycle in Dragon Ball Z makes all former villains in the series seem weak despite all the previous epic battles of survival had taken place due to the havoc they caused.

There is a place for huge crossovers and big events in comics, but timing is everything. The characters effected by these events need time to process and deal with the fallout and repercussions which should make excellent material for any good writer and a good read for any fan.

Rather than give a history lesson on the subject I will refer you to a Wikipedia list that is far more detailed than I possible have the patience for.

List of Marvel Crossovers and Big Events


#7 Lack of Creative Restraint - Some of you may agree with me while others may not, but I think it is fair to say that Marvel has very little restraint on the storylines they create. Stories that are constantly trying to upstage the last in outrageous and off-the-wall different material. The problem with that is Marvel doesn't take the time to nurture story lines as they once did as story's are becoming more and more rushed to get ready for the next 'Big Blockbuster Summer Event' that they usually do every year.
Also there are times when Marvel takes a easy way out of shaking things up in a title without doing the hard work required to build to greater payoff for the reader.

This is hard to explain. My best example is as follows:
A few years ago Marvel decided to kill the Punisher and unless I'm mistaken he was literally torn to pieces. What made the Punisher such a cool different type of hero is first off, he was one of the first anti-hero's ( a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, and morality at times). Second the Punisher had no super powers. He was a regular flesh and blood guy who had been pushed to seek vengeance and justice which was refreshing take on the superhero genre in Marvel consider most of their comics are about people with superpowers doing good. Here was a guy who used guns, smarts, and a little big of brawn to get what he needs. The Punisher is a book that is a little more realistic, in my view, to the superhero genre.

After the Punisher is butchered by Daken who is the son of Wolverine he is later revived as a Frankenstien type of monster and given a new book called Frankencastle. Now I will be honest about this I did enjoy the concept and the series as a whole. My problem is it ruins the character. The nature of the character being a non-super powered person doing amazing things. After all, Marvel already has a Frankenstien type of character in Dethlok. The best way this should have been handled in my opinion would have been to revived the 'What If'' series and made this a major feature. Or make FrankenCastle part of the Ultimates universe. That way you could have your cake and eat it too. 
Creativity is a great and necessary thing in comics, but when you take away any semblance of common sense and unrestricted creativity you end up with a recipe for disaster that results in ignoring continuity with other books in a shared universe, damaging a long built up characters ethos, too many big crossover events, and being constantly over-the-top which causes reader fatigue. This point has been difficult to explain, but still valid if you give it some thought. 






#8 Marvel doesn't listen to it's readers -


Though this is seldomly talked about it if ever, I think it is fair to say Marvel is increasingly listening to their audience less and less. Perhaps the start of this was the elimination of the letters page in all of their comics. The letters page was a window into what readers were thinking and feeling. It was a great way to get fans more immersed  into the books and characters they cared about as well as building a sense of community. You knew you were not the only fan by reading the letters page. It was a great and probably overlooked feature.
As expected the mail probably began to dwindle with the coming of the digital age, but with that said there is email which is instantaneous communication and delivery. The letters column was also a great way to tease upcoming events with readers through a quick Q&A. I've always enjoyed the letters page and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It was a shame they got rid of it but they could just as easily bring it back. And, isn't it interesting that minus the letters page that the cost of Marvel publications is still high? You would think it they would be cheaper.
Marvel is currently flooding the comic book market with drivel that would better serve as kindling for the  winter. Everyone is tired of relaunches and reboots. But the attitude at Marvel seems to be 'Take it or Leave it'. Well, people are leaving it. In droves. And it is only going to get worse.
I guess the reason I started with the letters page argument is because Marvel today does not have a open dialog with it's readers. Which is not only odd, but utterly stupid. You can't just look at sales and guesstimate what people want to read. The simplest solution is ask them and listen to them. Right now as far as I know there is no open lines of communication between the publisher Marvel and it's soon to be dwindling readers. And sadly, I don't believe this is going to change.


#9 No synergy between the comics and movies/animation -

 It doesn't make much sense to have a movie about the Avengers that is made up of Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Iron Man, Hulk, and Hawkeye but yet in the comic there is only a old Captain America that is part of the team. What's wrong with that? Well this might seem a bit nick picky but if your trying to promote a brand you have to be consistent with what your product is. Kids who watch the movie and later go out to buy a Avengers comic are going to be confused because the Avengers in the comic have nothing to do with what they saw and loved on the big screen. Now granted everything doesn't have to be exact, but the general idea, premise, and overall characters need to be their. The movies that Marvel is putting out should help build a future reader base with this generation of kids.



When I was kid I loved the X-Men cartoon on the Fox Network. It had great stories, great characters, good animation, and great voice actors. And to this day when I read any X-Men book those voices from the cartoon are going through my head. Me watching that cartoon lead me to buy the comics. And those comics had the same characters that saw on the TV. That in a sense is the synergy that I'm talking about. That is why it is important. The movies and the cartoons are essentially marketing for the comic books. But if what we see in the movies and cartoons is not reflective of the comic books then the comics in the long run is going to suffer in building new readership for the next generation. Common sense really. There are those who argue that synergy hasn't shown any direct correlation with a boost in sales, but I would argue that synergy is not a short term investment but rather a investment for the future.

#10 Mickey Mouse has no interest in publishing comics -

One of the worst decisions Marvel ever made was putting themselves up for sale to Disney and at at time where they were becoming extremely profitable due to Marvel Studio's. It just didn't make sense to me to sell the company when it could have grown even bigger than what it was. Now, Marvel is just one tentacle, I'm sorry, one division among many that Disney owns. Speaking of what Disney owns:
 Marvel Studios, Marvel Comics,  Lucas Film (Star Wars Franchise), ESPN, ABC, A&E Network, Lifetime, History Channel, Hulu (32% stock), Touchstone Pictures, and Pixar Animation Studio's just to name a few.
Mickey Mouse controls a vast empire. And that empire runs on vast amounts of cash as you would imagine. Here is something to thing about; Why did Disney buy Marvel? They don't really need Marvel Studio's to make movies for they already have studio's to do just that. They don't need a publishing company because they have enough money to start their own. So what was Mickey Mouse interested in?
Intellectual Properties.
They wanted Marvel for it's former namesake, the 'House of Ideas'. Endless ideas and beloved characters to make movies, t-shirts, theme park rides, cartoons and whatever else about.
And your wondering what is wrong with that? Nothing for the most part except the most important which is they, in my opinion, are NOT INTERESTED IN MAKING COMICS. Zero interest.
In fact I'm willing to wager that Mickey Mouse and his corporate heads see the publishing side (comics) of Marvel as a financial loss more than anything. The amount of work and dedication it takes to build and maintain a successful printing company is daunting. And in the digital age where everything is instant you have to make sure your product is great and worth the wait. Mickey Mouse an't got time for that.

I further submit that many of the relaunches and reboots in Marvel Comics comes from some head goon's at Disney. Why? They are constantly looking for fresh idea's for film and animation. Comics to them is a testing ground for new idea's in which they are probably looking at sales and charts to figure out what people want. One such example is them experimenting with race, sexual orientation, and sexual preference of Marvel Characters to what they hope would draw money one day at the box office. It's not out of some high ideal's or moral standards that Disney is probably making Marvel turn Thor into a Girl or replacing Spider-Man with a black hispanic teen or the Falcon as Captain America all the while alienating long time fans of the original characters that they grew up with and loved. Let's continue this detour as this point further illustrates how Disney is just Frankenstiening Marvel characters in an attempt to create more interest in Marvel based movies without a care to what it does to a already well established comic book universe that has been about now for 60 years give or take a few.

Though at this point some will say I sound sexist or racist (which I'm not), I, as a long time fan can't understand why Marvel can't create NEW and ORIGINAL Black, Indian, Asian, Hispanic, Women, Gay, Lesbian......Superhero's. They did it to some extent with a new Ms.Marvel in the form of Kamala Khan who is both Arab and of the Muslim faith. Although it is using a pre-existing character concept, but in this case it works as Ms.Marvel has never really been a beloved character before hand. Personally, I love the comic Ms.Marvel! It's a great book (if you haven't read it you should, it feels like classic teenage Spider-Man for the new generation). At least get the trade paperback.

Its really not that hard to create original new ethnic superhero's. Here let me give it a shot off the top-of-my-head........how about a Asian teen who is outside one night looking at the stars and gets hit by a comet gaining the powers of flight and super strength, but he is not invulnerable like Superman and he is growing deathly ill every time he uses his powers. How about that!?! Plenty of drama, lots to work with as writer, sounds like a good character, and it doesn't destroy a pre-existing one.
I would feel the same way about the issue if they made Storm white, Bishop white, Colossus into a french guy, Luke Cage a white guy, Black Panther a white rich man in North America....etc. I wouldn't like that at all. It's not necessary and makes light of well established characters. Its not a issue of race or sexism but rather respecting already existing characters and concepts. We need new and original hero's and not recycled ones.
Marvel can create somewhat new hero's/heroine's, but I don't think Disney is up for totally brand new ORIGINAL characters. Instead the focus is on recycling beloved characters for either the sake of it or to see what 'sticks'.

Disney has found a play ground for idea's that they can pillage for movies and cartoons. Also you have to consider that basically they have found a endless well of underpaid artist and writers to create new concepts for very little money compared to what is paid in the film industry. I can imagine a Disney executive going to a movie writer and saying, "Were interested in hiring you, but your asking too much money. Most of the concepts, ideas, and plot is already written in our publishing division (Marvel), and really all we need you to do is condense it down into a one hour movie, and not for what your asking ($$$)".

Again, Disney didn't buy Marvel to make comic books. They didn't buy Marvel because they are fans of superhero's or the 60 plus years of Marvel ethos that had been created by hundreds of writers and artist. Disney bought Marvel (for a low figure of $400 million for a company that is really worth billions) so that can make movies, cartoons, licensing of intellectual properties, and new theme park rides based on the characters of the Marvel Universe. That is it. All that is great and fine an dandy except the one thing that makes it all possible, comics, is at the bottom of their priorities. They don't care that sales are low (during the time of this article they are) and will continue to get low. And they could care less as long as they get the 'fresh' new idea's for everything else that they are into.


Prediction: Mickey Mouse will continue to milk this cow called Marvel Comics until they lose plenty of money publishing garbage at which point they will go full digital where they will only sell Marvel comic books online as ebooks. Sound too far fetched? Not really. They have everything they want already with intellectual properties. Publishing to them is probably more of a headache and a money pit. So don't expect Disney, ahem, Marvel to be listening to the fans anytime soon or making any changes that long time fans will love. Marvel is now a 'Take it or leave it' company.
Expect sometime in the future for Image Comics to become the #1 publisher in the industry with DC being a distant second, Marvel probably being tied to 3rd place with another publisher (Valiant maybe?).

I hope Marvel turns around and makes changes, but truly that is probably not going happen.