Marvel just hasn't been good lately. Thankfully DC is hitting it out of the park with rebirth (minus a few DOAs).

 

My issue with Marvel is that it's nearly impossible to enjoy any book without eventually getting sucked into the big event of the season and having the book sidetracked. I wanted to grab the Power Man and Iron Fist trade but sure enough, the description makes it sound like the last few issues in that trade revolve around Civil War II. No thanks. Every book Marvel puts out is eventually just used to prop up the major event, with very few exceptions. Punisher has been one.

DC, on the other hand, has all but cut out these big events. When a book does have an event, it kind of organically ties into the books revolving around the event but nothing else. The Batman event spread to Detective Comics and Nightwing. The Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad event spread into those two books. The Superman event spreads into only those books. If you're reading something like Aquaman or Flash, you don't suddenly get tie-in books you don't care about, you just keep reading your story like normal. It's so refreshing. The writers are free to create a story and not have to worry about interference from big events.

The only Marvel books I read these days outside of Venom and Punisher are the self-contained miniseries, like Punisher Vs. Daredevil and the Punisher and Dr. Strange team-up.

 

I get things like Gwen Pool and Thor. Gwen Pool because it's just funny and so far ties into nothing and Thor mainly because they will want to end the Foster arc soon with Ragnarock coming soon.

But they have now put me off Captain America, Avengers, Spider-man, X-men and many of my old main stays.
I'm sure there will eventually be a writer that fixes things and gets my interest, but right now I hear "event" and cringe, and wonder what hero they will screw up next.

The problem is for both companies the writing has been on the wall for years, in forums and the web readers have talked about being tired of constant events, increasing prices, and stunts. Event Fatigue became an actual term seen on comic news sites.

Same issues happened in the 90's and it took 5 years of good writing and non crossovers to get back readers. Then they went and did it again. Like before it generated quick sales, but like before it slowly started to lead to a loss of readers. Their response ...raise prices. Well at this point the prices have reached the point where it isn't making up for the loss, and is causing even more. At $5.00 or above they are now competing with Downloadble games and downloadble TV episodes.

As I have stated before, for 5 bucks when I was in college and highschool I could get 3 to 5 books. Now I can get one from Marvel. And at $5 dollars I better not feel like I wasted my money after reading it.
It's not like the old days when parents would spend a buck at the drug or grocery store to keep their kids busy while they shopped.
A)Comics aren't sold at most of those locations anymore
B) At 5 dollars they could buy a magazine, paperback, a hand full of candy, or a coloring book for the same price

Their audience is mostly adults at this point, because if a kid had a choice between a toy, a game, a snack, or two comics at $10 dollars, most would choose one of the other options.
The problem with this is the adults are getting older and losing interest, and at their prices, many parents won't spend the money to buy issues for their kids. So they aren't getting as many new readers, despite the boost the movies should be giving them.
But movies fans don't really want to read about a Nazi Captain America for instance. They want to read about the version in the movie they just watched.
.....Heck even most adults don't want to read about a Nazi Captain America.

For years many readers have been telling them what they wanted to read, and they keep saying your wrong we know better.

DC finally listened and started bring back the Pre-52 like people kept asking for and surprise if you give your paying customers what they asked for.....they buy it and sales increase.

 

Frankly, even the stupid stuff from the 90s is better than the "good" stuff today. Since I'm not reading a lot of the current stuff I'm picking up older stuff from Marvel and really enjoying what I'm reading.

 

Power man and iron fist loosely gets caught up in civil war II so i wouldn't let hat stop you from buying the trade.

 

U.S.Avengers #1 Reveals Team's International Origins, Red Hulk's Identity

 

Nova has Death's Head. Yes.

 

The Champions Gain A Leader While Winking At Inhumans vs. X-Men

 

Overshipping Marvel Universe Titles - Are We Jumping The Gun? - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News

 

More signs marvel is in trouble
Fans And Retailers React To Marvel Dropping "Buy Physical, Get Digital" Comics Deal - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News

 

Both of these decisions seem rather odd. Especially the bit about the digital comics. With the selection of digital titles having their own weekly schedule, and each physical comic coming with a voucher for all of that week's free digital titles, wouldn't that kind of... screw over any customer who gets multiple Marvel titles that come out the same week? Unless each physical book only gives you access to one of that weeks free digital titles.

Also, while this won't change my buying habits (I've never bothered to dowload the digital versions of any Marvel titles I've gotten), I do like the idea of that system and think it's preferable to this new one.

Oh, and while I understand that they want to push their big events, starting with anything from CWII is definitely a stupid idea.

 

It's a dumb change, that Marvel should really reverse course on.

They could, instead, give fans the choice of the two options -- either a digital version of the physical book they just bought, OR the new option. Consumers know what they want.

 

No wonder Marvel has been dogcrap for the last few years.

Anyway, I forgot to bring this up, but I've been reading the first Spider-Man Omnibus over the last two months and it has been quite enjoyable so far (in fact, the first 17 issues were even better the second time around). Lee's stories are just great even if they are cheesy at times. Ditko's art can some times be messy (his Doctor Doom in issue 5 was atrocious), but in the long wrong, he's done some truly excellent work. I just finished the high school graduation issue (28) and the only issue I wasn't a fan of was this one where Mysterio pretended to be a psychologist and made Peter think he was going mad. That one was boring. There have been a lot of excellent stories and I am quite impresed with how story driven this series is for a 60s comic. I love how Green Goblin's identity has yet to be revealed and you've just seen Norman as a background character at times (so you wouldn't even think to suspect him).

I do have to laugh when they have blantantly screwed up character names though, which I hope was intentional, but I have the feeling they were. I mean, in issue 28 Peter calls Liz Allen Liz Hilton while Anna Watson is called Anna Wiltkins in issue 18. Oh, and MJ showed up far earlier than I ever realized. Interesting. I may need to rethink my opinion of her. Flash has been the real oddball as I always thought he was just a straight up loser during this period, but he is actually a good person. I do find it hilarious that he loves Spider-Man and hates Peter.

I've also been slowly reading through the Doctor Strange Omnibus, which has also been enjoyable, but I feel something is missing. I can't place my finger on it, but something is just off about them. The issue with the living house from another dimension was awesome.

 

Bleeding Cool Bestseller List - 8th January 2017 - "Nervous On How Badly Marvel Numbers Are Going To Drop Again" - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News
According to retailers they are seeing a spike in back issues but not not Marvel's new stuff.
Though DC is doing much better even they had a up tick in back issues.
Wonder if readers are trying to catch up or trying to tell people something.

 

Going by that article, there is a strong interest in '90s back issues. At every LCS I've been to all the overproduced '90s stuff is marked down super cheap, and I imagine that's the case everywhere. I think the issue is folks want to get into comics but don't want to pay $3 to $4 (and upwards of $5 and $7 and even $10) for books, so they just buy the cheap stuff for $1.

 

That could be it. I already made my comments on how price is driving away readers. I've said for awhile prices are too high, and that companies could make a fortune by having a line of 25cents or 50cents golden and silver age issues as digital downloads. Keep up to the 80's or 90's under a dollar and you'd see more kids buying just to read.

 

To add, I look back at previous decades like 80s and the 90s and DC and Marvel did a really great job at giving a somewhat unified look across media platforms. See Superman on Superfriends? Pretty much the same as in the comics. You can even pick up a toy that looks the same as he does pretty easily. Same as Spidey in the 80s and the X-Men in the early 90s. The people then I think understood that having a somewhat unified vision helped everyone. Nowadays - a kid watching an Avengers cartoon will get the way different Avengers in the comics and most likely won't be able to buy toys that look like them.

 

TOLDJA: Peter David And Mark Bagley's New Scarlet Spider Series From Marvel Comics - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News
Knowing Marvel probably means they are killing off the other one.

 

That costume is terrible. That hood is awful looking.

Seriously, did the Marvel world need yet another Spider-Man spinoff book? I was a huge fan of the Scarlet Spider back in the day but this just seems like overkill, why bring Ben Reilly back when you've already got Peter, Miguel, Miles, Silk, Kaine (maybe?) all running around?

 

Actually if you read the CBR link, Peter David specifically says there's a role planned for Kaine.

Oh, yes, Kaine Parker has a major place in this comic. Kaine is not going to believe that Ben is really dead, and he feels that it’s up to him to be the one to track him down. He’s on the hunt, right from issue #1.