>I’ve seen a couple of your posts regarding people who are dismayed with the state of Marvel and you’ve been answering with some form of crying baby photo and admonishing them with a claim that most of Marvel’s output is directed at long time readers and not the new readers who may have come from sources like the cinematic universe. While I don’t agree with the statements of the people you directed these pictures at, I completely disagree with your assessment of the product and who it is directed at. As a 40 year plus reader most of your output feels alien to me. For example, to me, dead is dead. And that means no Bucky/Winter Soldier because his death gives Cap gravitas and a solemn loneliness and a weight that motivates him to never fail again, just to name one example. To me the Guardians of the Galaxy are named Charlie and Yondu and Martinex. While the new crew were entertaining enough in the film, I have little connection to them other than I used like Star Lord and Drax when they had their original personalities. To me a decompressed story is the most boring, dragged out, insipid thing I can read. Ten issues of navel gazing in Bendis’ Avengers? No thanks- give me a Roy Thomas or a Kurt Busiek who can actually tell a story that should take two issues in TWO ISSUES.
I could go on and on referencing current titles that Marvel produces and showing my individual dislikes for much of the output. I feel like it would counter productive and just put you on the defensive. I will state I am sure you are doing what you believe is your best quality and your best work and the best talent you have to sell comics in the current era. And to be sure there have been some standouts in the last few years, many of which you edited. I loved Avengers Academy (hated it when you guys decided they were cannon fodder in Avengers Arena…), Mark Waid’s Fantastic Four, Hulk and Daredevil, Slott’s Mighty Avengers, DnA’s Nova, Peter David’s X-Factor and I realize most of these books didn’t sell well enough to merit continuing, so I am in the minority with these titles and I understand the economics of the situation.
But make no mistake, when you say most of your titles are geared towards long term comic readers I couldn’t imagine anything further from the truth in my case. They may be geared towards collectors who came to comics before the movies, but they are absolutely not geared to this particular long term reader. So to take your advice I will spend far more time in the longboxes and re-read old issues because you definitely aren’t making comics for me.>
Well, I think a couple of things.
First off, I think you’re certainly right. If the books we’re doing at the moment aren’t for you, then you should certainly seek out other stuff, whether it’s in back issue bins or collected editions or whatever.
I do think that the notion that the Marvel Universe was ever a static place where things were just so and never changed is, at best, a nostalgic fallacy, combined with an illusion about the passing of time. When you were young, three years felt like an eternity. Now, in your 40s, three years is almost an eyeblink.
Taste is taste. You like what you want. But especially given the breadth and depth of material we’re producing and the range of styles and approaches we’re using, if you cannot find something that appeals to you, something is seriously wrong somewhere. And you’ve listed a bunch of things, including a couple books that we are publishing at the moment. Also, some of your complaints go back a decade now (Bucky’s return, etc.) I hear you about a subject that was considered taboo for so long, and you may never like it and may never be comfortable with it, but I think that even you can acknowledge that the readership as a whole feels and felt very differently about that particular storyline. Taste is taste.
All of that said, as this was a reaction to the “90% of our output is geared to you” discussion, I absolutely believe that that’s the percentage of our books that are aimed at readers who’ve been around for awhile. They might not all be aimed specifically at 40 year old readers with your tastes or your specific experiences, but that’s not at all what I was saying. You aren’t whining about a new generation of readers coming into the fold–that other poster was. And I have no truck with that manner of selfishness. These characters are larger than any one generation, they belong to all generations–but only if we keep them relevant and contemporary. Otherwise, they will go the way of so many others. And maybe that will be after that guy is dead in the ground, so he doesn’t care at all, but it’s my job to care and my duty to care.
You and I are both in our 40s and have been following these characters and these stories for a very long time. And while I’m happy that we’re both still around, I also have to say that I think the most self-destructive thing this industry could do would be to focus on you and me as the primary audience for this material. Marvel survives and thrives because each succeeding generation comes to it, so the focus must always be on the next generation, and the next, and the next. Doesn’t mean that you and I aren’t valued, or that a huge percentage of the output doesn’t consider not only us, but the guys who started reading 10 and 20 and even 30 years after us. But you and I are an anomaly, we’re the lifers, and trying to make us the center of everything will kill Marvel dead–if only when you and I go into the ground and there’s nobody standing behind us to carry on.