New Brevoort Formspring

>as the fellow who sent you the lengthy missive about your assertion in regards to long term comics fans, I don’t disagree with much that you said. I wholly agree that the industry needs to remain vital and grow with new readers. I tend to think there’s been a bit of a sea change in how you approach that goal. I do believe that comics have now become much more like the old “what if” issues. i.e. What if Hulk took over the world, What if all the X-Men got the Phoenix power, What if Bucky lived. And my huge problem with these types of stories isn’t my age or attachment to these characters, but rather they are huge changes to these characters that intrinsically harm the character in my opinion. My example with Bucky wasn’t because I loathe reversing his death, but rather because it kills a huge part of Cap’s emotional core. I’m sure there would be great fireworks and years of stories in Spider Man if Gwen Stacy came back, but is that worth what it would be how that story shaped Spider Man? So I have no problem with great stories that enrich the character, but I do have a problem with stories that weaken the character overall. And that’s the same problem I had when I was 25 years old and buying my books weekly.

I also think a good percentage of your readers are a group of folks who’ll be around for five years and then maybe drift away from the hobby, and I think they are your primary audience that you’re appealing to,hoping to keep them excited and entertained with more stunts and events and the ones you’re trying hardest to keep with all the sturm und drang. Because honestly, you know the longstanding readers like me are just there and we tend to stay through it all (as history has proven in my case) out of loyalty and love of the artform, and the hardcore collectors are completists and trying to keep collections, complete. So that’s a better explanation of who I think your books are targeted at.>

This is one of those instances where I think we need to agree to disagree. I don’t believe that the stories you are talking about have harmed or damaged the characters.

Also, a good portion of those readers who drift away have a tendency to come back at some future point one or five or ten or twenty or whatever years later. So even if they’re only here for five years–and I don’t agree that that’s necessarily the case–it still makes for an excellent investment in the future.