It's time for I, Darthphere to challenge your minds once again. I proved all your asses wrong with your supposed "continuity mistakes" in Civil War and now it's time for me to reach into your brains, and your hearts to ask what should be a simple question:
Are you happy with the state of Marvel comics?
Good question.
I'll try to be even handed on this, as I do ***** a lot.
Overall, what do you think Marvel is doing right?
While "certain writers" within the company still seem to be given more leeway and leverage, and outright control over the MU and all of it's characters moreso than others, Marvel has been trying to spread the talent around. Greg Pak wrote last year's event and while WWH was hardly perfect, it was better than Bendis' HOM and had more of a solid beginning, middle, and end than Millar & Co.'s CIVIL WAR (even if that garnered more attention and bore more fruit). Dan Slott has gone from fan-friendly B-Lister to fan-friendly A-Lister, although that sometimes means he has to tow the company line. Brubaker is still kicking ass on all levels on CAPTAIN AMERICA. Right now, also, I think Marvel is putting out good relaunches, by and large. IRON FIST is great. I enjoy NEW WARRIORS. Reed & Week's CAPTAIN MARVEL mini so far has taken a premise that was jack-stupid when Jenkins tried it and really made it matter and enjoyable. THOR's success really doesn't have to be restated; he's a Top 5-10 seller, and JMS & Coipel are really on their game. Even THE LAST DEFENDERS are trying to revive the Defenders a bit. OMEGA FLIGHT jazzed up the Canadian super-team, and even if internal indecisions hampered it, the quality of the work was there. And PUNISHER: WAR JOURNAL is pretty darn funny, and it has been a while since the Punisher could successfully sell 2 ongoings. While MOON KNIGHT & GHOST RIDER are past their prime, even those relaunches have been better than some of the stabs the 90's attempted.
Unlike DC, which may be seeing line-wide diminishing returns by connecting EVERYTHING to one storyline over the past 2-3 years, Marvel at least is mixing things up. There are connections but it all isn't the same thing. CW brought about some good books like AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, THE ORDER (sniffle) and NEW WARRIORS, among others. Even MIGHTY AVENGERS, while not that great, is often better than NEW AVENGERS.
And need I mention ANNIHILATION CONQUEST? While not as good as the original, it still is pretty damn good with good characters, art, and the return of the REAL Ultron. The same writers (DnA) are also continuing on NOVA's most successful relaunch in years, funneling the shift in him from interesting B-Lister to potential A-List potential.
While many books try to be "serious" and so on, there are some books that have lighter moments, like X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and recently, DAMAGE CONTROL.
Finally, the X-Line has trimmed some fat in regards to mini's and one-shots and whatnot from even 2 years ago. Granted, that is being replaced by the Avengers-****eing, but no matter.
What do you think Marvel is doing wrong?
The story of the year right now is Ultimate. After a good 7-8 years in continuity, it is suffering from the same problems it was meant to fix. The titles sell well enough to publish, but not nearly as well as they sold even in 2005. Most of the A-List talent that launched the line is gone, save for Bendis on USM, and not even that can crack the Top 20 most months anymore (once upon a time, this outsold ASM). Ultimate Fantastic Four can't even crack the Top 50 anymore, and Ultimate X-Men's decline has been steady. ULTIMATE POWER was a failure like every "event" that has been tried in Ultimate. The core talent has moved to 616 and, for better or worse, many of the "innovative ideas" they brought up. Without that, Ultimate is a shell of itself. It may be a make-or-break year for Ultimate. I'm down to one book from that imprint, and I likely wouldn't miss it if Ultimate ended. It helped get me back into comics when I was 18-19 in 2000-2001,, but it may be time to let go. The designs will still be there to help multi-media outlets, after all.
The other big dilemma is Spider-Man, and it is a damned shame that nothing seems to change for the better for long for the web-slinger. The end of the 90's were a disaster for him. The "relaunch" and the final gasp of Mackie in the dawn of Joe Q's EIC tenure didn't produce better results (and was the first go-around of "let's split up the Parkers"; second if you count the Clone Saga and replacing Peter with Ben as a grand scheme to get Spider-Man "single" again). Then JMS came aboard and injected magical crap that didn't belong, and had to face Joe Q's direct influence; from the dreaded Stacy Twins to ONE MORE DAY itself. Spider-Man was faced with endless retons, and new powers no one used. The attempts to ape the films didn't produce anything good. And finally, Spider-Man was further removed from his roots with the unmasking, being an Avenger in a tower, and being inept as an Avenger to boot. Nothing seemed to work for Spidey. Marvel's created their biggest problems with him by trying to "fix" him, and that dates back to before Joe Q was EIC. It has been going on nearly 15 years now. ONE MORE DAY created the worst situation on every level; a status quo the fans didn't want in a manner that was jack-stupid-******ed, and caused the ascension of Slott to ASM after 3 years of fan-support into an awkward move, at best. I'm sure the sales will be better than fan-outrage predicted, but I hardly know anyone who was a fan and enjoys this. Bendis once said something to the effect of, "you often get into trouble when you keep trying to fix things; Fixing and fixing, just tell good stories". While he himself doesn't heed this advice, those words fit Spider-Man's problems. Every year it seems for the past decade or longer, Spidey has been in the dumps. I'd argue he has become the Sonic the Hedgehog of Marvel. A flagship hero of a company who has been allowed to fall so, so, so low.
Another issue is the lack of patience & promotion that Marvel has with new franchises. Really, an article or two at Newsarama really doesn't cut it anymore, especially with something BRAND NEW like THE ORDER. Some of the blame is also on retailers and fan support itself, natch, but new blood is good for the MU and sometimes needs to be indulged. Really, is giving everything a year or more a bad thing? DC understands that, that's why they kept their BLUE BEETLE and FIRESTORM titles around so long.
Finally, while sales don't see to reflect this, I and some other fans are tired of events. We are tired of seeing characters we love twisted, broken, and even destroyed (in flesh or characterization) just for a cheap buck or a shocking splash panel. We are also tired of retcons that, more often than not, albeit with few exceptions, are more about a writer putting their stamp on a franchise out of arrogance or ego than any good for the company. We just had CW split the heroes apart in angst and misery, and WWH at least mobilized them again; now SECRET INVASION is ratcheting up the retcon paranoia, and it is by Bendis, a man who writes cyclical, predictable stories that are far too long and far too juvenile. It also is Marvel's 3rd "event" with Secret in the title; it is almost as bad as "war(s)" or DC's love of "Crisis".
And where does that leave you in regards to your opinion of the quality of work?
Y'know, before OMD #4 when I was planning my Best/Worst of 2007 topic, my opinion on Marvel was actually positive, moreso than it had been in 2006 or 2005. The Spider-crap deflated all that, but I guess if I am being objective, I would have to say that I like about 53% of what Mavel is doing and dislike 47% of it.
Answer the question, challenge your minds, and thank me later for making you finally use that brain of yours. And remember, if you agree with GAH, your opinions suck, so don't do that.
Thanks, this was a worthy topic and question.
Sorry if it got a bit long; that shows I took the topic seriously, I guess.
