Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Image, Marvel Comics | Tagged: beef, relaunch

Comic Store In Your Future, As Marvel Comics Gives Up On The Beef

Comic Store In Your Future: As Marvel Comics gives up on the beef, what's in a number? For Rod Lamberti, it means everything.

I read here on Bleeding Cool, Marvel Comics Editor Tom Brevoort's quote and could not believe it. "As I mentioned above, Cian, I think this is an instance where your fear of the future prevents you from enjoying the present. And if 10 issues aren't long enough for you to feel comfortable, how many would? 11? 15? 20? The truth of the matter is that most series that are launched these days aren't going to command enough of the audience to reach those digits. We can pretend that the situation is otherwise, but it simply isn't so. So the only advice that I can give you is to pick up whatever series appeals to you and don't worry so much about six months from now or whenever." That is a terrible thing to say. Imagine a comic bookstore owner telling customers it is a Marvel comic, so it will not last long; enjoy it while you can. Imagine a new TV show and the producers said enjoy it now odds are it will not be on more than a season or two. That would deflate interest, not excite people to watch.

Marvel is the biggest publisher in the US, yet an editor for Marvel is saying that these days, most comic series aren't going to command enough of an audience to reach those digits. The bar seems low. The "House of Ideas" has no new ideas and keeps repeating what it has been doing to prop up sales, variants, and renumbering. Why would a person read a Marvel Comic? They hype the renumbering and variant covers over the actual story.

I wrote a while back that Todd McFarlane seemed to have no problem getting his various Spawn-related titles to keep going. The main ongoing Spawn title will hit issue #364 this year. In three years, Spawn will be celebrating its 400th issue, and that is without the Marvel numbering games. Gunslinger Spawn will be up to issue #42. King Spawn #44, Scorched #40, Rat City is up to #13 with no signs of stopping anytime soon. For DC, Nightwing issue #124 just came out in March. Batman has hit issue #158. Granted, it will get relaunched later this year. Walking Dead Deluxe #109 also came out in March. A reprint series from Image, here in the store, it outsells over half of what Marvel puts out. Sonic the Hedgehog from IDW is up to issue #77. Ghost Machine, with their Geiger and Redcoat series, is going strong with no end in sight.

Marvel's movies have made their characters more known than ever before, yet they have been unable to get an audience to read most of their output for just three years? That is terrible. To make it worse, Marvel does not seem to want to be the comic industry leader anymore. Where is the excitement for Marvel Comics if their own editors have such an outlook that it is just the way it is? How would that generate excitement and sales?

In the store, I have kids buying decade-old issues of their favorite Marvel characters because they like the material that came out before they were born over the current comics of their favorite characters. It is like Marvel Comics just gave up and is riding on the coattails of its popularity until it milks it all out.

Marvel puts out cheap comics and wonders why they won't last. Like the old Wendy's commercial, I am now asking Marvel, "Where is the effort? Where are the ideas? Where is the future for Marvel? Where is the beef?"

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