Should Marvel reboot like DC?

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I doubt it.

Then you don't understand what's happening.

I'm sure there's an understanding as much as anybody not working behind the doors of the big two.

Or does Axel Alonso also not understand what's happening, but the people on these message boards with all of our experiences running these companies do?

A reboot isn't the long-term solution, not even close. It'll help short-term, sure. But it's only a band-aid for an arm that's completely falling off.

 

[23skidoo]

Nonsense. Kids can afford comics. they can afford (and do spend on) all sorts of crap, they just dont buy comics.

Yeah, the old "no one has money" excuse really doesn't hold water. Times are tough, but I'm sorry - if kids can afford to buy iPads, iPhones, spend god knows what on texting, etc., then they can afford to buy comics if they want to. I've seen the same thing with some adults who balk at spending $20 on a DVD (or heaven forbid, a CD or real book) but think nothing of buying the latest iPhone and iPad and shelling out $100 in downloads from iTunes.

On the original question, should Marvel reboot. I think the jury needs to wait on its deliberations until we actually find out if DC's reboot is a success or a flop. You can't judge a damn thing on sales this month, next month - not even to Christmas. The curiosity factor is running high. But as I mentioned in another thread, if it ends up being 52 kinds of suck rather than 52 kids of Eisner Award nominees (and I'm reading some decidedly mixed reviews) then it could end up being a huge miscalculation. They've already lost many longtime readers like me, while many others are taking a cautious "I'll give it a few months" approach. There are those who don't care about ending the classic titles (see my sig) or the umpteenth reimagining of the characters and will buy blindly, regardless. If there are enough of those to keep things going, good for DC.

Marvel, on the other hand, doesn't need to reboot because, frankly, it's rebooted so often it has no real meaning. They have that shadow continuity they've introduced with the Hispanic Spider-man and all that, and that's allowing them to tell new stories (basically it's "What If?" on steroids) while keeping the originals going. And even then, they've already messed around with the Fantastic Four (the Future Foundation? Give me a break) and they did their own renumbering several years back.

I was going to use my "divorce" from DC to get into Marvel (I've only bought a handful of Marvel titles in the last decade) but they haven't got anything that really inspires me either. So I'm focusing more on independents and smaller companies like IDW and Boom these days (not to mention Dynamite with their Kevin Smith Six Million Dollar Man comic). Marvel and DC are still getting some of my money, but only when I find a reprint omnibus of interest.

Alex

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Read the comics online. That's where it's going; trade collections are the only print that's going to matter in the long run.

Brian Hibbs, who does columns for comic sites and runs San Francisco's "Comix Experience" offers some interesting insights into this from the DC relaunch experience (ie, whether you agree or not, he's more knowledgeable than I am in this regard):

First: there is clearly, clearly, a tremendous amount of potential interest in printed comics. People have been coming out of the woodwork for this promotion -- new readers, lapsed readers, people wanting to turn their kids on to comics (er, um), you name it -- and they are coming for the print. While I did read some measured words from DC (I think it was "digital sales broke our expectations"), I'm reasonably confident that if any individual digital book sold even a six digit number of copies in the first days or weeks, we'd have read a press release about it by now. Print is multiples of digital, and the demand was so high that DC is having to go back to press on at least the entirety of the first three weeks of these books.


Turns out, once again, Internet punditry was generally wrong: the "rest of the world" doesn't automatically want digital over print.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34535

 

[RoJoHen]

For me it's the prices (as was mentioned by Professor Zoom kids probably can't afford to get single issues any more).

Nonsense. Kids can afford comics. they can afford (and do spend on) all sorts of crap, they just dont buy comics. And I think the reason is very simple, they just dont want to read comics. The characters do well in toy sales, movies, cartoons, etc.. so it isnt like these characters arent popular in themselves, it is just that most kids (and a lot of adults) simply have no interest in reading comics.

This is possible, but comics are also something you need to search for. There was a time when I could find the latest X-Men comic at the grocery store checkout. That's actually how I bought my first comic; it caught my eye while I was waiting in line with my mom, and I started flipping through it. Now, if I want to buy a comic, I have to seek out a comic book store (which aren't necessarily commonplace) or order it online. If I'm a kid, I now have to convince my parents to either make a special trip to a comic book store (if we can find one) or let me use their credit card on amazon.com.

And again, comics have just gotten way too convoluted to jump in as a new reader. If I want to follow an X-Men story, I probably also have to read Hulk and The Avengers and Spiderman and all sorts of other titles so I don't miss out on anything.

 

[MNM]

Nonsense. Kids can afford comics. they can afford (and do spend on) all sorts of crap, they just dont buy comics. And I think the reason is very simple, they just dont want to read comics.

Wrong, their parents don't want to drive them to a comic shop to buy overprized, flimsy comics.
.

Sure the parents dont. But the kids as a whole dont have the interest in the comics to pester the parents to drive them anyway.

 

[RoJoHen]

It's kind of hard for kids to want to read comics. I doubt it's something many of them even get exposed to anymore.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

I agree about seeing comics in the grocery stores as a kid. That's how I got into them. Waiting for my mom to grocery shop or get a prescription filled, the comics or the toy section is what kept us occupied and out of her hair. With the direct sales and comic shops being the main way to get a hold of comics nowadays, the kids are at the mercy of the parents' willingness to take them there. Most adults have no interests in going to a comic shop so they don't take there kids there to spend more money which is already scarce in this economy. I also agree about the tons of money people spend on dvds and itunes. The money is just spent in other ways so there is little left to spend on comics. Nowadays, kids rather watch movies or play video games with all the action and noise rather than be bothered to read and imagine it all.

 

[Gaith]

Now imagine someone wants to start reading Superman comics, he probably has to start researching on the internet or ask others where to start and then the fanboys start arguing which run is the best and what stories are the most important to "get" Superman. Meanwhile, the new reader has lost interest and decides to check out Superman TAS, because someone told him the entire series is available on DVD in 3 volumes or one box set.

Or even Netflix streaming. Bingo.


Marvel and DC should both launch a totally rebooted line of 3-6 titles each, sell them in supermarkets and drug stores, and don't have them overlap at all. Just discrete, linear, novice-friendly stories, wherever toothpaste and soda are sold.

 

[Shazam!]

I like what Marvel did with Spidey when they nixed all the extraneous titles and just put out ONE Spidey title three times a month.

How could anybody like that? There should be one Spidey book per month.

There needs to be a drastic reduction in titles.

 

[C_Miller]

Ipads and iphones are a billion times more cost effective than a $3 or $4 dollar comic book, especially if sometimes you're only paying for 1/6th of a story...

 

[RJDiogenes]

I grew up with Marvel, pretty much learning to read with the Lee-Kirby FFs. I completely hate the idea of reboots and re-imaginings, but that's probably the only thing that could get me back at this point-- I bailed in the middle of Civil War, when several years of buying garbage and hoping for a turnaround finally overcame a lifetime of loyalty. But for a reboot to work, they would actually need editors, writers and artists with imagination, talent and respect for the characters.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ They have some of those now...again though there really is no need to relaunch and as Brevoort has stated over the summer time there are no plans to do this. They're revving things up for their big 2012 event anyways. As possibly mentioned in this thread there have been some fans speculating that the formerly titled Cable: Reborn now called Avengers:X-Sanction has to do with a possible reboot but there is really no evidence for this. Brian Bendis has talked about another major Avengers line up change which both of his books have been leading up to in the past year but really there is no indication that a relaunch is in the works (of course that was so until Bleeding Cool broke the news about DC's plans).

 

[the G-man]

Consider this: Marvel comics have existed now as "the Marvel Universe" for about 50 years, meaning slightly longer than DC had existed at the time of its initial reboot in 1986.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Oh, sure, they do have some people with talent, I'm sure. Bendis is a very good writer when he's on something like Alias. But their editorial has been disastrous for years and the history is such a sad mess now that I doubt if anything but a fresh start could fix it.

 

[theenglish]

I don't pay enough consistent attention to Marvel to comment on their content. That said, it's pretty certain that within the next couple of years their business approach will shift in the direction DC's taking.

Actually, I wish DC would learn from Marvel and provide the archival subscription option. With that, plus a way to search for titles by date, I think many of us would be very content.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't know how long these characters can be kept in print and remain consistently relevant and interesting. Comic book heroes are almost an aberration in fiction. You rarely see so many stories devoted to other fictional characters, month after month, decade after decade. I know these characters are Marvel and DC's bread and butter. But doesn't it have to end sometime?

Why would it have to end? As long as people buy the product it won't end. They aren't real people so the characters dont have to age and die like actors on a TV show. In fact a Network TV show give us almost twice as many "stories" each year than a monthly comic.

The relevence and intrest of the stories will be determined by the readers and the creators. I dont see how the length of time comics had been around would factor into that.

 

[Trekker4747]

You know, if Marvel were to "reboot" I don't think I particularly would be intersted in it. I quess I'm more of a DC person.

 

[Forbin]

You know, if Marvel were to "reboot" I don't think I particularly would be intersted in it. I quess I'm more of a DC person.

I was talking comics with friend once, who happened to be gay. I told him I was a Marvel person. He said "I'm a DC person - wait, actually, I'm an AC/DC person."

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, I like both Marvel and DC, so I guess that means I swing both ways.

 

[I Grok Spock]

Comic prices through the years, adjusted for inflation:

1938: $0.10  2011: $1.61

1948: $0.10  2011: $0.94

1958: $0.10  2011: $0.78

1961: $0.12  2011: $0.91

1977: $0.30  2011: $1.12

1990: $1.00  2011: $1.73

2001: $2.25  2011: $2.88

I'm not exactly sure why I posted this, other than to show how comic prices have outpaced overall inflation since the sixties. It's also interesting how prices fell (in adjusted terms) from the thirties through the fifties.