Marvel Could Be A Power House Again...

 

You can say what you want because Marvel Comics is a mess. It became bad in the 1990s with some awfully bad stories -remember the original Avengers disbanding the West Coast Avengers because their HQ had been infiltrated? Ultron, Count Nefaria, the entire Masters of Evil and about 40 other assorted villains all got into Avengers Mansion -some like Wonder Man and The Swordsman even became members (in their incarnations as villains). 

 It seems that after the late Jim Shooter was booted out Marvel lost its way. Why didn't they bring back some of the writers and artists that made Marvel?  As Don Heck said to one person "Do you think they give a f---- what us old farts think?"   The fact that it got so bad that Marvel could have bought Disney because it was going under but instead sold itself off to Disney is quite funny.    

I hate to say it but it is fact; comics in the UK as well as the US began to decline after the fan boys got into the companies. In the UK they laughed at the "old farts" who broke for lunch and did not understand why they were still discussing comics. These "old farts" did a professional job and that was it: give them a story and they drew it and the comics sold.   Don't panic this is not going to turn into a rant about comic "professionals"!  

The point is that Marvel just became very weak and chased anything they heard on the internet was "hip" and gradually they became virtue signalling  comics. "Hey -let's turn girl chasing Iceman gay!" In fact they did that to a lot of characters to "represent" -in this case rep[resent virtue signalling.

The Black Panther became a homicidal maniac just out looking for wars. And.... well, I could go on but the point is that Marvel comics chops and changes characters for each TV show or film. There is no real reader investment in characters. The entire Marvel universe has been destroyed and rebooted so many times that (as with DC reboots) who cares? 7-8 alternative covers for a book is not going to make it sell out.  Chasing the TV and movie fans never works because they don't want to see the comics just live action.  

People keep saying Marvel is dead and a lost cause and Marvel's reaction? "Hey we got a new gay gala issue!"  Editors and bosses at all level have simply lost their back bones. It takes one person to say "This has to all change -we need to start pushing and selling good comics with decent stories and characters like we used to!" and that sets things in motion.

I was asked once (and I have discussed this with a couple people over the years) could Marvel Comics save itself and become a really good publisher again. The answer is "yes" and, no I am not going to tell you how. It's simple though and not demanding of 10 covers for each title.

The same applies with Archie Comics and its adventure characters; it was working in the 1980s until  "something" (we know what) went wrong. DC had two goes at the characters and even Archie tried bringing them back but all made the same mistakes -we've seen this with Rebellion and the old British characters.

I'm busy putting my own books together and I do not fantasise that in a million years any company is going to ask me to "sort it out!" 😂😂😂