Is anyone else disappointed at Marvel?

I mean, I guess I'm not even angry anymore. I'm just sad that they keep treating their fans like shit and disposable.

Some of you probably had this feeling earlier, but Marvel feels to me now more than ever like a company trying to make money of nerds at any cost, and not writers and artists pouring their heart & soul to make a good comic.

I'm aware businesses are out there to make money, but man, it never felt so hollow as it does now.

Is this what if felt like during the 90s? I didn't really read comics back then.

You are correct. Businesses are out there to make money. So, if you want something to change, stop giving them money. Nothing changes until it costs people money. If people stopped buying comics, and no money was coming in, the comics would change back within two months. Of course, if you were to stop buying comics, you should tell them what your reasons are.

I did stop buying their comics.

Fucked up too since I was a huge fucking fan and have basically read every single issue of every main Spidey comic that was released since Amazing Fantasy #15.

Marvel dosen't need you, or me, or the so-called SJWs. We can all fuck off they got movie money and Star Wars and theme parks an shit. What Marvel needs is kids. Fuck, the entire industry needs kids. Without kids comics stop, plain and simple. Comics are a generational industry, new blood is needed every 20 or so years to turn this gen of readers into the next gen of creators. Without new readers, kids that is, comics readers are just aging old men jerking each other off into polybags of worthless comics no one will ever buy or care about.

>Marvel feels to me now more than ever like a company trying to make money of nerds at any cost,
Welcome to Big Company comics for the last 35 years. Glad you are catching up to the state of the industry.

>Fuck, the entire industry needs kids. Without kids comics stop, plain and simple.
This is pure Wisdom. They gain nothing by marketing towards aging neckbeards. Like Magic the Gathering addicts, they are in too deep now.
They have to consider what happens when the Diabeetus claims the last of them. They don't reproduce consistently enough to pass down their fandom and replenish the buyers pool.

They need whoever has the money. Adults have a lot more money than kids.

>They have to consider what happens when the Diabeetus claims the last of them

I laughed way too much at this

They lost an entire generation to Anime and Manga with this thinking.
Those kids are all adults with money.
Money not being spent on comics.

>but Marvel feels to me now more than ever like a company trying to make money of nerds at any cost

Marvel, DC, any of those hipster comic companies you read....they're all out to make money. I'm sorry this is your rude awakening for you kiddo, but that's all anyone is out to do.

>I'm aware businesses are out there to make money, but man, it never felt so hollow as it does now.


Theyr'e not doing ANYTHING new. Literally been putting out comics that race panders since the foundation. Comics use to solely stand on the ground of being propaganda against Anti-American governments. Part of this is also because propaganda at that time sold.

That's what parents are for

>I'm aware businesses are out there to make money, but man, it never felt so hollow as it does now.
This is how it has always been, you are just at a point where you don't like the product. Any point where things were "better" is just a time where your interest and the money making strategy lined up.

This. Mommy and Daddy will spend Big Bux on whatever placates little Billy.

Since they don't make product for little Billy anymore, but simply churn out "Adult-oriented comics for adults like me", little Billy spends his parents money elsewhere.

There's no growth because almost the entire industry is focused on what people the age of the Writers and Artists want to read. And Jim Lee and Hickman's tastes are not New Reader tastes.

Then write a physical letter like some kind of goddamn caveman because that's all they respond to. Also, try not to sound like some sad faggot that posts on Sup Forums, those letters go in the fucking shredder instantly. Tell them why you are upset, express your concern, and again, I cannot stress this enough, try not to sound like some crybaby entitled man cunt who hates diversity and whatnot. Letters matter to Marvel, god knows why.

And a lot of adults (like myself) have simply stopped collecting floppies, and just pick off whatever trades collect good stuff they've read for free, and watch/buy the movies and tv series.
I've read for decades. Spider-Man and Batman are doing nothing fresh and exciting, it's the same old shit with extra edge. I have no interest in what their villains from the '60s are plotting. And their 90's villains are silly to me.

>Some of you probably had this feeling earlier, but Marvel feels to me now more than ever like a company trying to make money of nerds at any cost, and not writers and artists pouring their heart & soul to make a good comic.

i think it ultimately depends on what you read.

you need to look for books that have a heart and soul to it coming from the creators. most of these books aren't going to be the top billing comics though. like anything by bendis for example may as well be tossed into the trash, because you can't expect a writer to work on five books at a time and actually give a shit about making them any good. he can coast on name recognition alone. same goes for Dan Slott, though it looks like people are wising up because Spider-man is fucking floundering.

big event books that get all the press, like Civil War II or IvX, are just going to be soulless husks that try to grab for cash by promising BIG CHANGES that will never stick for more than a year or two. avoid them like the goddamn plague because marvel basically puts an event out every other month now anyways.

the same goes for DC, though I would argue with Rebirth they are showing that they've listened to the complaints people had with new52 and are making an earnest attempt to change things.

if you do want comics that are fully creator driven, go look at Image's catalog. they pretty much only exist as a proxy company that gives creators marketing and the resources to get their shit published, so everything you read is going to be what the creator wants and not the wants of a major company.

Someone tell me, because I haven't paid for a Spider-Man comic since the early McFarlane stuff, what has Spider-Man introduced in the last decade that isn't the same retreaded shit?

We've had Villain in Spider-Man's body
Black Inner City Spider-Man
Spider-Man's girlfriend Also-Spider-Man
Writer's Waifu Spider-Silk.

What have I missed?

Same for Batman.
Nothing to appeal to kids, the only difference is now his Robins are cunts.

Nope, kids have ONLY disposable income. They got no rent, don't gotta pay for food, mommy and daddy foot the bill. How did you get into comics? Were you, like me, sick at home coughing up green bile when mom came home with cherry flavored cough syrup and a handful of drug store rack random comics to make you feel better? Was it that first trip to a real comic store with your dad where he bought you that first issue of Superman because you though the movie was cool? Or did the universe shit you out fully formed as an adult who liked kiddie stories about men in tights who fought each other for reasons? Kids are the backbone of cape comics, without them the best we can hope for is what we got now. Are you happy with what we got now?

>Nothing to appeal to kids, the only difference is now his Robins are cunts.

They have tho. Trying to make the 616 universe like the movie verse is all for the transitional kids.

Mine was heading to the pharmacy on main street to grab an armful of quarter comics.

i bought an action figure that came with a comic book.

If kids were leaving the theater and buying Marvel books, their sales would be exploding.

They go buy the vidya and the toys.

yeah but frankly most kids these days aren't getting into superheroes through comics. it's tv shows and movies, and from there the kids need to get their parents to take them to comic stores.

>Wondering why a corporation sees you as anything other than an ATM machine

Are you such consumer cattle that you actually care what a corporation thinks of you as a demographic?

If this were true the books would both be better and sell better. The dick measuring war between Marvel comics and the MCU is getting worse each year. Perlman and Feige see eye to eye about as often as Dan Didio sees his sad flaccid cock in the morning.

I didn't say it was working now did I?

What vidya? One of Disney's greatest failures is in vidya. The money being left on the table there is beyond reason.

>and from there the kids need to get their parents to take them to comic stores.
When you can FIND a LCS that survived the Great Glut, it's full of crusty, unfriendly fatguys who smell of old cheese, who find you annoying if you aren't setting up a $50 pull file.

Comics for kids need to be sold in Ye Olden style, impulse buys on racks in stores where their parents have to pick shit up. Pharmacies, groceries and the lot. No one has time to let their kid browse for a half hour in Pedophile Central.

And there's the double failure. What is DC's most popular franchise at the moment with kids? Teen Titans GO. My kid is 5 and knows every episode by heart, so do all his friends. Where are the toys? The games? The movies? Nowhere to be found. And comic store needs to die a thousand deaths if we could get comics back into Walgreens, CVSs, Walmarts, Targets and out of the hands of Diamond. Direct is another symptom of the cancer killing comics. Comic Books are worthless now. We need to stress that, you will not get rich buying comics. Period. That dream died 20 years ago. We need to let that lie die. Read comics and collect them for fun, not as an investment. I'd rather have a bokk with a 5000 copy print run with a story worth reading then a "collectible" with a 50,000 print run.

Disneym has a shit ton of vidya games aimed at young kids, including Infinity Marvel.
They know that licensing a property like Daredevil is just plain risky; more often than not the studio you hired blows most of the money on hookers and blackjack and sends you a game like Superman. God forbid the major vidya publication/the internet takes a dim view of your pre-release.
Instead you make a Frozen game and it's easy money for a less fickle audience.

The recent Batman vidyas are an exception to the norm; the Lego shit sells because Legos.

AMEN! Or whatever.

Honesty, Lego Marvel is pretty bad ass if you got a kid around to play that shit for you.

Comics aren't made for children, and haven't been for literal decades. Most people get into comics in high school or college.

Anime and Manga was popular in the 90s, but now weebery mostly dead.

My first books were .60 cents. And I thought I was old, hehe.

This post sounds like a woman wrote it.

Yep.
You try to make 100 different "Arkham Asylum but with my favorite comic characters" and you'll end up with equal amounts of "same shit, reskinned" or just plain shit.

Arkham and it's spin-offs are the exception to the licensing rule.

My first armful of allowance bought comics included Giant-Sized X-Men #1, at age 8.
I read my hoarding Grandmother's basement full of old Silver Age yardsale comics up to that point.

Nope, an Old Guy.
I've cleaned up, and when you do you start noticing how grotesque the creatures really are in most old comic shops.
60 lbs ago, I'm sure 20-something me was equally nasty.

That's another lie fed to us by the Man. The hook is in the cartoons, very few get into comics, super hero comics that is past grade school. Indies, hell yes. I've know many like that, who thought comics were all capes and masks and shit then discovered some b/w indy and were hooked on the whole thing. Tropes and all. But look and any marketing demo sheet and it's all kids and cartoons and action figures right down the line. The old mantra was hook 'em young and keep 'em for life. The whole "graphic novel" thing was bullshit from the start. Would you call any Marvel these days book a graphic novel? A trade sure, but "sequential art"? I wouldn't. DC has outright said they want the 40 year old manchildren as their audience and more power to them but they would make a fuckton more money pandering to kids with good art and fun stories.

We all were, back then.

In this day and age, kids are either glued to tiny screens, or are too poor for electronics, and by default to poor for the ridiculous price-point of comic book collecting.

Comic floppies are like LPs, niche and growing niche-er by the year.

Ah, but what if, and this is a big if, comics didn't have to cost as must as they do? What if we sold newsprint editions outside the direct market and straight to retailers at a buck a book? Like we used to. Without Diamond. Like magazines. Where you can return unsold copies at cost.

Not really. I despise the way they're treating the Fantastic Four and some of their marketing gimmicks range from annoying to pathetic, but other than that, they've got some good books, some bad books and a lot of mediocre books which is pretty much business as usual. My pull list with them now is around the same size as its always been.

I think all the constant bitching and moaning about Marvel is far more obnoxious than anything Marvel is actually doing though and there's a lot more books that I'm genuinely interested in coming out of NOW 2.0 than I had originally expected. Too bad most of the good ones are going to get cancelled by 6, 12 if they're lucky.

Do I think they're doing everything right? Of course not. They've got plenty of issues that need worked out, but there's never been a period of Marvel where there weren't issues that need worked out and when they do finally get their shit together in one category, they'll just fuck something else up.

Bendis can never be allowed to do another event comic for as long as he lives though. He lost that right with how fucking horrid CWII was.

> Letters matter to Marvel, god knows why.
Tradition.

Oh boy, the self-hating nerd. These are always fun.

Anime and manga hit peak commercial popularity in America in the early to mid-00s.

>impulse buys on racks in stores where their parents have to pick shit up
While I agree with this general idea, kids these days don't give a fuck about physical media and are all far too obsessed with screens. They need to get more services like Marvel Unlimited going with apps that don't feel 5 years out of date.

You know nothing about comics.

>Would you call any Marvel these days book a graphic novel?
Yes, I would call every graphic novel that Marvel has put out recently a graphic novel. Such as Rage of Ultron and Starlin's All-new Infinity Trilogy which were, by definition, graphic novels.

>I'm just sad that they keep treating their fans like shit and disposable.
They deserve it