We all know what Marvel is currently failing in terms of its comics; but why is this currently succeeding?
Inb4 "because they're making good comics again". Quality is entirely subjective and is often times inversely proportionate to financial success
No partisan politics.
Just classic hero stories.
Good writers being allowed to write the stories they want to write.
Rebirth is pretty much only getting by because they are double-shipping nearly everything that sells and it makes enough to cover the failure of the monthlies and fringe lines (well at least HB, can't say I know a ton about the financials of YA considering a millionaire is running it).
Now the quality is much better than Marvel overall and we could discuss reasons why, but the sales are not significantly better imo.
1. There is a plan and they're actually following through unlike the last few relaunches and new 52
2. Most books are safely mediocre and are retreading what's been done instead of being downright bad
3. Double shipping big books for a while seems to be better than one A list book + one c list book (50k x2 vs 50k and 20k)
4. marvel is floundering so bad in literally every way (editorially, PR wise, quality, etc) it makes dc look great
The stories are shorter with few crossovers and tie-ins, making reading a series easy. Each issue is cheaper than your average Marvel comic and they come with digital comics of said issues, which Marvel has been trying to back out of. Most of DC comics' art hews to a house style, making it easier for fans of one book to jump over to another book when there is a crossover. In contrast, Marvel's artists are all over the place, making the many crossovers jarring for fans of one art but not another. DC has less titles, most of them with recognizable bigger name heroes. Marvel has either replaced the originals or made them so unrecognizable that even hardcore fans lose track of their favorites among the crowd of d-list shit Marvel has pumped out.
Imagine you love something...and then all of a sudden it starts doing everything wrong for five years.
Now imagine how you'd feel when all of a sudden not only does it STOP doing those things, it walks them all back hard, and even apologizes for being retarded.
Double shipping also gets trades out 2X as fast, which is incredibly beneficial as an increasing number of people are buying comics in that format.
Old costumes, not much forced diversity, Lack of events, return of elements, legacy number for two books.
No dc you crap. Superman history restored, Wally inserted back in. Some other history back in. Dr light reverted and Ted Kord.
While not ditching everything nu 52 did( full pre flashpoint isn't coming back).
Marvels going to do the same.
Yes but still that's just the big books subsidizing the failing ones. When so many books are doing this poorly I don't know if it's really a success, but maybe the very top heavy sales are just how it is these days. Considering some books like Superwoman are selling kind of shitty and not really doing anything special and yet are still around maybe they are ok overall, but it seems so risky to me.
By not having hilariously bad series going on. If Marvel just stopped publishing shit like Squirrel Girl and Hellcat (which had more issues then fucking Robbie Reyes GR), it wouldn't overshadow the actually good titles they have, which have been dwindling down since the start of Marvel NOW-er.
DC's lineup doesn't have anything spectacularly bad as much as it just has a LOT of boring ass books. Cyborg and Justice League come to mind, but that's only because I can actually remember them. Rebirth has some really good stuff like Deathstroke and New Super-Man, but I'd rather read a trainwreck like the current Venom run then sit through Detective Comics, where nothing happens unless it ties into an event related to books people actually care about.
>tl;dr
Marvel at it's worse will make you stop reading out of cringe/rage. DC will you make you stop reading out of boredom.
seriously, I'd rather read storylines of pain than Rucka's mehhhh lesbian fan fiction and King repeating himself like an autist
KingBats isn't bad, but the tone jumps so frequently, the greatest example being Kite-Man. He's a funny gag, but him being in the middle of gritty crime drama or fate-of-the-world superhero fights just makes it feel like King doesn't know what he wants to do.
The repeating words thing felt like it was only carried over from Vision because of it's success, when it only worked in there because they're fucking androids who are unable to act like normal humans.
That's part of it.
Even in Green Arrow (who should be a bleeding heart liberal) the Donald Trump parody showed backbone and tried to do the right thing in the end.
The Donald Trump parody character is also obviously setting up a redemption arc and probably going to do something heroic to help Oliver.
>Quality is entirely subjective
>Rebirth is pretty much only getting by because they are double-shipping nearly everything that sells
But for me this is actually good. It actually keeps me more engaged with everything and I actually look forward to each release since they come in relatively quickly like a weekly TV show. This is completely the opposite of indy books, which I like but can get delayed to all hell due to creators just not feeling like it. I really don't know if I can go back to a monthly slate for non-niche comics.
>Dr light reverted
That's not a good thing. Dr. Rape was a terrible iteration of the character.
>Yes but still that's just the big books subsidizing the failing ones
What's wrong with that? It's the way we get niche products which may not have mainstream appeal but do have lots of artistic value and provide the marketplace with a diverse selection of products. It's no different than what Warner Brothers has done in movies for decades, where they have blockbusters that do relatively well but also have the strongest tradition out of any movie studio for putting out small artsy indy films that could catch on or could not. This dedication to variety and willingness to put out art is part of the reason they're the most awarded studio in Hollywood.
>But for me this is actually good. It actually keeps me more engaged with everything and I actually look forward to each release since they come in relatively quickly like a weekly TV show.
Agreed. The double shipping got me into picking up floppies for the first time in forever (used to be a trade waiter). But now that floppies come so frequently it is more like watching a weekly TV show, and makes me excited for each new book rather than forgetting about which comics come out when.
Every Wednesday I can go into my LCS and pick up new copies of what I'm picking up and I'm only picking up like four titles in floppies while still trade waiting for some others.
It works but most of the books are not doing well so it's hard (for me at least, ymmv) to consider Rebirth as a whole to be a success. They need to find a way to get people to read the monthlies too. Some of them are easy fixes though, like Supergirl would go up 5-10k if it was actually good so you can just juggle the creative team to help.
It's a big warm security blanket hug for everyone that got scared off by their efforts to bring in new readers.