How did Marvel fall this badly? :(

[ilostmyplace]

For years I remembered my older brother going out and buying tons of DC and Marvel comic, with him getting mostly Marvel over DC. And loved seeing the look on his face when getting the new X-men and Spiderman Books. Then Ronald Perelman not the actor but the businessman almost killed Marvel. But somehow Bob Harras was keeping marvel alive, until Toy Biz with Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad and took over Marvel, with firing Bob and replacing him with Joe Quesada came in, and to me and my brother stared to feel that Marvel comics was in a slow decline. Yeah, it was better then what Ronald Perelman was doing with all those cover and hologram covers. First came the decline of the X-Men with the unnecessary death of Jean Grey and then Spiderman one more Day, After that I quit Marvel for good, but my brother stayed until his death three years ago. Nearing the end of his life he was trying hard to stick with Marvel as best as he could. Lucky for Marvel it wasn't there comics that kill my brother. Let's just say he had tons of surgeries. But on his last days, I have never seen a man at his wits end with comics like he did with Marvel, hell he was practically in tears. And now with the firing of Axel Alonso and now the Jim Shooter stuff, just proof how Marvel Comics has fallen.

For me I would rather read the books my friend puts on Amazon, then a Marvel Comic. How did you fall this badly Marvel??? How???

[planetxmen]

A mix of Disney, pettiness and pandering to the movie universe.

[Mike_Murdock]

Wait, you think Marvel fell starting with Joe Quesada in 2000? Well, that fall involved staving off bankruptcy, bringing in an influx of talent, revitalizing the Avengers, and creating big stories that people still talk about.

[theoneandonly]

sorry to hear about your brother and as to marvel perhaps its because they pushed the deconstruction of the superheroes hard that revamped them and line wide events having only gimmicky storylines that contributed to some declining sales.

[Username taken]

For years I remembered my older brother going out and buying tons of DC and Marvel comic, with him getting mostly Marvel over DC. And loved seeing the look on his face when getting the new X-men and Spiderman Books. Then Ronald Perelman not the actor but the businessman almost killed Marvel. But somehow Bob Harras was keeping marvel alive, until Toy Biz with Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad and took over Marvel, with firing Bob and replacing him with Joe Quesada came in, and to me and my brother stared to feel that Marvel comics was in a slow decline. Yeah, it was better then what Ronald Perelman was doing with all those cover and hologram covers. First came the decline of the X-Men with the unnecessary death of Jean Grey and then Spiderman one more Day, After that I quit Marvel for good, but my brother stayed until his death three years ago. Nearing the end of his life he was trying hard to stick with Marvel as best as he could. Lucky for Marvel it wasn't there comics that kill my brother. Let's just say he had tons of surgeries. But on his last days, I have never seen a man at his wits end with comics like he did with Marvel, hell he was practically in tears. And now with the firing of Axel Alonso and now the Jim Shooter stuff, just proof how Marvel Comics has fallen.

For me I would rather read the books my friend puts on Amazon, then a Marvel Comic. How did you fall this badly Marvel??? How???

Sorry about your brother. No one deserves to lose a loved one.

However, change is the only constant in life. The Bob Harras era of Marvel was IMO pretty horrible. It was all X-men all the time and the other titles were left to suffer.

Harass had to go because Marvel had entered a rut creatively and sales started to collapse. Things actually re-bounded (sales wise) and while it's not a popular opinion, I think the early Quesada was Marvel's best since the Shooter days.

I'm not sure how replacing Alonso is a bad thing though. As I said earlier, change is the only constant in life.

[Prof. Warren]

Wait, you think Marvel fell starting with Joe Quesada in 2000? Well, that fall involved staving off bankruptcy, bringing in an influx of talent, revitalizing the Avengers, and creating big stories that people still talk about.

I know! I have to laugh when people confuse their own personal story of how they parted ways with Marvel with the reality that the era - or eras - that weren't for them were ones that minted other new fans and brought other generations into Marvel and enticed other older fans to come back.

It's like when people think music stopped being interesting after whatever year they stopped listening. People adopt such myopic outlooks - "nothing good happened after I stopped paying attention!"

[Abe]

I know! I have to laugh when people confuse their own personal story of how they parted ways with Marvel with the reality that the era - or eras - that weren't for them were ones that minted other new fans and brought other generations into Marvel and enticed other older fans to come back.

It's like when people think music stopped being interesting after whatever year they stopped listening. People adopt such myopic outlooks - "nothing good happened after I stopped paying attention!"

Not sure you chose the right words for that part of your post.

[Prof. Warren]

Not sure you chose the right words for that part of your post.

Would "I have to roll my eyes" be better?

[Abe]

Would "I have to roll my eyes" be better?

Not really better.

I saw other posts starting with a "Sorry for your loss."

Please notice that it wouldn't have changed anything to what you wanted to say.

[Knives]

I'm sorry for your brother now about the marvel situation to be fair the blame it is not entirely of marvel.


The world changes and will continue to change things are no longer the same as in the past and marvel needed to make some changes to keep the business.

Nowadays anyone can read marvel comics without having to pay for them which harms business and the new generation is more interested in movies, television, internet or games than in comics.

Yes, Marvel has made several mistakes but at the same time they have remained at the top of sales so it's not exactly an easy math calculation.

Maybe marvel has gone too far with deconstruction of the characters but even that had a positive side.

[lordozone]

Edit. Not necessary.

[jebsib]

When did the Marvel "Voice" change?

By that I mean, recall Stan Lee's Soapboxes, Bullpen Bulletins, the Letter Pages back and forth… There was a particular and unique tone that Marvel took that separated its brand from DC for 40 years. Sometimes it was strong (Stan and Roy), sometimes a little weaker (Defalco era), but it was always there until.. when? The mid 90s Editorial Shuffle? And then they tried again to get fun with readers in 1997 with the failed Minus One era along with new Stan Soapboxes. Quesada nominally tried to be "Fun Marvel" with his inconsistent "Joey Q" offerings that trailed off as Bill James insisted on more of a Nu Image.

In fact, I recall the early 2000s when Jemas was in charge when it seems like the Marvel Brand really died. The voice was gone, the Corporate Identity was gone, the Letter pages… hell, even typical commercial advertisements seemed to take a back seat to fairly generic cookie cutter House Ads. Obviously this dovetailed with the Internet rise (message boards, fan postings, pre Twitter) and Marvel communicating its ID in other ways… but it felt that - along with the end of continuity, consistent characterization and Covers that actually explained the issue content - Marvel's identity changed forever then. Anyone agree or disagree?

[ilostmyplace]

Wait, you think Marvel fell starting with Joe Quesada in 2000? Well, that fall involved staving off bankruptcy, bringing in an influx of talent, revitalizing the Avengers, and creating big stories that people still talk about.

I did mention Ronald Perelman. All the stuff you said was his fault, and some of it was blamed on Bob Harras. But now that Bob Harras is editor in chief of a successful DC Comic now, people are thinking that it's most likely just Ronald Perelman for stuff you posted.

[Valamist]

I'm sorry to hear about your brother. No one should suffer the loss of a loved one.

As for Marvel... I do not think it is that bad? Honestly, I just do not subscribe to this idea that its fallen into disrepute etc. I mean sure, its not perfect, I still enjoy many of their current books.

[Triniking1234]

"First came the decline of the X-Men with the unnecessary death of Jean Grey and then Spiderman one more Day"

This is news to me. Even after Jean died, X-Men went well until Schism and AvX and after One More Day, Spidey was shipping 3 times a month.

Marvel hasn't fallen but the comics side is coming under heavy criticism and honestly needs an overhaul.

I swear Alonso got replaced by a Skrull after Hickman's Secret Wars.