Are modern superhero comics kind of forgettable?

[Restingvoice]

I remember the names of the events but not the details or emotional weight inside it unless there's a character I'm actually invested involved in the event and that one point is usually what I remember and not everything else.

...or I remember it simply for the purpose of keeping continuity, meaning the importance of the story is just as a needlepoint on my giant board.

[Ulysses]

1. Are the excessive number of event comics, kind of bleeding into each other creating a steady stream of forgettable arches?
2. Is the realization that nothing really changes finally beginning to take its toll on superhero comics.
3. Is the tapering off of new characters since the 90's really started to hurt story variety? (you can only watch the same characters go through similar story arches so many times)
4. Is the constant speculation and criticism of internet culture-making comics seem more predictable?

#1: No. Human beings have been telling just a handful of stories since recorded history, with variations. We actually want to hear the same stories over and over again. We just want it told in a different way.
#2: No. For reasons similar to what I outlined in #1.
#3: I think so, yes. But I don't think predictability is the issue. I think quality is. People want archetypal stories, well told. That formula is good. Mob mentality has bent the will of the publishers, editors and writers to veer from the formula. I think though, that bottom line thinking will end up winning out over the pressures of the small slice of the market putting undue pressure on the producers. And this in turn will manifest a better product. I have hope that we will see a return to the modern-mythmaking that comics does so well.

[iron chimp]

Someone once put up a list of characters who died and how long they stayed dead for - it might have just been for marvel but trend was in 60s 70s and 80s few characters died but stayed dead. By 90s death count increased rapidly and continued to do so as did the "resurrections". So if you were reading a book in 60s and 70s and you saw a character die, it meant they were actually dead. Today those stories have zero impact as too many hokey tricks have been played on readers in recent decades.

Same with events - an event like Crisis actually was a genuine shift in books. Now "this changes everything" style taglines are just mocked by readers because an event rarely does much but be a prologue to another event etc etc.

A book like walking dead is popular because you can believe what you are reading - many DC and Marvel books readers just have no faith in what they are seeing on the page - and haven't for decades - with good reason. The suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy the stories has been irretrievably broken.

[Lightning Rider]

I would say yes. A lot of recycled event types and not a lot of unique storytelling techniques. The most memorable DC stories have distinctive feels, themes, character choices, artistic choices. It often feels more like a generic CW show at times.

[JasonTodd428]

Superhero comics from the Big Two oftentimes are entirely forgettable IMHO and I feel that events are even more forgettable at this point as well. Personally, I've been getting a lot more enjoyment from reading modern superhero books from independent companies because the stories there make me feel like a kid reading their first comic again and they are most often better written than the standard DC or Marvel book as well. Most of the DC and Marvel fare I consume these days is older material, which seems to have more of a spark then the modern stuff.

[phonogram12]

3. Is the tapering off of new characters since the 90's really started to hurt story variety? (you can only watch the same characters go through similar story arches so many times)

I'll be honest, I find comics more memorable now than the one's that came out in the '90s. Of course there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.