Should Marvel have an event that kills off a lot of dead wood?

[Snoop Dogg]

who dares utter queen jones' name in a topic about losers

[Michael Watkins]

who dares utter queen jones' name in a topic about losers

She was sold as a loser. She was introduced on a toilet.

[Agent Z]

Not far enough. There should be an event that rewrites reality in a way that erases Marcus Johnson, Tony Stark's new parents, and Luke Cage's marriage to Jessica Jones. Dani Cage would still be around. She'd just have a different mother (maybe Claire Temple). Hell, I'm even ok with Jessica Jones being around even though she's a waste of space and a failed attempt to resurrect Jessica Drew (even stole her relationship with Carol Danvers). Marvel needs a homely drunk private investigator heroine I guess. Probably should have given that horrid civil war era journalist powers too; maybe retcon her into some established hero's backstory and give her a baby with Daredevil so no one will try to get rid of her.

Don't know how serious your are, but Marvel's tried events like this in the past. It was dumb then, it will be dumb now.

[H-E-D]

Putting aside our feelings on death in comics, what scale would we even use to quantify dead wood?

No seriously, dead wood is rather hard to quantify. Not making x number of appearances in recent years? Having too similar powers? Losing uniqueness? We all know how the last one turned out in House of M, an event full of nonsense.

Well, based on charming posts like this:

Jessica Jones being around even though she's a waste of space and a failed attempt

it seems dead wood just means "character I hate". Sometimes even "widely celebrated, Peabody Award-winning characters".

[dornwolf]

Not to mention that if all the A-listers are gone, Marvel isn't far behind.

Somebody in this thread mentioned trying to push obscure characters to the forefront. I can think of a few that failed miserably just recently; Black Knight, Inhumans, Solo, Slapstick, Prowler, etc. New character failures- Mosaic, Unstoppable Wasp (twice), any Kate Bishop solo series, America, Silk, etc. It's not like Marvel doesn't try. The people who scream the loudest don't buy the books when they come out. How is Invisible Woman selling? I've seen posts here requesting a series for Sue many times, and one is finally available. Is it languishing near the bottom of the sales charts (I honestly don't know, but I suspect it is.)?

Man I forgot all about Mosaic that one burned up fast.

[Michael Watkins]

Well, based on charming posts like this:


it seems dead wood just means "character I hate". Sometimes even "widely celebrated, Peabody Award-winning characters".

Why would someone suggest killing a character they don't hate? Bendis is completely unworthy of his Peabody. And only a moron would give him one.

[H-E-D]

Why would someone suggest killing a character they don't hate? Bendis is completely unworthy of his Peabody. And only a moron would give him one.

I'll be sure to let the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors know that some random internet dudebro thinks they're morons.

[Michael Watkins]

I'll be sure to let the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors know that some random internet dudebro thinks they're morons.

I don't need a go-between

[PCN24454]

Why would someone suggest killing a character they don't hate? Bendis is completely unworthy of his Peabody. And only a moron would give him one.

As I stated before, if a person doesn't care about a character's life, they're not going to care about their death.

Take Endgame for example. Do you think that the writers killed Tony and Natasha because they hated them? they didn't just do it for shock value either.

Their deaths brought far more viewers than nobodies or unpopular characters would.

[Venomous Mask]

I wouldn't support this idea, but I would support a story where Marvel characters band together to clear out pieces of dead wood from a fire or flood zone and then help the locals rebuild their homes and plant new foliage.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Frankly, I wish Marvel writers had a quota of using obscure D list or lower characters. Maybe for every 18 issues, they had to include one or two obscure characters.

Writers these days keep to the same A, B and C listers, or their pet characters, and no others. I'm hard pressed to think of a writer who uses anyone too obscure without immediately killing them, and forcing a writer out of their typical rut can produce some good stories.

Christopher Priest, for example, was reluctant to write Black Panther (for a host of reasons, mind). But he did some research, committed himself like a damn professional, and gave us the best T'Challa before or since.

[skyvolt2000]

Not to mention that if all the A-listers are gone, Marvel isn't far behind.

Somebody in this thread mentioned trying to push obscure characters to the forefront. I can think of a few that failed miserably just recently; Black Knight, Inhumans, Solo, Slapstick, Prowler, etc. New character failures- Mosaic, Unstoppable Wasp (twice), any Kate Bishop solo series, America, Silk, etc. It's not like Marvel doesn't try.

FYI- Black Knight, Solo, Slapstick, Prowler and many others had solos or minis before. So it's not like they were tossing out random shots to guys who never had them before.

The people who scream the loudest don't buy the books when they come out.

And the folks who scream that they DON'T want them around-DON'T support comic book stores. Yet feel entitled to throw fits about books that HAPPEN to feature certain demographics.

Maybe the problem is there aren't enough people to support the books you're clamoring for

Funny this is RARELY said about a book that does NOT have a POC in it.
It's KUDOS when Plastic Man or Mr Miracle gets a shot.

Its a problem that I've noticed a lot over in the X-men side of things with the teen/student teams. Fans call for a book featuring the New X-men...Marvel responds with a bunch of characters no one wants and the fans are quite understandably not pleased. Rather than address the issue, Marvel shrugs it off and goes "Guess they don't want the book after all".

Generation X says HI.

There aren't enough "new and diverse" readers coming in and replacing them.

According to WHO?
Betty Boop, Mighty Mouse, Elvira, Barbarella, Care Bears & Shaft got books that NO ONE asked for.
We had a book called Cellies. A book about a CELL PHONE STORE with a black guy. The merger of Lion Forge & Omini Press ended it.
After Shock, Ahoy, Titan, Image, Dark Horse and others have tossed out books with POC as lead NONSTOP. As ongoings and minis.
Relay, Bitter Root, Black, Freeze, Burnouts, Source, The Long Con, Stronghold, Wicked & Divine, Farmhands, Livewire & others had POC as leads.

Guess what I did NOT see with them? A long line of complaints or attacks on creators. Funny Marvel & DC are the only ones that deals with it.

Marvel's JOB is to try new stuff. That includes DIVERSE stuff. Because what you don't do SOMEONE else will. If it fails, it fails but you need to TRY.

[GrandEleven]

Everything.

Not only is your argument a commonly used myth by comics gators to justify their BS towards any character that isn't a straight white male, but it grossly oversimplifies the situation. Yes, why matters.

Not everything is a conspiracy form the white man. Marvel killing off Spiderman would be like Disney killing Off Micky Mouse.

[scourge]

Not everything is a conspiracy form the white man. Marvel killing off Spiderman would be like Disney killing Off Micky Mouse.

No, not really.
Micky Mouse is the face of Disney. And part of an entirely different medium and genre with its own set of rules and tropes. The comparison doesn't work.

Spider-Man (any of them) is one of many parts of the larger universe.

On top of that, Marvel killing off Peter Parker would be a cheap marketing thing. He'd be gone for a few months the we'd get something stupid like "Return of Peter Parker: a 6 part mini-series" turning into a new #1 of one of the Spider-Man books. There would be no question about whether or not Peter would be back, just how dumb his method of not being dead would be.

And just to add, no one mentioned a conspiracy. Just pointing out that crappy "They don't sell" is an invalid argument commonly used by those gator losers.

[Snoop Dogg]

Spider-Man already died and was gone for like 16 months.