Has Marvel Comics ran out of story ideas?

[Darthfury78]

It would seem(IMO) that most of the new material that's being published by Marvel are repetition of previous stories from decades past. Bringing back dead characters, along with the retcons has become the norm. From the 1960's until the mid-1980, Marvel used to create interesting stories that were inspiring. Every since Secret Wars II, along with bringing Jean Grey back from the dead, Marvel has been in a slump. For once, Marvel should suspend the idea of creating new characters. They should focus on their existing characters by moving them into other departments for further development, such as The Leader, The Goblyn Queen and Abomination as Spider-Man rogues. The company needs to mix things up...Do you agree?

[Daedra]

It would seem(IMO) that most of the new material that's being published by Marvel are repetition of previous stories from decades past. Bring dead characters, along with the retcons has become the norm. From the 1960's until the mid-1980, Marvel used to create interesting stories that were inspiring. Every since Secret Wars II, along with bring Jean Grey back from the dead, Marvel has been in a slump. For once, Marvel should suspend the idea of creating new characters. They should focus on their existing characters by moving them into other departments for further development, such as The Leader, The Goblyn Queen and Abomination as Spider-Man rogues. The company needs to mix things up...Do you agree?

Jean Grey back from the dead made me buy x-men again, the lack of originality was killing her a second time

[PeterParked]

So you are saying that Marcel has no ideas because they bring back dead characters and to obviate to that they should stop creating new characters and focusing on existing ones?...

Maybe other franchising could be renewed in the same way...bring Darth Vader to LOTR, or Goku to Karate Kid.

[your_name_here]

No they haven’t ran out of ideas. Case in point the many books still being published now

[Zauriel]

Marvel not only brought back A-List characters from the dead. They even brought back some obscure characters such as Hulkling's Skrull grandmother. Who's next? Will Dorrek, Morat and Anelle return from the dead?

[Dthirds3]

No. If any case theirr over reliance on classic characters is slowing them down

[Phoenixx9]

Writers of today are not as creative as those of the 60's, 70's or even 80's.

[nandes]

Ehhh this is such a sweeping generalization

There's good books and not so good books being published at any given time. If you're not enjoying the titles you're reading right now, then maybe you should consider looking elsewhere

[dkrook]

We just saw in Empyre where the story lifted elements from the Infinity war movie. Yes, the terrible lack of creativity is leading to the incredible amount of cheese from the plots that are being written now. I continue to believe that current creators are being driven by agendas instead of pushing the boundaries of imagination. Hickman may be one of the best pure writers they have and he's winding down soon in X-Men.

[XPac]

It would seem(IMO) that most of the new material that's being published by Marvel are repetition of previous stories from decades past. Bring dead characters, along with the retcons has become the norm. From the 1960's until the mid-1980, Marvel used to create interesting stories that were inspiring. Every since Secret Wars II, along with bring Jean Grey back from the dead, Marvel has been in a slump. For once, Marvel should suspend the idea of creating new characters. They should focus on their existing characters by moving them into other departments for further development, such as The Leader, The Goblyn Queen and Abomination as Spider-Man rogues. The company needs to mix things up...Do you agree?

I certainly don't agree they should stop making new characters.

Not to sound woke or anything, but I think a lot of the new characters like Miles or Kamala or Shuri are able to potentially reach out to different demographics as marvel expands beyond just comics.

[Shinglepants]

No.

I don’t really know how you can suggest an entity like Marvel has run out of ideas. Ideas come from individuals and there is plenty of bright individuals at Marvel. Can we really suggest that the likes of Hickman, Ahmed, Ewing etc don’t have any unique ideas between them?

I read Ahmed’s Black Bolt a couple of weeks ago. Now, I don’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all Marvel stories but if that’s retread of an older story, I’d eat my hat.

[XPac]

Writers of today are not as creative as those of the 60's, 70's or even 80's.

I don't think the issue is so much that writers of today aren't as good. I think the issue is more that some of the better creators aren't working on marvel or DC exclusively because they can now do creator owned stuff. And even when they do work for marvel and DC PERHAPS they're still saving some of their best ideas for their creator owned stuff.

That said, I think there still are some very talented writers in marvel. Ewing in my opinion is just as good as any writer in any era. Empyre might not have been my favorite event of all time, but I nonetheless feel he's underrated.

[Riv86672]

I don't think the issue is so much that writers of today aren't as good. I think the issue is more that some of the better creators aren't working on marvel or DC exclusively because they can now do creator owned stuff. And even when they do work for marvel and DC PERHAPS they're still saving some of their best ideas for their creator owned stuff.

That said, I think there still are some very talented writers in marvel. Ewing in my opinion is just as good as any writer in any era. Empyre might not have been my favorite event of all time, but I nonetheless feel he's underrated.

I think you’re right.

Those older creators had the advantage of starting from scratch, too. DC did it, and then Marvel did it. And now creators stand on the shoulders of giants.

[XPac]

I think you’re right.

Those older creators had the advantage of starting from scratch, too. DC did it, and then Marvel did it. And now creators stand on the shoulders of giants.

Part of me also does wonder if there isn't the illusion that modern writers aren't as good because of the internet. On any given day there's a million people criticising and dissecting peoples work.

What if there was an internet around when Stan Lee replaced the original Avengers with the Kooky Quartet, or Claremont replaced the original X-Men with the All New All Different X-Men. Would they be treated the way Bendis was when he Disassembled the Avengers?

I wonder if the fact that there isn't this giant forum to offer immediate feedback somehow make their work look better. Hard to say.

[Darthfury78]

No. If any case their over reliance on classic characters is slowing them down

Agreed. In the case of Spider-Man, his rogues gallery should be transferred over to other departments to further develop their character. We've seen this with The Kingpin over to Daredevil. As a matter of fact, I have never seen Marvel Comics published a team-up mini series that featured Spider-Man and a super heroine. Mainly Wolverine and Deadpool respectively. It would be nice if Marvel could publish a team-up mini series that would give a super heroine some exposure to the masses. For example, I would love to see the following mini series with a heroine working alongside Peter Parker, such as:

1. Black Widow & Spider-Man
2. Spider-Woman(Jessica Drew) & Spider-Man
3. Captain Britain(Betsy Braddock) & Spider-Man
4. Tigra & Spider-Man
5. Captain Marvel & Spider-Man
6. She-Hulk & Spider-Man

There is a ton of story potential that could bring flood of $$$$ to Marvel Comics in terms of free marketing over their over reliance on cover variants. What would also do very well is the following mini series:

1. Silver Sable & Captain America
2. Silver Sable & Black Widow
3. Black Cat & Hawkeye
4. Black Cat & Daredevil
5. Black Cat & Mystique
6. Spider-Man & The Taskmaster