Has Marvel Comics ran out of story ideas?

[From The Shadows]

It may seem like it but to push I'd say no... but for some reason they don't want to tell them, and keep certain characters pigeon holed and erase development (I dont mean retcons/OOC) , I aslo say there is a tendency to revamp popular cross-overs because they know the name/idea itself will sell.

[Darthfury78]

Marvel has a title called Immortal Hulk that has proven to be a success, I think they're fine in the ideas department. The new life Hickman and many other writers have brought to the X-Men is doing wonders for the readers as I've seen in various websites (and I'm eager to check them out in the near future). Repetitive ideas are part of serialized fiction, Spider-Man No More was already the second time Peter tried to get rid of the Spider costume and that was dated July 1967. The complaint that superheroes comicbooks ran out of ideas exist since the birth of fan mail. If you want a bigger mix when it comes to sharing villains is another thing. I think it can be interesting, but it's something that Marvel has always done. I don't think it's necessary to apply it as a new politic that goes through most titles

What would be amazing to see is a mini series that would focus on the Spiderverse version of Bruce Banner: The Amazing Spider-Man. Jennifer Walters(616) would be in for a shock to see that her cousin has a counterpart who is Spider-Man. I wonder if Jessica Drew told her about the spiderverse?

[classicgmer]

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?

I don't think Marvel is running out of ideas for stories and i don't think they should necessarily suspend creating new characters but i do think the editors should challenge these creators to take a long look at Marvel's already vast catalouge of characters before creating brand new ones for whatever story it is they're looking to tell....If they already do this than so be it but it sure seems like the the prefernce is to create new characters.

[Colossus1980]

It would be great if Marvel stopped visiting alternate timelines, earths, or possible futures. Unfortunately this is a staple the company has visited often because they are too afraid to move forward themselves. To be fair DC is guilty of this as well.

[Username taken]

Looking at the sheer volume of creator owned work that Marvel’s creators put out, to say they are less creative than previous generations is totally false. To even get a creative job at Marvel you must have published work in the first place.

However, what we see more and more these days is writers using previous concepts in new ways. Al Ewing has basically turned this into an art form. Truth is, creators nowadays are far more business savvy than years past. Guys like Hickman and the X-men creators are introducing a lot of new concepts and even guys like Donny Cates are bring in new stuff. But the truth is more of them will simply prefer to work with existing characters and use them in new ways because there’s little financial incentive to create new characters. A good number of writers these days can make a living off their creator owned work and always have an eye on their work outside the big two. There’s little reason to spend time creating characters that will not really benefit the creator directly in the long term.

The previous generation of writers created a ton of new characters but beyond acknowledgment on forums like these have little to show for it. I mean, Bob McLeod created one of Marvel’s most important super teams ever and the film makers couldn’t even spell his name right in the movies.

[Killerbee911]

No, Marvel has not run out of ideas BUT

-They are too Many books,stretching out concepts to fast If that makes sense.
-Too Much Formula, Events once upon a time were special now they have create an event every year. They are books created not necessary for love or to be creative but push something.
-Every story has a beginning,middle and End except ongoing comics which are suppose to go on forever without ending

[Triniking1234]

Does it matter?

Put out new stuff? People bitch.
Put out old stuff? People bitch.

[DrNewGod]

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 agree with XPAC, but I also suspect publishers and editors are interested in a narrower market of readers than they were in the Early-1960s-to-Mid-1980s era the OP mentions.

[Darthfury78]

Does it matter?

Put out new stuff? People bitch.
Put out old stuff? People bitch.

There is a legitimate reason why people bitch. It's because the respective departments do not loan their characters out with each other. Second, everything is segregated by department, which makes it hard to develop the character. For example, when was the last time Spider-Man and Captain Britain worked together, or Spider-Man and Tigra?Marvel needs to challenge their staff to use characters that has never appeared in their respective books to create a story. Different characters to a story makes the outcome different, such as Spider-Man and Black Widow as opposed to Spider-Man & Black Cat...

[Hypestyle]

more mini series needed. more racially diverse characters needed. ("blue/green/purple/caucasian aliens" don't count).

[PCN24454]

There is a legitimate reason why people bitch. It's because the respective departments do not loan their characters out with each other. Second, everything is segregated by department, which makes it hard to develop the character. For example, when was the last time Spider-Man and Captain Britain worked together, or Spider-Man and Tigra?Marvel needs to challenge their staff to use characters that has never appeared in their respective books to create a story. Different characters to a story makes the outcome different, such as Spider-Man and Black Widow as opposed to Spider-Man & Black Cat...

That's not necessarily better. It makes you think about how contrived it is that two people who hardly contact each other end up in certain situations. No one pairs Daredevil and Silver Surfer together.

[Darthfury78]

That's not necessarily better. It makes you think about how contrived it is that two people who hardly contact each other end up in certain situations. No one pairs Daredevil and Silver Surfer together.

Daredevil is not into space adventures. However, I envision Silver Surfer and Captain Marvel working together, or even becoming a member of Guardians of the Galaxy, which would be a great match...

[BlueElf94]

That's not necessarily better. It makes you think about how contrived it is that two people who hardly contact each other end up in certain situations. No one pairs Daredevil and Silver Surfer together.

Mark Waid's DD run begs to differ!

All jokes aside, I'm inclined to agree with you. it's sad to me how contrived things do feel now to see characters mingle in a non-team environment. It didn't always feel that way: seeing the Angel show up in Tales of Suspense to interact with Iron Man or seeing Namor show up in almost anyone's book didn't feel that weird. This is part of what made Marvel feel so special and unique. The universe as a whole just felt more cohesive than it is now, and I'm not sure if that's a reflection of modern editorial prioritizing different things or if it's just by virtue of how much bigger the Marvel U is now than it used to be. It's definitely a bigger ship now than it was then, especially given the glut of books they put out.

[BlueElf94]

As far as the OP's initial question: Other people have already said this on the thread, but I think a big part of the general stagnation you feel is due at least in part to writers and other creatives being trapped by "the illusion of change". They're kinda handcuffed by the need to maintain a certain status quo with these characters. Don't get me wrong, there have been some absolute hacks that have worked at Marvel these past few years. But there are also some truly excellent writers and artists who could be putting out best of all time type stuff if given free rein to do so. This isn't to say that a creative enough person couldn't work around these constraints and make something new and cool, we still see that here and there to this day. But naturally after publishing this long it's gonna get harder and harder to do

[Kaitou D. Kid]

I don't think they did. I think every generation asks this question.

Also are we talking all of Marvel or just the Silver Age properties? Kamala Khan for example is arguably the most original Marvel hero since Peter Parker.