Originally Posted by
Myskin
Nothing.
What many superhero readers fail to realize is that the recognizability of the characters have nothing to do with their popularity, or how many people read them. I am quite sure that a lot of people could recognize tons of pop culture figures (such as Zorro or Conan the Barbarian) without ever reading one of their books or even without knowing some basic traits of their personality.
Focusing on One Piece is somehow misleading, because it's not that when One Piece ends superheroes will gain the upper hand again. There will be other comic books - probably mangas, but who knows - which will take One Piece's place. Younger generations are just not interested in superhero books, and how can we blame them? Superhero books are expensive, the single issues are short (4 dollars for 28 pages on a monthly basis? Seriously?), the stories decompressed, storylines are changed along the way to the point they don't make sense anymore. And let's face it, if you are not a 30+ year old reader understanding anything - and I mean anything - about the continuity is impossible. The most debated topics in this forum - the eternal Barry Allen vs Wally West thing, whether Lois Lane should be killed or get more prominence in Superman books, Jon Kent - are pure crap no one in the real world cares about, including young readers - and rightfully so.
It's not that every best selling manga is a masterpiece - I think that the really good, Alan Moore/Grant Morrison-level ones, for example Naoki Urasawa's works, are relatively niche products - but the popular ones (I am thinking of stuff such as My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Tokyo Ghoul and of course One Piece) are easily approachable, very captivating, often drawn in an interesting way, and they provide a sense of wonder which superhero books haven't shown since the 1950s (human/demonic characters with a chainsaw for head; post-apocalyptic futures with Hieronymus Bosch-like monsters; etc). Let's face it: how many times did Batman provide something similar in recent times? Other works, such as Dragon Ball in many of its incarnations, are awfully repetitive, but they are supported by very clever marketing strategies and tons of merchandising including anime, OAVs, etc. Also - and that's quite an important point as far as I am concerned, as you may understand from my signature - superhero books are way, way more shallowly paternalistic and moralistic than many mangas. How many times have we seen Superman providing some kind of vague lesson about justice, optimism, fatherhood, even in recent times? And are we sure that overemphasizing the importance of Wonder Woman as a role model - a character who has been presented more and more often as a feminist icon, even if the premises of her ethics are generic to say the least - hasn't been counterproductive?
Some mangas are way, way fresher or more relatable without sounding fake. Just for comparison, think of stuff such as Death Note. A supernatural thriller told entirely from the perspective of the villain, with elements of delirium of omnipotence. Again, not a masterpiece IMHO (but someone would disagree I guess), but it is impossible to deny that the premise is captivating and fascinating. Or Demon Slayer: an early-20th century demon hunter goes around killing monsters and trying to find a cure for his sister, possessed by a demon. Just a simple, straightforward, interesting premise. No endless, paternalistic superhero chit-chat about humanity's potential, or how men are fundamentally good at heart, etc. And that's without taking into account the REALLY good authors, such as Tezuka, Go Nagai, Taniguchi, or the fact that there are mangas about EVERY possible topic. There are mangas about eating in restaurants, basketball, fishing. How often have you seen such variety in superhero books? Well, maybe I should say AMERICAN superhero books, because My Hero Academia is in all respects a superhero book, in which the author successfully merged suggestions from postmodern superhero books, with Power Rangers campness and the freshness of a coming-of-age story.
If you are afraid that superhero books will disappear, don't worry - they will be kept alive as IP farms for videogames and TV series - but if you want to get an idea of what will be of them, well, think of current Scooby-Doo books or Archie Comics. That's the future. Has ever been possible to change the course? Well, think of this: French comic book Asterix was created in 1959 and it still is hugely popular in Europe (one single book, released in 2020, has sold 5 million copies). So it is technically possible for an old property to sell and be popular in 2021. The problem is that even Asterix as a lot of points of strength superhero books don't generally have. Again, in Asterix the premise is simple and straightforward, the characters are relatable, there are both humor and action and both adults and kids can read it and enjoy it. Also - the art is beautiful. I actually think that for superheroes the ship sailed years ago, because it would require a complete, total rethinking of how they are told and sold to become, well, not popular, but vaguely competitive in the market again (and probably it wouldn't work anyway), and it's an effort and a risk publishers don't really wants to take, especially since they stopped believing in comic books years ago.