Who is buying X-Men comics? / Who is the target audience?

[AppleJ]

So in X-Men Monday today, JDW states:

"But when you look at a single character like Superman, I think it’s kind of a bummer that Superman has aged so much that he’s now a married guy with a son. And I know that some people want Spider-Man to be that and I’m glad he’s not because it changes the character from being someone you can relate to into someone who is like your dad. Now Superman is a weird character actually to do this with because not everybody relates to him in the first place. He’s kind of aspirational to begin with.

So let’s say Spider-Man. He’s an everyman — you can relate to him and his problems. A Spider-Man who is married, growing up with a kid — of course, I can relate to that because I’m a married grown-up with a kid. But I don’t know that that’s fair to the world and to culture, to say I want Spider-Man to grow up with me. I think keeping Spider-Man for new generations to continue to read about is important and good and Marvel has done it in a way that tries to have it both ways to say we’re going to keep everything in this nebulous Marvel time so readers can come in and the characters are still young and vital in many ways. But also, we’re not going to reboot the universe so that people who do want to keep reading from 10 years ago, from 20 years ago, from 30 years ago — all those stories that you read happened, you just have to like squint your eyes a little bit sometimes."

I guess my thought is that X-Men readers aren't necessarily made up primarily of teen - young 20s white males anymore? So why are stories being marketed as if they are? Why is teen - 20s white male Spiderman the "every man" we are meant to relate to, basically forever? Because I sure don't, even when I was that age. New Spiderman audiences have options like Miles Morales, Ben Reilly, Ghost Spider, Silk, etc.

Personally I much prefer that the traditional superheroes be allowed to age up and give us the stories that come with more maturity while new characters are brought on to take the mantle with those fresh youthful perspectives.

I would think new generations of younger audiences would want a fresher take on those character concepts anyway? Want new, more modern designs and more diversity?

At some point won't they say "That's my Dad's Spiderman." anyway?

Also, as readers age, do they want to continue reading comics if they keep retreading these same themes and ideas without moving the characters forward? Do we not care about keeping those readers?

What is worth more, keeping an older audience or catering to a new one? And shouldn't they want to be doing both?

And why are we treating people over 30 like boring and ancient creatures who can't possibly do anything interesting or physically challenging anyway when it's just not true?

And what about the younger characters that cannot get panel time or major pushes forward if OG characters don't move forward themselves?

Thoughts? I know ya'll are chalk full of them!

[Kingdom X]

Just put this in the controversial opinions thread haha. I think it’s such a terrible take. If I care about a character I’m not going to stop caring about them because they have a child. Also I didn’t even get to thinking about how this approach is pretty anti-diversity, because I was so stuck on how it was so damaging to the classic characters too. I don’t think anyone is saying we should permanently retire classic characters, but are we really gonna die if Cyclops is *gasp* 35 years old.

[Spiderfan001]

Just put this in the controversial opinions thread haha. I think it’s such a terrible take. If I care about a character I’m not going to stop caring about them because they have a child. Also I didn’t even get to thinking about how this approach is pretty anti-diversity, because I was so stuck on how it was so damaging to the classic characters too. I don’t think anyone is saying we should permanently retire classic characters, but are we really gonna die if Cyclops is *gasp* 35 years old.

The fact this hurts new characters as well wasn't an angle I thought about till now, nice catch.
Also we've seen people adore Married Spider-man and Mc2 Spider-man, so it's not even an hypothetical that people will like him being aged up.

[autbey]

The same people who bought them in the 90s. I work in education, kids don't buy comics.

[Devaishwarya]

The "relatability" of any superhero character is highly debatable for as many different reasons as there are different readers.

The problem is these creators are trying telling us who we should relate to.
Here's a gay character...the gays must relate to that.
Here's Peter Parker...young "everyday" genius nerds must relate to him (and want to be like him because he has the hot, model girlfriend)
All that is such a crock of outdated-thinking shit. Because a lot of readers of various ages (mainly adults) have many different favourite characters. I'm fifty and I like 95% of the superheroes/CB characters I read regularly...I have my faves, but they are as varied as they come.

The target audience should be "readers who like comic books".

[Spiderfan001]

The "relatability" of any superhero character is highly debatable for as many different reasons as there are different readers.

The problem is these creators are trying telling us who we should relate to.
Here's a gay character...the gays must relate to that.
Here's Peter Parker...young "everyday" genius nerds must relate to him (and want to be like him because he has the hot, model girlfriend)
All that is such a crock of outdated-thinking shit. Because a lot of readers of various ages (mainly adults) have many different favourite characters. I'm fifty and I like 95% of the superheroes/CB characters I read regularly...I have my faves, but they are as varied as they come.

The target audience should be "readers who like comic books".

Agreed,
Spider-man in particular is supposed to be a "anyone can wear the mask" and relates to everyone, yet they main point of Miles is Black Spider-man and that we have a Spider-man that looks like us.Even though anyone can wear the mask we should think Miles "is our Spider-man" because he's of the same race.It's such a surface level and backwards thinking.In comparison to Miguel whose Irish/Mexican but we are never told he's our Spider-man because of that, he just happens to be Irish/Mexican and as a POC I much prefer the latter.At the end of the day we're all people and have much more to us than race and gender.After all people don't like/relate to Peter because he's white, He's even bigger in India than in the US because of who he is as a character.

Not to say diversity shouldn't be done or Miles isn't important , but if shouldn't be the main point of your character IMO.

[Charm]

The "relatability" of any superhero character is highly debatable for as many different reasons as there are different readers.

The problem is these creators are trying telling us who we should relate to.
Here's a gay character...the gays must relate to that.
Here's Peter Parker...young "everyday" genius nerds must relate to him (and want to be like him because he has the hot, model girlfriend)
All that is such a crock of outdated-thinking shit. Because a lot of readers of various ages (mainly adults) have many different favourite characters. I'm fifty and I like 95% of the superheroes/CB characters I read regularly...I have my faves, but they are as varied as they come.

The target audience should be "readers who like comic books".

This...and God help me, I am even older...and female...so no relatable characters for me.

One issue not mentioned, is the reduction in younger generations reading / buying printed works ie magazines, newspapers etc and I think this feeds into the issue of the apparent 'unpopularity' of printed comics - interesting to find out how successful Hickman's substack thingy is? I dip in and out of comics depending on how my fav character is doing but I really enjoyed Hickman's run / ideas and I'm bummed that the writers decided to ditch his ideas (for now) and continue with the new status quo - beginning, middle and end sounded so good. There is a deffo issue with newbie's jumping on in comics but it's a balancing act - attracting new readers whilst retaining existing readers.

Not entirely convinced JDW knows what he's doing.

[Zero Hunter]

The same people who bought them in the 90s. I work in education, kids don't buy comics.

That is not true because a whole lot of us who did buy them in the 90's stopped buying the line many years ago. Most of the time it is because the writers and editors made us feel so unwelcome and acted like we older readers were the one responsible for sales tanking instead of their bad decisions and constant relaunches.

[ZephyrSurf]

That is not true because a whole lot of us who did buy them in the 90's stopped buying the line many years ago. Most of the time it is because the writers and editors made us feel so unwelcome and acted like we older readers were the one responsible for sales tanking instead of their bad decisions and constant relaunches.

They are not saying the entire demographc of the 90s is still there. They're saying that that demographic, or who remained, is who buys comics.

Kids don't buy Western comics.

Kids buy manga, they read webtoons

[skyvolt2000]

The same people who bought them in the 90s. I work in education, kids don't buy comics.

HI I am also in education-kids DO read comics.

The difference is what they want to read and what format.

They don't have an issue picking up a trade starring an Inhuman or Fantastic Four or Squirrel Girl or Lumberjanes or Faith or Miles Morales.

Nor as I have seen tearing into bins looking for Wally West, Deadpool, Kyle Rayner, Static or Teen Titans.

Pretty much every single character that has endured the hatred of certain parts of the fandom or management-they don't have issues with.

You are not going to get the kid with that $3.99 floppy unless it's in a discount bin.

You are going to get the kid with trades. The issue many parents bring up is FINDING said trades.


This is the disadvantage of having characters in movies and tv shows and they have nothing for someone to read.

Static at DC being the main example. That is why you are seeing those OGNs at DC starring almost whoever popping up.

Same with Shuri-who will have 6 different new books (non-comics) coming out between now and July 2022. Something no other Marvel character is getting.

[Devaishwarya]

But it's those monthly floppies costing 3.99-5.99 that they rely on to bring in the consistent revenue. And which are bought mainly by adults with the disposable income.

Based on their buying trend...discounted books/trades/manga...it's safe to say that those kids don't really care about "relatability" as they're clearly not that invested in anything other than the fun/action aspect of the story and characters.

While it may happen, I'm not so sure any of the kids who would have bought Nubia 01 are overly concerned that a character is Trans. So the important target audience then becomes an older demographic who are able to recognise and understand and relate to those social themes that are important to them.

[Frobisher]

All I'll say is that X-Men now has at least six generations of students, depending on how you count, and all of them are about 21-23 years old.

[Ambaryerno]

The fact this hurts new characters as well wasn't an angle I thought about till now, nice catch.
Also we've seen people adore Married Spider-man and Mc2 Spider-man, so it's not even an hypothetical that people will like him being aged up.

They've ruined the New X-Men. They were the last generation that had a truly unique identity of their own, and Marvel has systemically destroyed it so they can fit into a generic and nebulous group of "students."

I don't want to read the New X-Men falling into line. I miss Surge telling the Professor to his face that he can't teach them anything else because they already know how to die. The entire NXM generation SHOULD be telling Krakoa they can go @#$% themselves becaue of their experiences, not drinking the Kool-Aid.

[JB]

I guess comic shop owners and workers can give the best indication of who is buying comics. I don't usually see teens and children hanging around the books, they tend to hover around the toys and card games. But I don't frequent comic shops anymore so I dunno.

[Spiderfan001]

The same people who bought them in the 90s. I work in education, kids don't buy comics.

This, they don't buy them.Not just kids but so much of comics Twitter(both the "conservative" side and the "progressive" side, the latter being larger since some "conservatives" used to buy them and now don't because they don't agree w/ a lot of what is published) don't read them or pirate them.

Big 2 have done a terrible job to keep comics relevant for new generation, it's the ones who used to but them that still do.

They've ruined the New X-Men. They were the last generation that had a truly unique identity of their own, and Marvel has systemically destroyed it so they can fit into a generic and nebulous group of "students."

I don't want to read the New X-Men falling into line. I miss Surge telling the Professor to his face that he can't teach them anything else because they already know how to die. The entire NXM generation SHOULD be telling Krakoa they can go @#$% themselves becaue of their experiences, not drinking the Kool-Aid.

I agree, they should grow into their own individual identity.But they will forever be stuck won't they.......

I guess comic shop owners and workers can give the best indication of who is buying comics. I don't usually see teens and children hanging around the books, they tend to hover around the toys and card games. But I don't frequent comic shops anymore so I dunno.

I do, it was a lot more before but it's just 1 to 2 shops now and I do talk to the owners.Mostly adults, specially for weekly releases.The occasional kid will be there and maybe pick up a random comic though.