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

[Devaishwarya]

Yupp.
That's all part of making the gears work in the machine...especially if he and his team are editing a large group like the X-slack.

[jwatson]

Where in the real word is anyone at work with there kids unless it is bring your kid to work day. Why should having a child stop someone from doing "good works" how does it. What is the thought process behind having a kid means your too old to do anything. I mean last i checked there wasn't exactly and age limit on when people have kids and there are a lot of young parents out there that still somehow make it happen and go on to success and there are others that don't. Also it's fiction a character ages only as much as you say characters age. "Mutants age slow. Peter ages slow due to spider bite." If there are certain characters they don't want to "get old" they should go into it with a reason or a simple explanation why they haven't rather than doing the most and acting like the audience is the one jumping the shark.

[charliehustle415]

Outside of alternate universe titles, the Big 2 heroes should remain in their primes. I don't want to read about Jean or Jubilee not doing something because they have babies.

Marvel has that "Old Man" universe they are building. Send all the people that want the characters to be 35+ in that direction.

Keep the main heroes as highly-experienced 27-year-olds at the most. Competent, but still young.

As for whose still buying comics, it is mostly people who have been buying for decades, but they don't want to read about life insurance policies and babies either.

Uh, Jubilee has a kid

and it turned into a dragon

[jwatson]

Or how about like a story where MJ got pregnant and like the radioactive bite changed peter being pregnant with a powered spider child changes mj and she has super powers after that birth. I mean that sounds like it could be something. It doesn't always have to be a bad thing.

edit: also just wanted to add for what you get comics is not an expensive medium. You get to see through the lense of somebody else but visually it's like a good book you get to do less work and have more wonder at imo. The average american spends $67 dollars a week on take out, well that is 12 comics at 3.99, 2 at 4.99 and a 5.99 special with some change left and unlike fast food you can enjoy it more than once.

[charliehustle415]

Or how about like a story where MJ got pregnant and like the radioactive bite changed peter being pregnant with a powered spider child changes mj and she has super powers after that birth. I mean that sounds like it could be something. It doesn't always have to be a bad thing.

edit: also just wanted to add for what you get comics is not an expensive medium. You get to see through the lense of somebody else but visually it's like a good book you get to do less work and have more wonder at imo. The average american spends $67 dollars a week on take out, well that is 12 comics at 3.99, 2 at 4.99 and a 5.99 special with some change left and unlike fast food you can enjoy it more than once.

yeah and a 12 issue tpb is like 15 bucks on sale.

eating food and buying funny books are two very different things

you can also watch unlimited stuff on a number of subscription services for less than 15 dollars a month

you can buy the witcher or red dead for like 15 dollars

comics are very expensive especially if you are buying floppies

(but I don't want to derail the thread)

[jwatson]

yeah and a 12 issue tpb is like 15 bucks on sale.

eating food and buying funny books are two very different things

you can also watch unlimited stuff on a number of subscription services for less than 15 dollars a month

you can buy the witcher or red dead for like 15 dollars

comics are very expensive especially if you are buying floppies

(but I don't want to derail the thread)

it's all in the eye of the beholder i guess. i like numbers so i adjust and move them so when i get comics it's a treat not a hindrance the same way i would guess those who spend money eating out or doing other things do. Not everyone actually does but i do think it's a good practice. It really narrows down what you truly enjoy too.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Uh, Jubilee has a kid

and it turned into a dragon

Oh believe me, I am well aware.

[Omega Alpha]

LOL, that's one of the worst takes I've heard in a while, and I visit this board every day. Perpetually keeping Peter Parker as a hapless, broke twenty-something with no serious romantic prospects (or the potential for his life to mature in any way, at all, ever) makes him less relatable, not more. People loved Peter and MJ's marriage, it didn't take away from the character, it evolved him. JDW makes even less sense saying this in 2021 when we have Miles, Spider-Gwen, and the rest of the legacy heroes to satisfy the teenage self-insert role. Into the Spider-Verse's portrayal of older Peter mentoring younger Miles being so successful proves there's a lot of value in letting the characters grow and develop over time. JDW is, to be diplomatic about it, misguided.

Ever since Joe Quesada was in charge, Marvel's idea to "keep the characters relatable to younger readers" is to bring back to the status quo when they were growing up. We're lucky they didn't bring Gwen Stacy back.

I'm black, my favorite character in comics has always been this grumpy ass white dude named Wolverine..

Who is a very old man. If JDW, Quesada and co. were around, he probably would be removed from the X-men because "young people can't relate".

Yep. He said all of the O5 are in their late-20s AT THE OLDEST. It's ridiculous.

They have to be because they are the same age as Peter Parker, who cannot ever become an old geezer at 30.

[ComeOnBunny]

I am only buying and reading New Mutants.

[rcaguy]

As with most things he says, I think JDW is full of it AND himself.

Characters don't stop being relatable because they grow, age, or change. That's part of what MAKES them relatable.

The worst part about all of this is that it's all tied into the rote adherence to nostalgia for Claremont which has been driving the books over the last decade, and ironically ignores the fact that part of what made his original run so iconic was that HE GREW AND CHANGED THE CHARACTERS rather than keep them mired in nostalgia for the original book in the 60s.

The reason for "nostalgia for Claremont " as you put it is that Claremont really didn't do the J-POP and K-POP style characters that seem to appeal so much to people like you these days and basically *DON'T* stand the test of time. People appreciated and still do that.

[Wolverine12]

I buy all the X books. Apparently I’m the target audience.

[Devaishwarya]

I buy all the X books. Apparently I’m the target audience.

Exactatiously.

You're the sort of reader I want to emulate when I grow up.
Alas! I could never like ALL the X-books enough to buy them all.

[Ambaryerno]

The reason for "nostalgia for Claremont " as you put it is that Claremont really didn't do the J-POP and K-POP style characters that seem to appeal so much to people like you these days and basically *DON'T* stand the test of time. People appreciated and still do that.

You clearly don't have a frelling clue what appeals to me, so I'll thank you not to put words in my mouth.

[Spiderfan001]

Or how about like a story where MJ got pregnant and like the radioactive bite changed peter being pregnant with a powered spider child changes mj and she has super powers after that birth. I mean that sounds like it could be something. It doesn't always have to be a bad thing.

edit: also just wanted to add for what you get comics is not an expensive medium. You get to see through the lense of somebody else but visually it's like a good book you get to do less work and have more wonder at imo. The average american spends $67 dollars a week on take out, well that is 12 comics at 3.99, 2 at 4.99 and a 5.99 special with some change left and unlike fast food you can enjoy it more than once.

6.... 67 dollars a week on TAKE OUT?!!Boi what the heck are you guys eating over there

I do agree it's not as expensive as some think, but it difficult to get into and marvel needs to make reading guides, etc.

[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.