Are teenagers not reading X-Men as much as they used to?

[Omega Alpha]

I think there's a lot of teenage readers on twitter.

Thing is, they pirate it. Especially if they're not from the US.

Keep in mind that depending on where you live, there might be significant delays until a Marvel comic is released (we're talking not just weeks, but more than a year even).

[rcaguy]

This is it.

Comes are too expensive. And teens as a fanbase for comics just aren't that big anymore. The readers are mostly adults.

Yep. Comic Book Industry pretty much priced themselves out of a market. Not surprising though. We pretty much saw it coming for years.

[Lukmendes]

Comic books are like cable, too expensive and ultimately not worth it because of it, and there are way, wayyy cheaper services available with far more content.

There are a lot more reasons, but just the price alone is a major turn off.

But if we ignore the price issue, then there's other things like, no real jumping point, incomprehensible stories, bad writing, bad art (Though X-Men has been doing fine that part at least), crossovers with other parts of the universe you may not care about, which makes stories more incomprehensible, major tone shifts because of writers changing (Which can be a good thing to keep stories fresh, but may also annoy readers who prefered the previous style), and probably other stuff I forgot about.

It was pointed out here that comic book fans may do gatekeeping, but, I doubt that'd really stop that many people, because manga fans can also be pretty fucking cancerous, yet those are pretty popular, mangas that is, not the fans lol.

But yeah, even if pricing wasn't an issue, to get into comics from the Big Two is a major mountain climb most people just don't wanna make the effort, I won't be surprised if someday MCU gets the same issue, but definitely will still be popular for many, many years.

[rcaguy]

The problem is the comic shops and access. Can anyone pull up a quick google of the location of comic shops in comparison to things like transportation, schools, easily walk able system, the non reliance of a parent having to take them and then like why would a teen want to go hang out a comic shop with a bunch of 40 and 50 year olds at the comic shop unless they had a group of friends themselves to go with. It's not a simple matter as the question is stating. Are comic shops and comic creators really reaching out to teens? I don't see how they can be if their whole mentality is always back to basics and the basics were 80 years ago.

This industry assumes modern teens want to read what the old industry thought was popular while the old guard fences out new material and change.

You mean crap like Hellfire Gala and the rest of that sort of rubbish? That sort of speculator-driven garbage is what drove people away from comics to begin with.

[Kingdom X]

Comic books are like cable, too expensive and ultimately not worth it because of it, and there are way, wayyy cheaper services available with far more content.

There are a lot more reasons, but just the price alone is a major turn off.

But if we ignore the price issue, then there's other things like, no real jumping point, incomprehensible stories, bad writing, bad art (Though X-Men has been doing fine that part at least), crossovers with other parts of the universe you may not care about, which makes stories more incomprehensible, major tone shifts because of writers changing (Which can be a good thing to keep stories fresh, but may also annoy readers who prefered the previous style), and probably other stuff I forgot about.

It was pointed out here that comic book fans may do gatekeeping, but, I doubt that'd really stop that many people, because manga fans can also be pretty fucking cancerous, yet those are pretty popular, mangas that is, not the fans lol.

But yeah, even if pricing wasn't an issue, to get into comics from the Big Two is a major mountain climb most people just don't wanna make the effort, I won't be surprised if someday MCU gets the same issue, but definitely will still be popular for many, many years.

Manga fans can be toxic, but for entirely different reasons. Once you’re caught up with a manga or an anime you’re just as much of an “expert” as anyone else in that fandom so it’s easy to ignore people that are just adding negativity to the discourse for no reason. With comics everyone can be reading the series and you’ll still see older fans weaponizing their decades of reading comics to push others out of the conversation.

[jwatson]

You mean crap like Hellfire Gala and the rest of that sort of rubbish? That sort of speculator-driven garbage is what drove people away from comics to begin with.

I mean exactly what I said. Lol

[jwatson]

Though you did make me think of a good example. Like those wasteland books, who are those for? Like i'm in my thirites and i don't want to read about a bunch of 80 year old heros i know nothing about. Those books are obviously not for new readers and are for the gatekeepers. Also to what Kingdom mentioned when it comes to the gatekeepers imo it seems like they try to create AU universes to keep the young guard out too. You can have whatever story you want in the Ultimate U as long as you don't touch my peter parker who i still see as my teen spider. Then there is the who is the real one, if i grew up on ultimate and you did 616 then which is the real spiderman? Well in this case the 1610 like most aus were absorbed into the MU after seeing what "sold" and then everything else was destroyed. So who exactly are these comics being marketed to.

[Habis]

Manga fans can be toxic, but for entirely different reasons. Once you’re caught up with a manga or an anime you’re just as much of an “expert” as anyone else in that fandom so it’s easy to ignore people that are just adding negativity to the discourse for no reason. With comics everyone can be reading the series and you’ll still see older fans weaponizing their decades of reading comics to push others out of the conversation.

Some time ago, after watching some anime and reading the manga it was inspired on, I decided to take a look around their wiki and maybe ask some questions to the "experts". The site had only like 3 - 4 people regularly visiting the forum, and when I dared post a question in a thread I was berated for daring to participate before reading the whole wiki and the seventeen light novels that have been published in Japan and that can only be found in a few niche sites that translate them to english...

These guys seemed to be actively trying to drive people away from the wiki, and to make the anime itself as unpopular as possible...

[PlotDevice]

I'm honestly seeing less and less teenagers reading X-Men nowadays. I know they exist, but among teen Marvel comic readers even the Champions resonates more with them.

Is it just me?

of course. Main stream comics suck now, so obviously less people of ALL demographics will be reading less X-books.

[Saithor]

of course. Main stream comics suck now, so obviously less people of ALL demographics will be reading less X-books.

Oh hey PlotDevice. Didn't expect to see you here

[PlotDevice]

Oh hey PlotDevice. Didn't expect to see you here

It's just common sense. Most comic book buyers are basically middle aged males. The x-books those people remember are all long gone. Teenagers are all buying manga.

[Saithor]

It's just common sense. Most comic book buyers are basically middle aged males. The x-books those people remember are all long gone. Teenagers are all buying manga.

Tbf I’m nowhere near middle aged yet but I have extremely weird tastes, but yes. If teens are buying comics, it’s either limited series, or something closely related to an adaption theyve watched. My sister and her friends bought Umbrella Academy because of the show for example.

[BroHomo]

Tbf I’m nowhere near middle aged yet but I have extremely weird tastes, but yes. If teens are buying comics, it’s either limited series, or something closely related to an adaption theyve watched. My sister and her friends bought Umbrella Academy because of the show for example.

Damn i bet they were disappointed AF

[Saithor]

Damn i bet they were disappointed AF

Nah, they enjoyed them well enough. They think the TV show is better but they still liked them.

[Grey]

I believe xmen will work itself back into teen/kid culture when it becomes a part of the mcu. Like it or not, their exclusion from the mcu the last decade + has hurt xmen relevance on many levels. Disney had no incentive to make xmen toys, video games, animated shows, merchandise- all which also help
Introduce people into the franchise.

I can’t say xmen comic reading will go up, as I think fewer people care about that compared to the movies and shows (again, not my place to say if that’s good or bad, just the realty of readers vs movie goers). But at least xmen will be revived in childhood memories and discussions more soon.