How Long Until The Marvel Universe Shutters?

[Alex_Of_X]

There's this undercurrent that sometimes bubbles up in discussion on this board, not a new one, but one i find notable. It's that Marvel comics publishing is a sinking ship.

Sales are dwindling. Long-term fans, disgruntled and underserved, are turning away. New readers refuse to come, despite the company's best efforts.

Many have opinions on how to right the proverbial ship: fire the bad creators! Age the heroes! Retire them all! Reboot!

So, I'd like to ask you straight, fellow true believers. Is Marvel the titanic heading for the Iceberg? If so, how much longer does the old girl got?

[Garlador]

This might be better served in the overarching Marvel section than just Spider-Man. I have my thoughts - many of them concerning Spider-Man (full disclosure: I have not purchased a Spider-Man book since One More Day outside of Renew Your Vows and Lost Hunt…) - but there are problems facing every book for many different reasons. Spider-Man just is the book that gets the most vitriol from unhappy, underserved fans.

[clonegeek]

There's this undercurrent that sometimes bubbles up in discussion on this board, not a new one, but one i find notable. It's that Marvel comics publishing is a sinking ship.

Sales are dwindling. Long-term fans, disgruntled and underserved, are turning away. New readers refuse to come, despite the company's best efforts.

Many have opinions on how to right the proverbial ship: fire the bad creators! Age the heroes! Retire them all! Reboot!

So, I'd like to ask you straight, fellow true believers. Is Marvel the titanic heading for the Iceberg? If so, how much longer does the old girl got?

They are going to need to figure out away to attract new readers. They need to get more books in Targets and other retailers like that.

I voted for 10 to 15 years, though it would be amusing for Marvel to still be pumping out Peter Parker stories in 2099.

[Spider-Tiger]

Honestly, I'm not sure it'll last another two decades. At least in its current state with a wide variety of titles being published on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. The big characters like Batman, Superman, Spider-man, etc. will probably always exist in some form.

The time to really grow the industry would have been during the start of the superhero movie craze of the 2010s. And interest there is starting to dwindle a bit. I think video game and/or Japanese anime/manga properties will become the new fad moving into the 2030s.

[Knightsilver]

Honestly, I'm not sure it'll last another two decades. At least in its current state with a wide variety of titles being published on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. The big characters like Batman, Superman, Spider-man, etc. will probably always exist in some form.

The time to really grow the industry would have been during the start of the superhero movie craze of the 2010s. And interest there is starting to dwindle a bit. I think video game and/or Japanese anime/manga properties will become the new fad moving into the 2030s.

Same here. I voted 10-15 years...I just don't see the comic industry lasting much longer. The well known characters will survive as video games and movies...but comics are on their last legs.

[Spider-Tiger]

Same here. I voted 10-15 years...I just don't see the comic industry lasting much longer. The well known characters will survive as video games and movies...but comics are on their last legs.

If Disney/Marvel is smart, maybe they'll start buying out Japanese properties, and that might be enough to keep American superhero comics going (if popular manga are integrated into Marvel publishing.) It would also give Marvel Studios opportunity for expansion outside of the superhero genre and the MCU.

[clonegeek]

You know I think that in the next 10ish years, Marvel is going to try to reboot the universe DC style. Will it really work? Probally not

[Lee]

People of been predicting the death of Marvel comics since at least the 1970s, yet here we are.

If Disney/Marvel is smart, maybe they'll start buying out Japanese properties. And that might be enough to keep the American superhero publishing division afloat. Like if popular manga is integrated into Marvel publishing.

Could you elaborate on this? What do you think they should be buying? And how would it work afterwards?

[Spider-Tiger]

Could you elaborate on this? What do you think they should be buying? And how would it work afterwards?

Competitors like Shuiesha which own the rights to properties like Dragon ball, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, etc. or Kodansha which owns Sailor Moon, One Piece, etc. They would then be able to not only publish works with these characters but also produce their own films, animation, etc. and tap into a growing market. It would be another potential IP farm for them.

[Mister Mets]

I think it's likely to happen with the rapid pace of change making it impossible for Peter Parker to be in his 20s/30s and the same guy who was a teenager in comics published in the 1960s.

Fans have gotten used to the idea of different versions of characters, recognizing the differences between the MCU and other movies, to say nothing of multiversal variants.

I suspect that there will still be projects in the original Marvel Universe, but that there'll be more projects in other worlds.

[Lee]

Competitors like Shuiesha which own the rights to properties like Dragon ball, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, etc. or Kodansha which owns Sailor Moon, One Piece, etc. They would then be able to not only publish works with these characters but also produce their own films, animation, etc. and tap into a growing market. It would be another potential IP farm for them.

I don't think those huge Japanese publishers would want to be bought out by Disney. But if that were to happen, how would it keep Marvel's American super-hero comics going?

[Spider-Tiger]

I don't think those huge Japanese publishers would want to be bought out by Disney. But if that were to happen, how would it keep Marvel's American super-hero comics going?

Perhaps not.

The same way that massive IPs like Batman and Spider-man are keeping the rest of the comics industry afloat today. They'd have access to a wide variety of successful Japanese properties to work with as well as the capacity to tap into the growing manga/anime market in a way that the American IPs have not been able to. (That is assuming that these Japanese publishers are folded into or merged w/ Marvel publishing in some way, which I imagine they would be as publishers of comics that are sold at similar retail spaces and marketed to similar audiences.)

[Lee]

Perhaps not.

The same way that massive IPs like Batman and Spider-man are keeping the rest of the comics industry afloat today. They'd have access to a wide variety of successful Japanese properties to work with as well as the capacity to tap into the growing manga/anime market in a way that the American IPs have not been able to. (That is assuming that these Japanese publishers are folded into or merged w/ Marvel publishing in some way, which I imagine they would be as publishers of comics that are sold at similar retail spaces and marketed to similar audiences.)

Shuiesha is Japan's biggest publisher, they do more than just comics. Merging them with Marvel Comics wouldn't make sense. What would happen in the Japanese market in your scenario? What do you mean, from a comics perspective, when you say "successful Japanese properties to work with"? Work with how?

[evolutionaryFan]

I'd like a set of separate Marvel titles that reboot every 15 years or so... no floating timeline. Have stories that end... then when the titles reboot in 15 years, use slightly different versions of the characters... but them in a slightly different setting. And NO multiverse shenanigans.

So every 15 years, we explore a different version of Spiderman. Maybe Peter Parker, maybe someone else with the similar powers.. whatever... but the idea being that these runs will definitely end after 15 years... loose ends tied up... The idea being that these self-contained arcs that end and are never touched again... if Doc Ock dies and the arc ends... that means that he really died in this story permanently. This would allow writers to write stories that are more like other forms of fiction.

The problem with current stories is that they can always be undone... villains can be resurrected... and it just cheapens everything that happened in the past.

[Lee]

I'd like a set of separate Marvel titles that reboot every 15 years or so... no floating timeline.

Is 12 issues enough to depict 365 days of Tony Stark's life? What if a writer has a 5 issue story that spans just three days of Tony Stark's life? Would the next story arc be forced to have a 5 month time skip to accommodate this?

So every 15 years, we explore a different version of Spiderman. Maybe Peter Parker, maybe someone else with the similar powers.. whatever... but the idea being that these runs will definitely end after 15 years... loose ends tied up...

What happens if a creative team introduces a hit new character halfway through year 14 of this new Marvel Universe?