How Long Until The Marvel Universe Shutters?

[Alan2099]

Bit puzzled... are you guys saying if a writer comes up with a character... he puts it into whatever comic he's working on... whether or not it makes sense within the story?

Not really. More like, if a writer has a character they really want to use, they're going to make a story where the character fits.

[evolutionaryFan]

Not really. More like, if a writer has a character they really want to use, they're going to make a story where the character fits.

Sure but my point here is that the overall goal is to create one large overall story over a 15 year period (15 is just an arbitrary choice). There's a beginning, middle and end. There are sub-stories within... but ultimately the goal is to create an overall narrative that ends. You guys seem to be saying writers would not be onboard with this kind of project?

[Alex_Of_X]

It totally should. Can a moderator move the thread please?

I don't mind the in slightest!

The poll is transparent btw, so i can see who voted what. So far the "10-15 years" left window is dominated by Pro-marriage, anti-current run folks.

To what I want to say...really? That's so little time! The first Iron Man movie came out 15 years ago! 10 years ago we had Superior! That's like...4-5 more runs on Amazing Spider-Man MAX! with ~25 issues a year that's 250-325 issues, which gets us up to ASM ~1250.

Does it feel like you're watching the last, fallow years of a franchise you once loved?

[marhawkman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFr_jyfRTY4

gotta say... this was an interestingly in-side baseball look at the industry.. and it shows why DC and Marvel are failing so hard. the real market for mainstream comics.. was actually Diamond Distributors... and when they went under... the entire industry got tipped over.

[clonegeek]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFr_jyfRTY4

gotta say... this was an interestingly in-side baseball look at the industry.. and it shows why DC and Marvel are failing so hard. the real market for mainstream comics.. was actually Diamond Distributors... and when they went under... the entire industry got tipped over.

Diamonds still around, but it was ill advised for the comic book industry to have just one distributitor which when shut down due to Covid, shut down a whole industry.

I wonder how much sales recovered from Covid over all

[clonegeek]

I don't mind the in slightest!

The poll is transparent btw, so i can see who voted what. So far the "10-15 years" left window is dominated by Pro-marriage, anti-current run folks.

To what I want to say...really? That's so little time! The first Iron Man movie came out 15 years ago! 10 years ago we had Superior! That's like...4-5 more runs on Amazing Spider-Man MAX! with ~25 issues a year that's 250-325 issues, which gets us up to ASM ~1250.

Does it feel like you're watching the last, fallow years of a franchise you once loved?

I mean none of the stories in ASM current are going to matter in five years. The Paul stuff will get retconed. MJ will lose the memories of what happened. Hell, if we are lucky maybe the marriage will fully be back.

[marhawkman]

Diamonds still around, but it was ill advised for the comic book industry to have just one distributitor which when shut down due to Covid, shut down a whole industry.

I wonder how much sales recovered from Covid over all

right, forgot diamond was just temp closed, not perm.

[clonegeek]

right, forgot diamond was just temp closed, not perm.

Though I do think Diamond won't be around in a few years

[Peter Parker]

I wouldnt even mind if all that was left was them republishing older runs monthly with cheap newsprint for $1 an issue. Sort of what MAD ended up doing, but cheaper.

[clonegeek]

I wouldnt even mind if all that was left was them republishing older runs monthly with cheap newsprint for $1 an issue. Sort of what MAD ended up doing, but cheaper.

That would be fine

[Lukmendes]

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?

Comic books are like super cockroaches, they just don't die no matter how long you expect them to.

Honestly the two big problems that make it so comics don't attract new readers are the grossly high prices and how incomprehensible they are if you don't know a lot from the setting.

I wouldn't be surprised if comic books are being published at loss, but they keep doing so for the sake of testing specific types of stories, and/or keep specific copyrights, so as long as Disney owns Marvel, and as long as Disney is around, it's probably staying.

[Tuck]

Comic books are like super cockroaches, they just don't die no matter how long you expect them to.

Plenty of once-big comic publishers have gone out of business over the years. It's just that their more popular IPs survive at a new publisher.

[Lukmendes]

Plenty of once-big comic publishers have gone out of business over the years. It's just that their more popular IPs survive at a new publisher.

Should've specified I meant Marvel and DC lol.

I have this bad habit of talking about western comic books like it's only Marvel and DC, should try to drop it...

[HypnoHustler]

American comics as a medium are dying. Fan bases are getting old and not being replaced by new readers. I give it 10-15 years.

[Matt14teg]

American comics as a medium are dying. Fan bases are getting old and not being replaced by new readers. I give it 10-15 years.

The entry level for comic books has definitely hit a high point. Its even harder for old readers to jump back into comic books without the prior knowledge. Imagine trying to explain what the current xmen are to someone whose base understanding was the movies. It's an uphill battle, where as manga will always have an definitive starting and ending.