Would a clean slate reboot really be that bad?

[Zero Hunter]

I know reboot is a dirty word when it comes to comics but maybe it might be the best thing in the long run for Marvel to think about. I mean Marvel now has to keep pumping out event after event to even make any kind of headway. They have turned the Avengers franchise into a virtual army of super heroes that no real threat on earth can even phase anymore without major POS thrown in so they have to keep making bigger and more ridiculous universal threats to even have any drama. The X-Books have been kinda a bloated mess for the better part of a decade at least. They keep going back to the hero versus hero gimick. The classic villains have been so overused the last 20 years that most are just sad shells of what they used to be. And now they are going back to that old 90's classic gimick and replacing all their old characters (Cap, Spider Man, Thor) with new versions just like before. Love it or hate it the DC reboot did get a lot of press and sell a lot of books. Just look at how many books the Ultimate line was selling before it got taken down by bad writing and poor planning.

I mean Marvel ignores most of its history anyway so would it really be that bad to lost it all and start over?

[TresDias]

My fingers are crossed for it.

[dragonmp93]

Well, DC's reboot also erased a lot of characters, like Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown (spoilers:

at least she is back batman eternal

end of spoilers); good thing that my favorite characters are A-listers anyways.

[Coal Tiger]

A reboot is just a temporary sales boost that pisses off nearly the entire core readership. DC's books are pretty much at pre-new 52 levels, and only wins one month a year when they put out a bunch of one-shots with hologram covers. Marvel can achieve temporary sales boosts with event comics pretty easily without rebooting, and they get to brag that they've never just given up and started over. It's pointless.

[Username taken]

A reboot is just a temporary sales boost that pisses off nearly the entire core readership. DC's books are pretty much at pre-new 52 levels, and only wins one month a year when they put out a bunch of one-shots with hologram covers. Marvel can achieve temporary sales boosts with event comics pretty easily without rebooting, and they get to brag that they've never just given up and started over. It's pointless.

This.

Re-boot doesn't improve quality and simply provide temporary sales boost.

[Moriarty]

so would it really be that bad to lost it all and start over?

yes, yes it would.

[leo619]

A reboot is just a temporary sales boost that pisses off nearly the entire core readership. DC's books are pretty much at pre-new 52 levels, and only wins one month a year when they put out a bunch of one-shots with hologram covers. Marvel can achieve temporary sales boosts with event comics pretty easily without rebooting, and they get to brag that they've never just given up and started over. It's pointless.

That's actually not true, DC current yearly sales are definitely higher than pre-new 52 levels.

[Kieran_Frost]

A reboot is not the answer (and in the long run won't solve the problems you listed). It's a lazy way of "fixing" things (like the absurd amount of Avengers). Rather than take the easy way out; just spend time re-organising. Have Spiderman kicked out and explain why, limit the official Avengers and explain why in the story, just set the ball rolling rather than erasing everything because it's "easier." A skilled writer can easily repair something others took years to destroy. It's not rocket science, it's science fiction.

[Marvel_Is]

A reboot is for publishers who are embarrassed by their characters and need a way to save face. Marvel is far from that.

[CSTowle]

5 years ago I'd have been against it, but the New 52 has shown me that just because my favorite characters/runs don't exist anymore doesn't mean I can't go back and enjoy them. And I trust Marvel to have their s##t together better than DC did on both the roll-out, early cancellations, and concepts in general. The only downside would be if they felt the need to retell origin stories and waste first issue space on them (though I'd understand if the point was to draw in new readers who potentially are unaware of the origins). Then again, DC didn't really do a lot of origin rehashes in their first issues so maybe Marvel could adopt that. I'd be sad for all of the characters who'd fall by the wayside, but most are effectively there now and if a writer had an idea for one of my favorites (like Adam Warlock, the Black Knight, Blink, etc.) they could just reboot the concept and in some cases probably get rid of a lot of baggage.

That said, I also think it's unnecessary. If we can ignore Iron Man/Reed Richards killing Black Goliath, Spider-Man having a kid and a marriage and bone claws and magical powers, Wolverine being descended from wolves, etc. due to retcons and writers just plain ignoring bad stories then there's no need to start over. I'd like to see some concepts reimagined and we might get some good things out of that, but at the same time there's nothing to stop Marvel from doing that right now if they'd like.

[sprior93]

It wouldn't be THAT bad, but all it would really amount to is a temporary sales boost and a lot of pissed off fans. However, I find the idea of putting the X-Men in their own universe appealing for some reason.

[Marvel Forever]

Well, at this point a reboot is the only thing that can save the Fantastic Four. Actually, I think a reboot might not be that bad after all. Only time will tell I guess.

[CyclopsWasRight]

See: Heroes Reborn.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

The reboot rumor has been running for years.
Marvel don't need a reboot, it won't be the wisest decision to make.
For starters; Spider-Man must NEVER return to high school, it's been done over and over again.
And the X-Men don't need to be hunted freaks. (I remember they were kinda respected in the community for a while.)

[robreedwrites]

My main issue is that you can't really have a clean slate reboot. Writers have favorite runs, artists have favorite designs, etc. Unless editorial becomes really stiff and makes a starting point in terms of a firm timeline, that backstory that has defined characters is going to creep in. As it has in the New 52, which wasn't really a clean slate to begin with, but it really isn't now.