Most of Marvel's comics are really bad right now

[Shinglepants]

You're upset that the restrictions you've placed upon yourself have resulted in you buying crap comics?

[randomengine]

You're upset that the restrictions you've placed upon yourself have resulted in you buying crap comics?

No, I am upset that traditionally pretty decent comics are slacking in quality lately. Marvel needs to step up their game.

[TooFlyToFail]

Actually I agree with your sentiment, but not in the way you all claim. I want Marvel to return to long-numbered series and stop publishing the lesser titles. If those titles are good, I want that quality transferred to the books I actually want to read. The fact that I refuse to buy the secondary books is voting with my dollar. I want them to be cancelled so that Marvel focuses on their top books. The whole concept of publishing only Amazing Spider-Man instead of Spectacular, Web of, and adjectiveless was MY idea, expressed on these forums years before they started doing it. The reason Marvel double-ships is because of readers like me who want only the most popular characters and if they want more of my money they need only ship those series more often. So yes, I am voting with my dollar, just not in the same way you all are.

DC has just done with rebirth exactly what I want - a smaller number of series, published more frequently, tighter continuity, and returning Action/Detective to original numbering. I want to see Marvel do that.

Uh...for now. Wait until August-October and you'll see a lot of lesser titles. Lesser titles are good for the business.

[Jeremi]

I've been overall enjoying what Marvel have been giving out.

I think Guardians of the Galaxy is the only book I really hate right now.

[Guardian]

I have been collecting each major character/title that Marvel publishes for several years now. This is the first moment in that time that I am absolutely disappointed.

I get the big 10 titles:

Amazing Spider-Man
Captain America (was getting Sam Wilson, now getting Steve Rogers)
Invincible Iron Man
Mighty Thor
Totally Awesome Hulk
Daredevil
All-New, All-Different Avengers
[Fantastic Four] - being replaced by Uncanny Inhumans and Guardians of the Galaxy
Extraordinary X-Men

This is the first time I have been both disappointed and bored of every single one of them. Usually one of them shines, but something is going wrong over there at Marvel. This Civil War II thing just feels like manufactured crisis and not any kind of organic storytelling, it involves the fate of low-level characters like War Machine, She-Hulk and Captain Marvel - who I don't care about and shouldn't be the center of a line-wide event.

Now before you criticize my pull list and tell me how awesome the lesser-selling titles are, don't. I don't change my pull list. I buy the heavy hitters and roll the dice on quality. That's what I enjoy, but Marvel is really dropping the ball on the quality. Yet another damn relaunch is not going to cut it. They need to work on some good long-form storytelling and the recent interview where Brevoort is like "We need more impact now" totally ignores the basic principles of storytelling - you need small moments to make the big ones more meaningful. Be prepared for a lot of noise signifying nothing.

Is anyone else having a hard time enjoying Marvel lately or is it just me?

It's not just you. I've been buying around 30-35 new series with ANAD and I am down to half of it. The half I still keep for the moment is mainly also more or less disappointing. And I find that really sad because I always prefered Marvel but over the last months I really got into DC and now with Rebirth I am really exited about nearly all of the new ones. Today there were 4 first issues and I am just about reading them right now.

Currently I am mainly really disappointed with the following series:

- Guardians of the Galaxy: The run from Slott from 2008-2010 was so amazing but there is nothing left. The stories today are mediocre, childish, benign and just not interesting.
- Invincible Ironman: I don't know I just don't feel especially good by reading it, I can't describe it but something is amiss.
- Mighty Thor: I just miss Odinson so much and I just can't relate to Jane-Thor. I am still reading it because I still hope he will return.
- Totally awesome Hulk: It had a slight increase in quality over the last 3 issues but I still miss Banner
- ANAD Avengers: It just feels nothing like the Avengers from Hickman and I mean really nothing at all. Still interested to see what they will do in Space now helping Nova though.
- A-Force: Still on board but will be dropping it shortly I think
- All-New Inhumans: I'm still on board but until now it was so-so at best.
- All-New Xmen: This is a title I still rather enjoy
- Deadpool: Thinking of dropping it again
- Amazing Spider-Man: I kind of like the idea of "global Peter" so its not that bad until now
- Spiderman/Deadpool: This Series got me hooked over the last 3 issues, exited to see what will come now.
- Spiderman: The stories from Miles are not that bad, the last one with goldballs was a bit odd but I'm still in!
- Ultimates: The first 3-4 issues were huge but the quality is dropping
- Star-Lord: The origin story was nice but the soap opera with Kitty is just meeeh... Especially the last issue with the Collector. It was so damn cheesy and bad I could vomit.
- Doctor Strange: Until now I really enjoy it, good book
- Old Man Logan: Also like Strange it was really nice until now, I hope this continues in this kind of quality, both story and art wise.


Series that I dropped until now:

- Hercules
- Karnak
- Uncanny Avengers (the art in the first issues was so damn horrible, just insanely awful)
- Weirdworld
- Drax
- Black Knight
- Angela
- International Iron-Man
- Scarlet Witch
- Daredevil
- Contest of Champions (are you not entertained?!?! No I wasn't...)
- New Avengers (was not for me, the art is horrible and I just don't care for most characters like Squirrel Girl, Wiccan, Teddy and so on)


Overall I am really not that happy with ANAD so far and I still hope it will improve. But the next big thing (Civil War II) is really just a thing because of the movie (Cap 3) and I disliked the first Civil War comic so I'm not that optimistic. And now I read that Marvel will do new Issues or maybe even a new reboot with MARVEL NOW in a few months??! I mean they are really doing that after just 7-8 months of ANAD? Come on thats just plain stupid. And can someone explain to me if they were showing what happend to our beloved characters over the last 8 months? I mean they always said there was a timejump and all number 1 issues were starting 8 months after Secret Wars. And now? After 7-8 months of ANAD we will have no idea whatsoever what actually happend to the earth and our heroes right after Secret Wars. Will we ever know? Or is marvel just hoping that we will forget about that?

Well those are some thoughts as to why I am rooting more for DC over Marvel for the first time ever.

[TooFlyToFail]

Superior in what way? Subjective quality? I don't care. Extraordinary is the primary book.

This is ridiculous. You will refuse quality because it's not the "main" book? UXM might as well be that because it actually addresses the T-Mist situation, and is getting attention from other Marvel characters. There's a reason BUNN is writing the Civil War II tie for the X-Men, and why MAGNETO is the main character of said book.

It might as well be the "main" book. But go ahead and read Lemire's lesser Marvel title, while I read his amazing OML and MK series.

[randomengine]

It's not just you. I've been buying around 30-35 new series with ANAD and I am down to half of it. The half I still keep for the moment is mainly also more or less disappointing. And I find that really sad because I always prefered Marvel but over the last months I really got into DC and now with Rebirth I am really exited about nearly all of the new ones. Today there were 4 first issues and I am just about reading them right now.

Currently I am mainly really disappointed with the following series:

- Guardians of the Galaxy: The run from Slott from 2008-2010 was so amazing but there is nothing left. The stories today are mediocre, childish, benign and just not interesting.
- Invincible Ironman: I don't know I just don't feel especially good by reading it, I can't describe it but something is amiss.
- Mighty Thor: I just miss Odinson so much and I just can't relate to Jane-Thor. I am still reading it because I still hope he will return.
- Totally awesome Hulk: It had a slight increase in quality over the last 3 issues but I still miss Banner
- ANAD Avengers: It just feels nothing like the Avengers from Hickman and I mean really nothing at all. Still interested to see what they will do in Space now helping Nova though.
- A-Force: Still on board but will be dropping it shortly I think
- All-New Inhumans: I'm still on board but until now it was so-so at best.
- All-New Xmen: This is a title I still rather enjoy
- Deadpool: Thinking of dropping it again
- Amazing Spider-Man: I kind of like the idea of "global Peter" so its not that bad until now
- Spiderman/Deadpool: This Series got me hooked over the last 3 issues, exited to see what will come now.
- Spiderman: The stories from Miles are not that bad, the last one with goldballs was a bit odd but I'm still in!
- Ultimates: The first 3-4 issues were huge but the quality is dropping
- Star-Lord: The origin story was nice but the soap opera with Kitty is just meeeh... Especially the last issue with the Collector. It was so damn cheesy and bad I could vomit.
- Doctor Strange: Until now I really enjoy it, good book
- Old Man Logan: Also like Strange it was really nice until now, I hope this continues in this kind of quality, both story and art wise.


Series that I dropped until now:

- Hercules
- Karnak
- Uncanny Avengers (the art in the first issues was so damn horrible, just insanely awful)
- Weirdworld
- Drax
- Black Knight
- Angela
- International Iron-Man
- Scarlet Witch
- Daredevil
- Contest of Champions (are you not entertained?!?! No I wasn't...)
- New Avengers (was not for me, the art is horrible and I just don't care for most characters like Squirrel Girl, Wiccan, Teddy and so on)


Overall I am really not that happy with ANAD so far and I still hope it will improve. But the next big thing (Civil War II) is really just a thing because of the movie (Cap 3) and I disliked the first Civil War comic so I'm not that optimistic. And now I read that Marvel will do new Issues or maybe even a new reboot with MARVEL NOW in a few months??! I mean they are really doing that after just 7-8 months of ANAD? Come on thats just plain stupid. And can someone explain to me if they were showing what happend to our beloved characters over the last 8 months? I mean they always said there was a timejump and all number 1 issues were starting 8 months after Secret Wars. And now? After 7-8 months of ANAD we will have no idea whatsoever what actually happend to the earth and our heroes right after Secret Wars. Will we ever know? Or is marvel just hoping that we will forget about that?

Well those are some thoughts as to why I am rooting more for DC over Marvel for the first time ever.

Wow, thank you for the amazing and well-thought post. This was the kind of response I was hoping for.

[TooFlyToFail]

No, I am upset that traditionally pretty decent comics are slacking in quality lately. Marvel needs to step up their game.

They have. Read the good versions of the books you're complaining about, and branch out a bit. It's way too silly to read only the "main" books, when there's other books doing what the books you read do, but better.

I'm guessing you also read Hickman's inferior Avengers title, over his far superior New Avengers and Avengers World? You know, the books where he can go the extra mile with his storytelling, and isn't bogged down by corporate management.

[TooFlyToFail]

Wow, thank you for the amazing and well-thought post. This was the kind of response I was hoping for.

How? You don't even read most the books that person posted.

[Prof. Warren]

Wow, thank you for the amazing and well-thought post. This was the kind of response I was hoping for.

You were hoping for someone to simply agree with you.

[randomengine]

This is ridiculous. You will refuse quality because it's not the "main" book? UXM might as well be that because it actually addresses the T-Mist situation, and is getting attention from other Marvel characters. There's a reason Bunn is writing the Civil War II tie for the X-Men, and why MAGNETO is the main character of said book.

It might as well be the "main" book. But go ahead and read Lemire's lesser Marvel title, while I read his amazing OML and MK series.

1. Who is writing the tie-in book for a major event says nothing about which book is primary.
2. A lot was taken from Astonishing X-Men when Joss was writing it, but it still was not the primary book. Same for Morrison New X-Men or Lee/Claremont X-Men.

The primary book has always been Uncanny......except for Astonishing X-Men during AoA, the first 5 issues or so of All-New X-Men (1st volume), and now that Extraordinary has replaced it (there may be other cases I am forgetting). Extraordinary has Iceman, Storm, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Magik...all of those are either original X-Men, Giant-Size additions, or holdovers from the previous volume. The only 2 traditionals that are missing are Magneto and Archangel. The roster speaks for itself. Extraordinary is the primary book. It has an exclusive writer and the best cast and makes the most compelling case for main book.

[randomengine]

Troll elsewhere folks.

[Ravin' Ray]

This thread is not going anywhere productive anymore and is starting to get personal. And it wandered off the original post somewhat. Time to let it rest.