Why are the marvel books failing? Plus: Diversity problems in marvel books?!!!!!

[Seth]

What do you think Iron Man, Guardians of The Galaxy, Avengers, and Captain America Civil War all have in common? If you said “They are all critically and financially acclaimed” well my friend you are right! The Marvel Cinematic Universe AKA The MCU has lately been getting better and better, whereas its twin counterpart Marvel Comics has been doing worse and worse. So, why is it that the Marvel films are superior to its books?



Back in 25th of May 2016 DC comics released their first Rebirth title. It wasn’t a reboot, but a reincarnation. In other words, they brought back what the fans and the casual readers loved about their books. I mention this because prior to the release of the first Rebirth title, Dc books were making a fraction of what Marvel books were making at the time. To dig deeper, back in august 2015 DC’s overall market share was lower than image comics, whereas Marvel was pursuing the first spot. So, what caused such a drastic change that by less than half a year DC books were, and are to this day outselling Marvel books by a mile? What is it?

All New, All Different Marvel.

Yes. I believe you red that with utmost accuracy. The reason why Marvel comics keep getting poorer is because of this All New, All Different Marvel trend, and I call it a trend because it truly is. There is this wrong believe among the producers at Marvel Comics that ethnic diversity is the only way to sell books. That the only way to truly be successful is to change things up. Now, don’t look at me and go bananas in the comment section. Let me explain myself.


There is nothing wrong with a bit of change, and diversity here and there. In fact, I am of ethnic minority myself. I am a black male, and as such know the value of addressing minorities in comic books. In more fact, comic books back when I was in my home country restored my hope in humanity. They showed me hope seeing heroes like Captain America stand up against prejudice. Fun fact, that’s how I got into comics. My father showed me Captain America standing up against racial discrimination.


So, if it’s done correctly ethnic diversity can work. Another example, Miles Morals who frankly is a much better Spiderman than the original ever was, stands as a testimony that adding diversity to a beloved verse is a good thing. Nonetheless, one thing is a fact. A fact that most Marvel producers seem to have completely forgotten. Miles Morals was a successful character, and was well received by both critics and fans not because he just so happens to be black, but because he is a well thought-out, and well written character. Miles Morals is carefully written, and because of that people like the character.

Instead, the brains at Marvel Comics think character like Miles Morals worked because they were of ethnic minority. That’s far from the case. Comics like any other entertainment media need to be well written. If, your product so happens to be poorly written, then guess what! You will receive a backlash bigger than the size of Trump’s ego. So, how can Marvel fix this problem?

By Copying From DC Comics.

It doesn’t sound professional to propose copying from your main competitor, but these two publishers have been ripping each other since the word Superhero was uttered. It’s not something new, nor something unheard of. Whenever one of them comes up with something new that is effective to boost sell figures, then the other renames the idea, and calls it theirs. So, don’t be shy Marvel. Do a Rebirth. That’s right. Marvel doesn’t need anymore awful reboots. In the last half a decade they have been floating in the middle of The Pacific Ocean. So, instead of dedicating more time, effort, and man-hours to something that will get them steeper into further dilemma, just do what worked for DC comics.


Marvel needs to just do what DC is doing, and seize all that DC gold.
That’s it for this post. I wanted to get this off my chest for quite a while now, so I hope you enjoyed. Share your thoughts below. Till my next post, take care everyone.

[rui no onna]

To me, it seems like a lot of Marvel's good writers have moved to Image Comics. *shrug*

[Prof. Warren]

Marvel needs to just do what DC is doing, and seize all that DC gold.

So the #1 comic company needs to get all the gold that the #2 comic company has. Got it. Makes sense. I'm sure they'll get on that.

[SlimeBeherit]

You're basing your argument on bad writting leading to poor sales. Yet The Vision made almost every sites #1 pick for best comic of 2016 and it was selling about 17k towards the end of the series. Black Widow, Spider-Woman, Howard The Duck, and The Ultimates (to name a few) have been fantastic reads and yet they sell a paltry 15-20k. "Bad writing" isn't the problem, and your solution for Marvel to rebirth reveals that.

[ed2962]

Hmm...it's been maybe a couple of months? I guess it is time for another one of these threads...

[rui no onna]

So the #1 comic company needs to get all the gold that the #2 comic company has. Got it. Makes sense. I'm sure they'll get on that.

Comichron December 2016

1. Marvel
Dollar Share: 36.73%
Unit Share: 40.50%

2. DC
Dollar Share: 29.47%
Unit Share: 29.04%

3. Image
Dollar Share: 8.81%
Unit Share: 7.70%

With most of Marvel comics selling for $3.99 instead of $2.99 (33% higher than DC's), I expect DC would have won the unit sales if not for Marvel's free 50% overships on certain titles. I'm sure IVX #1 ($5.99) is one of the overships. There's just no reason for it to be #2 with 167K unit sales while being #3 in dollar rankings when DK III: Master Race #7 ($5.99) is #2 in dollar rankings while being #3 with 119K unit sales.

When the reason you're the #1 publisher is because of higher cover price and gimmicks such as incentive variants and free overships, and not because fans genuinely love your stories, then yeah, #1 could learn something from #2.

[MindofShadow]

Comichron December 2016

1. Marvel
Dollar Share: 36.73%

2. DC
Dollar Share: 29.47%

3. Image
Dollar Share: 8.81%

With most of Marvel comics selling for $3.99 instead of $2.99 (33% higher than DC's), I expect DC would have won the unit sales if not for Marvel's free 50% overships on certain titles. I'm sure IVX #1 ($5.99) is one of the overships. There's just no reason for it to be #2 with 167K unit sales while being #3 in dollar rankings when DK III: Master Race #7 ($5.99) is #2 in dollar rankings while being #3 with 119K unit sales.

When the reason you're the #1 publisher is because of higher cover price and gimmicks such as incentive variants and free overships, and not because fans genuinely love your story, then yeah, #1 could learn something from #2.

There, left the relevant data.

Unit share means diddly piddly. Its all abotu the money.

And Marvel has been at this price point for years, used this events to sell for years, and used #1's for years.

And they have been #1 in sales for years.


so.... im confused

[j9ac9k]

Hasn't this been the cycle for the past couple of decades? A cycle of "new and different" where they shake things up to get a spike in sales, then when it starts to decline, a cycle of "returning to the way things were" to get another sales spike, etc... Wash, rinse, repeat...

[Prof. Warren]

Comichron December 2016

1. Marvel
Dollar Share: 36.73%
Unit Share: 40.50%

2. DC
Dollar Share: 29.47%
Unit Share: 29.04%

3. Image
Dollar Share: 8.81%
Unit Share: 7.70%

With most of Marvel comics selling for $3.99 instead of $2.99 (33% higher than DC's), I expect DC would have won the unit sales if not for Marvel's free 50% overships on certain titles. I'm sure IVX #1 ($5.99) is one of the overships. There's just no reason for it to be #2 with 167K unit sales while being #3 in dollar rankings when DK III: Master Race #7 ($5.99) is #2 in dollar rankings while being #3 with 119K unit sales.

When the reason you're the #1 publisher is because of higher cover price and gimmicks such as incentive variants and free overships, and not because fans genuinely love your stories, then yeah, #1 could learn something from #2.

And when you can only get people to buy your books when you sell them at $2.99, that's not a recipe for long term success.

We've seen this before: DC relaunches their line, low balling the competition with a cheap cover price. Despite claims of "holding the line", they raise their prices because "holding the line" was a bullsh*t promise to begin with and sales subsequently collapse. DC is already raising the price of their monthlies in April. The rest of the line will follow eventually.

DC is already about where they were at this same point last year sales-wise prior to Rebirth so I don't think they're in any position to teach Marvel how to sell books.

If readers like DC's current line, that's great. But this will probably come as a surprise to you but Marvel readers like the books they read as well.

[rui no onna]

Hasn't this been the cycle for the past couple of decades? A cycle of "new and different" where they shake things up to get a spike in sales, then when it starts to decline, a cycle of "returning to the way things were" to get another sales spike, etc... Wash, rinse, repeat...

And with every cycle, it seems events and reboots become less and less effective (holds true for both publishers).

[Ra-El]

The big difference is that DC was honest about what they were doing, they said "we screw up, now we're going to fix it", and they has been doing greately so far, characters like Batman and Aquaman were barely touched by Rebirth while Superman for exemple was basically remade, and the response didn't came only with the sales but the critics and fan response has been very positive. And Marvel is already copying it, RessuXion isn't the same? Altoulgh focuse on the X-Men line is basically the same thing.

[rui no onna]

If readers like DC's current line, that's great. But this will probably come as a surprise to you but Marvel readers like the books they read as well.

I'm still bitter with Marvel cancelling Black Widow and changing their digital edition program.

[SlimeBeherit]

I'm still bitter with Marvel cancelling Black Widow and changing their digital edition program.

They didn't cancel Black Widow, it was planned for be 12 issues long. This has been the case for many books. I think barring a runaway success of close to 100k numbers, Black Widow would have still ended at 12 issues. That new digital program is total garbage though.

[robreedwrites]

MovieBob gets at the heart of what I think Marvel is really doing. And not just in terms of diversity, but in terms of line-wide approach. It's a testing ground.

[Iron Maiden]

Hmm...it's been maybe a couple of months? I guess it is time for another one of these threads...

Really, I wish people would search for thread topics before creating the same old same old.

and for the record, Marvel was on the top December and January. It's been a seesaw between the companies.

Something else: competition is good.