One of the only things we can count on in this life is change. From Politics to Pop Culture nothing remains constant other than the fact that whatever happens, change is coming. For years music couldn’t move without the major labels, then the Indies cracked the scene and now the Internet has turned music into a free for all. Film used to rely on the major studios, now they have their indie scene as well as people just randomly making movies that catch on e.g. Paranormal Activity.
The same need for change can be applied to comics and at this point in time it really needs to be. For the last few decades’ comics have been dominated by the Big Two: DC and Marvel. Together they have cast a long and wide shadow over the world of comic books obliterating most others in their path.
However now change is coming for one of them and though a painful change I feel it’s necessary. I’m talking about the need for one of the ever growing outside comic companies to kindly and mercifully unseat Marvel as one of the big two. In short, we need a new Marvel Comics.
Now before the screams of “off with his head” start let me assure all of you that I am a Marvel Comics fan, I was raised on them as everybody was. I’m also not saying “Marvel sucks” or trying to reduce this to a mudslinging contest. I am genuine in my claim that Marvel has lost their way and need to be replaced as one of the big two until they get their act together.
The quality of writing and art for Marvel may be top shelf but their recent editorial choices and story arc direction has been sorely lacking. Instead of a cohesive universe Marvel seems to be floundering, their stories read like a fish out of water flailing around trying to find some way to breathe. The ideas are all over the map, Marvel’s main “event” series rarely add up to much and even some of the top tier characters are being subjected to idiotic storylines. Marvel is too focused on staying one of the top two and their quality is slipping.
You don’t have to look any farther than Marvel’s never ending reliance on event series to find one of the shaky legs of their empire. One after the other the Marvel event series are rarely well executed and often only lead to the next event series. Look at how badly the infamous Civil War turned out. Not only were there massive delays but also the end, for many fans, seemed to be anti-climactic. Civil War at best read as though it was only there to allow for the death of Captain America.
Then there was the Skrull War series that by the end had serious editorial troubles. The story line became convoluted and hard to follow written as if a number of good ideas had been streamlined into one average one. When the Skrulls were discovered to be imitating superheroes it seemed as if that might lead to a major conflict in the Marvel Universe. Instead Skrull Wars ended and lead to Dark Reign, yet another event series. Dark Reign has been one of the biggest flops with fans simply because it hasn’t really gone anywhere.
Built on the concept of Norman Osbourne becoming an American hero who is allowed to rebuild S.H.E.I.L.D. into his own army as well as appoint any hero he wanted to serve his cause, Dark Reign was poised to be a huge movement in the world of Marvel. Instead it dragged on through never ending issues focused mostly on speeches and Osbourne ringing his hands and planning. As Dark Reign started to wind down it became a bit more exciting but not enough to save it.
I was also fascinated that the Marvel head honchos would allow the X-Men Necrosha story to even hit the newsstands. In Necrosha long dead mutants return from the grave in zombie form to attack the X-Men. This storyline is almost a direct rip off of the DC concept Blackest Night that deals with dead heroes returning as Black Lanterns. It’s interesting that X-Men would rip off DC, as the entire X-Men idea is long though to be a copy of DC’s Doom Patrol.
See how none of these event comics amount to anything on their own? Each one doesn’t stand alone as a series because it’s been written to push on to the next big multiple arc crossover. Event series for Marvel are so constant they aren’t even really events just status quo.
This restricts the growth of the individual comic books and makes everything Marvel does seem to rise and fall with their event series. That’s not the sign of a majorly creative or artistic force. Marvel also tends to spread these event comics into ever issue of every comic they sell. Fans are getting tired of having to buy issues of heroes they don’t read just to keep up.
