Marvel Relaunching In May (Again)

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Isn't this like the 10th time they've done this since 2000?

Ha. This is the comment you see in response to this announcement all over the web.

And it's true. Someone put it pretty well when they said Marvel is like "the boy who cried wolf". This is a much needed relaunch after a terrible year with fans/P.R. in 2017, a new editor in chief on board, a desire for new talent...but they've done the relaunch thing so many times now that it may not resonate as much as it should.

For me personally, they can relaunch or not all they want. It won't matter a damn thing, to me, until they get some artists and writers back that I want to see. I mean no disrepsect to their current staff, and they do deserve a chance to prove themselves, but it's also fair to acknowledge readers like myself are following writers/artists more than we are following characters. Morrison, Hickman, King, Way, Gaiman, Rucka, Brubaker, Remender, Opena, Capullo, Quitely, Craig, etc.
There are so many active creators who's work I love and follow, but none of them are at Marvel.

And hell, I'm probably in the minority when it comes to my reading/purchasing habits, which is fine. But that's what they'd have to do to get my money back. I'll say they did a good job grabbing Donny Cates from Image, and the Venom series they've just announced by him has me intruiged.

[dl316bh]

They literally just did this with Legacy or Generations or whatever it was, didn't they? They keep seeing diminishing returns with relaunches, but they don't learn a lesson.

Originally Posted by AquaParade

Morrison, Hickman, King, Way, Gaiman, Rucka, Brubaker, Remender, Opena, Capullo, Quitely, Craig, etc.

Unfortunately for them, a lot of those guys just don't seem to be interested anymore. I don't ever expect to see Morrison there again in any real capacity. Hickman, Rucka, Remender and Quitely already made their names and seem quite content to stick to creator owned for now (though Hickman has hinted at maybe going to DC for a while, but that does Marvel no favors). Quitely's too slow to do anything but miniseries, really. Gaiman's a renowned novelist and public speaker, so dude ain't doing s*** in comics but for rare occasions. Bru's not interested outright, saying he doesn't want to do superheroes anymore, unless his position changed recently. Which leaves King, Way and Capullo, who all have sweet gigs with DC right now.

I think that's the thing that's kind of lost in the shuffle. A lot of the reason Marvel's had to staff themselves with a lot of new faces is because they didn't really have a choice. Jason Aaron aside, a lot of the creators they considered central to building the Marvel Universe all left. Brubaker, Rucka, Fraction, Remender and Hickman all left within three years of each other and they made up a LOT of Marvels brain trust. Even Bendis is gone now. Best they can do is what they did last time and pick up some people from the indies, hoping for some breakout creative voices, but they're probably not getting the sort of gold mine of unique voices all at once they did last time.

[Redeemer]

Marvel must be seriously hurting their brand with this constant relaunch B.S.

[CyberCubed]

It's time for all comic books to shut down for a few years then come back with some good new material.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It's time for all comic books to shut down for a few years then come back

Talk about torpedoing what's left of comic stores out there.

[Shark_Blade]

I just pick and choose the best stories tbh. And art.

[TurtleWA]

Marvel should just hire some of the people from twitter. That stuff is an entertaining read and very creative. They also all have foolproof ideas for running a business. I think the best thing someone can do is just stick with IDW.

[Redeemer]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

I just pick and choose the best stories tbh. And art.

This is me %100

I would like to see some new characters and have a few characters retired.
Thats what I love about manga is that there is so much variety and so many stories to tell.

I feel like the comic industry kind of limits its characters by trying to have so many characters in a universe

[dl316bh]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It's time for all comic books to shut down for a few years then come back with some good new material.

Oh yeah, why not? I'm sure DC, IDW, Boom, Dark Horse, etc. would all be so happy to completely shut down production and wipe out the entire industry because Marvel can't stick to a direction or stop relaunching. Creators too, I'm sure it'll be just the easiest to get other work for the time being. Comic shops would be supportive too. All fans of every other publisher or of creator owned stuff would all just be thrilled too and totally understanding.

Sarcasm out of the way, you do that - and no one ever would, but for the sake of argument - the industry is not coming back. If they tried, they have all the same problems they had before, but now the lifers have been cut from the habit, routine and cycle and some may not come back, so they're dealing with an even smaller pool. They'd also have to pin all their hopes on digital growing exponentially as well, because the rest of the comic shops would all die in the meantime and, as crap as they are, Diamond probably goes under in this scenario too, so there's no one to distribute.

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by dl316bh

They literally just did this with Legacy or Generations or whatever it was, didn't they? They keep seeing diminishing returns with relaunches, but they don't learn a lesson.


Unfortunately for them, a lot of those guys just don't seem to be interested anymore. I don't ever expect to see Morrison there again in any real capacity. Hickman, Rucka, Remender and Quitely already made their names and seem quite content to stick to creator owned for now (though Hickman has hinted at maybe going to DC for a while, but that does Marvel no favors). Quitely's too slow to do anything but miniseries, really. Gaiman's a renowned novelist and public speaker, so dude ain't doing s*** in comics but for rare occasions. Bru's not interested outright, saying he doesn't want to do superheroes anymore, unless his position changed recently. Which leaves King, Way and Capullo, who all have sweet gigs with DC right now.

I think that's the thing that's kind of lost in the shuffle. A lot of the reason Marvel's had to staff themselves with a lot of new faces is because they didn't really have a choice. Jason Aaron aside, a lot of the creators they considered central to building the Marvel Universe all left. Brubaker, Rucka, Fraction, Remender and Hickman all left within three years of each other and they made up a LOT of Marvels brain trust. Even Bendis is gone now. Best they can do is what they did last time and pick up some people from the indies, hoping for some breakout creative voices, but they're probably not getting the sort of gold mine of unique voices all at once they did last time.

This is a great breakdown, but one could argue that these creators not being at Marvel is the fault of the company. Maybe they aren't so favorable to work for because of editorial reasons.

Why on earth don't they have an Ultimate line anymore? It seems like a no-brainer to attract renowned creators to give their uncompromised take on their stable of characters, without disturbing the 616/Prime universe.