Grouse of M
I've noticed two posts on comic blogs lamenting that they no longer read Marvel titles. By no means is this a random sample, since it was self-selected from blogs I read.
Without being hair trigger about it, these posts plus the outcry to the old Cup O' Joe Quesada statements regarding Spider-man and Mary Jane-- Is there a new upswell of anti-Marvel sentiment?
Requiem for a Marvel Zombie
Over at Marvel, though, the line between good and evil became so blurred that the distinction no longer seemed to matter. Editor & Chief Joe Quesada, who originally supported innovative series like Grant Morrison's New X-Men, led the charge for a brand of "realism" that bore a greater resemblance to utter hopelessness
What if Marvel wasn't dumb?
Earth-X Hardcover
I’m not much for Marvel these days. Sad after a youth spent equally devouring DC and Marvel books. In fact I can’t remember the last time I read a Marvel comic that I could rave about it
Maybe female librarians just like DC better- I searched Shelly's blog to see she only reads one Marvel title.
The only Marvel title I read
posted by RedheadFangirl @ 7:21 PM
4 Comments:
Yeah, I'm another who grew up as a Marvel kid and transfered my affections to DC at around 1986 (DARK KNIGHT, WATCHMEN etc), and never really looked back. DC were at the vanguard, pushing the medium forward, pioneering new talent, new formats, giving writers and artists their head. Marvel had Archie Goodwin's Epic line for a while, adding to that spirit of change, but after that faltered, they came to represent the new conservatism: all superheroes, all the time.
I still buy a few Marvels every month, but largely in TPB form. That's one aspect of the biz in which they have proven to be more progressive than DC: understanding the change in the market from singles to collections. Any ongoing monthlies I get from Marvel are those I reckon need the sales to continue, not being connected in any way to the X-MEN sales juggernaut (RUNAWAYS, SHE-HULK, NEXTWAVE). Oh yeah, and THE ULTIMATES, because to wait for that in trade form would prove agonising. I'll get anything Ed Brubaker writes, but I can wait for the trades of CAPTAIN AMERICA and DAREDEVIL. Looking forward to his new ICON series CRIMINAL, too.
Plus, the TPB is a handy, disposable form: you can get them from your library, or buy 'em from Amazon, and even sell 'em on Ebay if you don't feel the need to keep it.
I should probably buy more trades, would save me dough in the long run I get quite a few TPB through the library system. But delayed gratification on some series will just not cut it for me!
All that said, I don't get that many DCU-set titles anymore, either. I've been buying a hell of a lot more DC imprint books, Vertigo, Wildstorm, All-Star, the barely-affiliated SEVEN SOLDIERS line, etc. The DCU has been as plagued by this recent crossover fever as Marvel have.
Ah well, the crossovers seem to be driving sales up, so it'd be churlish of me to complain too much - rumours have CIVIL WAR #1 as selling as much as 300k. That's a lot of people coming back to the direct market. Hopefully, while they're back in a comic shop, they'll nose around and buy some other deserving titles, too.
I've been tempted to pick up 52, purely because of Grant Morrison's involvement, and I will be getting the TPB of James Robinson's Batman arc, and presumably future trades of Morrison and Paul Dini's runs on the character (it doesn't take much prodding to bring out the latent Bat-nut in me).
It's hard to say - I approve more of DC's overall direction, and I read your article and agree with most of what you're saying, but I still find myself buying and enjoying more Marvel titles overall.
I only have 3 "buy without question" books from DC (Birds of Prey, All-Star Superman, and the soon-to-be-done Seven Soldiers), versus 9 from Marvel (Runaways, She-Hulk, Daredevil, Nextwave, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, X-Factor, Young Avengers, and soon-to-be-over Thing and X-Statix: Dead Girl). While I think Quesada's completely wrongheaded about the big franchise books, I guess he gives a lot more freedom to experiment on everything else. While mainstream Marvel may be dull, there's a lot of quirky, unique stuff going on at the margins, and I haven't found many equivalents at DC that weren't written by Grant Morrison.
P.S. - Call me a Pollyanna, but I'm not hating Civil War just yet. Yes, it's got that fixation on "realism," but I think all the kick 'splode action that Millar's so good at might balance it out.
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