the cancellation of a solicited mini weeks before it was supposed to come out (Victor von Doom), and the cancellation of a mini before it was solicited (Destroyers) a couple weeks back, along with a number of layoffs, and it's a lot to take in.I have been an ardent Marvel fan my whole life. Their characters, particularly the X-Men, are near and dear to me. I consider Marvel under Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter to be the best the comics industry ever achieved. But the company's actions in the past year, along with the pompous boor (Tom Brevoort) they have decided to make their spokesperson, have strongly turned me against them. But I'm going to try to put that aside for the moment.
To an outside observer, it appears as though any property not tied to a movie franchise or written by one of Marvel's vaunted "Architects" has no chance of succeeding. I have long long grown tired of Marvel's events and their tie-ins, and have stayed far away from the last few with no sleepless nights. In recent times, I have been turning to more unusual side projects (the Crossgen mini-series', the X-Club, X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back, the Oz minis). Time has taught me that most ongoing titles not directly tied to an event or major creator are gone by #6. So those types of off-centre mini-series were a way to still get a complete story from a lower-priority book. But now, knowing Marvel will easily cancel a mini halfway through its run, I'm reluctant to even try more.
The company just seems to be in an odd spot. It's become this annoying boys club of blowhard editors and the Architects spewing out boring events. (Not to mention actually allowing Jeph Loeb to write for them.) I stayed
far from Fear Itself, and it seems my first instinct was correct - it didn't have a solid premise (which caused its marketing to be haphazard and confusing), it was bloated beyond belief, and it was boring (by all accounts). These epilogue one-shots that have been coming out seem to be ret-conning the major plot developments of Fear Itself (Thor's death, Bucky's death, the destruction of Paris) - so what was the point of any of it? The company has lacked direction since "The Heroic Age" began.I'm content to stay far from these events, but now it seems like the little side projects I enjoy are in complete danger. Marvel is conditioning fans to stay away from anything not tied to the Architects or the events by cancelling anything remotely different. I'm happy the X-Men corner is stabilizing a bit, and I will always stick with the main books there. Of course, Marvel is threatening to tie the X-Men into the next big event, so I will be judiciously purchasing if that happens.
Rob Liefeld, of all people, astutely pointed out that Marvel is only concentrating on properties owned by Marvel Studios. This would certainly account for the never-ending Thor tie-in mini-series' last year, along with Captain America side projects. All of this is incredibly boring to me. Cap, Thor, and Iron Man aren't exciting characters to me (outside of a few stories over the decades) - they have little cache or flair to their personalities, as depicted in the comics. So there's another chunk of stuff I can stay away from. In addition, planned Crossgen minis Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Route 666 have yet to be solicited. Given recent practices, I wouldn't be surprised if we never see them. But that's ok, Jeph Loeb is writing an Avengers/Cable team-up mini, which will tie in to next summer's crossover!! Kill me. I don't even want to touch the $3.99 issue, the 20 pages, and all the kicking and screaming they did towards DC last fall about these issues (only to fully follow suit).
Not to glorify DC too much, but I can applaud the diversity of genres attempted in The New 52. Not everything is working, but they put out a wide variety of titles with a big marketing push and tried some unique books. And, in cancelling X-23 and Ghost Rider (which starred a new, female lead), Marvel now has no books led by female characters. Now DC has been raked over the coals for everything woman-related recently, completely unfairly. They have Batgirl, Batwoman (featuring a squadron of wonderful female leads), Voodoo, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, and more.
I guess there wasn't any real point to this post. A company I adore, even with recent anger towards them, is facing tough times, and it's being made public news in rapid fire succession. (When I was reading the announcement of Ghost Rider's cancellation, the comments thread pointed out that Black Panther's cancellation had just been announced, so it really feels rapid-fire). I'm having trouble processing what's happening, and fearful of where things will keep going. I'm calling it now - May 2012, in time for the movie's release, Marvel will announce The New Avengers 52 (ironically all written by Brian Michael Bendis, with art by Mark Bagely).
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