#gothic loki is supreme loki

[lokisarium]

🖤 my beautiful nightmare

[thenightling]

Why I think Marvel comics is struggling

1.   The diverse characters aren't the problem.  The problem is that they are badly written and instead of getting their own stories and own titles they are literally replacing established characters which alienates established audiences.   New and diverse characters should not replace established ones. This is a mistake Marvel keeps repeating.   "Jane is the real Thor now" ect...

2.  No art consistency.   Many titles don't even have the same artists all the way through.    And a lot of the new artists aren't familiar with comic books or style.  Some new comics look like frames from stylized flash animation (and not just Squirrel Girl and Miss Marvel) and that's not good.

3.   Marvel's horror audience has been all but abandoned in recent years.  Horror titles are neglected and horror characters are only dusted off for Halloween events and don't even get playable characters in Marvel Heroes MMORPG.   In fact the game is so lacking in the supernatural presence that Blade (who was added two years ago) sounds delusional when he mentions vampires or Dracula.   Man-Thing's latest comic is a spoof by the author of Goosebumps.  He's no longer mute and has gone "Hollywood" in his story. The Frankenstein Monster (who used to be intelligent and articulate like in the actual novel) is now inexplicably simple minded. In fact he, Living Mummy (who was an immortal sorcerer), and Man thing were all treated as literally simple minded by Coulson in the S.H.I.E.L.D comic.  The SORCERER supreme is explained away with half-assed quantum physics now with greatly reduced powers in his own film but DC puts out a TV show where The Devil runs a night club!   It used to be the other way around.  It used to be Marvel was more willing to embrace it's supernatural side.  Now their monsters are only dusted off for animated Halloween specials that are released to direct-to-streaming video instead of even DVD.   And why?  Just to cater to the Chinese market in the most cowardly way imaginable.   There are Marvel fans who don't even know Marvel has a version of the Frankenstein Monster or Dracula!        

4.  In relation to 3 Marvel has seriously downplayed it's supernatural side with too much pseudoscience and theoretical physics, and not just in the MCU.  I've seen so-called Marvel fans think characters like Nightmare and Mephisto, Freakin' Mephisto- the demon from the Faust Legend, be called "interdenominational beings".  And some of them don't even know Marvel has a version of Dracula!    Hell, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is now inferring that The Darkhold (The Marvel equivalent of the Necronomicon) is alien technology.  And it's not just MCU, the related TV universe, and current cartoon universe.  The comics are tiptoing around the supernatural too.    

5.  People are angry about the really awful Secret Empire Storyline.   It's cliche, contrived, and has angered fans.  Not just for making Captain America Hydra but literally claiming The Allies only won World War 2 because of a cosmic cube.  And that is seriously offensive and out of touch.  

6.  The way they marketed Secret Empire required comic book stores to buy extra comics to "earn the privilege" of "buying" Hydra shirts and stickers for the comic book store employees to wear.  What the Hell!?  Who thought this was a good idea?    

7.   Too many "Big Events" in recent years.  No one cares.  "Original sin", "Secret Wars 2", "Battle World", "Civil War 2",   "Monsters unleashed" (Marvel "But this time without the old school Gothic monsters and only Godzilla style monsters!  People like that right?"), "Secret Empire" and so on...

8.  Drawn out and anticlimatic revelations.  i.e. The reason Thor is unworthy.  

9.    Highly inconsistent characterizations and writing style.   In a Daredevil comic you get an articulate Frankenstein Monster and for some reason a simple minded Living Mummy, in S.H.I.E.L.D the monsters are inexplicably all simple minded.  Loki comes off as bipolar depending on who is writing him.  

10.  Too much angst and not enough hope.  I had thought Marvel learned it's lesson about this decades ago when it went through it's darkity dark dark phase in the 90s.   Superheros should be about hope, hope that good can triumph and that good people can win when they stand against the darkness.  

11.  When it's not dark for the sake of dark it's too kiddified.  Too child-like.   (Cough) Squirrel Girl (Cough).   I know she's a big seller but there's no happy medium anymore.  It's one extreme in style of art and writing or another.

12.   Marvel won't allow any media outside of the comics represent the actual world of the comics.  The current animated universe, for example is just an echo of the MCU.  This is how we lost gems like Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

13.   Market over saturation is a problem.   Marvel bloated itself and now their own fad has died down and in the process of trying to appeal to the new fad readers they forgot about the established readers and those who are long term comic book customers. The same mistakes they made in the 90s that almost got them bankrupt...  Though it's no longer likely that they'll go bankrupt it is still disturbing to see history repeat itself with corporate mistakes nevertheless.

14.  The unnecessary and patronizing renumbering of long established comics, further alienating long time readers and making new readers feel like they are given something simplified and idiot proofed, spoon fed to them so there’s no great and long lore to become attached to.

15.    The removal of Fantastic four and X-men related content.  Many fans have not forgiven the undoing of Magneto being Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s father out of petty spite.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/the-real-reasons-for-marvel-comics-woes/527127/?utm_source=twb