How to Fix Marvel Comics (Part 2)

Last week I gave you the first part of my master plan at world domination with Marvel Comics. This week, I give you the conclusion of the post with a few more suggestions Marvel could listen to that might help them win the market again.

4. Give us a good cartoon team-up series!

When I was growing up, Marvel had the best cartoons. Yes, you had the Super-Friends, but Spider-Man, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and even Silver Surfer had time onscreen. While each series had their share of cool guest stars (and the infamous "Australian Wolverine" from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends), you have to give it to DC Comics for putting out Justice League Unlimited. That short-lived series (one and a half seasons) gave second-tier guys like Hawk & Dove and The Question a full show, and gave fans a real treat along the way. Soon DC had released "The Brave and the Bold" and we saw episodes with Kamandi and Deadman getting a chance to shine! 

Yes, I know Superhero Squad is out there, but that doesn't count. That's just too far down the kid zone for me. There's a fine line that DC captured with "Batman: The Animated Series" and was able to translate into JLU.

And Marvel is developing the Avengers series, but it won't have a rotating roster like I'm talking about, though it's a step in the right direction. Given the Avengers history of former members, there's a lot of wiggle room there. Let's see some cool second-rate folks like Stingray, Union Jack, Sunfire and Havok in animated form!

5. Fix your flagship character!

What in the world has happened to the hero? Ok, I'll give it to Marvel that the Green Hulk/Red Hulk confrontation was an awesome series, and it's nice to see Steve Rogers back in action even though he's not slinging the shield (yet), but do something with Spider-Man!

Ok, I hated "Brand New Day" and everything since. I jumped back on board for "One Moment In Time" thinking I would get some sort of closure, rationalization, or fixing of the whole "Mephisto made it go away" stupidity from years ago. Instead, I got a story so lack-luster it made me think Grant Morrison was writing it.

What has Marvel done to him in recent years? Let's see, there was the whole "Gwen Stacey and Norman Osborn were lovers and had two kids" thing that defiled Peter's memory of Gwen (and ours) forever. Spider-Man dies and comes back as some rabid spider thing in "The Other". Peter sells his loving wife out to Mephisto in order to let his 212 year old Aunt May live again. We get one bright spot where Peter publicly unmasks (a real "WHOA!" moment) in Civil War, but then it all heads downhill from there.

And then, just when you think it couldn't get worse, we get "One More Day" and the whole "none of it ever happened and the last 20 years of comics you've read were just a dream" situation.

There have been very few times in my life when I've literally thrown a comic book down in disgust, but that was the last straw. All we need now is to find out Peter is addicted to crack and is having an affair with the neighbor's dog and we'll have a perfect Quesada storyline.

Give Peter a break, and do something right with the character. I'm not asking you to erase the erase you did (though that would be nice), but I'm saying give us back some essence of the character we've grown to love. My first comic was Spider-Man, and I followed each issue religiously for years. Now all I have are the "Essential Amazing Spider-Man" books to remind me of why I ever cared about the character.

And now we're going to have to live with another reboot on the character in the movies? Please tell me we're skipping the origin this time out though. My parents are both 60 and have never read comic books (though they indulged their son as a child), and they both know Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider to get his powers! Let's face it: another origin story would be a complete waste of film! I can appreciate the need to reboot the franchise after the "disco Peter" episode of Spider-Man 3, but pick it up like "Superman Returns" and have some faith in your audience. Don't take us back to square one, please!

6. Lower the price!

My first comic book (pictured at the right) cost a quarter at the Majik Market down the road from my house in 1975. Today, that same comic would cost me four dollars! No more pages added, and no less advertisements in there...just an incredible price hike that makes collecting multiple titles a thing of the past.

Today, I wait for the trade paperbacks and buy them used on Amazon.com. I'm not always up-to-the-minute with stories, but I'm not shelling out $50 a week on stories either.

I know DC is talking about lowering their prices by $1 a book next year, and Marvel is tossing around the idea too. Marvel, don't toss around anything--just do it. I can appreciate the shiny paper the comics are printed on now is supposed to last longer than newsprint and gives much brighter colors, but let's do whatever it takes to bring the prices back down to a sane level. If that means we see cheaper paper, then so be it.

And finally...

7. Move Joe Quesada!

Look, I understand all he's done for the Marvel, and he's had a number of hits, but he was pulled from the Marvel Knights brand (an edgier version of Marvel comics at the time), and he's proceeded to drag the rest of the titles down the edgy, push-the-envelope style since his takeover.

I don't think you should fire him, just move him back to what he's good at. Let him have an edgy brand of Marvel and he can corrupt it as he sees fit. Let someone else fix the rest of it. Give Quesada five titles and leave him alone for a while. He can put Obama on the cover of 3 of them, then let Kevin Smith write a 4-issue mini-series that'll take 3 years to complete. That should keep him happy for a while.

The fact is that Quesada is a talented guy, but he lives in a bubble as far as what he considers entertainment. While folks do enjoy movies like "Saw", most of the world doesn't let that become the only thing they watch. Some of us do enjoy a hearty helping of "Batman Begins" and even "Toy Story" every once in a while. He needs to move beyond the "dark is goooooooood" phase now.

Next week, I present the epilogue of this rant: a quick overview of one storyline Marvel could use that would allow it to hit the heights and finally use one of their secondary characters as a heavy-hitter...with no explosive blood scenes but good entertainment!

That's my take on what could turn Marvel around, among other things. Agree, disagree? Comment away!

How to Fix Marvel Comics (Part 1)

Ok, I've been silent long enough about this. Marvel Comics used to absolutely dominate the market in so many ways. They had the best characters, the best movies, the best cartoons, etc. and DC Comics could only look on in jealous amazement. Today, however, things have changed and DC has swung the tide to their favor through incredible writing and hard work.

If I was allowed free reign at Marvel for six months, I could fix the place up nicely. Here's what I think Marvel should do to bring itself back to at least a fighting chance:

1. Make stories fun again

Go back a few decades and find out why Marvel was dominant. It's because the stories were fun. The heroes were heroic and the bad guys lost with little to no bloodshed. Today, Marvel has decided to go as dark as humanly possible for every story. Blood and gore dominate everything they write. Take the recent "Frankencastle" storyline for Punisher. It starts off with Punisher being decapitated by Dark Wolverine, and only gets worse from there. The new Punisher series that took off after Civil War was amazing, with very little blood involved but excellent stories (Punisher beats down Rhino with the demon glove...Punisher versus Sentry...awesome). Then suddenly it becomes the bloodiest book out there! It's like someone decided the world functions like a Rob Zombie movie and started plugging away!

And for heaven's sake, don't polarize your audience! Yes, there's a place for cutting-edge stories, but when you blatantly take a shot at an entire political party like they did in the recent Captain America storyline where they made the Tea Party folks look like redneck anarchists you're going to lose some readership! Twenty years ago Captain America ran for president as part of a storyline, but it wasn't a direct attack on either party--it was just a good story. I can appreciate that Joe Quesada is in love with our president, but someone in the line-up should have said "You know, this might not be a good idea since we're in last place and all."

Give us good stories that are fun to read and exciting! Give me something based on plot, not on shock value. Besides, if every issue is filled with "shock", then nothing shocks me anymore; every moment becomes the same white noise. Dracula fought the X-Men 20 years ago and the only blood was a little black ink in a few spots. Today that story would run four printers out of red ink for just the first five pages.

2. Bring back variety titles!

Rather than flood the market with forty titles that feature roughly the same 12 characters in some form or fashion, how about putting out something that will give second-tier characters a chance. "Marvel Comics Presents" used to do a good job of this.

The rules are simple: no Wolverine stories...ever--not even guest shots. And let the readers vote on the characters that eventually find their way into the stories. In this information age you could have a poll on the Marvel website for a week and have instant results. Each book would have four stories, with two being single-shot titles and two being multi-issue stories.

Marvel seems to be under the impression that only their top characters deserve a chance, but there are a lot of characters fans love who seldom see print anymore. Go to any comic book convention and see who they dress up as! You'll see an occasional Spider-Man, but most of the time we have obscure heroes that get love because fans care about them. They aren't necessarily mainstream, but they're good.

I would be willing to buy a comic book with a Squirrel Girl story in it if it meant I'd get to read a "Paladin" storyline as well. Likewise, I'd suffer through a Vision story if I knew it was going to be followed by "Nighthawk". See? Everyone wins as you cram 4 titles into 1 title per month!

This brings us to point number 3...

3. Quality not quantity!

Let's be honest, at $4 a book you aren't going to sell me more than six or seven titles a month. My local comic book shop used to have a dozen titles on my pull-list per month. Now he pulls two titles for me. Everything else I buy on a "That looks cool" basis (not scientifically accurate, but it works for me). I don't care how many times you can shove Deadpool into a comic book in a month, or if Steve Rogers is in Avengers Prime or Secret Avengers or Captain America, I'm only going to buy what's good.

Marvel should seriously pare down their title base. They take any successful character and over-saturate the market with it. I never thought I'd see the day when Deadpool would be in more titles per month than Wolverine! And how did that happen? Because Wolverine used to guest star with any and every comic Marvel could cram him in.

Take the line-up to some basic titles and go from there. Yes, some artists and writers would be out of work, but costs would go down significantly as well. You might even be able to squeeze out a few more successful titles rather than throwing anything out there you can print.

DC is stepping into this problem as well with Batman and Green Lantern right now, but even so they're not that bad. Even their flagship hero Superman is only in three titles a month.

Next week, part 2 of my master plan to fix Marvel Comics. I'd love to hear from you on suggestions of what you'd do if they'd get out of the way and leave you in charge a while!

Oh, A Wise Guy, eh?

With all the doo-dads and gizmos floating around in various hero and villain arsenals out there, it's a wonder everyone in comic book land doesn't carry some personal force field device or something. But it's all got to come from somewhere, and somebody has to think it all up. Looking over all the characters in the Marvel and DC universe, there are quite a few smart guys out there dreaming of some ingenious ways to kill each other off.

Reed Richards

Mister Fantastic isn't necessarily the backbone of a team with his powers. Let's face it: he's basically the Elongated Man (at least Plastic Man turns himself into cool stuff like mailboxes and such). Fortunately for him, he's got bunches of brains to keep Sue attracted to him.

Though he's had his share of failures (the Thor clone), he's also saved the world a time or two from Galactus and various other cosmic villains Spider-Man wouldn't have been able to take down.

There must have been something special about him, because the Skrulls wouldn't invade until they knew he was taken down and captured. His people skills and common sense might need some work, but no one can knock his talents in creating gadgets.

Lex Luthor

He's not necessarily the smart one here, but he has the money and power to get what he wants. His scheming and manipulating ways make him a force to be reckoned with.

He's come very close in the past to taking down Superman, though he did meet his match when he tried to tackle Bruce Wayne (not realizing he was Batman). Still, Luthor has this ruthless greed that got him an Orange Lantern ring for a while, and still makes him someone every hero would be smart to steer clear of. He might not create toys like Reed Richards does, but he can sure turn a situation into his favor and devise some wicked schemes.

Tony Stark

With all the different types of Iron Man armor he's come up with over the years, there's no way he could stay off this list. Even though he was responsible for the Marvel Civil War and the Skrull Invasion that followed, there's no denying he has technical smarts if nothing else.

He had problems with alcohol (and his "Ultimate" version still has some issues with it), but he seems to have rebounded nicely. At one time he was the head of SHIELD, and really started losing his way, but after Norman Osborn, the Skrulls, and the death and rebirth of Captain America/Steve Rogers, Stark seems to be leveling off again.

Hank Pym

He's called the "Scientist Supreme" in the Marvel Universe. That means he's officially been crowned the smartest man in the Marvel U (though he's got perhaps the lamest title).

Pym has been responsible for a lot of big developments in the Marvel world. His most nefarious is Ultron, though in his defense he didn't create the robot to rule the world...he just did an incredible job of it.

Hank seems to perfectly illustrate what Marvel tries to convey about their characters: they are all only human. A man who constantly shrinks and grows has to have some side effects from that over time, and the constant pressure of being a hero, scientist, and husband has to wear on you. Pym has lost his way more times than any other hero on the list, but he always drifts back.

Mister Terrific

The one-time leader of the JSA is also a brilliant man in the DC world. He holds several doctorates and has come up with some pretty cool gadgets of his own.

I'm not a fan of this character's gimmick. This is one of those characters that is rebooted just to add diversity to the team. Rather than create a new character, they just named him "Mister Terrific" and made it seem like he was carrying on the previous version's work...except this guy is super smart and can't be seen by computers, whereas the original was just a fighter.

Still, you have to give him credit, he's created those T-Spheres that help him out a lot, and always seems to find a way to help the JSA out. When he and Doctor Midnight were forced by Roulette to play a "loser dies" game of chess, Terrific took the game to a stalemate and then got away before they could reset the board. Pretty smart!

Doctor Doom

He could be considered the evil version of Reed Richards, except Doom doesn't stop with science. He includes magic and whatever else it takes to help accomplish his goals.

While ruling the world has constantly evaded his grasp, his rule over Latveria has been fairly consistent. He's also created armor that's arguably comparable to Iron Man's. He also created a group of "Doombots" that take his place in most confrontations so there's seldom the opportunity to really take him down. He found a way to steal the Silver Surfer's power cosmic, and even almost outsmarted the Beyonder.

It's hard to think of a hero he hasn't faced. Everybody from Spider-Man to Power Pack can claim at least one run in with him. Still, he seems most closely linked to the Fantastic Four. Now that Norman Osborn's empire has been drastically reduced, it'll be interesting to see where Doom goes from here for revenge.