Age of the Geek

The House of Overused Ideas
     It's not been a good time for Marvel Comics lately. While Marvel's live action adaptations have seen general success, the comic line has fallen into a slump since October.
     A couple weeks ago Marvel representatives met with various retailers to explain the drop in sales. They blamed the readers for being unhappy with the direction their books have gone in recent years. They blamed artists for not "moving the needle" on sales. They blamed the Distinguished Competition for undercutting them with more retailer friendly return policies. And, of course, they blamed the 2016 election.
     At the end of the day though, there's only one thing responsible for Marvel's sales dip and that's Marvel themselves. For all the excuses, the fact is that Marvel has been running headfirst into disaster for years and now it looks like they're finally crashing.
     Marvel's problems are actually very easy to sum up. I can do it in two words.
     "Diminishing returns."
     This is a term that apparently does not exist in Marvel's vocabulary, who seem perpetually unable to grasp that just because something worked well once, doesn't mean it's going to have the same effect every time you do it. But that's the trap Marvel has fallen into. If a new idea sees any sort of success, Marvel will run themselves into the ground trying to recapture that lighting in a bottle.
     When Marvel introduced Miles Morales as an alternative Spider-Man or Kamala Kahn as the new Ms. Marvel, both characters were embraced as interesting new additions to the universe. Since then, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, and Iron Man have all be replaced in one way or another by under-represented minority characters, much to the continued frustration of longtime fans.
     Crossover event books used to be a once per year special occasion. Once a year the collective storylines running across Marvel's line-up would converge for a large spectacle. Even at once a year, "event fatigue" was a real thing as readers tired of having the status quo flipped on its head every twelve months.
     One would think that, to combat "event fatigue," Marvel would take a break. Slow down and let their books get some breathing room.
     Instead, Marvel has done the opposite. Seeking those big sales numbers, Marvel has doubled and tripled down on events. Today the string of crossover events is all but unending in Marvel's non-stop effort to make the temporary sales bump permanent.
     The same is true for the never ending relaunches of titles. One used to joke about Marvel just making every issue an Issue #1. It's less funny now because at this point it's practically true. There are now four different versions of "Amazing Spider-Man #1." Two of them were published within the last three years.
     Spidey isn't alone either. "Captain Marvel" has been relaunched twice since Carol Danvers took on the name in 2014. There are three different "Issue #1s" for the title, and zero "Issue #20s."
     Like with event books, Marvel has been under the impression that if you simply relaunch a book every 16 months you can get that first issue boost indefinitely with no long term consequences.
     Spoiler Alert: There are long term consequences.
     Relaunches and events are like replacing a good night's sleep with a strong cup of coffee. Yeah, it works once in a while but you can't keep it up forever. These books are meant to be jumping on points, but they are more often jumping off points.
     The results of this fanatical drive for short term gains at the expense of long term sustainability should have been easy to see coming, particularly at Marvel. It's the exact mindset that led to the company's bankruptcy in the late 90s. And yet the lessons of history seem to be utterly lost upon the current management.
     But maybe there's still time to change. There are no major crossover events planned past the current "Secret Empire," which means for the first time in a decade Marvel's writers may have a chance to flesh out their own stories without upending their setting. Maybe, just maybe, if Marvel focuses on telling good stories, readers will come back.
     It's a crazy idea, but it just might work.
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and would love to see a Marvel comic reach triple digits again.