Marvel is the biggest name in pop culture, with their movies and TV shows dominating the conversation. The comics are the leading light for the franchise, and Marvel dominates there as well. Marvel’s books are the best-selling in the comic industry, with fans eating up everything the publisher puts out. However, that doesn’t mean that everything is going great in the House of Ideas.
It often seems like Marvel fans are just buying Marvel books because of the name on the cover and to keep their collections going. There are a lot of problems with modern-day Marvel, ones that are endemic of the publisher starting to falter, playing to trends and sales instead of focusing on great storytelling.
10/10 They’ve Completely Dropped The Ball With Iron Man
Iron Man became the biggest name in pop culture because of the MCU. Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of the character struck a chord with audiences, and it should have been a no-brainer to make him just as popular in the comics. Iron Man has some great qualities, but Marvel never found a way to capitalize on combining those with the MCU version’s allure.
This is a problem with many of the big MCU characters. Marvel’s comic side has rarely found a way to use the MCU as a stepping stone to getting movie fans into comic stores. Iron Man hasn’t had a defining run in decades, showing how Marvel is failing their classic characters.
9/10 The Event Cycle Has Become Diminishing Returns
There was a time when Marvel’s event books were the talk of the industry. Comics like House Of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, and more were all blockbusters, driving sales and fan engagement. The event cycle became a huge part of Marvel, but chinks in the armor started to show with books like Fear Itself. The event cycle tired fans out and, since then, Marvel has barely put out an event that people actually love.
A.X.E. Judgment Day is the latest event, and it was amazing, but it’s too little, too late. Marvel’s event cycle used to mean something, but in recent years it’s become a shadow of itself. Dropping the ball with the event cycle is a major blow to the publisher.
8/10 Female Led Ongoings Are Exceedingly Rare
Marvel has amazing superheroines, but looking at their publishing slate, it’s impossible to tell. Marvel has worked for years to balance out its publishing line, moving away from straight white superheroes as much as possible. Books like Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, and more were beloved in their day, but that day is gone.
Right now, Captain Marvel is the center of their superheroine ongoings. It feels like Marvel is barely trying to put their amazing superheroines in ongoing books. That’s a problem with the Big Two in general, but DC has Marvel beat in this regard. The publisher is leaving money on the table by not mining their female heroes.
7/10 Fantastic Four’s Return Was Never Really Capitalized On
Fantastic Four was Marvel’s most unique team book for years. The book combined family dynamics, sci-fi, and superheroes in perfect measure and introduced so many integral parts of the Marvel Universe. Film rights and middling sales put the kibosh on the book for a while, but 2018 saw them return. However, the publisher never found a way to really make them feel special.
Part of that was putting writer Dan Slott on the title. Slott can do good work, but he has a legion of detractors. Many fans wouldn’t even give the book a chance because of hm. However, even with that stumbling block, Marvel just couldn’t find any other ways to get fans to come back to the team, yet another failure with classic Marvel characters.
6/10 Marvel Horror Is Dead
Marvel’s horror books were top-notch, introducing characters like Ghost Rider, Damian Hellstrom, and Man-Thing, and bringing Dracula into the Marvel Universe. Tomb Of Dracula, Giant-Size Man-Thing, Werewolf By Night, and more are staples of comic horror, but it’s been a long time since Marvel had anything that matched them. Even Marvel Zombies faltered pretty quickly.
A big part of the problem is that DC and the indie publishers diversified horror comics and Marvel never tried to compete. They kept going back to the well of what sold in the past, losing ground to every other publisher. Marvel horror is dead; it’s hard to see a way for it to come back.
5/10 They’ve Failed Their New School Heroes
Ms. Marvel came out of the gates strong, and quickly became the leader of a new school of Marvel heroes. Heroes like Miles Morales, Sam Alexander as Nova, Viv Vision, Moon Girl, Hawkeye, the Young Avengers, and more all got books. They were all pushed to the stars, appearing in their own ongoings and team books, including reviving The Champions.
Recent years have seen all of these books but Miles Morales’s Spider-Man go away. Marvel pushed their new heroes hard for a long time and then just gave up on them. They’ve abandoned an entire generation of heroes.
4/10 The Publisher Antagonizes Spider-Man Fans
The Amazing Spider-Man is consistently the best-selling book in the industry, but it feels like many fans are only buying it because it’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Being a Spider-Man fan is tough, and it’s because Marvel has stopped trying to give the fans what they want. It’s more than just taking stories in new directions and surprising readers, it’s spitting in their faces.
Marvel editorial, personified by EIC C.B. Cebulski and Spider-Man group editor Nick Lowe, view Spider-Man as the teen from the ’60s and ’70s obsessed with Gwen Stacy. Most fans have never read any of those stories so few look at the character the same way. Marvel doesn’t care what the fans want, pushing a vision for the character that no one but them wants.
3/10 It’s All Superheroes All The Time
DC pulled away from Marvel creatively in the ’80s by diversifying its offerings. The publisher went in new directions with Vertigo focusing on horror and noir, made political statements, and changed what superhero comics could be. They still do that to this day, even with all the Batman comics. Marvel, on the other hand, has rarely if ever moved beyond superheroes.
Superheroes are great, and Marvel revolutionized them in the Silver Age. However, everything Marvel does is a superhero book. They do sci-fi and horror based stories, but they’re still basically superhero stories. Marvel was called the House of Ideas because of what they did to the medium. Recent years have seen them drop into the superhero groove, and it’s costing them.
2/10 The X-Men Line Is No Longer Revolutionary
The tale of the X-Men is Marvel’s biggest success story. The team went from a Silver Age loser to the biggest book in the industry. Creators leaned into the central metaphors of the team, getting revolutionary stories from Chris Claremont and Grant Morrison. 2019 saw Jonathan Hickman come into the X-Office and blow the doors off it, kicking off the Krakoa era of the books.
The first year of Krakoa era X-Men books ruled the industry, but things started to break with X Of Swords. Things got worse when the writers and editors decided they wanted to play in the Krakoan sandbox more and Hickman left the books. Since then, there has been little momentum to the line. Books like Immortal X-Men and X-Men Red are amazing, but the rest of the line runs from great to abysmal.
1/10 The Avengers Haven’t Been A Draw In Years
2018 saw Marvel give The Avengers a big-time relaunch with superstar writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuinness kicking the book off. However, the series got pantsed by DC’s concurrent Justice League relaunch by Scott Snyder and Jim Cheung. Since then, The Avengers has had a lukewarm reception from fans instead of being the flagship it had been in prior years.
The Avengers need a shot in the arm; when the Avengers are healthy, Marvel is healthy. Aaron’s long and meandering run did nothing for fans or sales, and the publisher let it go on for years instead of throwing it to another, more popular writer.