How I would fix Marvel Comics.

 

How I would fix Marvel Comics.

Now Marvel is moving from New York to LA, and I've done this before, where I discuss how I would fix Marvel Comics because, let's face it, DC is winning because of titles like Absolute Batman. I mean, DC is winning in the comics because of that, and even the mainstream stuff is good too. I mean, there are some things that DC is doing that fans don't like, I agree, like too many Harley Quinn comics, and it's annoying; she's a good guy. I want her back as a villain, to be honest. Also one of her comics was a fart fetish and it's really weird look it up. 

DC is winning thanks to Scott Synder. 

Marvel needs to fix itself. It's crazy that they are leaving New York for LA after firing their editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski and replacing him with Steve Wacker. Now some are sad about C.B. leaving because I've heard he's a nice guy but there are some are happy about him leaving. Something is happening; a part of me thinks Marvel Comics is going downhill, and it could mean it is going out of business or is Steve coming in to fix what's wrong with Marvel comics. I hope Marvel is not going out of bussiness, but let's face it, Marvel Comics isn't that good anymore, and I'll explain five steps why it's failing.

5. Too many events: they have so many events happening every year now. 

To the point, why should we care? Back then, we did care about events like Civil War, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and Siege, but now we don't. Marvel needs to take a break from major events and just focus on characters with their own stories.

4. Too many copycat superheroes. 

There are now many superheroes who copy or take up another hero's mantle. We have, like, eight Spider-Men or Spider-Women; we have two Captain Americas, three Thors, two Daredevils, two Wolverines, and I can go on about this because it's getting annoying. We need only one superhero with that codename; we don't need another version of that character. We need to see more original characters create their own legacy and their own story instead of taking over someone else's mantle. I've read my fair share of great taking-up-the-mantle storylines like Bucky becoming Captain America and Dick Grayson becoming Batman, but in the end they went back to their own mantles. So seriously, Marvel needs to stop with the copycat trope for pandering's sake. Just give more of these characters like Sam Wilson, Elektra, Laura Kinney, and other characters their own titles and get them good writers. They don't have take the names of other heroes unless it's a good storyline because I did love Rick Remmender's Captain America run with Sam Wilson. It's just there are too many superheroes in Marvel with the same name.

3. They won't let Spider-Man grow up and have a family. 

You all know how I feel about this because Spider-Man has been handled terribly by Marvel Comics, like they had the character sell his marriage to the devil just to make him single again. Yet the writers make Peter Parker into a man-child; how is he relatable? If anything, we need to see this character grow up, and they need to restore his marriage to Mary Jane and even have kids. Ultimate Spider-Man gave us that, and it's sad Marvel ended it, because that should also have been in the mainstream comics.

2. Marvel needs to stop relaunching and retconning for the sake of pandering. 

I swear, every once in a while, Marvel relaunches a title; like, a good example is Captain Marvel. That character has had so many relaunches it gets to the point the character doesn't sell. The only way to have the character sell is to hire a good writer and maybe have her go back to her old costume and make her likeable again, like she once was before Kelly Sue came. Lets face it fans hated her when she killed Iron Man and got away with it and she's been made leader of the Avengers and the relaunch Avengers title in November she likely the leader of that team. To be honest, I get Marvel wants her to be the Wonder Woman of their universe, but it's not her; if anything, that's Storm from X-Men. She's the Wonder Woman of Marvel comics, or if you needed a great leader for the Avengers, it should have been Wasp, Black Widow, or Photon because they have led the Avengers and they are great leaders and inspiring. Hell, Wasp even named the Avengers. 

As well, Marvel keeps retconning stuff where it doesn't need to be retconned, like Thor's mother is the Phoenix Force; I hate that shit. Mystique is Nightcrawler's father doesn't make sense; Thor is the title, not God of Thunder; Steve and Bucky grew up together; like, these retcons aren't needed. You should have kept the continuity the way it was. I get that some retcons are good, and I can see why the retcon is there: it was bad storytelling. Like, I remember when DC retconned Roy Harper and removed the heroin addiction and the death of his daughter storylines, and I get it. If you ask me, Marvel should retcon bad storylines, that ruined a character not stuff that didn't need to be retconned. One More Day and HYDRA Cap should be retconned; those are events that need to be retconned.  

1. They don't hire good writers anymore; they hire activists or non fans. 

This is another thing: while DC has great writers like Scott Snyder, Matt Fraction, and many more, some of them are bad, but you know what I mean. DC hires good writers, while Marvel doesn't. Zeb Wells' Spider-Man run was terrible, and it made me quit Spider-Man comics. Also, the whole Death of Ms. Marvel was pointless because she comes back, and it was just to make her into a mutant for the sake of the MCU. As well, other writers just character-assassinate characters we know and love; it's like how I felt about Ta-Nehisi Coates's Captain America run of Cap. I hated Nick Spencer's HYDRA Cap storyline because that came off as an insult to Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and Christopher Cantwell's Iron Man were Hellcat is the worse co-lead because nowdays every marvel comic or film has a forced co-lead. Marvel needs writers who love these characters and aren't pushing an agenda or pandering. Just give us stories of our heroes not giving up and fighting to save the day. Marvel needs to hire actual good writers, and it doesn't matter who they are as long as they can tell a great story and are a good fit for this particular character. 

So those five problems that Marvel has and heres how I would fix it. 

5. Cut back on the major events.

Like I wrote before Marvel needs to cutback on the events because there are too many events now a days. Every year we get a new event that will change the universe or kill off a certain character but they will be dead for a year or two they are back. I would say just do one event every two to three years. Like create one marvel event that involves and then don't another event for about two to three years unless it's really cool storyline that will sale crazy. I think Marvel just needs to focus on their characters own storylines and events we don't need to make it huge deal unless it's a good storyline. 

4. Cut back relaunches and variant covers. 

This is another problem: cut back on relaunching every major title, like just going back to number one. Stay focused on the title you are on; like, if I were in charge of Marvel, I would do one last relaunch for a fresh reset/reboot. As well, variant covers: there are too many covers where it's ridiculous; like, come on, just have one cover or two, and that's it. 

3. No more heroes with the same name. We don't need two or three versions of that character. 

This is another thing Marvel Comics has stopped with this trope; like, we need to have one version of that character. For example, Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and he is Spider-Man. Now, I love Miles Morales, and I love the Spider-Verse films, but he is his own character, and he should have his own name and rogues' gallery, not just Spider-Man's. However, we have gotten so many Spider-Men besides Miles: Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker, and Miguel O'Hara. There are so many variants of that character; it just gets annoying. As well, Thor: when they retconned and revealed that title is Thor not God of Thunder, that was bad writing. Jane Foster becomes Thor, and she's already better than him for no reason; that's not good writing of someone just being great without any training. As well, Wolverine and Daredevil: both Laura and Elektra take over the mantles, and they kept those mantles even after Logan and Matt return to the mantles. I think what they should have done was just give Elektra and Laura their own identities. They did with Laura, and they called her Talon, but she was killed by Sabretooth, and a clone of her is calling herself Wolverine or something. Same thing with Sam Wilson. I love the character, but I think they need to make him Falcon again because there are too many copycats of these characters; they need to stand out as their own character, not just taking over the mantle of someone for the sake of pandering. One thing I would do is give these characters their own comic title with good writers. I would have Sam return as Falcon, and he would be the leader of the Uncanny Avengers. Elektra would be Elektra again. Laura would be Talon, not Wolverine, and Miles would call himself Spidey until Peter ever steps down, and then he would call himself Spider-Man. We need to give these characters their own series; they stand out as themselves and create their own legacy, rather than carrying on someone else's, unless the storyline is well written. These are great characters but we need to see them stand out with their own identities.  

2. Retcon bad storylines not good ones or character arcs that didn't need changing. 

Now, as I wrote before, Marvel keeps retconning storylines or character arcs that don't need to be rewritten because there was nothing wrong with them. They need to instead listen to the fans and retcon events that divided fans and caused them to lose interest in reading. A good example is One More Day; this event killed the Spider-Man fan base, and Joe Quesada, to this day, still defends One More Day and says that without it, we never would have gotten certain Spider-Man storylines like Spider-Verse if he was still married. Which is ridiculous because you could have done those storylines even if Peter was married with kids. I would retcon One More Day, restore Peter Parker's marriage, and give him a family because fans relate to Peter when he doesn't give up, not to being a man-child like Marvel editors want him to be. As well, take Ultimate Peter Parker and merge him with the mainstream Peter Parker, and Ultimate Peter's family is now in the mainstream, just like Miles was after Secret Wars. As well, I would retcon the Mary Jane-as-Venom storyline and Paul. If fans prefer a single Spider-Man, just focus on Miles Morales, Kaine Parker, and Ben Reilly, or create an alternative universe where Peter Parker is single for the people who don't like him married. I would also retcon events like Civil War 2, Original Sin, Secret Empire, Shadowland, and Fear Itself, and I would make Marvel comics stop trying to be the MCU and keep them the way the original creators did. Also, I would retcon Thor's mother being the phoenix, Nightcrawler's parentage, Iron Man being adopted, HYDRA Cap, the Karoka Era, and the From the Ashes X-Men eras, and make God of Thunder the title again not Thor's name. 

1. I would clear house and hire writers who are story and character driven. 

I would start fresh and hire new writers who are fans of these characters and want to see them done right. That's one thing I would do: hire writers like good writers who are story-driven, character-driven, who respect these characters and don't character-assassinate them, and have inspiring messages that inspire everyone. I would also make sure these writers are qualified to write certain characters, like the most popular ones, because I want to make sure they know to respect the characters and the fans. For example, I would get my cousin to write Daredevil because he's a big fan. I would keep some writers and artists at Marvel Comics, let go of the some will I just feel aren't doing a good job; I would make sure the cover art is great, and the artwork is, too. That's the one thing I focus on is just publishing great stories with great art were superheroes fight to protect the innocent and inspire everyone to be the best they can be. That's all we want to see is good stories again that will keep us reading for a long time.  

So that's how I would fix Marvel Comics. 

The news of them leaving New York for LA is concerning because that could be a bad sign, but who knows? Maybe the new editor-in-chief will do a good job, because I feel like they will announce something soon, depending on whether it's good news or bad news.