The mainline Marvel Universe for the last few years

[Cisco]

I’m a life-long comics fan. Mostly Marvel in the long run, but a little DC when I was a kid (late 80s/early 90s) and a lot of independents, Dark Horse, Vertigo, and even some manga this decade. But my collection is probably 70-80% Marvel to this day.

I quit buying new issues on a weekly basis 3 years ago due to the recession (it hit me a little early.) In addition, I was kind of getting a little sick of mainstream comics at the time anyway. I loved Planet Hulk but World War Hulk was a let-down and I thought Civil War downright sucked.

The last 2 weeks or so I’ve been checking out tons of Marvel TPBs from the library, catching up on what I’ve missed. Skaar, New Avengers, Thor, a lot of Civil War crossovers I missed, the death of Captain America, etc etc. I’m about to get to Secret Invasion and the Dark Avengers (got several of the books, haven’t started them yet, so please go easy on the spoilers from there forward-- I haven’t gotten to Dark Reign or Siege at all yet.)

I guess I’ve just been musing on the Marvel universe a lot lately. It seems a mess. I always thought the D.C.U. was a mess and that kept me from ever getting too much into it. Now Marvel just seems to be exploding with deaths, rebirths, “events” and crossovers one after another after another. Some of it is pretty cool, but it’s a big time and money investment, and I can’t imagine how a new fan could walk into the middle of this mess and not throw his hands up in defeat after a few minutes. Or even an old fan that’s been away 10 or 20 years, for that matter. I’ve only been away 3 years, so it’s not that hard for me, but still . . .

The other day I was talking to my one real-life friend who likes comics, and he off-handedly said something about how Brian Michael Bendis has been running the Marvel Universe for the past decade. I never really thought of it that way, but I think he’s right, at least to the extent that one guy can “run” something that big. What I’ve noticed about BMB is that I really like his stories, but his dialogue SUCKS. He makes everyone talk like a college kid (which is funny because Bendis is like 40 if I’m not mistaken.) I groaned and almost threw the book across the room when Captain America said “yeah, totally.” I appreciate that he’s trying to write candid dialogue in a genre famous for shlock, but he should try to empathize with each character individually instead of writing every conversation as if it were overheard at a frat party.

That being said, I do like the New Avengers so far (I’m on issue 26 I think; in the middle of the Civil War.) I don’t know why I didn’t read this title when it was new.

Skaar sucked. I liked the direction they went with it-- seemed very REH Conan-inspired-- but it just wasn’t interesting. The first 2 death of Captain America trades have sucked, but I’ve never really liked him in his own title.

I have high hopes for Secret Invasion. I’m trying to read as much as I can from before it before I start it, though.

If you were hoping this thread had a point, I apologize. I just wanted to nerd-out about the Marvel U for a minute. I have some other things I want to say if people are interested in nerding-out with me. I just don’t want the OP to be a mile long.

[Justin_Bailey]

@Cisco

The last 2 weeks or so I’ve been checking out tons of Marvel TPBs from the library, catching up on what I’ve missed.

I always thought the D.C.U. was a mess and that kept me from ever getting too much into it. Now Marvel just seems to be exploding with deaths, rebirths, “events” and crossovers one after another after another. Some of it is pretty cool, but it’s a big time and money investment, and I can’t imagine how a new fan could walk into the middle of this mess and not throw his hands up in defeat after a few minutes. Or even an old fan that’s been away 10 or 20 years, for that matter. I’ve only been away 3 years, so it’s not that hard for me, but still . . .

I think DC and Marvel are really writing for the TPB market now. Like you said, you’ve gotten a ton of them out from the library and libraries are big consumers of TPBs.

[Cisco]

@Justin_Bailey

I think DC and Marvel are really writing for the TPB market now. Like you said, you’ve gotten a ton of them out from the library and libraries are big consumers of TPBs.

It definitely seems to me like they are. There’s not much discount (a trade with 5 issues in it tends to cost about as much as the 5 issues would have, and it must be cheaper to print and ship), and people who are self-conscious about reading comics get to feel better about themselves by calling them graphic novels. And if the original issues turned a profit, it’s like printing free money.

Do libraries pay more than cover price for books, though? Because, honestly, my local library has taken money out of the hands of my local comic book shop, at least in my case :o.

[Justin_Bailey]

@Cisco

Do libraries pay more than cover price for books, though? Because, honestly, my local library has taken money out of the hands of my local comic book shop, at least in my case :o.

Oh god no. Most libraries pay between 50-60% of the cover price. Library vendors work on razor thin margins because libraries buy thousands of books a year.

[Cliffy]

I haven’t read any of this stuff either (although I’d lost interest a few years prior). But the one thing you have to admit is that these events are really changing the Marvel Universe in dramatic ways. In the past, you’d have crossovers billed as earth-shattering events, and the only thing that would happen is a B-lister would die (and be resurrected a few years later). But things are really different in the Marvel U today than they were before Civil War – that’s true for the heroes, but it’s also true for the man on the street.

–Cliffy

[Push_You_Down]

@Cisco

The first 2 death of Captain America trades have sucked, but I’ve never really liked him in his own title.

You lost me there. That storyline is probably one of the best Marvel has done in the modern era. Also… you say you never liked him in his own title… if you are reading the “Death of” stories, he’s not in his own title. Steve is dead.

See, I think Bendis’ dialogue is his only saving grace. I really liked his writing up until he got the keys to the kingdom (“Alias” is great). His event “planning” is kind of BS.
Secret Invasion was kind of a joke.

[Cisco]

@Cliffy

I haven’t read any of this stuff either (although I’d lost interest a few years prior). But the one thing you have to admit is that these events are really changing the Marvel Universe in dramatic ways. In the past, you’d have crossovers billed as earth-shattering events, and the only thing that would happen is a B-lister would die (and be resurrected a few years later). But things are really different in the Marvel U today than they were before Civil War – that’s true for the heroes, but it’s also true for the man on the street.

–Cliffy

Yes, it has changed, but…

-I don’t really care for the changes, on a whole. I’d rather see heroes fighting villains, instead of each other. I loved the way the New Avengers was going before Civil War, for instance. And the whole concept was a response to Bush-era politics which are, thank god, over.

-How long until another reboot or bigger event makes it irrelevent, anyway?

@Push_You_Down

You lost me there. That storyline is probably one of the best Marvel has done in the modern era. Also… you say you never liked him in his own title… if you are reading the “Death of” stories, he’s not in his own title. Steve is dead.

I guess it’s unfair to say it “sucked”-- I read book 2, skimmed book 1, and haven’t touched book 3. I just don’t really care for Cap or his corner of the Marvel U that much unless he’s an Avenger, don’t care for the Red Skull, didn’t care about or like the Dr. Faustus and Winter Soldier stuff, etc etc. We probably just have different taste. IMO the best storyline Marvel has done in the Modern era is Planet Hulk.

@Push_You_Down

See, I think Bendis’ dialogue is his only saving grace. I really liked his writing up until he got the keys to the kingdom (“Alias” is great). His event “planning” is kind of BS.
Secret Invasion was kind of a joke.

See, I can get over corny storylines (come on, the plot for Infinity Gauntlet was dumb as hell, but I LOVED it), but the corny dialogue just kills me. I can’t get over the constant movie references, “witty banter,” colloquialisms used by the wrong characters, etc. B.K. Vaughn does this too (actually he’s way worse than Bendis. Bendis is BKV-lite.) Now JMS, on the other hand, writes good dialogue. He actually gets in his characters’ heads and writes how they’d really talk, instead of turning everyone into Mr. or Mrs. Coolface Popculture Encyclopedia. Most of the time I don’t notice his dialogue at all which, like good acting, is PERFECT.