DC and Marvel reboots, restarts, etc - LCS owner perspective

[ubermanx]

I had not really thought about this myself and have defended going after new readers. Then I read this and saw what I was doing with my own pulllist.

I now stand corrected.

"I get it that they are trying to get new readers in but the price of losing hard core readers, as I’m seeing, is way too high. For every young female you bring in who bought the new Batgirl, I’ve had a much larger number of faithful readers drop it because they didn’t like the changes to the character. The long time readers buy stacks, the new readers occasionally buy an issue or two for a month or two. The numbers are not adding up here." - Scott R, of the comic book store Comics Are Go! in Sheffield Village, Ohio

- Marty

[enyawd72]

That guy is absolutely right. That's why I've never understood these ridiculous changes and yes, gender, religious, and racial pandering that's going on.
Am I missing something, or is there a large female Muslim demographic that's suddenly buying comic books because of the new Ms. Marvel?
Or making Thor a woman. Or Spider-Man black. Changing costumes every time a new artist comes along.
Marvel stupidly discontinued the only thing I was buying...the TPB Marvel Masterworks. MY LCS guy said they were a top seller. But hey, that's okay. He sold a couple issues of Ms. Marvel.
It's pretty sad when a REAL superhero fan and collector with money to spend walks into a COMIC BOOK STORE and can't find anything to buy. I never thought I'd see that happen in a million years.

[Earth 2 Chris]

It's ironic really. The comic book industry basically flipped the middle finger to younger and or casual readers with their emphasis on the direct market, and eventual abandonment of the newsstand in the 80s. They catered to the hardcore fan for nearly 3 decades, but with rising costs and declining sales, they are doing their damnedest to now attract...the casual fan, at the expense of their loyal audience.

Chris

[ovenmitt]

I am a 45 year old male and longtime DC fan, Adam West, George Reeves, Super Friends, DC Mego (of course!), Lynda Carter, Christopher Reeve, New Teen Titans...

but now I wish there had never been CRISIS On Infinite Earths in 1985 30 years ago and especially 2011 Flashpoint and Pu I mean New 52!

New 52 was RUSHED most of the original 52 comics have been CANCELLED and DC kept trying to replace them and they kept getting cancelled until New 52 logo was abandoned!

I liked Convergence especially the 40 2-part minis that paid homage to PRE-Flashpoint 2000s, 90s, 80s, and even PRE 1985 CRISIS and ultimately undoing CRISIS and bringing back the INFINITE DC Multiverse where EVERYTHING exist and ANYTHING can happen!

Now let's see what DC does with new DC You and actually tell stories with those fan-favorite characters and eras and Earths!

[enyawd72]

^I'm actually looking forward to it as well.

Besides, now it's Marvel's turn to destroy everything we hold dear.

[monitor_ep]

I used to spend over $100 a month at the comic book store, now I may spend $10-20 a month. I have been reading and buying comics for 40 years and now I just cannot handle the mess they made.

[madmarva]

I am a 45 year old male and longtime DC fan, Adam West, George Reeves, Super Friends, DC Mego (of course!), Lynda Carter, Christopher Reeve, New Teen Titans...

but now I wish there had never been CRISIS On Infinite Earths in 1985 30 years ago and especially 2011 Flashpoint and Pu I mean New 52!

New 52 was RUSHED most of the original 52 comics have been CANCELLED and DC kept trying to replace them and they kept getting cancelled until New 52 logo was abandoned!

I liked Convergence especially the 40 2-part minis that paid homage to PRE-Flashpoint 2000s, 90s, 80s, and even PRE 1985 CRISIS and ultimately undoing CRISIS and bringing back the INFINITE DC Multiverse where EVERYTHING exist and ANYTHING can happen!

Now let's see what DC does with new DC You and actually tell stories with those fan-favorite characters and eras and Earths!

But DC isn't doing that. Any continuity that is on-going is from the New52 relaunch. Didio said DC is looking forward not back.

But I will say I have enjoyed the de-powered Superman storyline and Johns and Fabok's Justice League issue. Even Batbunny was good despite being a robocop/Ironman mashup. Heck, I even liked Hal Jordan as Han Solo. But that's all I've read.

But what I'd like to see DC do is an all-ages Classic Line with the foundational characters in their most recognizable form. Superman, Batman, Justice League, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and New Teen Titans. Maybe add Shazam and Legion at some point. I think that would make a lot of old timers like me supremely happy.

[ovenmitt]

Marvel is still going by a 54 year history since 1961 and has never rebooted and does not plan to even after 2015 Secret Wars. An All-New, All-Different Marvel will follow. 60 new #1 issues like DC did in 2011 with 52 #1 issues! Yeah. Right. This will help Marvel.

Spider-Man has been around for 53 years. For every 5 years in real time only 1 year passes in comic book time. So 11 years have passed in Peter Parker's life. He became Spider-Man at like 16 so now he's 27 well past GRAD school and now he might be married again to MJ and they have a 4 or 5 year old daughter! What's left to do but sadly REBOOT!

X-Men ended for me when Byrne left as artist and co-plotter! Same thing happened with Perez on New Teen Titans!

There's TOO MUCH comic book HISTORY for DC and Marvel! You have to revise every decade to keep characters updated and fresh but not TOTAL REBOOT like New 52 or keep adding to a HALF CENTURY history like Marvel!

There will NEVER be the PERFECT version for ANY character for EVERYBODY! Look how many versions of Superman there have been in 77 years- comics, cartoons, seriels, TV, movies!

I will read Wonder Woman '77 Lynda Carter over New Pukey 2 WW! Have you seen WW's new costume! Lynda Carter herself said "she's covered up, isn't she!"

[johnnystorm]

Last week I went into my LCS and there was actually nothing there I wanted to read from DC or Marvel. I used to buy 10-15 DC books a month, but after nu52, I dropped out.
Same with Marvel...I'm not sure where these new characters are selling so well, but my local shop only sells a couple Ms. Marvels, has a stack of Silks & Spider Gwens sitting there. Lots of Inhuman stuff too.
One of my biggest complaints (besides the story reboots) are the crappy art choices. I picked up that Dr Fate #1 to look at this week, how terrible, looks like a middle school kid drew it. Same reason I won't buy the Flash.
I'll still sample a book here or there, but it's got to be good and STAY good.

I find reboots and revamps more jarring now. I know I wasn't as offended by the Crisis redos, or the goofy costume redesigns of the 80s & 90s. Remember Black Canary's pajama outfit, or Power Girl as an Atlantean refugee with headband & legwarmers? Yikes! But todays changes offend me somehow...its weird.

[The Bat]

I use to go to the comic shop every week and buy a minimum of $35 worth of comics, sometimes even more. Now I've dropped so many books that the week before I picked up 3 comics...this week 2. The comic book companies are losing a lot of my money me. And I'm sure I'll be dropping many more coming up.

[LordMudd]

IMHO, an individual who cannot pick up on what has been and continue the story, but needs to reboot a character and do what he/she THINKS should have been the origin, is not a writer and should not be allowed to call himself a writer,

just like having an internet account does not make a person a toy reviewer. WWWWWH. A true journalist knows what this is. If you don't tell me the size or scale of the figure, you have not done your job, and I have seen TOO many reviews that did not tell me that one crucial bit of information.



CCC.

[fallensaviour]

They(DC) killed it for me,I dropped everything a couple years ago.
Haven't looked back since.I'm in my early forties and collected monthly for at least 30 years.
So if that's what they wanted then they succeeded.
The thing of it is though my kids used to read and collect as well.
Basing most of there prior knowledge on my 30 year old collection.Once the change up happened they were not excited at all, they lost interest faster than I did....LOL
So in all they lost three collectors in one foul swoop.
I'm sure others took our place but for how long did they stay collecting?
Ah well more money for FTC now.

[LordMudd]

Problem is now everybody wants to save a collection that will pay for college or retirement or whatever so they are grabbing up what will be worthless product with less value than the cover price because everybody will have it.


CCC.

[CrimsonGhost]

Problem is now everybody wants to save a collection that will pay for college or retirement or whatever so they are grabbing up what will be worthless product with less value than the cover price because everybody will have it.


CCC.

Is that happening again? I'm completely out of the comic book loop, but I thought speculators fell out in the mid-nineties when people finally realized Jim Lee's X-Men #1 and Death of Superman weren't worth anything since everyone already had them.

[Mr.Marion]

Tpb of older issues is where its at. I picked up this for $8 recently.