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As I filled out my Previews order form last month I noticed that a major change has finally come to pass. I will soon be reading fewer titles from Marvel than nearly any other publisher I buy from (other than Valliant). It used to be that Marvel was my second most read publisher (DC being the first), with a smattering of comics from other publishers. Marvel will now be sixth. I will read more comics from Dark Horse, Image, IDW, and Boom!/Kaboom! each month than I do from Marvel. My how things have changed.
I will admit that while I have felt this day was coming, it was still quite a shock to realize the day had arrived as I looked through my spreadsheet (to track orders and costs). I have made an effort to embrace DC's New 52 (which isn't always easy). However, I find that I just don't have the same drive to do so with Marvel's "Now" initiative. All I can say is that as time has gone on, I've found myself moving more and more away from Marvel. Well, Marvel in print. On TV or the movie screen is a different story.
When I first started reading comics (about 30 years ago) it was a mix of Marvel and DC. When I became more "serious" in my teens (my first pull file and comic store) I was really into things Marvel was doing. I was into all things X-related and the West Coast Avengers (which I will always call them). I also got caught up in Steve Rogers quitting being Captain America and Tony Stark starting the "Iron Wars". What would follow in those two cases was Rogers becoming "The Captain" while his replacement slowly lost touch with sanity, and Stark going over the line in securing his technology. The result of Rogers' soul searching and Stark's crusade? A face-off between the two heroes. It was a great time to be reading both titles. For me Marvel got even better in the 90s.
In the early 1990s Marvel rolled out some new titles and I got into nearly all of them. I was reading Ghost Rider, Guardians of the Galaxy, Darkhawk and my all-time favorite title New Warriors. As the years went on things started to become more of a mix with Marvel and DC, but Marvel still dominated my buying habits. A decision that Marvel made shortly before the end of the first run for the New Warriors was to make "corners" of the Marvel Universe to put titles in so that people knew which titles were most closely connected to others. I figured it wasn't a big deal as it would help people prepare for upcoming events. Of course, I also figured that the New Warriors were going to end up in the Avenger's corner of the Marvel Universe. I was wrong. The Warriors ended up getting shoved into the Spider-Man corner. This didn't make any sense to me as they had practically minimum contact with Spidey over the years. This was "fixed" by the Scarlett Spider being unnaturally forced into the New Warriors. The title didn't last much longer after that.
I can't say that New Warriors was cancelled because it was shoved into the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel Universe, but I certainly don't believe it helped. Much of what has driven me away from Marvel started at that time though. I never connected with another title as I did with the original New Warriors. While I connected with Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern (a factor of me investing more time and money in DC), I connected with the entire TEAM of the New Warriors on some level. As time went on Kyle Rayner's character would grow as would my collection of DC comics. I jumped onto JLA when it started and would start reading Flash regularly once again (and have since). Meanwhile, Marvel would continue to manhandle the New Warriors for years, culminating with some of them being poorly written in order to kick off the also poorly written "Civil War" of the Marvel Universe. The main Civil War title immediately put Mark Millar on my shit list of overhyped writers. Kurt Busiek nearly got himself on it due to having Firestorm and Justice on his relaunched Avengers roster just to do nothing with them. However, his years of great writing of on other titles helped me forgive him.
Still, since that time Marvel has continued to fill its stable of writers with individuals that I truly don't care for or am indifferent towards. Many of these writers are now the "architects" of Marvel and where it is going. This is a major turn-off for me. Does this mean that everything to come in Marvel's "Now" initiative is going to be bad? No. In fact, I sincerely doubt that will be the case. I'm well aware of my bias against the writers Marvel is largely looking to, just as I'm aware of my bias towards Geoff Johns' influence in DC's New 52.
Once December comes I will be reading only three Marvel titles. It is the smallest amount of Marvel I have read since I started consistently reading comics in my teens. The titles I will be reading are Deadpool, Thunderbolts, and Indestructible Hulk. The only reason I'm even reading the new Hulk title is that I want to see what they are doing with the character and I figure with Mark Waid writing it should be interesting for some time. I will not be continuing with Fantastic Four, FF, or Captain America. Each title has a writer, artist, or concept I don't like or am not interested in. I truly hoped that Marvel's "Now" initiative would find something to bring me back into the fold of the Marvel Universe, but as I've read the Marvel Previews, I have found myself being very turned off or disinterested in what I was reading about.
I do hope that someday I will find my way back to more Marvel, but it doesn't seem that day will be soon. Marvel is bringing back some of the characters I've enjoyed over the years like Rocket Raccoon and Darkhawk, which is nice. Unfortunately I can't stand Brian Michael Bendis, so the new Guardians of the Galaxy is a no-go for me. Also, while I'd be willing to risk Avengers Arena to get some Darkhawk, the fact that people keep referring to it in relation to the 'Hunger Games' when the cover to the first issue is obviously an homage to the movie version of 'Battle Royale'…my faith is lost. I'm still of the mind that sooner or later Marvel may have to go the way of DC and just draw a solid line in the sand and say that everything before is "no more". I miss my old DC. I won't lie. However, I know that this DC is not the old DC. They are separate (mostly). They drew a line. Until Marvel draws that line in the sand, I really don't know if I can enjoy Marvel "now", when all I can think about is how much I enjoyed Marvel "then". When I know I can't get it back, maybe I won't wish it would come back.
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