Comments on: DC and Marvel: From Mainstream to Irrelevant

By: James Schee

James Schee — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:28:06 +0000

Hibbs makes some interesting points, as I too think there are too many books put out by DC and Marvel. I’m not sure that the readers would buy of certain books if there weren’t more.

Yet there are some books, DC’s Team 7 and The Ravagers for instance (the upcoming Vibe series for another), that you wonder how they got green lighted in the first place.

I think in a lot of ways the comics side for the big 2 are irrelevant. I’m sure the creative teams are doing their best, but management is hoping to catch lightning in the bottle that’ll turn a minor character into the next franchise. (Guardians of Galaxy most recent example I guess?)

Superman, Batman, Spider-man, etc are still very relevant characters or properties I guess you’d say.

Good things is creators are going out and doing their own properties. Many seem to be doing the right thing and putting the comics first. Since yes Walking Dead is huge but not everything (probably most) will be that big. Yet I think it’ll be neat to see in a few years where comics “mainstream” proves to be.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:05:31 +0000

Well, the movies aren’t DC and Marvel any more — they’re Warner and Disney. Mostly Disney, since Warner still has only the one superhero franchise success (Batman). Arguably, the Walking Dead is as significant as the blockbuster movies, in terms of merchandise and reach, and it sets the message to keep your own properties. Thanks for your comments.

By: vantine

vantine — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 01:32:01 +0000

Great article. But I don’t read anything there that makes either Marvel or DC irrelevant or anything other than mainstream. Especially when you factor in the films which are currently the hottest tickets in town at theaters. Selling fewer floppies, sure.

When it comes to the comics end of the business and the big two’s whole saturation strategy, I’m not going to underestimate for one second their understanding of the power of “habit” with regards to buyer psychology. The Tobacco companies sure haven’t. But quality doesn’t necessarily translate to popularity. Marvel is about to introduce Rocket Raccoon to the world. How long will it be before we see a movie based on The Massive? Everything gets optioned nowadays but few quality non big 2 books make it to film.

I’m also not sure if Marvel or DC even need to come up with any new characters at this point in order to be successful or even to maintain an acceptable level of sales. I can think of a dozen characters that havent’ been revived in a couple decades. Ideally it would be nice for the industry, retailers and creators, if there was an invironment where contributors could create a character and be well paid to have that character appear in a film.

As far as quality of the product, it’s like cereal. General Mills puts out a lot of cereal but even though they sell more Cherios than they do Boo Berry they continue to make Boo Berry and the stores continue to stock it. I have to think that there’s a reason for that.

That said, I agree with all the above conclusions. In theory.