Why did you stop reading Marvel comics?

[direction9]

Here's the thing about the New 52.

ALL of them were forgettable.

100% horsepoop right there

[Chris Beveridge]

I started reading Marvel Comics back with the 6th issues of the Star Wars books in the 70's and then went on a year or two later to reading lots of stuff that I could get on the newsstand as a kid, riding my bike downtown with friends and going that route. Picked up when I got my first taste of the direct market a few years later with subscriptions (still as a kid, supported by my parents because it had me reading) and then buying plenty until the early 90's. It's when things started becoming more ego/artist driven that I was driven out. I hated what happened to Claremont with the X-Men in how at the time it was portrayed as the artists new better, then the whole Image formation event and the way everything was all about holofoil, die cut, variants, and so forth. it gimmicked me out and I left entirely.

I tried coming back in the mid 2000's with Civil War. Liked it alright, but between reading that and sampling some Ultimates, Marvel was giving me what I didn't want. Everything was too real-world. I wanted escapism. I don't mind darkness, but it was all too close to reality with terrorism, brutality, etc. It just kept pushing me away.

Any attempts at coming back now seem low as well, though I check things out in this forum. I'd be curious about a few books, but I'm a digital only buyer and their prices are out of whack for what you get. And I'm leery of any series because of the quick cancellations some get, etc. To someone like me, there's just too much uncertainty. There's always some, but Marvel just seems too unstable.

[carabas]

Four bucks for 22 pages on most of the books I was interested in, coupled with Marvel's unfortunate tendency to really overdo the whole event thing. When there's a 31-issue event with 4 spin-off mini series centered around DAREDEVIL you know greed has gotten way out of control.

Also the general asshattery of Marvel representatives whenver they make a public statement.

And now apparently the standard is 20 pages for $4, despite promising vehementmy not to do that.

Well, sigh, I stopped reading when Marvel became the world's leading comic books publisher.

America's leading comics publisher... Globally they're kinda small potatoes.

[West]

Also the general asshattery of Marvel representatives whenver they make a public statement.

I laugh at how easy you are to offend, compared to most of the things I've heard online a real life, there words are nothing.

[Rasputin9977]

I laugh at how easy you are to offend, compared to most of the things I've heard online a real life, there words are nothing.

It's not that it's offensive but that it's unprofessional.

[Castel]

I dropped comics in the 90s because the 90s were a cesspool.

Something like that for me too.

Didn't completely dropped comics but geez...what a sad time.

Was pretty close to leave the boat more recently too thanks to all this OMD/BND/WTF foolishness.

[Chris Beveridge]

It's not that it's offensive but that it's unprofessional.

That's been a surprising thing for me in reading the Marvel forums. There's a few that I follow on Twitter that understand the social side (Agent M, Dreamyeyed) so they do help to balance things out and do what seems like a very good balance of personal and professional in order to create that "online bond" between customer and company. What you see in the forums sometimes really makes you blink though, but it's more dependent I think on the readers age and what they've experienced in "the real world". I can easily imagine myself at 15 loving everything certain Marvel folks post in the forums here, whereas the 40 year old me cringes to say the least.

[RDMacQ]

Lol, I like how people say they stopped reading Marvel comics, and then they know more about the current Marvel title story lines then those of us who are still reading them?

Bluff called.

Because it's not like people post online spoilers that give detailed synopsis for what went on in those titles, and the discussions often reveal many of the plot points of said issues?

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

When I was younger I used to read a lot of comics, but I never actually bought them due to how expensive they were where I lived when compared to the income I got from being a kid. So there was a long time where I didn't have access to comics due to not being able to afford them.

I think the first Marvel Comic I bought with my own cash was Dan Slott's She-Hulk #4 with Spider-man on the cover. I'm not a hardcore Marvel fan or hater. I just read what I like, take chances with creators I like and on interesting premises. I don't stick with every book eternally, as not every book is gold. I try not to rant to much about what I dislike, which is more dealing with their publishing and marketing strategies than the actual content between the pages.

This week, I bought zero DC books, one Image and four Marvel books. Venom let me down and I may drop it since Tom Fowler isn't coming back. Cloak and Dagger was upsetting because it set up some interesting story threads that may never be touched upon again in the future. Daredevil #5 was an improvement over #4, and it's still one of the best pure superhero books that Marvel or DC is publishing. Wolverine and the X-Men was a surprise though, and it was good enough to convince me that I should probably get a subscription so I don't have to worry about the $3.99 cover price going forward. It looks like it's definitely set to inject some new life into the franchise.

While I'm disappointed that some readers have left Marvel, there's still a lot of good stuff to be had. Marvel definitely needs to do something about that $3.99 pricing because it's making it harder for me to try new books. I took a gamble on WATXM because I heard a lot of good things about it and I was genuinely interested in the premise. That pricing is keeping me off of books like ASM, UXF and Captain America, though.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

I dont need another of Marvel's cheerleaders to tell me its the same book. It's the same book but its going to come out in the dame month. Ridiculous gimmick so I'm dropping it.

You could just skip the .1 issues. The recap pages usually sum that kind of information up. If I'm dropping Venom it's more due to the change in art team.

[Greg Anderson]

The only Marvel books I currently actually read are Black Panther, X-Factor, and Daken. While I'm generally enjoying them, I'm not as excited for them as I used to be with Marvel. The last time I was really excited over a character/book was actually Dr. Voodoo and since killing him off, I lost a lot of interest. There's tons of great characters that are great but aren't get much focus and when there's some excitement over the lower tiers characters, they get canceled and cut off because they don't sell as much as the higher tier characters are are featured everywhere and are the main focus of events. Lower tier characters gets tie-ins but never play big parts in events to showcase them.

While Black Panther has a pretty solid team writing/drawing and I generally enjoy the stories, I'm still a bit off with the overall premise but whatever.

Even in general with Marvel books, I don't have that itch to rush to the comic shop anymore. I have a "eh, I'll get it when I get it" mentality now. I seem to be getting a bit excited over the new Wolverine and the X-Men book, we'll see how long that lasts.

[CyberHubbs]

Because it's not like people post online spoilers that give detailed synopsis for what went on in those titles, and the discussions often reveal many of the plot points of said issues?

I can see popping in every couple of months, or even years, to see what they've missed. But here they still are.

Anyway. I stopped in the early 2000s, but am now picking up more than usual. I can see why people buy fewer, though. Especially when you're in your thirties and forties. Unless you have a lot of disposable income, bills usually come first.

[carabas]

I laugh at how easy you are to offend, compared to most of the things I've heard online a real life, there words are nothing.

I don't buy books by those people from "online a real life" either. And who said I was offended?

[DaronK]

I stopped reading Marvel a few years ago when I fell behind on everything. I was working on my Grad degree and working full time and just didn't have time to read anything that wasn't school related. I was, however, still buying everything in hopes of being able to catch up a bit later.

Once I did find some time to start reading again, I found that the titles I was really missing weren't the Marvel books, so those continued to sit and wait to be read. Then when the $3.99 prices started hitting most of the titles, I just couldn't justify spending all that money for books I obviously didn't have enough interest to read.

Now that I am caught up and buying more titles than ever, I still can't bring myself to spend $3.99 on a 20 or even a 22 page comic, but I have been getting all the Ultimate trades for like $5 on Amazon and have been enjoying them more than I thought I would.

[jsf]

I stopped reading them when it became clear that there was some price gouging going on.

They can do it -- it's a free market economy -- but I'm not buying it.