Can any comic fans fill me in on current Marvel continuity?

[Cthulhudrew]

The other big innovation Quesada ushered in was the focus on trade backs. Most adults (like me) arent going to chase individual issues. I subscribe to a few books, so I get them in my mail every month, and then I buy trade backs.

This was a really good idea, and one that Marvel should have done ages ago, like DC had been doing for some time. Frankly, after discussions with a good friend of mine who is a comic store owner, I'm nearly convinced that the comics industry would be a lot more lucrative if they abandoned monthly "floppies" altogether, in favor of collected trade paperbacks of story arcs. It wouldn't be that difficult to do (and in some cases, might even be easier, as witnessed by a lot of the troubles with late shipping schedules due to artists or writers not being able to meet deadlines). The manga industry does this almost exclusively, from what I gather, and that is an incredibly successful industry.

When TPBs are released just a few short months after the story arcs are completed anyway, I know that there are a lot of people who just wait for the trade rather than pick up the floppies, as you point out. The monthly issue release schedule is just a (perhaps outdated) conceit of the comics industry that American comics companies struggle with, just as they've long struggled with doing anything other than spandex books (a trend that has, in recent times, been less and less industry consuming.)

 

[bolen]

I bought Josh Wheton's X-men and have a question. What happened to professor X? Is he dead?

 

[Dragonblade]

You both make good points. However, I think the problem Marvel had in the mid to late 90's was not continuity. Rather it was too many cross-overs.

When I started reading Marvel books a lot in the early 90's, I really enjoyed them because of continuity. Because I knew that what happened in one book would be consistent in other books. I also enjoyed reading a book knowing that what happened in the past actually meant something. It gave everything more resonance.

The problem Marvel had was not continuity, it was that to fully understand the storyline of one book, you had to read other books because the story wasn't whole unless you bought all of them. That is what pissed off readers and caused those who couldn't afford every single Marvel title to eventually throw up their hands in disgust.

The fix for that problem is simple, keep the stories in their respective titles. Spidey titles follow Spider-man. X-titles follow the X-men. I should never have to buy a Spider-man book to follow an X-men storyline and vice versa. But if something happens in an X-men book, I expect it to be that way when I read another X book.

It sounds like Marvel has dumped all continuity and each writer can just do whatever the hell they want. One writer may put Wolverine in Japan fighting the Hand in the latest issue of Wolverine, while the other has him in the Savage Land fighting Magneto in the latest issue of X-men? Ugh, no thanks.

That is just too much. I find that more of a turnoff than an invitation for me to jump on board. Why should I invest time or money in a comic series if the next writer that comes along invalidates everything I just read? I'd rather have them maintain continuity, just cut down on the crossovers.

 

[stevelabny]

they very well might be better off if they just switched to TPBS.
at the very least, some of the stories would be readable, which they aren't as monthly issues.

which is the main part of my problem. they keep publishing monthly issues, but only to make TPBs and to make movies and to make video games. The monthlies are an afterthought at Marvel.

DiDio has at least said in interviews that they still have to make the monthlies worth reading which is something marvel isnt grasping.

THIS is my problem. Comics are a great medium. But they exist only to serve everything else. The use the sales numbers of comics to make TPBs, but since many readers who favor TPBs have already switched to TPB-only buying, the numbers on individual issues are off.

This is why a book like Runaways was cancelled, but then sold incredibly well as a collection in bookstores. (Presumably because Runaways will be picked up by some manga-loving fangirls)

If you don't want to make comics, because you want to be a true multimedia company, DON'T. If you want to just make movies and video games and cartoons. Fine. But if you're gonna keep publishing monthlies, do all the things you would do for any other business. Start with advertising and making the monthlies worth buying in their own right (no more decompressed arcs that take 6-12 issues for anything to happen...) Save those stories for the straight-to-TPB market. And give me action-packed, caption-packed cliffhangers of doom.


And to answer the Prof X question.... As Joss' X-Men starts, he is in Genosha hanging out with Magneto in Excalibur. (Yes, Excalibur used to be a british-mutant team and will be again, but the current series isn't)

 

[Dragonblade]

However as I pointed out... Marvel's comic sales under Quesada have increased as well. The Ultimate line, whatever people think of it, is a huge sales hit and that was started under Quesada's watch.

The other big innovation Quesada ushered in was the focus on trade backs. Most adults (like me) arent going to chase individual issues. I subscribe to a few books, so I get them in my mail every month, and then I buy trade backs.

I think the Ultimate line rocks. However, I wish there was an easier way to catch up on all the old titles without having to buy a billion graphic novels. I wish they would release all their old titles as DOT comics online. Or perhaps even start some sort of online subscription where you get access to a DOT comic library that includes ALL back issues, plus the newer issues as they come out. That would rule, and generate them some good revenue. The largest barrier to new customers is having to catch up on back issues and spending a fortune on doing so. And the biggest turn off to existing customers is scrapping continuity and serially restarting your series all the time in order to attract new customers.

The best of both worlds is offering access to all back issues at a reasonable flat price.

 

[stevelabny]

you can find comics just as cheaply as you can music and movies and tv shows on the internet.

if thats not your style, marvel has released at least the first 500 issues of amazing spider-man in a CD set. (the problem being, its AMAZING only, so you'll only get parts of crossovers) and i think they did/are doing a similar Fantastic Four also.

 

[Staffan]

I bought Josh Wheton's X-men and have a question. What happened to professor X? Is he dead?

He's doing stuff over in Genosha. Spoiler:

Spoiler

He shows up at the end of Astonishing X-men 10, which is the latest issue.

 

[Felon]

Ummm... how is being told you have to follow a general plotline by an editor, because of what is happening in another book anything BUT continuity? You just contradicted yourself.

No, you merely have a rather bizarre definition of "continuity". Crossovers do not have any direct relationship to maintaining continuity. Wolverine showing up for a single issue of another character's comic book when Wolverine's currently dead or in another dimension oror undergone some radical transformation flies in the face of continuity, but stuff like that happens all the time.

Here's a heads up- those editors were running the show to MAINTAIN CONTINUITY.

Pretty naive. Reality check: crossovers are a marketing gimmick, continuity be damned.

 

[bolen]

Pretty naive. Reality check: crossovers are a marketing gimmick, continuity be damned.

What the comic book publishers use gimicks to make us buy more products. I am shocked, shocked . . .

 

[DonTadow]

I bought Josh Wheton's X-men and have a question. What happened to professor X? Is he dead?

I'm one of those people who got back into comics soly to read something by JOss Whedon. So, to go through all the comic book lingo, JOss Whedon's Xmen does not have much to do with the current storyline in Xmen?