Two thousand and sixteen was a horrible year for Marvel. It was so horrible that if I heard anybody say I don't read Marvel's new stuff but their old material. I would say not out loud but in my head "that's a good thing". Why would I say that to a company I ounce loved but now have favored DC over Marvel when I use to love them equally? Well in this post of my I'll explain.
Let's start off with this lovely page that's actually from one of their comics.
HOW DOES THE NORSE GOD HAVE OPINIONS ON ISRAEL?! That wad just one of many examples. There's also that time female Thor punched a villain for feminism and a robbery but mostly for feminism and then there's the time Squirrel Girl and Galactus talked about gender-neutral pronouns. I'm serious this all happened in one whole year.
Now to list some of the problems they have.
Problem #1 - Pandering to Feminist & Social Justice Warriors
Somewhere in time Marvel decided not to continue with their longtime readers but instead pander to crowd who get offended and/or triggered by practical everything that exist. The biggest question I have for this is why? Why target this crowd that either A) Don't read comics B) Buy one issue then not buy the other issues or C) Onced called you sexist because of that Milo Manara Spider-Woman pose. Marvel trying to get this group interested isn't helping them at all. Just look at this chart taken from September of 2016 I picked this one because it shocked me the most. I mean just look at the first forty comics in this chart.
Thirty of those comics came from DC under their Rebirth banner and one of those comics (The Walking Dead) came from Image Comics the third most popular comic company. Marvel only had six of their comics on that chart. When you're comic company is as well known as Marvel's that's not a good sign.
Problem #2 - Bring back characters only if they have a movie coming out
I believe this all started with... Superior Spider-Man *vomits*. Sorry I get a little sick when I say that title. In Amazing Spider-Man #700 Peter Parker died when he switched bodies with Dr. Octopus making Doc the new Spider-Man & Peter dying in Doc Oct's body. After a terrible run with Superior Spider-Man Peter was brought back and was Spider-Man again. What was the problem he was brought back to life because The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was coming to theaters. Then Steve Rogers aka Captain America had his super soldier serum taken away from his body making him an old man. Then right around the time Captain America: Civil War was coming to theaters then guess what happened... Steve returned as Captain America that's almost similar to what happened with Spider-Man. So Marvel is saying we're going to do something that will have a huge impact on these characters such as kill them or take away their powers only bring them back when they have a new movie coming out.
Problem #3 - Killing off the X-Men
Marvel announced a huge storyline called the Death of X. In this storyline a large majority of X-Men characters were killed by a toxic gas that kills mutants but not the group called the Inhumans. I'll write about the Inhumans later but let's focus on why Marvel did this. The only reason they made this decision was so 20th Century Fox couldn't have new mutants to put in their X-Men films & so they didn't have to split profits with them. Now let's go back to the Inhumans their now being hyped up as the new X-Men even though they've established a differences between mutants & Inhumans. Killing off the X-Men is a terrible idea because the series is loved by many fans. But Marvel decided "no were tired of splitting the money with Fox so let's just kill a large majority of them off and make the Inhumans the new X-Men".
Problem #4 - Diversity for the sake of diversity
Let me just some there's nothing wrong with having a diverse cast of characters but if you're just doing it for diversity then you're characters won't be memorable and you will have terrible stories. Which is what Marvel has been doing we have a diverse cast but nothing good has come out of it. For instance Kamala Khan is a Muslim Ms. Marvel and she's a teenage who likes to have fun that's pretty much it. I personally find nothing interesting about her character and her powers aren't that original either what her powers she stretch her entire body but wait a minute Marvel already has somebody with that power. You know Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic. If Marvel wants diversity that's fine but here's the thing you write the character's personality, like/dislikes, and why he or she's past made them this character first then you decide on their race and gender last.
Now that I have given my opinion of what their problems are I want to give some solutions on how they can save themselves.
Solution #1 - Apologize to the real fans
This may not seem like a big one but for me if Marvel apologizes for all the stuff that happened like a writer talking down at the readers of their comic with constructive criticism looking at you Dan Slott or putting outdated internet memes in their comics seriously the Hulk once did a troll face and even said problem? I believe this could get some of the readers they lost right back.
Solution #2 - Hire writers who can write
Marvel as of late have been hiring people who found a way to both suck & blow at their jobs. They need to hire people who have passion for comics & want to tell good stories not people who want to shove both their personal and political agendas in our faces. We read comics for escapism not for the writer's political thoughts & opinions.
Solution #3 - Reboot
I know this may sound like a terrible idea but all this Marvel NOW! or All-New Marvel NOW! or All-New All-Different Marvel isn't working. They need a reboot that actually works not these titles that sound like a clickbait article. Starting from a clean slate could help after all the damage that was caused last year.
Anyway that's my opinion on what is Marvel's problems and what I think they can do to save themselves. Comment below and tell me what you think are problems or what might be the solution be to bring Marvel back to their former glory.
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