Happy Hump Day People!
Today I was going to take a brief few minutes to talk about the upcoming Secret Wars/Soft reboot of the MU, and where I stand on the issue. I figured I'd express my views on it, and whether or not I felt it'll benefit Marvel fans in the long run.
I was even going to explain that it really comes down to two main and often times conflicting views on what's best and entertaning;
The Publisher/Company/Corporate view and the Fan's view.
But the more I thought about it, the more I had a hard time not playing devil's advocate, and taking Marvel's side.
Let me explain.
I can see where Marvel
(now owned by Disney) has a responsibility both to Disney and it's shareholders to continue to market and make as much revenue as posible to make them happy. It just comes with the territory.
That's why we see the never-ending cycle of events and mini-events continue to occur. They sell, despite the many protests of fans, especially the older one like myself.
That's in large part because the days of un-decompressed storytelling and allowing titles and characters to breath betwteen mega events is by and large, over. Done.
You can probably blame today's society's obession with sound bytes and a general short attention span for that, since more and more generations of people are being conditioned to only take the time out to read and process shorter and shorter bits of information.
Hey, I have to concede that I find myself sometimes feeling that way too, unless I'm super into the subject/topic matter.
All that being said, the writers, editors, creators' main job is to sell to as many people as they can, all of these events they cook up.
Much like papa
Stan Lee, they have to shill them all as life-changing, earth-shattering events and promise that
"Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again!".
But we all know that's never the case.
Every time they replace characters like Thor, Cap, or IM, they wind up evitably bringing them back, and restoring the status quo.
That's just a fact because while we all want change and something new and exciting, but we also want our classic heroes to relatively stay the same.
And they do.
That's the major problem with publishing comic characters for 70 years.
You eventually run out of fresh things to do to them.
Then there's the fact that comic fans have been maintaining interest longer than they used to.
Legendary Comic Editor
Julie Swartz famouslty said that
"Comic fans only stick around for three years."
Well not aymore, and because of that, such issues such as continuity and the like have become both huge and necessary albatrosess around the necks of publishers of the big two.
Lets be honest here, we the fans are not 100% blameless here.
We can bitch and whine, and threaten, but when it really comes time to put our money where our opinions are, most of us simply punk out.
You want to hurt an organization that makes it's living of selling products on a consistant basis,
STOP BUYING THE PRODUCTS!!!!
That's how you make a statement. By voting with your wallet, because basically it all comes down to money. That's what makes the world go around.
My point is that fans, by and large, are fickle. Very fickle.
They say they're outraged one minute, but act a totally different way the next. It's that indeciviness that ultimately hurts their cause when it comes to legitimately gripping about the poor decisions these companies and creative teams make.
Now that's not to say I'm doing an about face, or changing my positions on my hate and dislike for Didio and people just like him
(which Tom Brevroot is dangerously close to becoming).
Fuck no!
In fact if anything, this upcoming event, along with the
DC's Convergance, further illustrates what's currently wrong with the line of thinking in regards to the non-stop events.
On DC's end, Didio lies non-stop, claiming that certain events and storylines "were always planned that way", when we all know what bullshit that is.
Marvel's Tom Brevoort does the same thing.
Times like this, you'd wish both sides would just be more open and honest with their fans.
It's simply showing respect to your customers, and that should never be a bad thing.
As I understand it, Converance was born as a distraction, something to help fill the time, a placeholder in the marketplace while DC undergoes the big move west to California.
And despite all the nostalgia that they'll be rolling out and pushing hard, in the end it won't mean a thing.
That is to say, the NU52 isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's here to stay, but to pander to the older audience they've by and large (intentionallly?) driven away, they offer one last look at your childhood heroes before locking them up and sealing them away forever.
So basically, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Nice to know right?
Secret Wars on the otherhand actually does matter in the sense that by the time it rolls around, the Marvel Universe as you've known it since 1961 will no longer exist.
Yep, that's right. In case you haven't already heard, the universe that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and countless others built, is dead.
Don't believe me?
Here's the truth directly for the horse's ass' mouth:
“Once we hit Secret Wars #1, there is no Marvel Universe, Ultimate Universe, or any other. It’s all Battleworld,”[Executive Editor Tom] Brevoort said.
“The Marvel Universe will be Battleworld, and every single piece of those worlds will be building blocks for the universe,” said Alonso, adding that all the universes represented in “Battleworld” will have “legs” moving forward.
“…We are taking the best and biggest pieces of [Marvel history] and seeing how easily they coexist with one another,” Alonso said in answer to a press question about this being a ‘reboot.’ “We don’t expect all our moves to make everyone happy, but we think it will make for a really fascinating read through Secret Wars and beyond.”
This is pretty much as bold a move as Marvel's ever made since it's inception more than 50 years.
Now I'll be honest.
Initial impression?
The concept sounds cool and exciting enough. After all, all of your favorite alternate and What If? universes will be represented in a re-imagined Battleworld, where they get to duke it Battle Royal-style for survival.
But then what? What's the main motivation behind doing all this? What's so broken
(besides time apparently) that the current regime at Marvel feels the need to do something this drastic?
Hasn't the Marvel Now initiative been financially successful enough?
In any event, despite how much this move reeks of being just like CRISIS, the new MU going forward will be a mash-up of hand-picked characters from each alternative historical universe. A Greatest Hits/Dream Team thing of you will.
But yet the entire history of the MU still remains?
Yeah doesn't make sense to me either.
As always, we shall see.....
