Maybe We Don't Have to Be THAT Hard On Marvel

So, the story lately in the comic world has been how The Big Two's sales are down lately and everyone has their various opinions on why that is because fanboys. It's pretty much standard operating procedure to howl endless platitudes about how mainstream comics are coming to an end as we know it or whatever. The main complaint is that DC is changing their characters too much, and "he doesn't look like MY Batman" and basically everything change averse readers over 40 would whine about no matter what. And honestly, things over there aren't as bad as comic retailers would have you believe. I mean, Batman is still going strong, Superman is shaky but Superman has been shaky since before the New 52 reboot and Green Lantern has a strong premise going but Robert Venditti is just no Geoff Johns. Also, Justice League, Midnighter, Doctor Fate and Black Canary are all really strong titles that are just not getting enough press because it's cool to hate DC.

The complaint that bothers me the most actually comes from Marvel readers, though. Now, granted...it's only fair to say that Marvel DID kinda shit the bed by launching their rebooted universe before finishing the event that causes the the universe to be rebooted in the first place. And it was a bit annoying that Secret Wars was an 8 issue event that started in early Spring 2015 and didn't end until early 2016, but this All New All Different Marvel isn't as gagworthy as people are making it out to be. The main gripe seems to be that the House of Ideas seems to be throwing way too many titles at the wall to see what sticks. But the truth is THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. A year ago, the complaint was that they were so busy gender/race bending old characters, they weren't focusing on pushing existing non binary characters. Now, we have them trying out books like "Silk" (which is, in fairness, bad....last time I checked, anyway), The Ultimates, an almost completely non binary team of Avengers, David Walker writing a Power Man/Iron Fist team up book to get readers acquainted with the former Heroes for Hire before their respective Netflix shows debut. These are things that deserve mention. G. Willow Wilson's writing on Ms. Marvel has easily been some of the best in the business, redefining the superhero genre for young millenials. All New Hawkeye, though aiming a little higher than Matt Fraction's strictly everyman approach, has maintained its status as a fun, sometimes heartwarming character study of a guy who's good at being a hero and not as great at being a person. Bendis is doing compelling work on Invincible Iron Man, depicting a less morose Tony Stark trying his hand at having a normal life while facing abnormal problems. And I shouldn't even have to explain the importance of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

It's easy to get caught up in the problems, but it's important to mark the interesting things happening over at Marvel right now because there's a reawakening of the confidence in the industry to try some different things that run the risk of sucking. Or we can just go back to have ten X-Men titles and five Wolverine books. I know we all love that shit. Just thinking out loud. 

My comic review of David Walker's Cyborg is up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment.

The Week In Geek 7/1/15

So, this week, we found out that Ava DuVernay walked away from the director's chair for Black Panther. Sucks, but I have to appreciate when black talent has come up in the world to a point where they can turn down million dollar franchises deals at their peak. Allegedly, they "had different ideas about what the story would be." It's not really my job to guess, but I'd say this is another case of the suits at Disney/Marvel stepping on their talent's neck. I mean, we all saw Whedon's frustration with certain mandates in Age of Ultron. At this point in DuVernay's career, I could understand wanting to maintain a certain level of creative autonomy.

Also, Marvel revealed the full roster for their All New All Different Marvel lineup after Secret Wars wraps up. Wolverine's a woman, Star Lord's a woman, Ms. Marvel joins the Avengers and, yep, Captain America is still black. The weirdest backlash is about Spider Woman turning up pregnant. It's gotten to a point where fans are upset just for the sake of being upset. Jubilee spent the better part of Brian Wood's all female X-Men book as Mutant Vampire Juno with an adoptive baby that wasn't hers. Marvel spent ten solid years developing Luke and Jessica Cage's baby from conception to a toddler to a future where she grows up to be Captain America. Fans pick bizarre moments to decide they're upset about a book that, statistically speaking, they weren't reading in the first place. Also, all we've seen so far is a cover. Fans are actually judging books by their cover now. On one hand, it's understandable since comics are a primarily visual medium. On the other hand, we STILL DON'T KNOW the actual context of what the book's about. Even if you want to go off of the cover and claim it's a judgment of art, we all know that the art on the cover doesn't always reflect of artwork of the actual book, so even that's a silly way of making determinations on a book you haven't read. So far, I'm reserving judgment until I lay eyes on some actual pages.

No Black Nerd Problems reviews from me this week. Had to put the finishing touches on my scripts for Issues 2 and 3 of my upcoming comic. The website's under construction at the moment but we'll be up and running within the next few weeks. Happy Independence Day.