And Anthony, I was thinking in terms of 4 stories (88 pages, plus ads). There should be at least 3, though.

Just a thought.

             "A fish rots from the head down"

                                                       --old proverb

How can Marvel fix things?

Disney needs to grow a spine.

Fire most, if not all, of the editorial staff and hire a new EIC from within Disney, somebody with a love of 60-80s Marvel with a strong sense of storytelling and characterization, preferably from the animation division.

Install the old guard ( Stan, the Romitas, JB, Simonson ) as Creative consultants until the new editorial staff finds their way.

My suggestions would be...

1) Reducing the title overload. You don't need more than two or three books relating to popular properties like Spidey or the Avengers. Less popular characters certainly don't need multiple titles (beyond perhaps a solo title and being part of a team book).

2) Less mini series and the like. Focus on the regular books and make mini series something occasional and special instead of just doing them for the sake of having more stuff on the racks.

3) Regular frequency of books. Remember when books were monthly and you could rely on which week a particular title would ship? We need to get back to that.

4) Regular creative teams that actually hit their deadlines. This "growing roses" mentality has to stop. Sure, some creators are slower than others, but blowing deadlines is the surest way to ensure missed shipping dates and annoying your customers. It's not too much to expect people to do their job in the time given. If they can't meet their deadlines, they shouldn't be on a regular book. If slower creative teams are going to do a run, wait until the work is finished and submitted before soliciting it to ensure being able to get it out on time.

5) Fewer company wide events. These used to be special for the simple reason that they didn't happen very often and when they did, they grabbed your attention. Now, they are very commonplace and all blend together. Less is more, as they say.

6) Don't worry about what the movies and tv shows are doing. Most of the people who watch them are never going to buy a comic anyways, so don't start changing everything in the books to make it look like they see on screen in the hopes of luring a few of them in. All that does is annoy your current fanbase in the hopes of catching a few dollars from the casual fans who aren't likely to pick up more than an issue or two to check them out.

7) Don't worry about story lengths. Let them be as long or as short as they need to be. Some should be "done in ones", some should be multi-parters, some should be ongoing plotlines. Let the creative teams tell the story in the way it needs to be told instead of focusing on how it will fit into the reprint format for the collected editions.

8) Put an end to the constant relaunching and renumbering of books. Marvel should be proud of their characters longevity and history and shouldn't try to hide it or ignore it for that first issue bump. It's inconsistent and could be confusing to the newer reader.

I'm sure I'll think of more, lol, but that'll do for now.

In another example of mindlink with Mr. Byrne, my first thought upon seeing this thread title was "time machine".

Since that's not gonna happen, well...it's over. Let it die.

BUT....

I'd like to see most of what others have already mentioned.

1. Get comics out to the masses again.

2. Drop "mega" events. I remember when cross overs between the Avengers and FF were rare and exciting. 

3. Drop any other ideas marketing comes up with. The marketing department killed the industry as much as direct market distribution did.

4. Write great, character-driven stories, not shock-value "what if" scenarios.

5. Quit back stabbing the characters.

6. Personally, I'd like to see artists stick to a book for about 12 issues or at least the entire story arc. I can't tell how many times I was interested in a book because of the artist, only to have that artist leave after an issue or two.

7. Develop new characters and make them interesting instead of endless derivatives.

8. Oh yeah....I'd like to see the books printed on newsprint again to bring down the cost. As much as I love to see the beautiful art in high-gloss "ultra" color, I'd give that up for good ol classic format comics again.

9. If the world is heading toward all digital, and I think that is just a matter of decades away, then digital comics should not cost the same as physical comics as they are cheaper to produce and distribute.

============================

Maybe if Marvel stopped being involved with the direct production of comics altogether, and licensed their books to third parties. The licensee would have to meet sales targets, or they would lose the license to a competitor. There would be different licenses covering the families of characters, like the X-Men and Spider-Man. To start out, no single licensee would have all the Marvel licenses available. The sheer competition would force publishers to make successful decisions. 

It's not the perfect reset point. We'd still have things like Magneto leading the X-Men, but it would clear away a lot of clutter. 

Do I think the current talent could or would play properly in that sandbox. No. But maybe there are some other people out there, old and new, who would.

In another example of mindlink with Mr. Byrne, my first thought upon seeing this thread title was "time machine".

Since that's not gonna happen, well...it's over. Let it die.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

If you're going to reply with they can't fix it or it's too late. Please done bother posting in the thread. Things are negative enough already. I'm needing a little cheering up. Where as comics are concerned.

That was the very first thing I typed in the thread Greg. Your contribution doesn't add anything positive to the thread. That's really disappointing. Did you really need to post let it die?

If like JB you feel a time machine is the only way that Marvel can fix things that's cool. You can respond with that. But the negativity isn't wanted or needed. 

Greg, I would think that you would have some interesting ideas on how to fix things. That's what I want to read not 'let it die'.

If you've got some please share them. If you don't want to than just leave it at Time Machine.