Of course, wet blankets are sometimes used to put out fires, aren't they?

That was when they were based in Australia and fought demons and cyborgs. 

Personally, I'd go back a bit earlier; possibly even just before Secret Wars! 

It's interesting how we all have our idea of when Marvel "changed". I used to argue that it was the addition of the Jim Lee X-Men title. I then thought it was after Fall of the Mutants. I settled on #200 as the issue that I decided that MY X-Men started to change into something that I didn't like. Of course, I have an older friend that says that the X-Men stopped being good when Dave Cockrum left. A younger person at my LCS talks about the "glory days" of the Joe Mad era.

Greg Kirkman wrote: What's your tipping point for a fictional universe's "house of cards"?

   For me, the tipping point was more like losing the rudder on a ship that was getting caught up in crosswinds.  The years between 1988 and 1994 saw me buying no Marvel comics, and even afterwards I would only turn my attention to certain titles which seemed "untouched" by such things as crossovers, staged "events", and characters behaving in ways that I knew they shouldn't have acted.  The final straw came in 2004, with the scene where the X-Men stood by like panicked sheep when villains blew up a busload of students from their own school on the front driveway as they watched.

   Many of the problems lie with the "rockstar" creative teams and editors, as Greg pointed out in his reply.  I see no need to add anything more.  The question now is how long before they end this train wreck.  Unfortunately, I can't see it ending well.

P.S.  Per Aaron's post above, I came in at about the same time.  My mom was my first source, having picked them up at the local grocery stores (including times when I tagged along).  Then the word spread from my grade school chum that comicbook stores actually existed!  By the time that I was able to see the shop he was raving about, there was already a new shop closer by, and the first one was closing down.

P.P.S. Today, in my 20-minute driving range, there are only 3 surviving comic stores.  The one or two that occasionally pop up within the range usually go out of business within a few months of opening.

I've posted before that my exposure to Marvel was originally through my older brother's collection. Those issues were published anywhere between 1974 through 1981 or so. I was born in 1973 and basically had 8 years worth of stories from various comics to choose from when I learned how to read. Even though my parents would buy me a comic because my brother would get one, I didn't buy my first "real" comic unitl 1982. That lead to a fun hobby for about 14 years or so. I had a couple of friends that collected as well and we would read each others comics and talk about them. It was great!

At some point, the X-Men started adding members and there were characters that I didn't care about replacing my favorite characters. JB left the Fantastic Four. Roger Stern left the Avengers. Walt Simonson left Thor. Frenz and DeFalco left Amazing Spider-Man. The New Mutants started to get dark and serious when they were killed (and resurrected) by the Beyonder and a crossover killed off Doug Ramsey. I was pretty much in denial when the X-Tinction Agenda led to the creation of the Jim Lee X-Men title. That opened up a Marvel that just got darker as people grew stubble, hair was grown longer, leather jackets were worn, and boobs started to protrude. Marvel once had many interesting non-powered characters. They were given powers and costumes or killed off. Then my favorite X-Man, Colossus, turned against the X-Men and joined Magneto. Marvel always had it's darker elements but now they were just making ugly comics. Even some of the newer titles that started out fun were getting darker like New Warriors when they had Vance Astrovik kill his father and killed off Rage's grandmother. I told the owner of my LCS that I thought it was time to take a break from comics because I didn't enjoy them anymore.

I came back years later because I heard good things about alot of comics. I got back into it and buy what I like but I also realize that the Marvel of my youth doesn't exist anymore. If I don't like what they do to a character, I don't buy it. There are other companies to enjoy. I won't fool myself that I'm going to enjoy the Fantastic Four at the level that I did when JB was writing and doing art. I may enjoy it as much as I did when I discovered my brother's Marv Wolfman/Keith Pollard issues though. I KNOW that the X-Men won't come close to being as good as when JB, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, Brent Anderson, Paul Smith, or JRjr. were on it. I gave it a shot and I realize that Bendis' take on the X-Men doesn't ring true to me. I'll always give a Marvel title a shot because I love those characters. Well maybe not Alpha Flight. Love the characters but if the name John Byrne isn't attached to it, forget about it.   

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Agreed. In fact, Frank Miller once said to me that Marvel had done so much great stuff in its first ten years, it was basically able to coast for the next twenty (at the time of our conversation).

but the combination of them has left us with an industry that sells a fraction of what they sold 40 years ago.

Lack of availabilty in places that kids go like 7-11 and grocery stores, comics that cost $2.99 to $3.99, video games, and kid-friendlier versions of the characters being on TV are factors. Of course, there's the broader problem that some kids don't like reading at all. I've donated alot of my trade paperbacks (mostly Ultimate stuff) to my high school library and occasionally, my students check them out. As a special education teacher, that makes me happy but I don't think that helps with the problem of exposing a younger audience to comics.

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There is an ironic kind of pyrrhic victory in the fact that many schools now use comic books to encourage kids to READ!!