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William Costello
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | 1  

As somebody that works in accounting and finance (CPA with a Master's in Finance), I tend to believe a fair amount of problem is pricing, so this point made in the article, IMO, is very pertinent: "Then you’ve got issue cost and audience retention. Nowadays, individual issues typically cost anywhere from $3.99 to $5.99 or more, making it harder for fans to want to buy— especially if you’re swapping out an established character for a version they aren’t familiar with." 
I believe comic pricing hit a "tipping point" once they passed the $ 2.25 per issue price (about 15 years ago). Once comics passed that point, they started disappearing from a lot of the non comic stores. I still see them, once in a while, in some of the major bookstores. Unfortunately, a lot of the book stores are now disappearing (along with a LOT of retail, period.)
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Brian Hunt
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | 2  

The Original Mar-Vell was back briefly, and his son
carried on also. I think they wanted to keep the title
associated with the Kree elements.
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Dave Phelps
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | 3  

No, Mar-Vell's still dead (aside from a fake-out circa Secret Invasion and a temporary resurrection circa Avengers vs. X-Men).

After Monica, they introduced a son (post-mortem; artificially aged) called Legacy and he eventually took the name for awhile. Then he stopped for some reason.

Then the aforementioned fake-out, a brief time where Grant Morrison's version Marvel Boy took the name for a bit, and now Carol Danvers uses it.

Either way, we're talking roughly 16 years between the time Monica stopped using it (Avengers Unplugged #5, back in 1996) and Carol started (CM #1 in 2012).
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Brian Hunt
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | 4  

Much like most of you, I had hoped that it was an April
Fools' day story. It is clear that they don't understand
the problem. It wasn't diversity, which most of us all
want to see, it was the removal of the main characters
and replacing them with legacy versions. Just make NEW
characters.
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Brian Hague
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | 5  

As much as I'm no fan of Legacy Characters, really if the stories being told with them were any better, sales wouldn't be as much a problem. A lot of it is "bang for the buck." It's true that you don't get $4.00 worth of story for your money these days. You get some fractional amount of a larger story which you know or should know by now will not be accorded its due attention, because another "event" will come along to impinge upon its page count and divert the characters in some other direction before the end of this story is reached. "Oh, but that's the fun of it," some argue. I disagree. Even with the greater focus these days upon "done in one" stories, those must still fit into an overall continuity that is at best confusing and more accurately described as willfully sloppy. 

When it was revealed in the "Homecoming" trailer that Peter Parker's new best friend was copped from the Miles Morales titles, I went looking back at Miles' history. It would seem that nearly every supporting character knows his identity and a large number of them work for shadowy, clandestine organizations or have histories with them. 

These are extremely tiresome cliches by this point. Actually having a secret identity these days would almost be a breakthrough concept. Not having pseudo-SHIELDS peeking out from every flowerbed would be refreshing. Writing with some tone other than an affected yawn would be nice. Not continuing storylines on and on forever would be appreciated, I think. There's so little writing and so much plot mechanic contrivance in comics these days that the payoff is never quite there. 

Humor comics have helped a little. It's easier to get to "funny" than it is to reach a satisfactory conclusion to a mega-epic about murdered cosmic beings who reorganize the universe or a spy vs. spy where entire vast criminal organizations move against one another. Really, where's the kick? Where's the fun? Where's the payoff? How is Corporate Peter any more worth my four bucks than the character before the change? 

Nothing is selling me on these "exciting, new" versions, especially the content of the books themselves. Diversity would work just fine if the books starring the new characters were knocking people out. They're not. Marvel seems to be insisting they have the right to be boring with any version of any character they see fit, and blaming the audience when somehow the same-ol'-same-ol' just doesn't cut it anymore. 

Marvel is played out and giving us teenage girls in grown-up super-hero suits isn't a magic bullet when these new characters may as well be the old for the quality of storytelling they're receiving. 

Find new stories to tell. Tell them well. Make us care about the guy or girl in the suit of armor, whether it's Tony, Rhodey, or Riri. I haven't read much in the past five years that I could really invest in. This stuff can be cool. Recently, it just hasn't been.

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Anthony J Lombardi
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | 6  


It's a bit funny that Marvel's idea of diversity includes replacing the Black female Captain Marvel with a white woman, Which I suspect might have been for marketing reasons. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``
I didn't know that Monica Rambeau was Captain Marvel before Carol Danvers. I thought it was the other way around. However having just checked it out I see why I made the mistake. Danvers went by Ms. Marvel when she was involved with the first Captain Marvel and when she faced Rogue. 



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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | 7  

Marvel is played out and giving us teenage girls in grown-up super-hero
suits isn't a magic bullet when these new characters may as well be the
old for the quality of storytelling they're receiving.

------

The teen girl books (Ms. Marvel, Moon Girl) are the ones they are doing
right. It's all the big titles that Marvel has screwed up.
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Mike Norris
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | 8  

Either way, we're talking roughly 16 years between the time Monica stopped using it (Avengers Unplugged #5, back in 1996) and Carol started (CM #1 in 2012).
************************************************************ *******************
In any case,they shouldn't have taken the name from Monica in the first place. And when they went shopping for a new female Captain Marvel, they should have looked to Monica. 
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Robert Bradley
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | 9  

All I know is that when I was a young, white male I read and enjoyed books featuring Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Black Panther, Black Goliath, Black Widow, Tigra, Shang-Chi, Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl.

The stories just seemed to be more fun, they weren't replacing all of their heroes in order to diversify their line, and they weren't foisting event after event pitting the heroes against each other.

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Anthony J Lombardi
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | 10  


All I know is that when I was a young, white male I read and enjoyed books featuring Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Black Panther, Black Goliath, Black Widow, Tigra, Shang-Chi, Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl.

The stories just seemed to be more fun, they weren't replacing all of their heroes in order to diversify their line, and they weren't foisting event after event pitting the heroes against each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well Said
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Robert Bradley
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | 11  

Why is Marvel panicking?  Because sales for the whole line is down, and most of the legacy characters aren't performing well -

Sales rank for February -

Elektra - 30th
Mighty Thor (Jane Foster) - 41st
Invincible Iron Man (Riri Williams) - 56th
Spider-Man (Miles Morales) - 61st
All-New Wolverine (Laura Kinney) - 80th
Spider-Gwen (Gwen Stacy) - 81st
Hulk (She-Hulk) - 83rd
Jessica Jones - 93rd
Mighty Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) - 97th
Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) - 107th
Totally Awesome Hulk (Amadeus Cho) - 120th
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) - 109th
Black Widow - 117th
Captain America: Sam Wilson - 121st
Gwenpool (Gwen Pool) - 128th
Silk (Cindy Moon) - 134th
Unstoppable Wasp (Hope Van Dyne) - 135th
Ghost Rider - 145th
Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) - 163rd
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl - 169th
Scarlet Witch - 176th
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur - 201st
Patsy Walker: Hellcat - 215th

Marvel's top 10 titles for the month- 

Star Wars - 8th
Amazing Spider-Man - 13th
Inhumans v. X-Men - 16th
Clone Conspiracy - 24th
Unworthy Thor - 28th
Elektra - 30th
Star Wars - Doctor Aphra - 33rd
Monsters Unleashed - 34th
Star Wars - Poe Dameron - 40th
Mighty Thor (Jane Foster) - 41st


If they're citing Moon Girl as a success it's an odd choice -

October - 196th
November - 187th
December - 192nd
January - 181st
February - 201st

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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 02 April 2017 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | 12  

Which goes to the point that the book market and the direct market are
different audiences. The people picking up trades at B&N are not going
into comic shops to buy single issues.
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