madcougar

I don't get to read my comics on a regular basis. I just finished several months of books today and I'm just wondering if they still have editors at Marvel. In Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker is completely devastated with the situation with Aunt May. In New Avengers he's off to Japan to fight the hand? Huh? And he's joking around the entire time?

This is just the latest thing that doesn't make sense since NA was the last title I read. But I've also noticed huge inconsistencies with World War Hulk and several other books. What is going at Marvel?

calhoun07

They are gearing up for next summer's massive "Crisis in Infinite Storylines" event.

Jackskeleton

You have to remember that one story arc could be a matter of hours or a couple of days in comic time but on the flip side it can take six to eight months to tell that tale.

So don't assume that Peter Parker is just being crazy or something.

Time line wise, New Avengers fighting the Hand took place roughly right after Civil War while One more day takes place at least a while after the events of that hand battle and the discovery of the skrull imitation.

Then again, this isn't something new. Remember when Magneto destroyed half of new york in an X-men arc while it was mentioned no where else? This is just a simple matter of events happening in different order.

This is also happening in DC in a terrible way. The Atom, for example this week was awful. They pretty much ruined the ending of sinestro corps arc with showing Kyle good and normal and even stating it was after the events of GL #26 which comes out in freak'n december. But countdown has been awful in keeping things together. Just try to explain why or how Supergirl was in the future while also being the guardian of Metropolis for a year while superman was gone as well as in the bottled city with power girl...

madcougar

But didn't Spider-Man just return to the red and blues this issue of ASM? Isn't Aunt May still in peril? Doesn't this mean that the entire time he was in the black costume, Aunt May was near death? He didn't seem really jovial during the entire Back in Black thing, so I can't imagine why he's cracking one-liners now.

zombiezilla

Yeah, all of Marvel's editing inconsistencies/lapses in continuity (along with the proliferation of Limited Edition die-cut glow-in-the-dark holographic 3D covers) caused me to quit reading them around 1993 or so.....after more than 25 years! But I've recently (well, a few years ago) began digging all of the Ultimate lines.

taffer

Ditto for me. I flat out quit reading Marvel in 1993 when they came out with that craptastic Spider-man Clone Saga that just kept going on and on seemingly forever.

I decided to pick up the Ultimate line a few years ago on a whim, and I liked it, so now I just read Ultimate Marvel. I also like the Max imprint version of Punisher. I have no desire to ever touch a mainstream Marvel comic again.

Superboy

I've given up on inconsistencies and shit like that. What it basically boils down to is how boring a lot of the stories have gotten.

calhoun07

My main issue with the new regular Marvel comics is some of them are having story lines cross between titles.

I guess I am just a grumpy old collector here, but when I was a kid growing up on Amazing Spider Man and Peter Parker the Sensational Spider Man (for two examples) I didn't have to worry about crap crossing over into both titles. Both had self contained story lines and didn't really cross over too much. No part one in one issue, part two in another or any crap like that.

Same could be said for DC back in the day. I could read the hell out of Superman and Action Comics and read one series or the other and not worry about missing any story lines crossing over.

Then DC started to do multipart Superman storylines crossing over ALL the Superman titles, not just Superman and Action Comics. Same with Batman. It sucked, I stopped reading DC.

I got back in Amazing Spider Man when Strackynszky (sp?) took over and loved the hell out of it...best ASM I read in years.

Then they did the inevitable...I was happily buying my ASM comics then I get one issue and it's to be concluded in another title all together. There are what? Four or five Spider Man titles on the shelves now? There is no way I am buying all those titles to follow one story line...not when comics cost three or four dollars each.

I dropped ASM, and I missed out on the Back in Black storyline and now I'd like to jump back in on the One More Day storyline, but they are doing the same crap that turned me off on the series.

So I just forget about it. I collect a handful of Marvel titles that are (so far) self contained and don't cross over into 5 other titles.

And that, to me, is the reason comics suck these days: high prices and trying to force fans to buy 4 or 5 different titles featuring one character to follow one storyline. What they really need to do is cancel all the additional Spidey titles and just have Amazing Spider Man and maybe Sensational Spider Man and have separate storylines for each title. No more Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man, Spider Man Family, Spider Man Fairy Tales, Spider Man's whatever...just to freaking titles. If it takes six months to tell one story in a title instead of one month in six titles, so be it.

Bronkster

That's sorta what's going to happen, I think this or next month. All the "regular" Spidey titles are being discontinued except Amazing, which will instead come out 3 times a month. If I recall correctly, the storyline will cross thru but be written and drawn by 3 different teams (much like 52 and Countdown). Will this be an improvement? I doubt it, but I'll give it a shot assuming I don't give up on Spidey altogether before then.

calhoun07

Which I still hate. DC again tried this with Superman. I recall when they made Action Comics a weekly series, and it lasted for a little while, but then they did what they did to it.

Let's say the new Spidey format works...and I love it. Then I have to consider should I fill in my back issues? If I go with trying to fill in back issues of ASM, then will I be missing out on major story points from the other series I am not interested in getting back issues on? (that's not a rhetorical question...I honestly want to know.)

And then you're still dropping $9.00-$12.00 a month on one comic book. I don't know...I might check it out if they drop the price on the books. Right now I believe ASM is selling for 3.99 per copy...that's pretty steep.

fujishig

I just saw in the latest Previews that they're saddling all the X-books with some crossover storyline. Usually, this isn't a problem because I haven't read x-books in years, but my fear is that it'll sidetrack X-factor.

Supergirl is a really bad example, because they screwed up her book so massively that they basically just retconned her whole history about two or three times in the past 6 months. However, I don't mind her being in the future with the Legion because a)hey, it's time travel, it can happen anywhere in continuity (see Marvel's Captain Marvel for a bad example of that) and b) I like that book.

I am starting to see a big difference in Marvel and DC books. In most Marvel books I've read recently (and I don't read that many), I tend to hate most of the "heroes." Yet when I read stuff like Justice League or JSA (especially the last issue with Hourman and Liberty Bell) I root for the heroes. Maybe I'm just nostalgic?

areacode212

Which back issues? Do you mean issues from prior to the new weekly format? I think part of the idea of the new format is to start fresh and to not really require the reader to read a lot of back issues to understand the stories.
I think that's just for the One More Day storyline. This issue had a lot of extra pages (mostly junk) at the end. When it goes weekly, I think the price should go back to normal.

calhoun07

What can I say...I am a sucker when it comes to comics. I may stop reading a title for a while for various reasons then if I am compelled to get back into it later on for whatever reason, I want to seek out the back issues I missed, even if they are not pertaining to the current story line in the run I started up with.

It's a disease.

madcougar

Yeah. I feel you. I'm the same way. This is one of the reasons I stay way from the X books like the plague. I would hate to feel compelled to purchase several years worth of X titles. Best to stay away.

I was excited when Flash was recently cancelled and a new volume was started. I had kind of lost my love for the Scarlet Speedster. Well after a year of being out they pull me back in by going back to that volume. Sigh.

I know I don't HAVE to buy these books, but like Calhoun, I too suffer from a condition. My wife calls it stupidity.

MovieExchange

That would almost be an acceptable explanation, except for the fact that Marvel has flat-out said they don't give a damn about continuity when they were asked about blatant errors in the Civil War storyline.

That's it. They just don't care.

zombiezilla

Can you post a link to anything to verify your statement? What is the source? I'm not saying you're lying (not at all!), but I'd like to see/read it for myself, and see if, perhaps, you've (hopefully) misinterpreted the context.

I guess I'm hoping that Marvel 1)aren't that stupid, and 2)don't think WE are that stupid.

rider555

I stopped buying comics regularly a few years back.The main reason was the price.$2.99 is just too steep for me.Other reasons are Thor ended,Scarlet Witch went nuts,Tony Stark had a relapse,Hawkeye died and Captain Marvel was cancelled.
I now wait til a comic book convention rolls around to stock up on what I missed.
Of course,the bad thing about that is that the"hot comics"I want have gone up in price.The flip side is that I always find a huge stack of comics I want in the 50 cent or 1.00 box.One guy even brings in more than a dozen of long boxes packed full of comics ranging from the early 70's all the way up to a few months old and if you buy 50 of them,he charges only 40 cents a pop!
A hell of a savings when you consider the average price of a comic now a days.

So,Captain America is dead but Captain Marvel(Mar Vell not Genis or whatever his name is..)is back?..the f*cK?!

MovieExchange

I'll have to hunt around, but it wasn't a misinterpretation. During one of the Civil War chats, an editor (can't remember the name at the moment) was asked about blatant continuity errors not only in the series, but in Marvel history going back several years. The response was that they (Marvel) believe the core reader base that they are trying to appeal to only sticks around for 3 or so years, so it doesn't matter if something happens that contradicts an event from years past because most of the readers weren't around anyway. They said that you can't let continuity get in the way of a good story.

Mok

Dan Slott always made fun of this during his run on She-Hulk.

Shiv Shankly

This was the quote in question, posed to Brevoort on Newsarama:

Q: To what extent do you think that this "big event that changes everything" sort of storytelling can be sustained? Readers know, on some level, that events like this are temporary. In ten years, odds are good that Nick Fury will lead S.H.I.E.L.D. and Spider-Man will have a secret identity again...

TB: ...For all that we constantly hear that readers don’t want more crossovers, they always, always turn out for them.... And when you’re talking about a timeframe of ten years, you’re really speaking of a hardcore audience—traditionally, the average reader of years past read the books for three-to-five years, and then moved on to other things. At the point where you’re worrying that everything is eventually going to go back to the classic status quo eventually, you’ve been in the mix for longer than normal.

Rogue588

Yep, that's the one..

Superboy

Wow, i'm surprised he didn't end his statement with "SUCKKKKAASSSS!!!!!"

zombiezilla

well, damn!

MovieExchange

Thanks for digging that up, Shiv.

Yeah, I read that and realized that Marvel just doesn't want my business anymore. I've "been in the mix for longer than normal" not because I'm worrying that everything will go back to the status quo, but because I fucking KNOW IT WILL based on Marvel & DC's history.

What was that old quote? The only people that stay dead are Uncle Ben, Bucky and Jason Todd.

I don't remember when Bucky came back, but they got the other 2 within a year's time.

Patman

I guess this is why I don't buy as many Marvel titles anymore (about 4-6 titles these days on a monthly basis).