“Go home Marvel, you’re drunk!”

8 thoughts on ““Go home Marvel, you’re drunk!””

1. That about sums it up. Sometimes I wonder if Marvel is intentionally trolling longtime readers.

2. Longtime readers always end upcoming back though–I know, I am one!

   I’m glad to see Marvel really shake things up for once. The idea that my daughter might take interest in a female Thor is really exciting–might even lead her to catch up on all the previous versions!

   Storylines come and go. Sometimes being a comic fan means being a good sport until the next saga swings back to something you like. 🙂

3. This really isn’t any different from what Marvel used to do back in the 1980s to shake up the status quo. Anybody remember Monica Rambeau becoming the new Captain Marvel? John Walker replacing Steve Rogers as Captain America? Rhodey replacing Tony Stark inside the Iron Man armor?

   The only difference now is that the Internet has allowed for Marvel to saturate the discussion space with breathless, meaningless hype and fanboys-with-a-persecution-complex to give vent to their spleen in real-time. Hopefully, the majority of readers will take the time to read the comics first, before judging the changes as either good or bad.

   I do appreciate that many fans feel emotionally attached to certain versions of particular IPs and they certainly should let Marvel know what they think of the changes (even before they’ve actually read the comics), but a lot of the uproar over these changes strikes me as hysterical online tantrums, and just reinforces the (unfair) stereotype that adults who read superhero comics are in a perpetual state of arrested adolescence.

   1. It would be nice to see someone defend Marvel without dismissing critics as fanboys but I guess it’s too much to expect the actual complaints to be addressed.

      I also don’t understand why I’m expected to give Marvel my money so that they have a chance to prove themselves. They can earn it like any other company.

      1. Oh, I didn’t mean to dismiss all complaints against the changes as coming from “fanboys.” Sorry if it came off that way.

         As I said, I do appreciate why many readers feel so strongly about these changes, and I recognize that many of those complaints are legitimate (I hold many reservations about these new changes myself), but at the same time, the tenor of many of the most vociferous complaints I’ve read online reek of an immaturity that, unfortunately, does not paint a positive picture of the adult superhero comics reader community. (Guys calling the female Thor “Whor,” among other sexist labels, for example, doesn’t exactly help dispel the unfair stereotype of the adult male superhero comic book reader as a gynophobic troglodyte.) The worry is that the loudest, most irrational, and most hysterical complainers will drown out the reasonable objections to the changes.

         Anyway.

         I’m not trying to be a Marvel apologist (in all honesty, I haven’t read much Marvel in recent years) but the point in my original post is that these types of radical changes to the status quo have been happening in Marvel’s comics for decades, and we’ve gotten some pretty good comics and characters out of them (along with some absolute stinkers, of course), so we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss them out of hand. By the same token, I’m not arguing that readers mindlessly accept these changes, but until the actual comics have been read, it seems like a waste of energy to get too worked up about these changes.

         By all means, I think readers should vote with their wallets and let Marvel know in no uncertain terms what they think of the changes, good or bad. But if Marvel’s publishing history is any indication, most, if not all of these changes will be relatively short-lived, either because readers don’t support the changes or because the changes were intended to be temporary from the outset. As for the changes that do stick? (If any of them stick at all, which I highly doubt.) Well, maybe they’ll stick because the market is receptive to those changes, and anything that ensures the long-term commercial survival of the comics industry is a good thing, in my mind.

4. It would be nice to see someone defend Marvel without dismissing critics as fanboys but I guess it would be too difficult to actually address the complaints.

   I also don’t understand why it’s expected that I should give Marvel my money just so they can prove themselves.

5. It would be nice to see someone defend Marvel without dismissing critics as fanboys but I guess it’s too much to expect the actual complaints to be addressed.

   I also don’t understand why I’m expected to give Marvel my money so that they have a chance to prove themselves. They can earn it like any other company.

6. And WordPress makes me look like an idiot. Thanks.

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