This website is so full of dudes confused why (superhero) comics dont succeed the way other media does and at this point like? How can you not see? SH comics bear no resemblance to the linear, comprehensible type of storytelling EVERY OTHER MEDIA EMPLOYS

Like, come on. People like graphic novels because you can pick up a story and READ it. You can watch a movie or a tv show and get a whole satisfying story and feel present for the whole thing, get an ending eventually, that (hopefully) satisfies

Reading super hero comics is accepting you will always be in the middle of the story. It will never end, and definitely never satisfyingly. These characters will exist in a bizarre limbo forever, never progressing and having their growth regularly reset

At least Groundhog Day acknowledges what hell that is. And as a reader, you get tired of it....people dont grow out of super hero comics because they're uncool, they just get *bored*.

I used to love marvel! I still enjoy some old faves from DC and Marvel...there is truly good stuff in there. GREAT stuff. But eventually, what's the point? Characters you love get rewritten into unrecognizability, their stories and growth become unimportant, secondary to sales

I compare it sometimes to trying to get someone to watch Soap Operas like General Hospital....my mom loves it but ita very hard for me to jump in without the 30+ year history. And that's a LINEAR narrative that has character growth!

People grow, and they crave growth in stories....we like to see our heroes and beloved favourites live and change and have character development! Blaming changing sensibilities or "woke bs" (very 2012 guys) but that just ain't it. Besides the obivous... big 2 ARENT very ""woke""

The market is IMPENETRABLE to new readers. And even if you get excited about it, its expensive. When I was in college I spent a whole summer getting super into The Hulk and spend all my ice cream-job money tracking down old tpb and back issues...I had fun but that was ONE series

And an inadvisable investment ahem.

You can't sit around scratching your heada like monkeys wondering why people dont read comics. And to the people who argue that the "average" consumer just likes easy media or isn't big brained enough for your panty comics....please look at Game of Thrones. That shit is NERDY-

And people ATE IT UP. because it was linear, it had characters and events happened and (mostly) mattered. Debate the quality aside, but it made people care about a weird, niche, long winded high fantasy!

ANYWAY I went on a bit of a tear. Like I said...I think there is some great stuff in SH comics and I think they have a place. And there are MANY reasons they dont succeed

but I think a big, BIG core principle is that people crave stories that matter, and its hard to feel like it matters when the companies that make them treat them like disposable tissues and constantly erase the stuff people care about and get attached to.

Not in a "dont change or evolve or experiment" but fucking...have some continuity. COMMIT TO SOMETHING.

Also, as a message to people who claim to care about the state of these comics...maybe stop blaming and open the door. Instead of gate keeping and being a jackass, help new readers out. Dont belittle people for not knowing every episode of your soap opera.

Graphic novels are booming in part because there is ACTIVE outreach. There is connections to libraries, there is a supportive community of people who love comics who are helping kids and readers of different demographics get into them & find ones they like and continue reading.

Whining about the decline of readership while you belittle every new reader is a phenomenal act of shooting yourself in the foot. If you love comics, you should love helping new readers find those comics, without judgement or condescension.

Also, anecdotally I can absolutely say, as a young girl the two most potent tools to me getting into comics, as a reader, and eventually as a career; a library stocked with a robust comic selection and comic book store with staff who were encouraging, helpful and kind.

To FURTHER clarify, the idea of changing/rebooting/different takes is not the problem...those are great. I LOVE the different takes. It's the bizarre insistence that 100 radically different takes on Peter Parker over are the SAME Peter Parker (sticking with 616 as an example).

I feel like that idea was okay for a bit, but....Peter Parker didnt even know what the internet was in his first iterations. The logic and believability really decays into the fifth, or sixth decade

Meanwhile you've got a canonical multiverse sitting RIGHT THERE. Give creative teams more license to do smaller, self contained runs. Batman comics had HUGE success with the idea of small, self contained runs that are both fan and critically acclaimed STILL. Go Sherlock style.

I feel like you can really go nuts then too, stretch creative limits without the next poor writer having to bear the burden of finding a way to reset that doesn't make the whole community hate them

It's totally fine if you like the big bloated monster the way it is. It's not ENTIRELY without charms for those two love it. Theres no wrong way to eat a reese's. But this is about what keeps comics sales barely afloat and the evergreen question of "where are the new readers?"