Goodbye, Marvel Adventures

Well, they’re finally doing it. They’re killing off the only good titles at Marvel (or for you Incredible Hercules fans who might stone me, the only good ones that aren’t tainted with being in the current Marvel Universe–and no, I’m not picking on you, but blogs and solicits that I read make this title sound good otherwise, which is more than I can say for most of Marvel Proper’s current titles or any Ultimate not starring Spider-Man).

Marvel solicits for March as posted by Every Day Is Like Wednesday:

MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #61
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Penciled by CHRISTIAN NAUCK
Cover by TAKESHI MIYAZAWA
FINAL ISSUE! There’s been a fight brewing for some time, and it all explodes in this issue when Emma Frost comes face-to-face with justice in the form of…Sophia “Chat” Sanduval, the girl who can talk to animals. But is she a match for the woman who will become the White Queen? And with Spider-Man hunted by an entire crime family, and with Bullseye on his way…what can one wall-crawler do to help his girlfriend Chat, when she can’t even remember who he is?
32 PGS./All Ages …$2.99

MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #21
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Penciled by CRAIG ROUSSEAU
Cover by CLAYTON HENRY
FINAL ISSUE! Who remembers Gary Gaunt? Considered a monster during World War II, he was secretly dropped behind German lines so his terrible “Jekyll and Hyde”
transformations would disrupt the German war effort. Gaunt…forgotten by society, has been able to control his hideous transformations for over 60 years…but when 
his special serum is stolen, Nova and the Avengers find themselves at ground zero with the strangest man/
monster of them all!
32 PGS./All Ages …$2.99

I haven’t read The Weekly Crisis lately due to all the holiday frenzy and working on my Christmas comic, but the last I heard, Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man was doing better overall than most of the Spidey titles. This was some time ago, so perhaps that’s changed. It doesn’t change the fact, however, that for kids these were great stories, or that for adults like me they were a lot more fun than most of the Marvel Proper titles. Now all kids have are Super Hero Squad, a comic and TV show that, while funny and something I enjoy, hardly qualifies as a serious yet fun series like the comics I grew up with.

In the preview review, Caleb makes the point that this seems like an odd time, since Paul Tobin recently rebooted both titles. That is, unless there’s going to be a relaunch, which considering the history of the MA line I rather doubt.

I’ve been bemoaning the loss of MA: Iron Man for quite a while on this blog for the same reasons I mentioned. Now all we’re getting is retread of “Tony in trouble with the government over his armor” stories, even one allegedly set in the Movieverse. (Iron Man vs. Whiplash–see yesterday’s review article for why I dropped that title after one issue.) It was a fresh take on the character, while still being true to who Tony Stark and Iron Man are. No secreting his armor. No having his brain scattered throughout his body. (Ultimate) Just Tony Stark, inventor and businessman, who hides the fact that he protects his own company–and occasionally the world–with the very suit of armor that keeps him alive. It was also one of two locations (the Armored Adventures cartoon being the other one) that gave us a likable Howard Stark and did something good with him.

Then there’s the recently deep-sixed MA: Avengers. Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin (along with the occasional guest writer I’m finding) gave new life to a lot of the characters. Tobin wrote the best Tigra, without making her a victim. Parker had the better use of Banner and the Hulk, but Tobin’s Hulk was a lot of fun. Both of them were willing to come up with the weirdest stuff, and usually made it work. Besides, it had this moment:

click for full size

Wolverine being eaten by a dinosaur. More than once. How can you not love that? HOW?

And now we’re losing MA:Spider-Man, the only Spider-Man title I’ve been getting, since Paul Tobin not only made the series a lot more fun, but added continuity while not messing up the “done in one” formula that kids comics often get. (A debate as to whether or not that’s a good thing would be for another time.) The supporting characters, especially Tobin’s original character, Chat (my vote for the only decent not-Mary Jane lady he’s dated), are as enjoyable as watching Peter himself. Tobin again even wrote a version of Gwen Stacy that doesn’t make me hate the character (even if she is going bat-guano insane right now–that or Tobin’s sending in the clones).

While I wasn’t thrilled with the changes in MA: Super Heroes, essentially writing MA: Avengers away and not quite matching up with the earlier stories, I’ve still been enjoying the stories thus far.

So why kill these titles? Because they’re better than the dark, angsty, convoluted mess of the Eventitis-plagued main titles? Let’s say I stop being cynical long enough to force myself to give Quesada the benefit of the doubt (not easy the way he and Didio are messing around–and up–their respective main universes) and say that the titles are selling poorly. (Again, I don’t check The Weekly Crisis as much anymore to see if they’ve reported a drop in MA: Spider-Man sales from their last big Spidey articles.) Why did it fail? Because older people didn’t want to read a “kiddie title”? (Or as I call them: idiots/no fun boys.) Because kids weren’t reading them? The former isn’t worth worrying about, and as for the latter–WELL NO BLOODY KIDDING! WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO TO PROMOTE THE MARVEL ADVENTURES TITLES? JACK SQUAT, THAT’S WHAT!

Honestly, how often did you see an ad for an MA title recently? If you look at the spinner racks at grocery stores, you found no MA titles, but plenty of the Marvel Proper version, many of which aren’t kid-friendly. DC puts out a number of their kid-targeted titles (which Marvel has few of outside of the now two MAs and the occasional out-of-continuity stories that didn’t really advertise themselves as such, like Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, or Iron Man and the Armor Wars, which had an Ultimate counterpart at the same time–and without the cartoon and figurines Super Hero Squad would have nothing in the way of promotion) alongside their no-longer-kid-friendly material. So how would parents know that MA: Spidey isn’t the same as OMD Spidey, which has a lot more violence, Peter making deals with Satan to undo his marriage and start lusting after his own cousins–okay, that last part is more personal gripe–and the other, more darker tones that your average nine-year-old isn’t drawn to. Pick up a current Spidey title and tell me if you’d be comfortable with your nine-year-old read it?

All I’ve seen is a couple of magazines in the magazine rack, few of which are aimed towards kids, so they probably ignore that area. I remember there were a lot of magazines targeting kids when I was one. Granted, most of them were the same formula, and only the Muppet, Masters of the Universe, and GoBots magazines were worthy of my money, but they were still there. Now I can’t even find an animation magazine. Kids get digests (which are often unable to be seen by kids who think they’re too big to ride in the carriage–but look, CANDY!), and Disney Adventures was recently canned as well.

Between this and the rather bland Saturday Morning line-up, plus the death of syndicated cartoons and kids shows, Hollywood going for the “R” rating despite “G” and “PG” doing better overall, and video games going for the “M” games (hoping Jack Thompson and the Australian goverment will be offended so the anti-Thompson sheep will buy it no matter how hard it sucks), what’s a kid to do for entertainment? Read a book? Probably the only decent kids entertainment left.

At least for now.

EDIT: (1/3/2010) Newsarama confirms the death of MA.

EDIT2: (1/20/2010) Apparently, it’s just a number reboot. Look for the article for this day for my update.