I’m surprised it took this long, actually. Some years ago DC Comics moved from their New York home to be closer to Warner Brothers, under the thought that everybody should act like one happy family under one proverbial roof. That hasn’t helped either entity, but that’s another conversation. Still, it makes it strange that Disney ordered Marvel Comics to move to California when everyone seems to be getting OUT of California…but that’s a whole other conversation, half of with doesn’t fit the topic of this site.
Does this move signal bad news for Marvel Comics? Not really. I don’t know who does their printing, so it might make things harder to get the proofs and maybe it affects distribution. I don’t know how DC was affected by any of that, but it’s been the least of either publisher’s problems. It’s also not going to fix anything at Marvel. Distribution will be just as limited, new Editor In Chief Steven Wacker probably won’t fix the Spider-Marriage (and undoing the Mephisto deal that’s gone one so long it has it’s own baggage with Peter and MJ’s relationships) or restore Tony Stark’s lineage, and by now I don’t even need Leon (if you read my comic, you know) to tell people that changing the editor won’t necessarily fix anything because the last few certainly haven’t.
Like with Warner and DC we know instinctively that this has nothing to do with helping the comics. It’s all about Marvel Studios, and the “important” media to Disney. I keep hearing people talking about Kevin Feige’s influence on the comics as well as James Gunn with DC. I don’t know for certain how close that runs, since we know neither studio runner could give two cents about the source material. Marvel Studios even more so because I’ve not heard anyone at DC Studios telling creators that knowing the comics will keep you from working for them and they’re still adapting or being inspired (badly) by comic stories. Supergirl was loosely based on a comic miniseries. Who does this move help, and how does this tie into my tinfoil hat theory that this could be tied to the spoilers for Avengers: Doomsday and the films to follow? That last part may sound clickbaity, but let me go through the sane stuff, then hear me out…if only for fun.
The Marvel universe tends to settle around New York City more than the rest of the world. Even Metropolis and Gotham City over at DC are two sides of New York City, the brighter side and the dirty underworld. This isn’t surprising given how not just Marvel’s predecessors but comic books as a whole started. Magazine publishers were in NYC, and wanted to do something with these printers between magazines. So they started reprinting newspaper comic strips in magazine form before starting original comic stories. This includes Atlas Comics, which would become the Marvel Comics we know today. This is before the internet. Comic creators all worked in a “bullpen” at Atlas/Marvel, and lived either in the city or in a nearby town in New York and Connecticut. Publishing began in New York, everyone lived or at least worked there, so they knew the city better than nearby towns and cities.
Where Atlas got their rename, just as DC came from Detective Comics.
Today’s that’s not really the case. Some of the creators don’t even live in the United States. Thanks to the internet the “bullpen” can go virtual with whatever replaced Skype being used so creators on a title can talk to each other, or send emails. Instead of bringing your bristol boards to the editor’s office for approval, send the digital file to them online. Writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, and letterers don’t have to be in the same building to collaborate anymore with the editors. So not much has changed outside of creators working out of an office in their home rather than driving to an office building and handing stuff in or meeting with their team in person. I don’t think any of the creators even work out of the Marvel office anymore. So it won’t make a ton of difference.
The article I linked to earlier suggested that moving the Comics closer to the Studios would boost comic production. I’m not sure how. ESPN is still here in Connecticut. Most of their animation is done overseas or at Pixar, which is in Emeryville instead of Burbank, and Lucasfilm is in San Francisco; same state but different location. Marvel Comics is moving to offices in Burbank, possibly the same building as Marvel Studios, while Disney has headquarters in New York as well as Burbank, unless they’re moving those as well. I also don’t see how Feige, who clearly has zero interest in the comics, couldn’t do what he’s doing without the comics nearby or vice versa. The comics are no longer the source material to these guys and altering the comics to what the movies are doing is going to mess that continuity up and lose them even more readers. Again, they don’t care so the move seems pointless to me. They’ll just be screwing up in a new location.
Meanwhile the trailer that released this week and allegedly the same one that made convention rounds not only seems to confirm many of the leaked spoilers for Avengers: Doomsday and its ties to the last Secret Wars in comics, but brought a new bunch of spoilers with it, adding more to the cause of the incursions, with what appears to me the goal of proving the TVA was right to protect the “sacred timeline” of Earth-199999 (which still isn’t 616, the comics universe, hence my constantly bringing up the gimmick Marvel Comics has used for decades in these articles) to try to stop other timelines from existing in Loki. It’s just that Doctor Doom is replacing Kang The Conqueror, who is supposed to be about time rather than realities but, again, they don’t care. Things get changed from the comics for social reasons, because they want to play nice with China, or just because they couldn’t get their own ideas out there and decided fans like the Brand rather than the stuff that made us like the brand.
This may also boost my own theory (which goes over the first big spoiler set dropped if you want to avoid them), which is still more theory on my part than anything based on fact, that the goal is to wipe out every Marvel continuity except the MCU of Marvel Studios. Might this include the comics, since the MCU thinks it’s 616? You might think it unlikely but given how little Feige and his producers care about the comics or their legacy, and given Disney’s own attempts to replace their animation studio legacy and that of George Lucas’ various Lucasfilm franchises, can we truly count that out? Making every other movieverse and TV timeline end in favor of being the only reality left wouldn’t be out the realm of possibility given their ego trip. We won’t be able to pretend adventures continue in those realities because they were blown up by heroes of other universes, which fans have pointed out makes them villains and ruins those heroes if you take this as canon like they hope you do.
Using the comics the same way they (poorly) use Disney+ could be a game plan for the main comic universe, who unlike their biggest rival has never rebooted their universe. Marvel relied on the sliding timeline and hoping fans forget things. Even some Marvel and Disney works are being done by outside companies. Why is Dynamite doing a Darkwing Duck comic instead of Marvel?
In short, this move really isn’t going to help anybody, or fix Marvel’s problems, or prove to be worth the trouble if you ask me. If it doesn’t make thing worse, it still won’t solve the story issues, distribution issues, or everything else that’s been hurting the brand. If it doesn’t force the comics to be more like the movies rather than the other way around, the original goal of Marvel Studios–again, not surprising given Disney itself is ignoring Walt’s goal of pushing animation as a form of storytelling, we still have no evidence that this will be any more or admittedly less successful than every other lame gimmick Marvel has tried in recent years be it Comics or Studios. At this point I’m more interested in the results than the gimmick. Gimmicks won’t fix anything, but it could make things worse before they’re done. Do I think Marvel has a future? I won’t say no, but it’s getting harder to say yes. I’m taking the wait and see approach. Like hoping the trains hit the breaks before the wreck.
BW Media Spotlight 