I don’t even do the bit in Jake & Leon anymore. By now we know the drill. When Joe Quesada and his marriage-hating ways left the Editor-In-Chief role, Axel Alonzo didn’t show any signs of changing the big issues. Neither did C.B. Cebulski, and if there were any other EIC’s at Marvel they weren’t very memorable if they were discussed at all. While everyone talks about the Marvel Studios ruining of the comic characters and their own Marvel Cinematic Universe, the comics are barely acknowledged due to the media pecking order and the importance of movies and streaming. Not even television anymore. Disney hasn’t put a Marvel show on ABC since Agents Of SHIELD, and I’m not even sure that’s canon anymore despite starring Agent Colson and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury making a cameo. Disney has the two Junior shows with a third on the way and that’s it. Just movies and streaming for the MCU, and it’s a question of which is worse for the MCU story.
Meanwhile, DC Comics is kicking Marvel Comics butt, the opposite of Marvel Studios and DC Studios because at least Marvel Studios used to produce good stuff while DC’s done lousy with both Zack Snyder’s grimdark take and James Gunn’s confused and crazy ensemble of losers take. Both companies in comics should be doing better because of the movies and streaming, plus there being more people in the world, but they aren’t. Wacker is the latest sucker EIC in charge of…not so much fixing it as keeping it going so they can make the “important” media out of it.
In a recent report from AIPT, Steven Wacker gave his plans for Marvel’s source material at a Retailer Day event at New York Comic Con. I have a chance to go over it, as well as another report by Cosmic Book News from Wacker’s appearance on the Save The Chat podcast. There’s only one or two things that interest me there, so let’s start with the Comic-Con info:
Wacker said comic book owners have the hardest job in the comics industry. They’re ordering books three months in advance with no real sense of what will sell and what won’t. On top of that, the splintered distribution following the Diamond bankruptcy has multiplied their work two, three, or even four times. Even after all of that, they still have to show up every day and be excited about comics. They’re the ones selling books to every person who walks into their shop.
Diamond did a lot to ruin comics when they pulled shady tactics to become the near-monopoly of comics. Smaller stores suffered under their rules, and the industry itself wasn’t helping. Then Diamond fell apart by joining extreme reactions to the 2020 plague that kept new comics from coming out physically and further hurt the comic book industry. I’m sure people in the business has even worse stories about the crap they pulled. They basically got what they deserved, but the rest of the industry suffered for it.
People have long observed that Marvel seems to have the most books on the shelves, and perhaps that is one of its strategies to outsell competitors. By taking up more shelf space, it can sell more comics.
Unless nobody wants it. They seem to not have an idea what to do outside of torture Peter Parker, turn everyone gay, and join the superhero deconstruction crew. At least, that’s how it looks to me. It’s also all in service to the MCU, or rather comic creators trying to influence both the comics and the MCU. That’s how we ended up with Sam Wilson becoming a Captain America also-ran instead of having his own identity and being his own man because the Name is more important. See also Miles Morales not being allowed to leave Peter’s spider-shadow and Riri Williams…existing.
Under Wacker, Marvel is going to be asking pointed questions about every new #1 issue it releases. They’ll decide whether the creators are 100% behind the idea and, if not, give them more time to get there. They’re going to ask themselves if they can get fully behind every #1 and give it the support it deserves.
Let that sink in for a second.
It’s quite remarkable that the new EIC of Marvel Comics is telling retailers that they’re going to publish fewer comics. But being in the crowd, I can tell you almost every new initiative or policy Wacker mentioned received applause.
Even the second Ultimate universe couldn’t let a version of Peter have a happily ever after.
Before I get into that, it sounds like they aren’t giving up the constant renumbers. Spider-Man has more #1 comics than any long-running comic series should, and he’s had at least four separate titles at the same time. No wonder they ran out of ideas beyond torture Peter. The last storyline I heard was separating him from the ever-dying Aunt May in favor of some switched at birth cousin. He still can’t keep a love interest, so we no longer care about his love life. They also made Tony Stark adopted to pull him out of his family, so they clearly hate families still…something that wasn’t addressed in either article. Maybe a few less comics would be a benefit. If Peter only had one title a month they might be able to come up with better, shorter stories. Oh yeah, the writing for the trade problem also wasn’t addressed. If they want to write graphic novels so bad, just do it, because they clearly forgot why they had monthly comics and how those tell a story versus a graphic novel. Everyone wants to write a movie now.
Next up the “Midnight” horror titles are brought up as an example. I don’t care about the horror version of Spider-Man, as much sense as that actually makes when you remember where he came from and the slight horror feel both he and the Hulk share even before that “green door” and “spider-totem” stuff. This part of the article, however, interested me:
Other things Marvel did with the Midnight release to help retailers included letting them read issue #1 before final order cutoff dates. That way, they could get a sense of what the series was like and how it would sell in their stores.
Marvel also made the FOC (final order cutoff) for issue #2 after the release of issue #1, meaning retailers could see how the first issue sold before placing orders for the second.
Wacker also mentioned going down to Midtown Comics (before the move to Disney’s Marvel Studio’s HQ in California, I guess) when those titles launched and seeing readers excited. Comic stores know their readership better than the company because they have to associate with them. Seeing how issue one of a new series does tells them if they can sell the second issue to their area, and how many. The companies seem to want to push the stores to buy as much as possible, which is good business, even if they can’t sell it, which can backfire in a bunch of different ways and probably kill a title because it doesn’t have enough audience to print so many issues for. This is why any creator working for Marvel or other big name publisher saying that the readers aren’t who they’re writing for shows how little they understand the business. No readers for the comic means no orders from the stores and the publisher ends the book to focus on something worth all the printing and distributing costs and the writer/artist has one less paycheck coming in.
The next section involves one of my pet peeves: variant covers!
He admitted he was biased and really loved variant covers. He conceded that many readers also enjoy variant covers. For these reasons, they aren’t going away.
He doesn’t say, or at least it wasn’t reported, WHY he loves variant covers. Speculators are catching wise, and they make comics into collectables rather than storytelling venues like books. If you want them to be respected as literature you need to act like it. I can see special event exclusive covers, like a Comic-Con or paid store exclusive or anniversary reprint, but the comic cover should be selling the book it covers, not serving as a pin-up poster. How much extra does it cost to have those variants made when those artists could be working on something else. That adds to how many comics are being published each month, only it’s the same comic with a different face. It still takes up store shelves and buyers only have so much time and money to spend.
Wacker does worry about the overuse of variant covers to the point that it creates confusion about what the actual main cover of a comic is. He pointed out iconic covers of the past and how you could picture them in your mind, but when comics have so many variants, that iconic nature can be muddled.
From now on, Marvel will be clearer about main covers, adopting the industry standard of “Cover A, B, C, etc.” to denote main covers versus variants. Gone are the days of mindlessly throwing endless covers at every book.
No, you’re still throwing endless covers. They’re just lettered now. At that point does it even matter what the “main” cover is when none of them are drawing interest in the story inside?
Next, Wacker took on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel comic fans have long complained that the comics seem to be taking their cues from the wildly successful and popular movies. In an endless push for synergy between the movies and comics, the comics are altered to fit the cinematic universe. Many have felt that the tail has been wagging the dog.
Wacker pointed out that after moving to California, the comic offices would physically be in the same building as the movie offices. According to Wacker, the MCU’s success has created the assumption that the comics should relate to and match the films.
Wacker emphatically stated, “That is backwards.”
Wait wait wait…you mean the comic Editor-In-Chief is actually standing up for the comics over the adaptation? That’s a miracle in itself!
n his first meeting with Kevin Feige, Wacker was told that it’s not their job to follow the movies. To reinforce that, Feige attended the Marvel Summit yesterday in New York and told them their job was to be 15 years ahead of the cinematic universe.
Marvel Comics should be the creative engine.
Wacker added that the comics are clearly better when they lead, not follow.
Someone in charge finally @#$%#$^ said it!
“So my daddy issues were all for nothing.”
The comics are the source material. Marvel Studios understood that until Kevin Feige talked Disney into axing the committee that kept the adaptation as accurate as possible while still delivering an experience both general audiences and comic fans could enjoy together and not bog the casuals down with decades of lore they shouldn’t need to know while still getting things right for the fans. Now you aren’t even allowed to read the comics. Just look at a premise and make whatever the #$%* you want. If something is working in the movies, like Iron Man flying with repulsors instead of somehow filling his boots with enough jet fuel to cross the planet, you can bring it into the comics. Worked for Mr. Freeze’s origins and Batman: The Animated Series. You’re the comics. You’re the reason there IS an MCU to make movies with. Good on you for acknowledging that, Steve!
I’m not going to keep reprinting the whole article. That’s not fair to AIPT, you, or even me. So I’ll just grab this part from the section on trying to make better connections to the creators:
Wacker promised that next year we would see names on Marvel books that we have not seen in years, and in some cases ever. He does not believe in a house style and thinks the publisher will benefit from fresh, creative ideas.
We can debate the house style, but I know Perch of Comic By Perch on YouTube has complained about this for a long time. A lot of great creators of the past can still write, draw, and color comics but the push has always been for new (cheaper) creators, many of whom care more about social views that storytelling. Getting them back would benefit Marvel if they can get out of their trade writing and go back to good monthly stories. New creators are fine if they actually want to tell the stories of these characters rather than tell their stories with these popular names for cheap marketing. Dropping the house style is a whole other debate, as is the part about learning from manga and DC’s “compact” comics plus his plans for digital comic, but that’s still a step in the right direction.
I have a long word count here, but me being me I had to address this from the Cosmic Book News article:
Wacker says the first comic he ever collected as a kid was Shogun Warriors, Marvel’s licensed giant robot series from the late ’70s, which broke his heart when it was canceled after 20 issues.
As an editor, he tried to get giant robots back into the Marvel Universe, and an entire story was written and drawn before being shelved.
“It turns out we didn’t have the legal rights that we thought,” said Wacker, joking the robots were legally not Shogun Warriors. “It’s still too close for our legal department.”
Now he’s running the place.
“It is my life’s work in this new gig, this Editor-in-Chief gig,” he said. “I have to find a way to bring giant robots into the Marvel Universe.”
They do still legally have Red Ronin from the Godzilla comics, and the MegaMorphs, plus the recent “Mech Strike” YouTube series. They also did an Ultraman series recently, though I’m not up on the current status of that series. Anything’s possible, and if they got it working and I had money to buy comics again, I’d give it a shot.
So credit where it’s due: what I’m hearing here is more interesting than most of his predecessors. I still don’t expect the bad ideas to be undone, like Tony’s heritage or the Spider-Marriage being deviled away. There’s also a question of what his bosses will allow since Quesada alone didn’t start the downward spiral of Marvel Comics. We’ll have to see how much of this he can pull off, how much of it was BS, and whether it will actually help. I wish him luck. At least he’s trying to address some of the problems.
