lol...Tom's going for more hits!
1) I understand that stunts (like OMD and Bucky as Cap) are a sure way to sell comics, but Marvel is going too overboard with all of that stuff and the cross-overs now. It's something that really damaged the greed infested 90's and put a lot of those editors on the unemployment line. Something to consider.

2) Wolverine and Spider-Man are in too many books. Neither would work with New Avengers. I'm sick of both of them. Milking your two biggest cash cows, logic and quality be damned, really isn't good for the characters. Are the characters the #1 priority or is the money?

3) Not enough lead time for stuff like Thor, despite having like a year between the creative team announcement and the first issue's release.

4) Not enough old school talent. You're just now throwing bones to David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and Roy Thomas, but "new Marvel" has turned it's back on it's history, regardless of how very qualified they are. Where is something new from Roger Stern, J. M. DeMatties, Larry Hama, JOHN BYRNE, Jim Shooter, Walt Simonson, or Gerry Conway? There's a bit too much "gool old boys club" stuff going on right now at Marvel. I don't think cliques are healthy.

5) Creative team stability lacks. Too many hit and run creators like Warren Ellis and Mark Millar, who do nothing more than create a big mess with no care about the consequences.

Posted by Dusty. on 2008-02-20 18:26:24
Dusty hates Warren Ellis
Film at 11.

Things that annoy the crap out of me about Marvel Comics.

1. Marvel not defending creators. The abuse Daniel Way gets online is shocking.

2. Chuck Austen has disappeared of the face of the Earth. Please rectify this.

3. Inexplicable creator "pushes". Mark Guggenheim has bounced from Wolverine to Spider-Man to Young X-Men, while not displaying a damn bit of talent, and all the while bleating about how he hates "decompression" and wants to work with John Byrne - neither of which is appropriate conduct for a Marvel Writer.

I realise all three of them run together, so here's some other minor things.

1. Marvel's trade policy leaves me bemused. You can buy the Brubaker Omnivus of Captain America - which I did, yet John Jackson Miller's Iron Man run has vanished from the face of the Earth. I mean, a War Machine trade, seriously?

2. Where's the trade of Warren Ellis' Excalibur run? I have everything else he's done, but Dublin isn't exactly best equipped for me to search for that work.

Here's one - the characterisation of Emma Frost. In Uncanny X-Men and Astonishing, she's written as a normal, (as normal as a telepath can be) character, making amends for her past. In everything else (Guggenheim in particular), she's written as a witch out to destroy the X-Men from within.



Finally. Not enough Max books. I understand completely why editorial wouldn't go near a Spider-Man Max book, or a Wolverine Max book, but surely the level of creators currently working for the line could have a go at them. Duane Swiercynski wrote Punisher harpooning a man. Imagine what he could do with Wolverine.

Posted by Dave James on 2008-02-20 18:43:45
Tom makes great points
In reality though I collected Spidey for years, when omd/bnd happened i gave up on it, and I decided to try new comics that normally I wouldn't have, in fairness the few I have tried I haven't been able to get into, but I will be more open to continue trying new books, because of the money i am saving, some marvel, dc or orther. Just no spidey or any title associated with. As for speaking for other writers and things, exactly right, no one ever truly knows what anyone believes. As far as my gripe....put your current fans first, your future ones last. And stop doing major events only to undo them, and big arcs all the time loses that importance feeling.

Posted by DS2008 on 2008-02-20 18:51:02
some run-of-the-mill complaints
1. LATE BOOKS - Yep, I know they're par for the course these days and bumping a book for a week or two (or sometimes three) doesn't really phase me anymore. What I get peeved about is when a comic (or comics) in an ongoing series is removed from the schedule for over a month with absolutely no explanation. It really wouldn't anger me so if I just knew why. I think changes that big warrant an explanation. More communication with fans concerning publishing issues, please.

2. UNEXPLAINED CHANGES - Shawn Moll is no longer penciling She-Hulk. Why? His art was good and the book shipped on time. Adriana Melo was touted as "the new series artist" for Ms. Marvel and after only two issues on the book, someone else is solicited as the penciler for what would've been her third issue. Why?

3. VARIANT COVERS - If Marvel is so keen on artists doing variant covers, do more 50/50 covers so more fans can actually enjoy them. Those Dodson covers for Capt. Marvel and Ms. Marvel are wonderful but, inevitably, they'll only be made available to a select few people willing to pay premium prices. That's ridiculous.

4. E-MUSIC CARDSTOCK ADS - Please don't do that again. That was horrible.

5. MARVEL.COM MESSAGE BOARDS - Are the boards routinely ignored by Marvel? Is the online fan community that low of a priority? The boards are riddled with waves of glitches every few months wiping out threads and encouraging fans to post elsewhere. There are still glitches that aren't fixed. The avatars aren't being updated with new images or new characters anymore and most of the ones that are available aren't labeled so everyone knows who they are. Fans have also been pleading for new emoticons that they never get. The vast majority of Marvel's writers and artists prefer to post on other boards like CBR and Newsarama and hardly ever show up to our boards, for what are probably good reasons. It's a darn shame. Marvel needs to commit to creating a thriving online community.

That's really All I got. I have a whole lot more complaints about fans than I do about Marvel.

Posted by friskydingo on 2008-02-20 19:24:47
My subjective gripes and suggestions:
I agree with Dave on more MAX books (like Werewolf by Night, Hannibal King, Cloak and Dagger, Nick Fury, Sleepwalker, Masters of Evil). And I wouldn't mind Jason Aaron's Ghost Rider book moving under the MAX label.

I agree with Dusty that Roger Stern, John Byrne, JM DeMatteis and other writers (and artists) have fallen to the wayside a bit. Is it possible to create their own corner for them, like the MC2 universe? Their own sandbox to play in, where they wouldn't have to deal with Superhero Registration or Skrulls?

Other gripes:
I don't mind variant covers. I love Arthur Suydam's style. But the "Suydam recreating classic covers with Zombies/Skrulls/whatever" formula is becoming a bit stale.

Daredevil needs a shot in the arm. I love Ed Brubaker, but the Mr. Fear storyline (including the build-up) has gone on a bit too long now. Maybe the collaboration with Greg Rucka will jump-start my interest in the book. I sure hope so, because I love the character.

This is a personal thing, and I doubt that you can do much about this, but you asked us what frustrates us, so I'll be honest: I seriously think there are too many X-books right now. I understand that variety is important, but three core titles, three "next generation books" (New Warriors, Young X-Men and GeNext), two Wolverine books, X-Factor, X-Force, Cable and whatever I might have forgotten is far too much. When Joe Quesada became Editor in Chief in... what was it, 2000? 2001? Anyway, back then, the X-books were whittled down, giving each book room to breathe and a distinctive, non-redundant direction. I'm getting the feeling that something like that is needed again.

Please don't adress Peter's marriage and/or Mephisto again. "The past is past, so don't look back-- look forward." I liked that sentence in #546. It's important.

I enjoyed Civil War, sat out World War Hulk, Annihilation and most of Messiah Complex, I'm looking forward to Secret Invasion. But I'd be grateful if you guys would cease doing huge crossovers after that for at least six months, if not more. I get the feeling that ever since House of M, things have been moving at a breakneck speed, jumping from one huge cataclysmic "event" to the next. We readers don't get a chance to let plot elements like the post-The-Other status quo sink in, the Avengers seem to change their roster every two weeks (in actual Marvel time), and I can't remember the last time the X-Men just took a break and played softball. Marvel comics need those quiet moments every once in a while.

I'd love to see more of The Loners and Book of Lost Souls.

Remember that Rucka/Perkins Wolverine noir book from the last Editorial Simulation? I'd give a kidney if it led to that book actually being published.

Posted by Michael Heide on 2008-02-20 19:30:29
Griping!
I've really had to think about it because you fellows are doing such a great job. And for any one of these gripes, there may be a book that nulls the gripe, but I only have so much money guys.

1) Where are the back up stories? Sure, I like my issues to have lots of story, and speech, and action, but I would gladly give up a page or five to see something that you guys thought would be cool to put at the back. Not some lame, "history of" designed to educate me on stuff, that's what the internet is for. I want some meaningless toss away story to add fluff and chuckles to my issue. A book that does this very well is Iron Fist. Cool little vignettes to add depth and expand the story tangentially, without essentially being educational or plot divisive.

2)Are the X-men part of the rest of the world? They weren't a part of Civil War, and they don't look very important to Secret Invasion. They just cloister together and inbreed. And anti-mutant sentiments don't really make too much sense in a post-reg world. With the Initiative giving people powers, how can people really hate and fear mutants now? And after all this time, why hasn't someone come up with a cause for the X-gene? The X-books have always been scary and baffling to me, even more so after House of M. But I guess that is what Ultimate X men and First Class are for.

3)Glossy paper. I guess I would need some more information on this one, but I'll throw it in anyways. I think glossy paper and computer coloring have really driven up prices. I love Fables and Gotham Central, they weren't any cheaper, but the paper quality didn't ruin the storytelling. You can get back to blowing our minds with all the Photoshopped HD art you want when it all goes digital in a few years, but lets figure out a way to put comics in my hands for cheaper in the mean time. haha

Posted by kyle-latino on 2008-02-20 19:34:44
1) Iron Man seems to appear in every Marvel book I read, and I don't even read IRON MAN or MIGHTY AVENGERS. Ever since Civil War ended, he's been on this global passive-agressive apology/guilt trip tour, where he asks/coerces heroes to register and says he's so sorry he ruined so many friendships by endorsing registration and the stress of it all makes him want to crawl back in the bottle. Mind you, I don't have a huge problem with Civil War or its aftermath, but clearly Tony does and I'm getting tired of his whining because not everyone thinks he was right.

2) When Marvel and its fans have a major disagreement on something (as in the case of One More Day), I often get the sense that people speaking for Marvel write off the disgruntled fans as being the stereotypical aging overweight loser comics nerd. To them this may seem inoffensive, like a Catholic telling Catholic jokes, but from this end it's more like divas expressing barely-disguised disgust with the common rabble they have to put up with.

3) Minor characters--the ones who don't appear regularly enough to firmly establish their characterization--are often reduced to generic throwaway characters in today's Marvel books. PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL is pretty bad about this, simply by its nature as a book cycling through dozens of minor supervillains for Frank to shoot at. In that book, everyone from the Rhino to the Mandrill sounds exactly like the same: like this ordinary joe character who dropped out of high school and can't get his life together and wishes Spider-Man would lay off him and says "dude" all the time.

It's not that I'm all anal about paying proper respect to a character like the Mandrill. But the conceit of presenting a C-list superhuman as an average guy in tights is only clever when done sparingly, and with the right C-listers. Bendis also did this sort of thing on NEW AVENGERS, at least before I dropped it. On the other hand Warren Ellis goes for the same effect, but with much better results, in THUNDERBOLTS--American Eagle comes off as Just A Regular Guy without being the same Just A Regular Guy as Sepulchre and Steel Spider.

Posted by jim_smith on 2008-02-20 19:40:18
Gripes
1) I know Marvel is a business and is the business of making money, not just making great comics as many fans belive. My gripe is the lost opportunity of both with Marvel Digital Comics. I love seeing the older issues and love to see how old stories affect new stories like you're doing in Secret Invasion, but I'm dismayed that we have to wait months after an issue is released for it to appear online. I am a subscriber of Marvel Digital Comics and I prefer the medium, why can't I follow the current storylines along with using the back catalog as a reference.

2) Why is so much effort put into promotion of new series, while fantastic existing series that have had long, excellent creative runs are ignored until its event time? Titles such as Daredevil, Captain America, Ultimate Spider-Man and New Avengers have had amazing stories lines with the same or very similar creative teams, but are generally ignored until event tie-ins occur. These are your best titles, with a extensive and coherent run for new readers to enjoy, they should be your best foot forward and not the lure of the magical #1 issue that sells out then sells less over time than these great ongoing runs.

3) Wolverine is now in his own series, Wolverine: Origins, New Avengers, X-Force, Astonishing X-Men, and the upcoming Logan not to mention Wolverine: First Class, and his Ultimate appearances. I looked through your May X-Men solicitations and there were over 3 or more X-Men related books a WEEK without Astonishing X-Men shipping! Iron Man has two ongoing series now, excluding Ultimate Iron Man, Hulk has his own series, and various spin-off books. Like your Spider-Man Manifesto states "The line's identity became fractured because of the diverse hands and diverse directions across the different books. While there are some advantages to this approach, the one thing it really kiboshed on an almost subliminal way is the feeling that SPIDER-MAN is the linear story of Peter Parker's life." You may argue that this approach is unique to Spider-Man due to the character's "Peter Parker is Spider-Man, Spider-Man is not Peter Parker" history. As well with titles such as Daredevil, Captain America and Thor you let these characters interact in their own pocket of the Marvel U and only crossing over when the story calls for it. I also give you credit for generally being better at this than DC is with how many Batman and Superman titles. However, as I'm sure you're seeing with the success of BND in sales, one unified title for each character attracts more interest to the books, not just the character. Marvel is in the business of selling books as well as the merchandising of the character.

4. I know this is a small thing, but why are titles separated into seperate volumes or series? As you reunified the numbering of Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, why not do this for other titles such as Daredevil (16 issues from #500), Iron Man (36 issues from #500), Hulk (13 issues from #600 included the new Loeb Hulk series), Captain America (17 issues from #600), Thor (8 issues from #600), Ghost Rider (37 issues from #250), Ms. Marvel (3 issues from #50) and so on. I appreciate the ties to the past with titles like Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men, and with most the the other titles already over 100, is the higher issue number really going to scare off new readers?

Posted by aboris26 on 2008-02-20 20:03:54
Counter-programming
I guess my biggest gripe about Marvel right now is the lack of "counter-programming" in their takes on their characters. Don't like Bendis Avengers? Tough. Want Spider-Man with intact continuity? Tough. I liked when we had a choice between Kurt Busiek's Avengers and Mark Millar's Ultimates, between JMS' ASM and Bendis' USM, and so on. These were real differences in both setting and tone. It gave readers an alternative.

My second gripe would be over the way second-string characters, such as Quasar and Speedball, are frequently regarded as disposable because they don't have Spider-Man level popularity. I wish there would be more consideration given to the fact that even the second-stringers have their fans, and just because they may not carry their own book doesn't mean they're worthless.

My third gripe regards the Initiative. I understand the need for a return to the "outlaw" status of many Marvel heroes, and increased conflict amongst heroes. But I think it fundamentally hurts characters like Iron Man, who despite his flaws is supposed to be heroic, to have them as government stooges.

My final gripe is just a desire for a return to the casual cross-title continuity from the days of yore. It used to be that you didn't need to have formal crossovers; writers would frequently reference what was going on in their peers' books just 'cause they liked their stories. I wish we'd see more of that today; maybe it would be help if Marvel increased their comps to their writers?

Posted by CylverSaber on 2008-02-20 20:06:05
A variation on a theme
I want to gripe about events. Not that I have anything against events, but it feels like they are stealing great stories that could just be told in one title. House of M was a definate example of this. Secret Invasion (at this point) seems like it could just be told in the pages of one of the Avengers books. I love these stories, don't get me wrong, but it feels a bit like robbing Peter to pay Paul. And if the (highly suspect) sales data is to be believed, it would be a good idea to have a story-line driven sales increase, rather than huge sales on an event mini.

Posted by dingogary on 2008-02-20 20:07:15
Pay Royalties to the Families of the Men That
The one thing that bothers me is Marvel's policy on not paying royalties on trades to the estates of dead creators. Why can't a few pennies from the $100 Omnibuses and $60 Masterworks go to the families of the men who create the characters that you profit from today? It's especially galling when you have a relationship with Kirby's daughter today.

There is no rational defense of the policy. The Distinguished Competition is paying Kirby's estate royalties on the Fourth World Omnibuses (this was confirmed by Mark Evanier on the Marvel Masterworks board). I want to see Marvel do the right thing. Pay the families of the creators their royalties.

(And if Marvel doesn't pay Steve Gerber's estate for the Howard The Duck Omnibus...well, there's just no words for wrong that would be. Gerber's fight to regain Howard in the 70s led to the creators' rights movement that every working artist today still benefits from. It would be galling if Marvel, who was willing to pay Steve for this book while he was alive, would shun his estate now that he's no longer with us.)

Other than that...not much. The worst thing I could say is that I can't figure out why One More Day couldn't have been carried out with Norman Osborn and the Infinity Gauntlet instead of Mephisto. Generally, I like the stories you're telling. I think we don't tell you how glad we are for the work that you do. Thanks, Tom.

Posted by wishlish on 2008-02-20 20:17:49
Renumbering Series
Captain America - 17 issues till #600
Hulk - 13 issues till #600 including Incredible Hulk and Hulk series
Thor - 8 issues till #600
Daredevil - 16 issues till #500
Iron Man - 36 issues till #500
Wolverine - 45 issues till #300
Ghost Rider - 37 issues till #250
Moon Knight - 39 issues till #100
Ms. Marvel - 3 issues till #50

Posted by aboris26 on 2008-02-20 20:48:35
The Favoritism
How is it that Millar and Ellis can take YEARS to put out 6 issues because they're treated as being above having to use a fill-in artist? Marvel should pick better writers to give the best artists to and give favoritisms to.

Posted by Dusty. on 2008-02-20 20:49:55
I hate
the fact that about 1 out of 10 Marvel comics I buy the centerfold pulls lose from the staple. At least over the past couple of months.

Posted by mcross76 on 2008-02-20 21:23:50
my gripes
Dusty called me a "suckup" or a "buttkisser" a few weeks back (forget which), so I guess this is a grip from someone who loves your books.
1. New Avengers has lost it's zing. Bendis needs to speed it up and tighten up the story. I am hoping that the Secret Invasion saga unifies the Avengers titles right now because they are slogging badly.

2. Wolverine over-exposure. I am hopeful that Secret Invasion will cure this as well.

3. Events that kill solo-titles. New Avengers and Civil War killed ASM for 2 years. Even Brubaker's near-perfect run on Cap got held up for a while by CW. New Avengers should have been the center-piece for the telling of CW, but instead it got reduced to a 7 month side that could not tell a self-coherent story.


Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2008-02-20 21:55:27
Some thoughts
I dislike....

Fill in WRITERS. Not as common at your office as others, but still. It just ruins the flow of the narrative, especially since nowadays, fill in writers don't even try to make their voice sound like the other guy (Christos Gage on TBolts is a good exception).

Fill in Artists Cast Against Type. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, its terrible. You have xxx issues with xxx artist, then all of a sudden BAM totally different style artist comes in to fill-in. The worst of these was Ultimate X-Men with the brilliant Kaare Andrews totally tearing you out of the continuity of the story with his art not meshing with the issues around it.

Dirty Porn Covers. I collect She-Hulk in trade primarily because that's 8-10 less "BEWBS!!" covers per year that I have to get in public. Why great stories get the half naked girls with the thrusting pelvises when the story isn't remotely sexual, I dont' know... See also Emma Frost series.

Haphazard Commitment to Hardcovers - especially series like X-Men and Daredevil, what IS a hardcover and what is only a trade is all over the place. Just consistency and reliability that if I get "Volume 1" of a hardcover, there will actually be a "volume 2".

Death. Everybody dies all the time. It really has lost all meaning and impact. I mean, Robert just killed like 6 dudes in Ultimate X-Men and I didn't blink an eye. Even in the fun and witty Astonishing X-Men, Cyclops has died in 2 out of the last 4 issues but he still isn't dead. Seriously, just make "romantic relationships" the new death. I have a feeling you'll piss off even MORE people and get more reactions out of people (Rogue slept with WHO????).

The lack of good mystery subplots. This "Secret Invasion" thing doesnt count because the audience only knows its a subplot because you're telling them to look for it. I mean the kind where a shadowed person does something, and you have 1-3 years of clues until you find out who it was. The potential for great mysteries is one of the advantages of the long-form comic.

Crossovers interrupting my story. I might be in the sales minority, but I'm in it for the long haul, the detailed story from one writer. When BAM CROSSOVER TIME KIDS BAM happens, I lose interest, ESPECIALLY when you have to read other books to follow the crossover (good crossover series: She Hulk Planet w/o Hulk, and Ant Man. bad crossover series: House of M where everyone has to acknowledge the lack of mutants even if their story was unrelated, since several characters are now missing. Joss handled it best but it was still annoying)

Also, I dislike multiple monthly titles about the same person in the same continuity (Spider-man, Wolverine, Iron Man, the competition's guys...). 98% of the time, I just end up buying none of them since I get lost too easily. The new Spider-Man, I may try just because I enjoy the idea of one plot to follow instead of 3 or 4.

One last gripe - vocabulary. Reading the old Claremont X-Men a few weeks ago, it dawned on me how much simpler the books have gotten - like the audience has gotten dumber. Would it kill people to put in a few unique words BESIDES THE HERO'S PITHY MONIKER?

Really, though, I enjoy Marvel and what they put out. Keep up the good work, Tom. Your Blog is amazing.

Posted by stuckinazkaban on 2008-02-20 21:56:51
UGH
1. I'm sick of Marvel movies affecting the related comics. (Spider-Man wearing the black suit near the time the movie comes out, villians appearing out of nowhere for the same reason).
I know this is a business, but it's completely noticeable. The movies usually don't match with the comics' history, so why try to match the comics with the movies?

2. Retcons. Just stop changing history. Seriously. Find a better way to fix bad stories than acting like they didn't happen. They happened. I have it on my shelf. It's legit. Keep it legit.

3. Nudity. I'm sick of almost seeing a naked girl in my comics. It's like "hey i'm covered up by a cloud of smoke just barely over my nip or a blanket so it doesn't count." If you want kids to really read comics, then you probably shouldn't almost put boobs in them.

Posted by coryfetzer on 2008-02-20 22:40:59
gripes
Find an effective way to bring back Steve Rogers and I'll be gripeless.

Posted by ted_dahlman on 2008-02-20 23:41:39
My complaints
1. Not enough books having their own stories. Everything has to be setup to lead into the giant summer event. In the past the comic industry survived and we didn't see all these big events. I would like to see the books be more unaffected by the others and be in their own universe with their own stories more.

2. Hiring Hollywood writers and not doing anything when they are late. I think it is absurd that Marvel allows them to treat this as a hobby. if you all pay them they should be on time and consider this job a priority.

3. Tired of movie type tie ins. Back in Black blehh

4. Editorial edicts that are crammed into a story so that the story makes little sense. Yeah Omd im talking here. Also the whole Gravity was supposed to be Captain Marvel thing that was being set up and then tossed to the side.

5. Allowing artists to be late.

6. Editors in chiefs trying to not be straight with the fans. Here is looking at you Joe Q.

7. Editor in chiefs not respecting the fans.

Posted by mre2u on 2008-02-21 00:44:43
Bad tie-ins
My complaint: Tie-ins that have nothing to do with the original.

Awhile back I was very happy to see something on the comic book store shelves that had '2099' in the title. I leafed through it and couldn't see any real connection to the universe I knew and loved. Even without spending a dime, I felt ripped off.

I know that name recognition is a useful tool, but if it isn't really 2099, please don't put 2099 on the cover.

Posted by Jason M Bryant on 2008-02-21 01:04:24
Bewbs
There's no material in the real world that works like superhero outfits. Even Captain America's scale mail wraps tight around his body, sinking in between the mucsles so that every bit of definition is shown. I get that and I accept that it makes the heroes look powerful.

But this is ridiculous:

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/wizarduniverse/hulkthe5.jpg

That is not woman wearing clothing. That is a naked woman with clothing painted on her sliding breasts. Come on, She-Hulk would still be damn hot even if she wore a real shirt that stretched over her chest instead of individually wrapping the breasts.

Posted by Jason M Bryant on 2008-02-21 01:17:21
gripes
honestly, my biggest gripes are
A. all the gripes ive seen about ASM and BND. READ THE BOOKS, THEY ARE AWESOME.

2. tie ins that put the story lines on the back burners, i think peter david did a great job with the civil war tie in to X factor, but sometimes it just seems forced.
on the other hand i love tie ins where the same writer is writing every book. im looking forward to SI

C. Artist being on the wrong books, lets just face some facts here, without saying any names, there are clearly certain artists who shouldnt be on superhero books. put them on something less costumed like punisher, or a fury book (im sure there will be a new one early next year)

4. dead story lines. face it, over the years there have been series that sudden just ended midseries. and there is a bunch of history there that could be filled in, but is just a statistic right now.

E. Give Sofia Mantega her hair back!!! she is one of my favorite character ranking above most of the avengers. i dig the fact that shes on a team again, especially with CHAMBER, another underdeveloped C lister that has great potential.

6. people who cant keep their listing system straight, who switch back and forth from letters to numbers because they cant remember which they are on and are too lazy to scroll up and find out.

G. run on sentences (see above)

Posted by hxcscarecrow on 2008-02-21 01:42:45
Well, heh, I'm trying to do less of this, but posting a big ol' thread like this...

1. The general atavistic state of mind that seems to predominate. My problem with BnD (and I don't want to pick on everybody's favorite whipping boy, but it's a recent example), is not so much that I'm a huge fan of the Spider-marriage, per se. It's that there seems to be this idea that the original status quo is always better and should keep being restored. Even if you legitimately believe that the original creators' versions of the status quo are always the best, the fact is, they've already been done BY THE ORIGINAL CREATORS. This constant "taking a character back to his/her/its roots" seems to frequently be code for "I have no unique ideas, so I'm going to do Lee/Kirby/Ditko AGAIN, now with a new hat!" I don't think it's disrespectful to Stan Lee or whoever to leave a character different than you found him. These guys were idea factories, whose characters were fluid and frequently going through major changes. Spidey got the through high school and into college and suffered to major, unreversed supporting character deaths while Stan was EiC, right? I think it's more disrespectful to come to a property built on innovation and make no changes, or to insist that all recent changes be reversed. Plus, of course, the law of diminishing returns says that it's just not that interesting to see what I saw yesterday again. Nostalgia is great, but that's what back issues are for.

1a. The words/phrases "respect," "essence of the character," and "understanding of history" are all ridiculously overused and should be banned from being uttered by fans, creators, and editorial, as they most often seem to mean "I really like it this way and not that way, but I need a way to give my personal tastes more gravitas."

2. I'd like to see less negativity in general. Again, not to pick on an easy target, but this is why I don't particularly want to see more books by guys like John Byrne (also, frankly, because he's a good example of the "comics should all revert to the way they were in 1972" mentality). If you spend the bulk of your time moaning about the state of the industry. constantly repeating that's it's dying, continually complaining about both of the major companies and virtually all creators who got their start in the last twenty years, it creates a really poisonous, anti-fun atmosphere. I mean, if you were totally new to comics, would that attitude make you want to sign-up? Still, with a few exceptions, I think the fans are far worse about this. I think many of the younger creators are much better behaved than people really give them credit for. Message boards are frequently mean-spirited, angry places that accuse them of being hacks, incompetent, @#$%, and that's just from the people who are trying to be polite. "Who cares about a bunch of screaming internet nerds?" seems to be an incredibly restrained response to that sort of abuse, and many of them take far worse without commenting on it at all.

3. Constant ressurections render death meaningless, and I think they make for terrible, predictable storylines, but I realize that the doulbe jump in sales, once when a character is killed and again when ressurected is hard to argue with.

4. This is a big one that's not easy to solve, but I'd love to see great, original characters being introduced in continuity. I know the "new characters don't sell" argument has some weight, but I think part of that is because creators don't want to give up all the rights to a great new idea. Therefore, all the best new ideas of the last twenty years were done in creator-owned or partly-creator-owned, out-of-universe titles. This is a tough one to get around, but I might like to see Marvel bite the bullet and start offering really good royalty agreements for the use of new characters in in-universe titles (i.e., Marvel gets the rights to do whatever we want with your character, but you get a paycheck of -reasonable amount- whenever your character appears.) Thus, if you create an awesome character for the Spider-man universe, you'll be comfortably assured of a payday for years to come. As it is, there just seems to be very little incentive or drive to create really GOOD characters for mainstream continuity. I mean, seriously, if I'm a writer and I have a character that I really thing is going to set the world on fire, is there ANY reason that I should write him into my Marvel book and not save him for a creator owned project?

Again, though, I'd like to reiterate that Marvel has done a really good job in recent years, especially with regards to reaching new, skilled talent. So, ultimately, I offer the above as constructive criticism for a company that I really enjoy. Well done, guys.

Posted by Muldrate on 2008-02-21 02:42:05
Gripes
1. Drawn out stories. Stories that just last too long... Do we really need four part, six part, 12 part stories? Are we really going to have to wait 5 years to find out the identity of the Messiah Complex baby?
2. The competition's declining margin share.
3. Comic book companies (not just Marvel's) inability to address the digital, downloadable age in an effective way. If the future isn't here now, then um... when can the world get their legal digital "downloadable" comic books that they can store on their hard-drives the same way you can store a comic book on a shelf, or unopened sealed within a plastic cover, tucked inside a box hidden in a closet waiting for that day when it might pay for your kids college tuition? iTunes but with comics?
4. Deadlines! Surely there must be a way to take into account unforeseen circumstances? Speaking of, Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk remaining unfinished is a little insulting... Find a miracle drug for Bendis to at least semi-prevent his breakdown in a couple of months.
5. Super-villains of the week, like Baskin-Robbins and all the flavors... and just how powerful are a thousand exploding suns? Wasn't one enough?
6. Jean Grey will come back eventually, right, and If Captain America the movie has a writer engaged and we're looking at a what, Summer 2010, Summer 2011 release, does that mean that Marvel has till then to bring back Steve Rogers, or are all those potential new readers really just going to have to learn about Bucky, the Red Skull, and Cosmic Cubes in the recap page?
7. "GeNext" sounds great! Finally an attempt to play with the concept of "time" and "aging" within the MU. One way or another, in twenty years time. Frank Castle will have fought in a war over fifty years ago. Let alone the other characters that fought in wars in the MU... Bold type stating that an event from five years ago was only a few months ago is just kind of stupid. Going to be even stranger in 2025 when Fury, Ross, and all the other WWII guys are still, oh, lets just say... walking and talking...
8. A "shock and awe" moment that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, still leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth, no matter how cool the moment was, or what follows...
9. Which leads to, people that won't give a story a chance to redeem itself before they condemn it. Verbally of course, because as the numbers go, they still purchased it.
10. Female figures... The thread from before should REALLY be touched upon. In fact the male and female form in 21st century society in general maybe? Think of the kids right when it comes to smoking, but not when it comes to normal body types, not that Comic Book Guy couldn't do to lose a few pounds or anything though...
11. 52 issues of a comic book in one year sounds cool... Something that say, encompasses the entire MU maybe even. You should write it, better yet, Loeb, "Heroes" should really get interesting then.
12. Can someone look me dead in the eyes and with a straight face tell me who Cassandra Nova is and how she came into existence? Please? Convert the saying about how "if it sounds too good to be true..." into a saying about stupid ideas please. But it's okay, because she only killed every mutant on the island of Genosha with a giant robot. Where was House of M when Marvel needed it?
13. Golden SHIELD Hellicarrier... When metal looking just isn't enough. Speaking of SHIELD, please let Secret Invasion change and redefine SHIELDs smaller and more covet mission within the MU. Or call them CANNONFODDER, that would work right now too, 'cause the life expectency of a SHIELD agent is what, two, maybe three pages? Bet the C.I.A. can afford a better dental, although with a lower LE it would make sense for SHIELD to have a pension policy that pays out a little more.
14. Natasha's speech to the U.N. General Assembly in UXM #307... Comics should have more awe inspiring moments like that one. Which makes a U.S. government sponsored Avengers so hard to swallow. Ya know that saying about old movies, sometimes even old music too, how they don't make 'em like they used to... Don't allow Marvel to become like that.
15. Waiting till Thursday on national holidays.
16. Looking at the cover of the X-Men #1 that cost 12 cents. And we all moan about rising oil and gas prices... It's worth it though. Average reader can't pick up what they used to be able to though. How high are taxes in the MU btw? What with hellicarriers being destroyed every other month?
17. Lack of Marvel on Saturday morning cartoons. Seriously, get back into the animation business. It surely opens up people to the world of Marvel and comics in general, thus helping the industry as a whole.
18. Wolverine has been alive for over one hundred years. Sit down, map out his life, and tell all the different stories between then and now. Origins mini-series was good for a reason. Lots of stuff happened. Do we really need another team-up book? Pick James Howlett or Logan, but not Wolverine, make a different book for that, Wolverine should be in more then twenty books anyway, it'd just be bad business if he wasn't. Or are costumes just more fun to play with...
19. Will all of Secret Invasion take place with the United States and New York City, or will the other six billion people of the world be affected to? Anyone ever noticed how many supers the U.S. has compared to the other 200 odd nations?
20. X-Force is about time, but how many people do you have to have killed before you can be on the list? Seriously... For a while there it seemed as if Magneto might actually be able to hit the hundred thousand mark. Apocalypse according to all the retcons is at what, couple a' million by now? And who do we go after, the brotherhood of Marvel really doesn't care, Marvel just created/revived you a couple of years ago to kill a bunch of kids that were only referenced what, twice outside of New X-Men, that and you're completely expendable. Please go large with the future targets, not that it'll affect sales, it's got Wolverine in it, but it would just be so cool to see them off some deserving guy like Sinister, or Dark-Beast, or the guy that did Storm's hair.
Well, that was fun, thanks.

Posted by Thomas More on 2008-02-21 03:18:35
I love my girl-friend.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2008-02-21 06:15:42
My main gripe: Not enough Iron Man. This week's issue was awesome -- we need more comics with Iron Man fighting people. It was a thing of pure, unadulterated beauty.

I went to my comic shop yesterday and added 8 titles to my pull-list, 6 of which were Iron Man related (not including Essential IM v.3). And I thought to myself, well, hey, still could use more Iron Man.

Posted by ljacone on 2008-02-21 06:58:08
Gripes
1. Too many comics.. I wish comic companies like Marvel would put out 5 to 10 comics a month and staff every issues with a great writer. Instead, I collect around 40 a month and the authors range from fantastic to drivel. The large number of titles makes it hard to attract people to good reads. Make the Marvel U look like the Ultimates U with a fairly scaled back list of titles and the people reading comics will probably be much happier.

2. Too few creator created comics.. I understand that long standing comics are sure sells and the bread and butter of any comic book company but giving writers a chance to write what they really want is better. Try something like Kabuki or Criminal if you disagree..

3. Too little dedication to digital comics.. 25 issues a week sounds like a lot but it doesn't even scratch the back catalog. Digital comics lose value unless you can read entire stories.

4. Too little support for creative talent in mainstream comics.. Many gripes by people like Alan Moore against the comic industry are fairly legitimate. Marvel seems to be doing a good job in this arena compared to DC. Maybe that is why they have better writers at the moment.

5. More of a Marvel community on the web.. Tom B is great but where is everyone else? The comic industry should be about building a community of people who love comics and the talent that works on them. I don't see that happening as quickly as I would like.

6. Status Quo.. I hate comics that stay the same just to maintain sales. Fantastic Four, most of the dc universe, etc.. How great could these comics have been if the people working on them took more chances. Sure, there would have been mistakes but there would have been a lot of really exceptional moments too.

7. Use independents and comics like Marvel Presents to farm new talent.. Don't immediately give unproven talent a series. I would prefer to see people start small and if the fan reaction is great enough then get their series. There are too much bad talent and I prefer that it get ferreted out before the group gets picked to run the next arc of my favorite comic.

8. Make the writers/talent more prevalent on the covers of comics.. Especially writers. I would like to see Brubaker or JMS, etc. when I buy a comic. That way I know I am probably getting a good comic. People should be encouraged to collect writers the way they do comics today. They will probably be more happy with what they are reading.

Posted by shaunbed on 2008-02-21 07:15:52
Poor customer service
When I have problems reading a digital comic on multiple computers, I wait days or weeks for an initial email from support, and then get promised a follow up that I never receive (or haven't yet). I am just trying to help make the site better and I feel ignored.

I also have trouble finding emails that would allow me to contact marvel concerning issues like printing errors (luckily most shops are willing to help). It seems like the days when you could get service from a live body are over and that is very sad.

Posted by shaunbed on 2008-02-21 07:26:04
Already been mentioned - but shabby tie-ins.
Civil War: X-Men?!

Posted by NewChad on 2008-02-21 08:07:59
I really don't like the idea that more realism automatically makes things better. Part of what makes comics so fun is the escapism. My favorite Daredevil run is Karl Kesel's when he's fighting over the top threats.

My favorite Thor run is Simonson's when he's a frog and Beta Ray Bill's showing up and there are giant dragons.

I think some of the best X-Men stories have them off in space or fighting demons or dealing with a transformed earth.

I feel like the current Marvel regime has been very gloom and doom, street-level, and intrigue based.

I love so much of Mark Gruenwald's Cap run which was all over the place.

My favorite Spider-Woman stories have her going up against Gypsy Moth and the Brothers Grimm and all that weird, neat stuff that has NOTHING AT ALL to do with SHIELD and spies.

I want WONDER in my Marvel Comics.

Posted by MattDiCarlo on 2008-02-21 09:19:55
Right on, mcross76!
"I hate the fact that about 1 out of 10 Marvel comics I buy the centerfold pulls lose from the staple. At least over the past couple of months."

Spot on, mcross76. Something needs to be done about this.

Posted by friskydingo on 2008-02-21 10:31:13
Since you asked
LATE BOOKS: Specifically, the interminable delays for ASTONISHING X-MEN, and the complete continuity train-wreck that ensued. Having the Big Shock Ending of Whedon's four-year, twenty-five issue opus spoiled by the rest of the X-line (Who isn't coming back? Process of elimination says .....) is really a drag. On top of which it begs the question--- why are none of the characters acknowledging the loss/departure? I'm hoping this will be rectified with the Warren Ellis re-up, at least insofar as having the AST cast free to appear in the core roster rather than be quarantined in a pocket universe where time flows very .... very .... slowly....

"DEDICATED MINI-SERIES": Where nothing happens. X-MEN CIVIL WAR is the best example, but I don't have high hopes for the FF or X-MEN Secret Invasion books either. The Big Event of the moment either impacts the characters and their world or it doesn't. The "dedicated mini", while it does remove the burden of crossover-its from interrupting monthly stories, feels even more like a cynical cash-in. What's more, we know for sure that none of the FF and none of the core X-Men are Skrulls, because otherwise their monthly book would be impacted, and the build-up to UNCANNY 500 and the Millar/Hitch run respectively would be interrupted. So .... it feels like trying to have things both ways, and it feels disingenuous.

OLD NAMES, NEW(ish) FACES: Darkstar and Crimson Dynamo are dead. And then they pop up in HULK #1. While the writer does at least do a a head-fake towards addressing this, it's unsatisfying to say the least. "Yeah, those are new guys in the costumes" and ... that's all we get? C'mon!

WEIRD TRADE/COLLECTED ED. DECISIONS: Some of this just baffles me. We have something like eight or nine FF VISIONARIES from Byrne, a stack of Peter David HULK, five Simonson THOR volumes, everything Frank Miller ever touched that even smelled like Daredevil and ... no Claremont Visionaries. I know the Masterworks and the Esentials are out there, but it's not nearly the same. Plus, without Visionaries some of this stuff is never gonna get reprinted in color. And it would sell! It's X-Men, it's Claremont, there's no overhead --- it's a no-brainer.

And what's up with KITTY PRYDE AND WOLVERINE getting the Marvel Premiere Classics treatment? I can get that in hardcover with a fancy bookstore variant, but still no Brood saga? The mind boggles.



Posted by Gentleman Jack on 2008-02-21 11:31:57
As has been mentioned before, having a huge event every year takes away from the gravity and permanent effect it seems to have on the universe as a whole. It seems too much is happening too quickly with drastic changes each time. Not that they have been bad, although WWH wasn't all that great IMO. Hopefully after Secret Invasion which has been hyped as a 'huge change for the Marvel universe' and 'nothing will be the same' (not to say the others were not hyped this way as well), the individual books will be able to tell the stories for about a year or two before another big Marvel event happens.

Posted by djesterus on 2008-02-21 11:38:52
A lack of range. What I miss most from Marvel is the lack of Epic Comics. You predated Watchmen with The One. Had the longest creative in Marvel's history run with Sergio and Mark on Groo The Wanderer. Hell, you even published Cerebus. Bozz Chronicles, Akira, Marshall Law, Elfquest, Sleeze Brothers, Stray Toasters, Airtight garage, Moonshadow, Void Indigo, I don't see anything like this breadth with the current run - ICON is too limited in that. The Soleil stuff is interesting, the ex-Dabel again helps. But while DC publish DMZ, Y The Last Man, Exterminators, Incognegro, Pride Of Baghdad, Northlanders, Scalped, 100 Bullets, Faker and Army@Love, Marvel has very little that's expanding the literary possibilities of the medium. And, as the biggest US comics publisher, it really should.

Posted by RichJohnston on 2008-02-21 11:41:45
THE BOOKS, THEY ARE Oh So GOOD!!
First of all, why is everything always taking place in Manhattan?!

But anyways,my only real gripe concerning Marvel's handling of the Marvel Universe is the topic of CHARACTER DEATHS.

I'm finding that not only is it really hard for me to say goodbye to some of those who have passed, and I'm not just talking Steve Rogers, but that I solemnly cannot understand why that character was iced in the first place.

I enjoy the shake-up's that have rocked the Marvel U., but sometimes I feel that character deaths are coming along a little too cheap.

This sentiment rings especially true considering the frequency in which deaths are overturned.

Pound for pound, the writers you have employed are the most enjoyable, professional, thought-provoking, and exciting gang around, but I as a reader, challenge them, (openly!), to come up with more creative ways to take a character out of a story's dynamic that doesn't involve death.

Stilt-Man's death was acceptable, but why kill Aragorn?

I hate to say it, but Peeper's death was very, very cheap.

Mammomax's death was cheap, as well.

That did, in turn, make Predator X's death that much more of a treat, but let's think before we kill! That is all!

-Cody44

p.s. Don't listen to all the gripes we have here Mr. Brevoort, those with closed minds and small tolerances are fans of bland stories.

p.p.s. I love cross-overs.

p.p.p.s. I love new teams, and exploding dynamics

p.p.p.p.s I love new locations, when was the last time a new and exciting geographic locale was introduced.

p.p.p.p.p.s. More Iceman!

Posted by cody44 on 2008-02-21 11:58:09
1.) More statues, for cheaper. Glad to see them branching out with Hard Heroes. Cost is still to high. Too many busts.
2.)Director's Cuts. Make that material free online. Please don't try and get us to by the same book twice. It would give your website a much needed shot in the arm.
3.)wishlish's post about royalties is the most relevant thing written on any of these blogs in a long time. Right on!
4.)Digital Comics. I'm on a DSL connection with a fine computer, but the reader seems to time out about 3/4 of the way through most books. Maybe server capacity. Should put a refresh button on the reader that resends the request for info on command or something, but keeps the pages you have already opened.
5.)OMD and the consequences of it sucked it up. HOWEVER, BND is some of the best Spider-Man I've read in a while. The pacing, layouts, dialogue, artwork and everything is great. But Peter being an annoying man-child isn't working. And the fact that I'm reading a supposed current continuity book that contains Harry Osborn in it makes me cringe, along with Jackpot. It didn't take it back to the roots of Peter Parker or the Spider-Man story(Spidey the character, maybe),but Pete is like a different person even from the original. Spidey couldv'e matured and filled a void left by Steve Rogers, with help from Luke Cage. It's still very fixable and would actually make on hell of a comendable storyline if we could look back 6 months from now and be past it. Don't turn it into a clone wars. You asked for gripes and I can't gripe without mentioning it. Anyway, the fresh creative teams on short contained runs is what's making this book work. It'll work for others. I would think an immediate result would be less missed deadlines. (And quit telling us to stop complaining about the story)
6.) Please, for the love of God, kill that kid who is making the Incredible Hulk or Herc or whatever, unbearable to read. Killing people is popular, kill him. And Hercules may be strong, but he can't carry a title.
Aside from these few things, I have really enjoyed Marvel comics over the past 4 or 5 yrs. Nice work.

Posted by TConway on 2008-02-21 11:58:15
digital comics
Agree with those who want (legal) digital comics to be more accessible. Adding content, particularly new releases, more quickly to DCU would help. Better would be downloadable digital comics that could be purchased and saved on our hard drives.

And yeah, I don't like the continuity destruction unleashed by OMD/BND. But I'm giving it a chance. BND is certainly written well.

Posted by baron1971 on 2008-02-21 12:16:31
Weak artists getting more and higher-profile work while other talented ones are struggling to get any work at all.

Poor co-ordination of timelines (Bendis and Loeb are especially guilty of this).

Posted by Fetsur on 2008-02-21 13:08:51
My gripes
1) Cheesecake covers for seemingly any and all books with a female lead. It took me forever to pick up both She Hulk and Richard Morgan's Black Widow books because I was so completely and utterly turned off by the covers. I ended up getting them in Trade based on seeing positive reviews over and over and over again from reviewers I trusted, but the covers were enough of a turnoff that it took a lot of good word of mouth to overcome the effect. I'm curious about Ms. Marvel, and would probably be reading it, but the covers kept me from buying the first few issues and it hasn't become a priority to get caught up via trade.

2) Related to above: Greg Land. Ugh. I'm not against photo-referenced art. I'm not against women looking attractive/sexy in comics. I am against photo-referenced art where the illustrations of women are so heavily dependent on porn/fashion references that the appearances of the female characters are completely interchangeable and inconsistent, and their expressions and posture rarely correspond to the events happening within the story. I can name any number of artists who draw women in comics that I find sexy, but Land's women just squig me out and pull me right out of the story every time.

3) More clarity with the oversized hardcover line. The oversized hardcovers are definitely my preferred way of buying collected editions of Marvel Books. I buy a lot of monthlies and generally if I like something enough to want a collected edition of it I will wait to pick it up in the oversized hardcover or omnibus. I'm fine with waiting, I would just like to know when or if such a thing is coming. Not only would it make the waiting easier, it would also help me to decide which things to buy in other formats while I'm waiting. DVD double dips annoy me when they aren't announced, but if I know in advance (for example) that Zodiac and Hot Fuzz are coming out in bare bones sets first and then coming out in a few months with more bells and whistles, I'll wait for the bells and whistles edition and pick up something else I want now.

4) OMD Sorry. Can't gripe about Marvel without mentioning it. I'm picking up BND. I'm enjoying it. I can't actually look at it as connected to anything that came before though because of how it got there. I also think that everything that is making BND fun could have been accomplished with a married Spider-Man. Seriously.

5) Minor inconsistencies within specific runs or arcs that pull you out of the story when it is read as a whole. I don't want to come off as a continuity nit-picker here. I agree with the consistency + good stories over continuity argument. I'm talking about the following - I sat down to read Bendis' run on Daredevil as a novel instead of a serial the other day. It works very well for the most part, but there was one thing that really bugged me as I was reading it before that bugged me even more reading it this way. The cliffhanger that leads into 'The Golden Age' arc states that Matt Murdock was Alexander Bont's lawyer. Not his prosecutor, 'his' lawyer. The first time that I read the story I kept waiting for the reversal that would explain why/when/what got Murdock to represent this guy. When it never came I started to wonder what had happened - had the story changed midway through the telling. It's just a little detail, but it's one that really sticks out and that mars the experience of reading the story in the format that it will be read in the most over time (collected). And the thing is, I can think of many, many, many more examples of things like this. I really like longform stories that are paced as novels. I love the focus on character detail that can come out of this approach and the control over pacing that many writers can show. I would just like to see that consideration extend to making sure that the same attention is applied to details like that by assistants or editorial to insure that it works at the optimum level.

6) People that @$#**% about late books and don't seem to be able to see what might (for example) possibly cause Bryan Hitch's work on Ultimates to be late. Are you serious? Are you high? I'll admit that I'd prefer books with artists like that not be solicited until they are pretty close to finished so that there won't be an interminable wait between issues, but I can't possibly imagine work with that level of scope, detail, variety of characters, variety of layout, and level of 'performance' through body language and facial expression being produced by anyone on a monthly basis. Some art styles can be produced at the monthly rate and not suffer. Some need more time. Fans need to get better at accepting this and shut up.

6) That there isn't any sort of affordable color equivalent to the Essential books. I realise that a color equivalent wouldn't be as inexpensive, but I'd really like to have something cheaper than the omnibus editions or the Marvel Masterworks for books like the Claremont/Byrne X-Men, the Lee/Ditko/Romita Spider-Man, Gerber Defenders, Jack/Stan FF. I'm really in love with the Fourth World Omnibus collections DC has been putting out recently (and, yes, I *like* the paper they are using). Maybe something similar?

Posted by ed2ward on 2008-02-21 13:25:09
gripes
-Monty doodle monty doodle do you copy ?
-yes Scott, Logan'speaking...
-we need X-Force to jump to the Wundagore mountain to rescue Young X-Men , emergency quote..
-WHAT? that means 12 hawaian cheese burgers, 24 specials,30 nuggets and 70 seven-up...
-yes, there's the complete release of the 'Toxic Avenger' on MTV tonight, X-Men can't do that...
-sCOTT...I can't let you do that....
-lOGAN, is that the best you can do ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2008-02-21 13:38:28
My Gripes
1) Not enough Bendis written books. I would seriously buy more books that he pens.

2) Not enough Brian Reed books with not enough promotion for Ms Marvel one of the best books on the stands

3) No collection of the Hercules series by Bob Layton

Posted by Suiter on 2008-02-21 13:38:51
Wow
Yeah, shootin' for the hits, huh? Oh, and I'd like to personally thank shaunbed and Gentleman Jack for having nice bulletpointed posts that I didn't have to read every single line to move on from!

Ahem, my gripes:

1. A real effort toward MAX! MAX is throwaway at this point, minus the Punisher. I read a few mini series from MAX and they were just an excuse to drop a couple nude figures into any character's storyline that were slightly edgy. That's not adult, that's softcore porn. Find some more writers who can write things that are adult and put a real effort into the MAX series to compete with DC's long-standing Vertigo. Oh, and don't put anyone who spent their life in a gated community on a book with poor black people as characters. Please. It's disgusting.

2. Put people on books because they're artists, not because you can link their name to a popular TV show/movie. Really, a formulaic TV show script does not directly translate into a good comic series. TV has become a series of twisted plots and one-upping shock drama. Without some strong emotional connection, that makes for really boring comics. I.e. Blade.

3. Be more daring with a select number of series. Try turning an entire run of some known characters into a very realistic-looking experiment. Tone down the muscles and breasts, give them more realistic clothing (don't go down the black spandex route like X-Men the Movie, however), and put them in interesting, real-life situations. Things like that. Try some stuff out, see what people like. Please don't just shock-ending and drama everyone to death. That might get a few jumps in sales, but it won't create lasting fans.

4. Put forward a better writer/artist talent net. As mentioned before, sort of, some better way to find new writers and artists than just farming crappy TV shows and movies. Something like a Marvel Presents (as mentioned) to act as a revolving artist showcase would be more beneficial in the long run than pumping Ellis and Millar to death. Eventually, everyone will be sick of them and you'll still be shoving all your money in their faces.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Good topic...good luck reading it all/taking it in!

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2008-02-21 14:07:15
Generally, I have no problem with drastic changes or sweeping events. However, I find that they rarely deliver on what they promise, occur with little explanation as to how they affect the marvel Universe, or are quickly erased by the next shake-up.

I thoroughly enjoyed Messiah Complex, but I don't feel that it has created anything new or lasting. The X-Men remain what they've always been, the down-trodden heroes. Thematically that's appropriate and i'm happy to see it maintained, but it falls short of the hype given to it.

Meanwhile, an event like World War Hulk devastates New York, the core of the Marvel universe. While it crosses over into several titles, its impact is muted. In many titles, it appears to have never happened, or not happened yet. While I wouldn't expect the effects to be explored in every title, I had hoped to see something acknowledging that recovery wouldn't be instantaneous.

This problem has been reflected in virtually every event over the past few years. The Super-Hero registration Act passed extremely fast, with little exploration of the various legal/moral issues the build up to Civil War hinted at. In the end, the arguments against it were swept under the rug and forgotten. I personally have no idea where Silent War fits into continuity, as it appeared to have happened before and after Civil War and World War Hulk. While I like to think that these are all purposefully interconnected to Secret Invasion, that seems improbable enough to detract from the story if it were.

My biggest gripe, however, is the unwillingness to commit to change. Alterations to the status quo are a standard in comics. Occasiionally, in order to stimulate intrest and pave new creative avenues, it's necessary to break out of stagnation. I accept and appreciate that. Unfortunately, these are too often limited in scope and things are quickly returned to normal, or to something else. Spider-man embraces his totem, a contreversal event that is debated by fans, but that opens a number of development options for the character, including the exploration of his new powers. Spider-man then, builds a friendship with Tony Stark, gaining a new costume, a contreversal event that is debated by fans, but that opens a number of development options for the character, including the exploration of his new abilities. Spider-man then unmasks publically, a contreversal event that is debated by fans, but that opens a number of development options for the character, including the exploration of attacks on himself and his family from friends and enemies alike. Spider-man beats the Kingpin severly, delivering an ultimatum, restabishing his presence as a protagonist in the street-level underworld. Spider-man makes a deal with the devil...

At some point this has to stop. If these concepts had been introduced and individually plotted over a decade, it would have still seemed rushed and chaotic. If Marvel suggests that they are going to update, or reboot a concept, they need to be prepared to commit to the idea. Wiping out such changes by magic, reality warping, time travel, cosmic reprecusions, or some other pre-planted plausible retcon, can be as damaging to the character and disappointing to the fans as the initial changes.

That's one of the reasons so many of us took issue with OMD/BND. The marriage was one of those contreversal changes that, time and again, you decided to stick with. Each time it was undone, there was a negative response, and it was returned. This was a change that had become accepeted, largely becuase the stories surrounding it supported it. Had that been the case with any of the above plots, or even the Clone saga (okay, maybe not that), those too may have been accepted and appreciated. As it stands, change has become the status quo, and reboots have become cliched. By the way, it isn't necessary to celebrate every time a new creative team joins a book with a "special issue".

My final seperate gripe is how comics seem to underestimate the maturity of their readers. By that, I don't simply mean that readers are older than they used to be. The idea that children have no interest in aged characters and prefer to read about young characters is a misconception in my opinion. The most endearing characters are ageless. They can be toddlers, teenagers, spouses, parents or senior citizens. Any character can be relatable to any audience, as long as they are not treated as cliched archetypes. Maybe your research shows something I don't see in my nephews, but "de-aging" a character doesn't make him relatable, writing for your audience does. Neither one, necessarily leads to the other.

Posted by y4uriteme on 2008-02-21 14:40:02
oh, one more thing..
Convince Bagley to stay and can Greg Land

Posted by TConway on 2008-02-21 14:49:26
1) Tom, you edit New Avengers. Could you PLEASE tell Brian Bendis that next time there's a team-remix, could he throw Wolverine off? Logan appears in FOUR BOOKS, count 'em four, and shares THREE COSTUMES between those. Let him carry on with his own team, X-Force. He deserves one of his very own.

2) Also, could Brian please explain who that black-suited Clone in the Ultimate Clone Saga was? It's bugging the hell out of us.

3) Now that I think of it, forget 1) if Wolverine turns out to be a Skrull in any way whatsoever.

4) I like the treatment of Chris Claremont as of recent times - give him his own books, with his own characters, that don't affect any other books. Now do this to Jeph Loeb. The man's writing soils everything it touches; I won't ever be able to look at Ultimate Thor again without frowning. Give him a Heroes Reborn title or something, for crying out loud. Just get him off anything that other, better writers have to deal with.

Posted by The Gecko on 2008-02-21 14:50:09
Generally I'm not a big griper, but since you asked me to I will.

1) I wish we could just get a little stability going. Since the Civil War the MU has just been crazy with WWH and now the Secret Invasion. For me at I think that there needs to be some time to just ease into this new marvel world order.

2) Quit killing characters. Every time you kill someone villain or hero it always gets me down. I was a fan of New Warriors , dead. Captain America fan, dead. Goliath, dead. Carnage, dead. See where I'm going here.

3) Could you have things make sense to me in Spiderman world. I don't mind you changing everything just as long as I understand it. The new status quo section you gave on the first comic just wasn't enough for me.

4) Quit making so many new characters.

5) I live on a military base in Germany and all the comics are always at least a month behind. It keeps me from being able to talk on the boards here at Marvel.com

I just would like to mention that I really do like marvel comics. Captain America is the best comic I'm currently reading and that's just one of the many amazing titles I'm currently reading.

Posted by Web-Head3003 on 2008-02-21 15:02:34
1. I'd like to see more projects from older creators, even if it's in the form of self-contained minis, like the upcoming Iron Man/Dr Doom series from Michelinie(sp?)/Layton.
2. I have enjoyed the big events, and am looking forward to Secret Invasion, but am hoping after that the Marvel titles get a chance to breathe and do their own thing for a while.

Posted by joeshan on 2008-02-21 16:20:25
One more thing - my daughter says she wants more Mini-Marvels!

Posted by joeshan on 2008-02-21 16:21:22
well...
1) Let me subscribe to Nova!
2)Cap's gun... He's holding a Colt .45 on the cover of #34, inside the book he uses what looks like a Luger. For some reason that really bothered me. I feel that Bucky should either use a .45 due to its iconic nature or he would use a modern tactical pistol such as a USP. His weapon choice should either carry some symbolism or provide him with tactical options.
I know thats a huge nitpick but, hey it kept me from complaining about BND right?

Posted by gusshopper on 2008-02-21 16:26:58
Ripping fans off
Putting unnecessary cardstock covers on books which hike the price up. Comics are pricey enough without the needs to resort to this length.

Also Wolverine: Origins, the worst book you guys put out and one that has slowly killed the career of Steve Dillon over the past few years.

Posted by theguvnor on 2008-02-21 18:29:33
Trades going out of print
The collected editions department obviously isn't your purview, but if they have a gripes thread I'm not aware of it.

I find it frustrating how many Marvel collections go out of print and how quickly they do so. There are several series I haven't tried out because some of the early collections are out of print and others that I've followed only to find later volumes (most annoyingly X-Statix) fallen out of print. It seems that most of the Omnibuses are either out of print or had long periods where they were out of print.

By contrast, it was refreshing to order Absolute Watchmen from Amazon recently and receive the 3rd printing. While a 1st printing is always nice to have, I was pleased to see that DC has kept it in print with no interruption whatsoever in its availability--I didn't even know it they'd had to go back to press on it. Marvel seems to be doing better, as my 2nd printing of The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus attests, but I think it was out of print for awhile and several others remain out of print.

Marvel's so good at collecting virtually everything, but that means less if it can't keep its foundation books and even installments in current series in print.

Posted by BrendanHW on 2008-02-21 19:09:32
What happened to my post?
Weird. I know it was there this afternoon. In fact, somehow it doubled itself and posted twice. And now it's gone ...

(Add ANOTHER gripe to the list!)



Posted by Gentleman Jack on 2008-02-21 19:13:51
pet peeves
1) glossy paper. I hate glossy paper. It's reflective and hard to read, and it makes everything uglier. I understand that newsprint is unpopular, but you could use good matte stock and end up with something much better looking and much easier to read.

2) I especially hate glossy paper used for reprinting material that was not originally created for that kind of paper. Please use off-white matte paper to reprint older material -- and please don't recolor so garishly. Make it look closer to the source material.

3) Confusing storytelling, especially in Bendis comics. It's often unclear whether to read two facing pages horizontally (in long two-page rows) or vertically, page by page. This is very jarring, in addition to being poor storytelling. The storytelling should be seamless; it shouldn't kick us out of the story while we try to figure what order to read the panels in. Always making a page a distinct unit would solve that. Break the rule when it's really necessary, but breaking the page rule is overused and too often gratuitous, serving no real storytelling purpose.

4) On the one hand, creating storylines where inter-title continuity is important, even essential, and on the other letting too many continuity gaffes spoil the suspension of disbelief. As a reader, I can go either way, but currently Marvel is simultaneously going to extremes in both directions, and the result is jarring, again ruining the suspension of disbelief. You need to choose a strategy and stick to it -- at least for the main MU titles.

4) Inconsistencies in how series are collected/reprinted. (For example, why no softcover of Casey's two Avengers mini-series?)

5) Being unclear about the ratio of new-to-reprint material in Giant-Sise specials, and not explicitly stating in advance exactly what is being reprinted.


Posted by ClintLives on 2008-02-21 19:24:36
Renumbering
Please, pick a title, keep it. "New Excalibur"? "New Exiles"? "New X-Men"? No, wait ... let's cancel that title, make a new #1, and call it "Young X-Men"!

Yeah, #1's sell, but it's dang annoying. Reeeeeeeally annoying. And nothing is gained in my opinion.

Even New Avengers ... when is it not "New" anymore?

Posted by mutantnemesis on 2008-02-21 19:25:22
My Gripes:
overall i think Marvel's been pretty great over the last couple years! and i can't wait for Secret Invasion!!!

#1. $3.99 books. $2.99 is my line in the sand for a standard size book. when books go over that i'm out (i'll get my absolute favorites in trade). and throwing a cardstock cover on a book doesn't make it worth $3.99 to me (but extra content does). Recent examples include Captain America: the Chosen, which i would have loved to pick up, but passed on due to the higher cost.

#2. Loose continuity. I'm far from a rigid continuity freak, but when books that come out the same week or month blatantly contradict each other, it can drag me out of the story.
the New Avengers/Might Avengers/Fallen Son snafu was a recent example.

#3. Variant covers. Smells like the 90s.

and i'll 2nd New Chad on the shabby tie-ins. Civil War X-men, Mutopia X during House of M, Spider-man HoM (seriously, what happened there?) and stuckinazkaban on the "bewbies" thing, because when i was getting She-Hulk (a book that at the time would have been GREAT to give to a female reader) i had to explain to my wife that it was actually a great series when she saw a couple of the sexxxed up Greg Horn covers.

Posted by artiepants on 2008-02-21 19:32:57
By far my biggest frustration with Marvel right now is its tendency to rewrite history instead of writing forward. While it's tapered off slightly in the past year, for a while every major development was a MASSIVE retcon (Wanda was crazy throughout Busiek's run despite no evidence of it; Black Panther and Storm were in love their entire lives despite next to no evidence; Deadly Genesis; the Illuminati, despite it contradicting published comics; Jessica Jones; Capt. Marvel being back; even Bucky, though that's generally been lauded; and of course now Spider-Man).

Now we're getting Secret Invasion, which is at least hyping the idea that some characters we've been reading about were replaced ages ago.

I understand sometimes retcons are necessary, but the current crop of writers at Marvel seems to rely on them as the main focus of their direction for the universe. Write forward. Come up with new tales and move the Marvel Universe ahead instead of trying to keep change already published comics or fit in tales that simply don't work with other books that have already been published.

Posted by motteditor on 2008-02-21 19:33:05
A few more (sorry) after reading the thread:
* Bring back Hawkeye.

* Tell us what happened to Alpha Flight. Who survived and who do we have to wait to come back from the dead? Then never kill a character/team that manage 130+ issues of their own series off-panel again.

* While we're at it, let's not kill a character just to make a completely unremarkable villain seem tough so the heroes seem even tougher when they beat said villain. In fact, developing new villains in general would be good.

* Some consistency for Hank Pym's character. I realize some writers (*cough* Bendis *cough*) don't like him, but that's no excuse. He has a mini where we see him restart a relationship with Firebird. Then suddenly he's shacking up with Jan. Or is it Tigra. Or both? And why is Warbird thinking she wants him to die, when in the Marvel Universe, he's just won Time Man of the Year and appears to be fairly well regarded at the moment? Move the character past one godawful out-of-character Jim Shooter issue that happened more than *300!!!* issues ago.

* Not so much a gripe, but I'd love to see Firestar come out of retirement soon. Heck, getting some of the New Warriors on the New Warriors would be good.

Posted by motteditor on 2008-02-21 19:48:48
a press-related gripe
This is a very different sort of complaint--not about content--but a Marvel press/review policy would be really useful. Marvel doesn't really seem to have one at all right now (as opposed to basically ever other comics publisher), and it makes it incredibly difficult to cover Marvel publications in mainstream newspapers and magazines when we have no lead time at all, there are no advance copies or copies available for production, and it's next to impossible to arrange interviews.

Posted by aspectacle on 2008-02-21 20:17:12
Gripes!?
Don't have time to read everyone's gripes so I apologize if I'm 2nd or 3rding anyone's gripes.

1) Honor the old. There are a lot of fantastic creators who seem to have been tossed to the side in favor of the flavor of the month. I love Bendis and Ellis and all those guys but you have a wealth of talent available to you, guys who put in 10-20 years of great work despite working under a more dictatorial editorial regime. I don't want to see their work out of a sense of nostalgia, I want to see it because they wrote and illustrated great stories.

2) Bendis dialogue. I love it on a book like Ultimate Spider-Man or Alias but EVERY single one of this Avengers sounds exactly the same and in the case of some of the older, more established characters, don't sound anything like they should.

3) Listen to the fans. Yes the internet is filled with trolls who often use bad language to express their points but they're still making points. How long did people rail against Ron Zimmerman and Chuck Austen before someone finally realized that the fans didn't like them?

4) Don't make huge universe altering story decisions based on the personal feelings of the EIC. I'm with Joe on Spidey being more interesting as a bachelor but he's not. He's married. And it's the worst kind of lazy storytelling to retroactively erase that to make it easier to do your job. Play the hand you're dealt.

5) Crossovers. I don't mind em. I kinda like em. But do something with them when they're over. House of M set up so many possibilities that went completely unexplored (heck, it gave you a much better set up for splitting up Peter and MJ than Mephisto did) before you moved on to the next crossover. Civil War's Spider-Man story was completely undone a year later. Finish a crossover and then give it some time to breathe before starting another one. Explore the ramifications of the events you set in motion before hitting us over the head again.

Posted by cfunke on 2008-02-21 21:29:03
B, C, and D-list
I wish there were a book that highlighted the breadth of the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe has a rich cast of characters, many of which are considered B-list or lesser, but could still be used to tell short but effective stories. I'd hoped that Marvel Comics Presents would serve this purpose, but the tales have been so long that the book feels like it's focused on just a few characters. Ideally, I'd like to see more 1 to 3 part stories in MCP, some dealing with A-listers, but the majority dealing with minor characters. MCP should serve in a smaller degree the same purpose as the Annihilation series has, in that they re-introduced and sparked tremendous interest in forgotten characters.

A second, smaller, self-serving gripe would be the lack at both Marvel and DC of any sort of New Talent Spotlight or First Issue Special types of books, in which new creators can cut their teeth, and seasoned creators can try out some of their outlandish concepts.

Posted by cmurrin on 2008-02-21 21:42:03
Movie Tie-Ins (Kind of)
Ok, so the only book I'm reading currently which has had a movie come out recently or will have a movie come out soon is Captain America.

It may sound obvious what I'm about to say next but please don't replace Bucky with a miraculously brought back Steve Rogers just as the movie is coming out.

It's clear that a lot of people don't like this type of movie tie-in, especially when it is presented as having nothing to do with the movie, such as Spider-Man's Back In Black phase.

Personally, if you had to do something like that, make another separate series, such as you have done with Invincible Iron Man, debuting in May. However, in the case of Cap I still feel it would work better if this was not in current continuity as otherwise it would still feel like it would wreck Brubaker and Eptings awesome work on the current volume.

Posted by SOAE on 2008-02-21 21:49:42
Cover Artists (Sorry I had another one)
My second gripe which I just remembered while filing a build up of comics is with cover artists, or more specifically, the changing of cover artists mid arc.

I don't know how others feel, but I much prefer having one single artist (not including variants if you have to have them) during the course of one arc on a title. I feel this helps preserve the flow of the covers and also helps separate arcs stand out. A good example of this would be Steve Epting's run of covers on Captain America, or Tex's run of covers on the Vicious Cycle on the new Ghost Rider volume.

It feels abrupt however when looking through your issues and the artwork on the covers of issues within an arc changes dramatically, such as during the Revelations arc in Ghost Rider just now finished and to a lesser extent the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven arc in The Immortal Iron Fist. (which is to a lesser extent as the overall [brilliant] structure of the covers with the white side panel down the right of the cover with the banner and arc title have been preserved each issue).

Thanks for listening, reading in this case, to my gripes Tom.

An avid reader of your blogs.

(And Brubaker but i digress)

Posted by SOAE on 2008-02-21 22:31:11
My Gripes
1.) Too much Iron Man. As much as I love Tony Stark, I think I'm really getting sick of him showing up in every single comic. Captain America, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Hulk, and now he's going to have two of his own titles. Give Tony a break.
2.) Big Events. I do love the big events (I was a huge fan of Civil War especially) but I think the timing in between the big huge events like Civil War and World War Hulk and Secret Invasion is a bit tight. Give the fans room to catch their breath in between, please.
3.) I have to say it. Even though he's in Avengers: the Initiative, I miss Ant-Man having his own title.
4.) Finally, on a very specific note... what is up with the delays on Runaways? The amount of time in between issues is starting to become troublesome for me. Perhaps Mr. Whedon is stretching himself a bit too thin.

I know many of these have already been touched upon, but that's my two cents. Thank you for asking our opinion.

Posted by CenturyChild533 on 2008-02-21 23:03:43
The editorial staff should be straight and honest in interviews or just avoid answering questions they don't want to leak spoilers about. Lying just makes you guys seem sleazy and ruins any kind of trust between readers and you all.

Posted by scottking on 2008-02-22 00:03:43
Just a few from me
1. Greg Land's blatant tracing of celebrities and porn stars and using the same head shot/pose for diffrent characters.( NO it's not photo referencing it's tracing.) and getting away with it.
2. Wolverine being in almost every book.
3. The whole Spider-Man deal at the moment is unnessersary( No matter what JQ says)
4. Delays of any kind just down right annoy me.

Posted by sickboy_ukuk on 2008-02-22 06:26:39
For refrence
Proof of Greag Lands TRACING can be found here in the Greag Land guessing game threead over at Newsarama
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134443

Posted by sickboy_ukuk on 2008-02-22 06:28:54
The Gripe List
1) Too many crossovers and "directions" for a whole line of books. Make each book exciting on its own. Gotta say, Tom, your previous post doesn't sound too good on this.

2) Lack of appeal to kids, both in adult content and storytelling styles. They're the foundation for superheroes but Marvel seems to be trying less and less to create stories that will energize younger readers in your main books. Yes, you have MARVEL ADVENTURES and MARVEL AGE, but as a kid I want to read AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, dammit, but, unfortunately, I'm gonna have to be able to spend $9 a month to do that. Meanwhile, every other book either has WORLD WAR HULK or SECRET INVASION at the top and is both incomprehensible and dull when taken on its own.

3) Storylines that drag out too long. More one-part and two-part stories, please, and at the very least each book should be a good, long read with a beginning, middle and, you guessed it, end. Less five-minute breezes that are designed for collection in trade.

4) Too many stories that hinge on in-built reader knowledge and care for characters. I understand Marvel's big event this year will be the discovery that certain characters have been Skrulls for a while. If I don't know who any of these characters are in the first place, why would I care? Likewise, too many references to decades-old stories. More fresh, new stories that don't require entry-level knowledge to be enjoyed, please.

5) Lateness and lack of professionalism in disregard for the continuity your own stories establish.

6) Comics still focused on a handful of characters created half a century ago. Lack of substantial new characters and new directions. In the 70s to combat flagging sales Marvel tried horror, blaxploitation and kung fu books. Why nothing like this now?

7) And the one that links all of these together: comic books still centered around the direct market and an aging fanbase. This is something Marvel probably can't change on their own and is gonna make it hard for any of my other gripes to be changed.

Posted by skagandboneman on 2008-02-22 06:32:52
1. Wolverine and Spidey in too many books. I’m a completely fan of Spidey, but he is over exposed. And there are other mutants besides Logan, you know?
2. I live in Mexico and usually I don’t have any problem getting to all kind of monthly issues and TP’s, through the usual retailer, however there are a couple of collections that I can’t buy: Thor Visionaries Walter Simonson (Specifically Vol. 2-3), and Annihilation HC (Vols. 1-2). The store clerks tell me that Marvel has discontinued those. Therefore I’m not buying Thor Visionaries Vol. 4 and 5, but I would really love to read Mr. Simonson’s run. I know you will suggest to buy them in Amazon or E-Bay, but I’m too lazy for that, and besides I think that comics should be available for everybody.
3. Glossy paper. I usually read at night and have to keep moving the damned thing to avoid the reflection of light. One day I will be blind and it will be totally your fault! (just kidding).
4. Mark Millar writing 616 Universe. Face it, he’ll always write ultimate Reed Richards and Ultimate Captain America. Even if he is doing a 616 series. Civil War had some of the worst dialogues I’ve ever read, and there is no way Punisher is so stupid as to shoot a villain in a room full of heroes. Now he is writing FF, and puts Doombots running freely in the house? Valeria and Franklin must be having the worst of nightmares…
5. I think BND is incredible, however the steps to get there, meaning Back in Black and OMD where awful. You put Spidey on the worst situations during the last couple of years, and then you simply ret-conned it using a pact with the devil???. Please never do that again to another character.
6. You put Dan Slott in the right place. Keep him there until he does his magic.


Posted by freyes2000 on 2008-02-22 06:45:31
-Lateness of books. While it isn't as important to me as it used to be, it is still iritating to have to wait 3-4 months between issues.
-Contain the events more. Tie-in issues should be in the main series not a tie-in mini series, unless the character of team doesn't have a series, otherwise it should be told within the main event book.
-Creative runs are far too short. I like Millar and Whedon, but these miniature runs are kinda of a bummer. They are great stories, but they leave me wanting, and they usually are late. I like the consistency of a run from the same creators. Guys like Bendis and Brubaker seem to be rare nowadays. They have a long term commitment to the book and they have runs that really pay off.


Posted by ZacGoyette on 2008-02-22 07:08:05
Hey Tom,

First: I think you being here and asking this question is already one wonderfull thing. I think every online Marvel fan is truly grateful for this and it feels nice just being asked for our opinions.

Now as for the actual gripes: well... I know you specifically said not to begin about OMD but if you ask us about our opinion about what bugs is... I just have to mention one thing about it (already addressed, but I want to stress that there are more people out there)... I think Marvel has the right to do whatever they want... stories can be as radical as they can be made... but please: no more statements that turn 180 degrees a few months later. (Joe Q's statements on the unmasking that would stay for a long long time) It is just annoying, because we trust all you guys and it puts a strain on that trust. Again, you yourself have been very honest in all your communication and I really appreciate it. A nice policy would be to try and remain vague/mysterious...

Other than that: the events are OK, but being foreign I rely completely on subscriptions and the events seem to occur outside of the regular books. E.g. Hulk and WWH: I am a fan of Hulk, I buy the regular books... and instead of getting the base story I get flashes/impressions that already ruin the main story without a good (cheap) way of getting the actual WWH books in my hands on time.

That's what I liked about the Messiah Complex: except for first story, everything happened in the main titles...

So: two possible solutions...
1) try to keep the events that have an impact on the characters in the books that all fans can buy.
or 2) make it possible to order these books online... PLEASE!!! I'm really willing to pay extra cash for this, just so I canhave the books on time. (After 12 weeks of waiting on the first issue of Messiah Complex, ordered at an external site, I got an email that my order was cancelled, so I stopped trying stuff like this)

Finally: even though the events are ok, I think we can need a breather. A little break. Some slow stories for now. I don't need big impacts every month. You become too accustomed to it too soon. ("Oh 500 more superheros dead ,ok... ") Major events become 'devaluated'.

They'll probably sell ok, but... I just feel that I would like some slower pacing for a second after the Skrullies.

Posted by Zigy on 2008-02-22 07:41:57
Too much gripe
I just want to state that I am very content with the services of Marvel, the stories etc etc... (to balance my previous statements... I know it was asked, but it just feels like nagging)

Posted by Zigy on 2008-02-22 07:43:51
My Main Gripe...
Isn't with Marvel, is with the fans.

One More Day, Civil War, House of M, Death of Cap etc - Get Over It.

If we'd had the internet earlier I'm sure you'd be annoyed about how Tony Stark was a drunk because it would be showing a hero in a bad light. Oh wait, no, it's become an iconic piece of comic history!

Wolverine in too many books? STOP BUYING THEM!

Don't like creator X? STOP BUYING THEIR BOOKS!

The answers to 90% of your complaints are in your own hands!

Posted by NewChad on 2008-02-22 08:06:33
I'm sick and tired of the gloomy tone of the Marvel Universe after Civil War, of everything being connected. Sure, the MU was built on heroes meeting one another but now books aren't allowed to exist in their own bubble in the regular MU. A new version of the Champions? That would be an Initiative team then. A new Defenders? Great, but it's connected to Tony Stark's dictatorship. And so on.

I'm bored with the X-Men whining about being mutants, and only ever fighting fellow mutants. The Days of Future Past story was a great, classic two-parter - can we leave it alone now please?

I'm done with self-congratulatory features in the back of comics - just give us a lettercol and be done with it.

I hate the idea of ads snuck into the artwork pages. Sure, they're subtle - so subtle I've not noticed them - but it's the principle; ads should be separate from story. Unless you're planning to sell the book to me more cheaply on the bacl of extra income. Which you're not.

Posted by Volthoom on 2008-02-22 08:22:43
Gripes of Wrath
Hey Tom...it sure takes a lot of stones for an editor to open the floodgates like this. Don't worry...I only brought a small bottle of Haterade!

(1) Please stop providing "celebrity" writers with opportunities to write comics if they cannot keep up with a reasonable publishing schedule. We're all familiar with the Kevin Smith Spider-Man Black Cat fiasco, and we all know we'll never see Daredevil:Target #2. If a writer can't turn in their scripts within a reasonable time, it's time to move on to someone who can. It's been 2 years since Ult. Wolverine/Hulk #2 came out, with no word on whether #3 will ever be released. I doubt all the readers who are waiting for it are buying it because of Damon Lindelof's name...they just want the conclusion of the story. Same thing with Runaways since Joss Whedon took over...all the momentum that book had has crawled to a stop because it's been so tardy.

(2) Please don't allow substandard art to leave for the printers. I loved Khari Evans' art on Daughters of the Dragon and his issue of The Order, but the art on the latest Shanna the She-Devil mini-series was just dreadful. Much of it looked like it was in rough draft form. Perhaps it was the inking, but I know what I don't like. If I were an editor, I wouldn't have allowed the art for that book to see the light of day until it was corrected.

(3) Please be more selective in what is collected in trade paperback form. Looking at the Marvel solicitations for May, I see that there will be an Excalibur Classic Vol.5 featuring stories that were clearly fill-ins after Claremont and Davis left the book. I remember reading those stories, and none of them merit reprinting, except in a cheap format, like a Marvel Megazine. I would have skipped over those stories and collected the Alan Davis-written run starting with Excalibur #41. I know many completists would squawk about those missing issues, but I would err on the side of quality.

(4) I agree with the suggestions that older, more established writers such as Roger Stern, J.M. DeMatteis, David Michelinie, Priest, etc. be given a forum to spotlight their work. Perhaps a separate imprint such as Marvel Knights would allow creators to tell their stories about characters that might not reflect current continuity. I think there is a definite niche in the market that could be filled in this manner.

(5) I work part-time in a comics shop, and there have been many occasions that parents have asked for suggestions of comics that would be appropriate for their young daughters. I often struggle to help them because most of the all-ages material that Marvel publishes are focused on male-oriented characters, such as Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, etc. When these parents tell me that their daughter's favorite character is Wonder Woman, it is hard to find a Marvel book that fits that interest. Spider-Girl is the closest fit, but those stories are serialized and require a lot of investment in order to understand "the whole picture". It would be great if Marvel could take a cue from the "Distinguished Competition" and develop a younger readers title that could be aimed specifically at a female age. I understand this might not be economically viable, but a retailer can dream, eh?

Thanks, Kitchen T!

Posted by russellbuzz on 2008-02-22 08:39:38
Three things!
A. This is much more aimed at my fellow fans, but, I *HATE* it when they say "Marvel sucks! You should only read DC!" or "DC sucks! You should only read Marvel!" ... They're comics. The company doesn't matter. They are somethings a prefer about Marvel (Some of my favorite characters, I grew up reading Marvel primarily) and some things I prefer about DC (My favorite character, BATMAN!, and no mutants. I tired of the "mutant-hate" deal. It just never ends, and the X-Men seem to be the most discrimatory of all of them.)

2. Mr. Brevoort, if you truly want to do something truly memroble and legendary, figure out a way to clone Brian K. Vaughn.

3. More Multiple Man! I ordered X-Factor because of him. He could replace Spider-Man or Wolverine on the Avengers, think about it! :P

Posted by fetty_pet on 2008-02-22 09:12:38
My gripe: bad rumors
Ziggy said, "but please: no more statements that turn 180 degrees a few months later. (Joe Q's statements on the unmasking that would stay for a long long time) "

Ziggy, that actually didn't happen. A few people have made that claim and it spread around, but they actually couldn't provide any links to any place where Joe Q ever actually said that. When I looked into it, I found that Joe Q actually only promised that the unmasking would last through the beginning of 2007.

Posted by Jason M Bryant on 2008-02-22 09:18:02
Re: Jason M Bryant
Seriously? It really feels as though I ... and I mean I as in myself ... read it somewhere or heard a podcast or something along those lines...

Wowie. I have been brainwashed. Blame The Hand!!!!

My sincerest apologies to Mr. Quesada!

Posted by Zigy on 2008-02-22 09:23:39
Another example...
I KNOW I have heard Joe Quesada state the difference between Marvel and DC being the fact that Marvel was a universum with a history as opposed to DC that would regularly hit the delete button...

... is this a bad rumour as well?

Let's rectify it all I would say!

Posted by Zigy on 2008-02-22 09:26:22
Definitely NOT a gripe
Late books: I prefer the books to be from high quality than rushed in...

The ONLY problem I had was with the recent Avengers lateness... Because the end was revealed months before the actual story ... So if there are going to be links between books: delay the other books as well. :-)

Congratulations again on the Messiah Complex: the books were on time, high qualitative...

ANOTHER NON-GRIPE: Long stories... Just look at Captain America.... Best series out there!!! And we are reading a single story for 34 issues. :-) And yes, I like the fact that Messiah Complex didn't reveal all it's secrets...

Posted by Zigy on 2008-02-22 09:41:07
Previously
I think too much of the story is regularly told on the "Previously In" page. I swear, half the issues I read now, more happens on that page then in the whole issue.

Posted by dyermaker on 2008-02-22 09:46:39
Sometimes it happens
Quote from Ziggy: "Seriously? It really feels as though I ... and I mean I as in myself ... read it somewhere or heard a podcast or something along those lines... "

It can happen sometimes. We hear something repeated over and over. It fits with feelings we had about the subject. So we remember incorrectly. That's a large part of why eye witness testimony is considered the absolute worst evidence by lawyers.

Here's the Newsarama interview where Joe Q says that it will last until the beginning of 2007.

http://www.newsarama.com/NewJoeFridays/NewJoeFridays03.html

He says, "I can also tell you that come 2007, Spidey will still be public and unmasked." I looked through tons of New Joe Fridays and that was the only reference to a timeline for Spidey staying unmasked that I could find.

Posted by Jason M Bryant on 2008-02-22 10:05:22
Joe Q gripe
Now, please don't take my last couple posts to mean that I think Joe Q is infallible. I do think that he set some standards for undoing the marriage that he didn't live up to.

In New Joe Fridays he said that he didn't want to wipe away history because that would be a disservice to fans and the stories they've been reading for years. However, the solution they came up with does that. I can see how he tried to set it up so that it didn't, so that we could look at most of the stories and say they actually happened, just with Peter and MJ dating instead of married. However, I don't think that really comes across very well and I don't think this solution really lives up to the standard that Joe Q had set. So that's my Joe Q gripe.

Posted by Jason M Bryant on 2008-02-22 10:11:35
Tom B, caring genius or diabolical mastermind
1. I love iron fist so much I hate it. It makes normally good books bad by comparison. I find incredible herc so funny and clever and unexpected it brings me physical pain and makes other books that are supposed to be funny seem stale in comparison. (if you ever told me I'd find ares funnier than peter parker I might have lit you on fire until this series)
2. Mischaracterization. I know this is a big one, but some writers I just feel don't take any time to notice or care about what a past writer has done. The hood's gang, as an example, makes no sense to anyone that's every read a story involving any of the characters in it.
3. Shock for shock's sake. (ultimates 3 I'm looking at you) If you have a "shocking" moment it should mean something deeper and be impactual. If it's disregarded or not mentioned again people feel cheated and victims of lazy storytelling.
THE BIG ONE: Event-O-Rama. I know it sells books and that's your job, but I worry the lessons of the 90's are being lost again by the very people taken in to fix them. We have an overabundance of tie-ins, varient covers, and reimaged characters ever since house of M and it doesn't seem to have an ending in sight. I know it's trendy right now, and I see some of the logic in it, but please consider the possibility that if comics suddenly stop being "hip" again and you lose those casual readers you're only going to be left with your original core fan base. Some will stay no matter what, so really I can see you not caring about them as you initially mentioned (well, not caring, is probably the wrong term but in terms of sales it fits) but the "independent vote" if you will can indeed leave due to feelings of being betrayed by storytelling and if this happens along with a downswing with current popularity the industry will be in full recession once again.

Side note: I'm curious if this was made to get actual fan opinions or if it's just a clever way to get people complaining on other blogs centralized to just one place to "clean up" the others. Good idea either way.

Posted by moral_d on 2008-02-22 11:04:52
suggestion
Can we have a year off of BIG EVENTs after Secret Invasion and simply let the status quo breathe? I want a year of Cap and Spider-Man and Avengers without having their stories get derailed.

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2008-02-22 11:40:41
gripes number two
-Peter...
-MJ ?
-if you were Bob Dylan, you'd telling me ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2008-02-22 12:02:39
The Magic Eraser
I think Marvel is doing incredibly brave and exciting things with their characters right now, but it is dissapointing when you guys pull out the magic eraser. Of the three major labels (If you still count Image) Marvel is putting out work that is smarter and closer to the cutting edge. But what really put you guys ahead of the competition (in my book) is your willingness to experiment and evolve your 1st string characters. It seems to me that a big part of the allure of comics is watching your favorite heros conquer the insurmountable odds and save the day. That being said, It is incredibly disheartening to invest your time (and $$$) into seeing a character pushed to the breaking point or completely redefined through personnal trials and change, only to have someone hit the reset button and have the character regress back to wherever they were a year or more ago.

Examples of this that really bugged me:

1. Grant Morrison's run on New X-men was awesome. He brought the characters into a new century of social issues and relevent real world scenarios that most other comics didn't care to, didn't know how to, or were too afraid to touch. He also brought the characters back to their roots as outsiders and freaks while dismantling tired cleges that have plaqued the book for decades. He left the X-Men open for a new renaissance of possiblities when he departed from it. But rather than jump off of this, for whatever reason you guys pulled out the magic eraser (in this case House of M) and undid everything he accomplished in one foul stroke, regressing the characters back to the same tired scenarios and over used plot gimmicks (I wonder if Magneto will be a good guy or a bad guy this week, OMG! The Professor can walk, oh wait...yup...he's dead again. Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be back in a couple of days).

2. Hawkeyes meaningless death and ressurection. Of course that is only one of hundreds of examples of this. PLEASE don't pull a "Death of Superman" with Captain America. His death meant something to a lot of people. By this I mean comic fans and the general populace as well. I mourned Steve Rogers passing and I've accepted Bucky as the new 'Cap.' I think Ed Brubacker has accomplished something amazing in being the first writer to succesfully kill and replace an iconic character like this (also, I don't think my brain could handle a cyborg, clones, or any other such nonsense versions of the Captain).

3.I'm sorry to kick this dead horse again and I'm not going to bother talking about it because it's been done more times than Jean Grey has died...OMD. Massively dissapointing use of the Magic Eraser.

I can go on but I don't want to be tedious. All in all Marvel is the best thing going on in comic books. I think you guys should keep uncovering unexplored territory and when you've made a brave decision about the direction of one of your books, trust it and move forward, not backwards. Throw the Magic Eraser in the negative zone and make mine marvel.


P.S.One more quick thing that I've got to gripe about. I realize diffrent people have diffrent taste, but the Ultimates went from the best, most compelling, most engaging, most contemporary comic book in the market to the worst kind of early 90's throwback, T and A, ultra violent, anti hero, drivvle. The one lines and the way Loeb just tells you the plot between 20 page fight scenes is nauseating. I don't wish ill will on anyone personnally, but I really hope Ultimates3 tanks before it brings down the entire Ultimate universe and completely destroys (with gross over simplification) what were really interesting versions of Marvels greatest heroes. I'm terrified to see Ultimatum and I should be excited. Get Joe and Loeb off this one before it's too late and give the book to Ellis and Mcniven. I don't care if the delays take years.

Posted by ZombieJarvis on 2008-02-22 12:41:14
I think my biggest complaints would be:

* Consistency of characters. I could go the easy route and say "Look at the complete unrecognizability of the core characters going from The Ultimates 2 and The Ultimates 3," but there are greater examples of this out there. By all rights the Chameleon is a perfect villain to be using as a menace in the post-Civil-War Marvel Universe: foreign agent, anti-American, master of disguise. Why is he not being used in a way similar to The Red Skull in recent Captain America issues, instead being knocked unconscious by spiked cookies baked by Aunt May? Then there's the recent debacle over Tigra being rolled by The Hood, which seemed to go against how she'd been characterized since her debut...

* Use of characters by writers who clearly do not like them: Tigra passim. Why aren't writers reigned in a little bit when they're inserting or using characters for the sole purpose of degrading them or making them look like garbage in comparison to others they prefer? What's wrong with, simply, NOT USING THEM?

* The re-emergence of variant covers, gimmicks, etc. We didn't need them in the 90s, we don't need them as we head into the 2010s.


Posted by gdwessel on 2008-02-22 13:15:53
whoops
Sorry about the double post. Still getting used to this.

Posted by ZombieJarvis on 2008-02-22 13:20:26
Two Gripes
I think the line as a whole was better in the first part of the decade under Bill Jemas than it is now. Just off the top of my head, Marvel had Morrison on X-Men, JMS and Romita Jr, on Spider-Man. Waid and Weiringo on Fantastic Four, Milligan and Allred on X-Force, Bruce Jones and JRJR on Hulk, Gaiman and Kubert on 1602, Busiek and Perez on Avengers/JLA, Millar and Hitch on the Ultimates, Bendis and Maleev on Daredevil, Captain America drawn by Cassady and Jae Lee. Loeb and Sale on the color books.

Now I'm waiting for Giant-Sized Astonishing X-Men, and that's it. I think I'm in the minority as Marvel's books are selling well, but nothing excites me at the moment. Captain America has cosmic cubes and resurrections. Avengers and X-Men have no more mutants. Spider-Man is back to the same themes as the stories from the 80s. This doesn't mean I'm reading more DCs or Indies. It just means that I'm spending on average around $6.00 per month on comics.

The second gripe is the attitude that editors and creative people have toward trade-waiting. There is a presumption that people get books this way because it is "cool". This is not how I prefer to get books, but it is much easier to order two trades online than to make thirteen separate trips to the comic store and hope that you don't miss an issue. I'll probably get Millar and Hitch's FF this way, because of all of the delays with both volumes of the Ultimates. You've done a good job of posting Brian's art to show how far ahead he is, but the thought of going to the store every month for at a minimum of fifteen months seems more effort than it is worth. If I'm trade-waiting, it's not because I think it is cool. I trade-wait because I'm not OCD about getting a 9.8 copy on New Release Wednesday.

As an FF fan, I have to give you your due. The creative teams you've hired (Waid,JMS,McDuffie, Millar and their artists) have all been top-notch. Also, Paul Mounts is the best colorist at Marvel for this title, and I'm glad you've kept him throughout your tenure.

Posted by FFfan on 2008-02-22 13:29:07
Can’t see why Harry Osborn hates Spiderman now. Not if Norman is alive. You have to come up with a good explanation for that, other than: “he’s crazy”.
Cover art from a different artist that the one actually drawing the book. I have always thought that such practice is an acknowledgment that the artist doing the interior is not good and that you require a better one to sell the product. This is not true in many cases, but I have always felt like that.
Greg Land sucks. I can take a photograph and draw over it a costume also. The difference is that he gets paid for copying Jenna Jamenson, and I don’t. http://remy.vnnblogs.net/files/2007/07/upower.jpg
The increasingly blurred line between Ultimate MU and 616 MU. I knew sooner or later this would happen. I happened to your MK titles and is happening to the entire Ultimate line. I hope the next event will bury such universe or better yet, fix it.


Posted by freyes2000 on 2008-02-22 13:31:47

Can’t see why Harry Osborn hates Spiderman now. Not if Norman is alive. You have to come up with a good explanation for that, other than: “he’s crazy”.

Cover art from a different artist that the one actually drawing the book. I have always thought that such practice is an acknowledgment that the artist doing the interior is not good and that you require a better one to sell the product. This is not true in many cases, but I have always felt like that.

Greg Land sucks. I can take a photograph and draw over it a costume also. The difference is that he gets paid for copying Jenna Jamenson, and I don’t. http://remy.vnnblogs.net/files/2007/07/upower.jpg

The increasingly blurred line between Ultimate MU and 616 MU. I knew sooner or later this would happen. I happened to your MK titles and is happening to the entire Ultimate line. I hope the next event will bury such universe or better yet, fix it.



Posted by freyes2000 on 2008-02-22 13:35:28
I Second
I like the idea of more young, female oriented comics. She Hulk doesn't seem so bad, but some other options for young girls/women would be great. I have a 5 year old daughter and there's really nothing I could suggest for her in Marvel, in fact Wonder Woman really is the best thing to offer. Which is sad, as I prefer Marvel over DC.

She does like X-23, but I can't really let her read those...

Oh, and a little fan-gripe-gripe: Seriously, if everyone could just quickly look over the other gripes, please? Then there'd be less: "Enough Wolverine Spider-Man! Breathing time between events! Late books! Ret-conning = Evil!" All valid points, but the eight person to say so really isn't helping the issue. Really.

Though, ironically, no one will read this either...

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2008-02-22 14:01:58
Editors telling me what I should like.
Editors telling me that a book is "really good, honest", let me make my own damn opinion!
Deadlines are constantly missed.
While I agree that Marvel should try to get more younger readers, you really need to realize that comics aren't for kids anymore and that many many buyers are over 20. Stop pissing us off with dumb stunts that don't seem to mean much.


Posted by tbussert on 2008-02-22 14:04:24
I can't believe I didn't mention this in my p
PRICE POINT!
It is reallyreallyreallyreally frustrating to me that there is such a steep price point differential between the traditional-model American comics and Manga. I realise that there is a huge difference in production values, and corresponding to that, production costs, pay scale for generating original material as opposed to reprinting translated material, page size of format, etc. but I desperately want to see something that could compete in the quantity for price arena with Shonen Jump and more competition in that arena with digest sized collections. I am incapable of conveying in words how much I would like to go into any bookstore and see magazines that were roughly the same size and cost as Vanity Fair (presumably with a corresponding amount of advertising to compensate for production costs) with all of it's non-advertising pages dedicated to comics. Something like this HAS to be possible, and Marvel would be one of the best companies to provide something like this. I know that there was a bit of an attempt with Marvel Knights and Ultimate magazines a few years ago but they weren't offering anything significant in the way of new material for people who were already reading and the page count to price point ratio wasn't good enough to make it that enticing to casual/new readers.
I don't think that there is enough talk (publically at least) about the factor that price point probably plays in the dominance of Manga in the bookstore market. When faced with 200 pages of good reading from Tokyopop for 8 bucks versus 130 pages of good reading from Marvel for 15, the bigger entertainment bargain will win with most people most of the time.

Posted by ed2ward on 2008-02-22 15:50:50
P.S.
I'd love to see a thread like this dedicated to things that we (the fans) like that y'all are doing. I'd have a lot to say there too.

Posted by ed2ward on 2008-02-22 15:52:32
1. Not enough heroisme in the comics. One of the reasons I like 'the Order' so much is because it had what far too many Marvel comics these days are missing. Heroes actually being heroic, saving innocent people from threats.

2. Spider-Man being turned into an incompetent nitwit rookie who is utterly inconsequential and might as well be a D-lister. He's a 30 year old man with 15 years of experience at being a hero, he should be able to take out the guys shown in the issues of BND with his eyes closed and his hands tied behind his back. One of the things I used to love about ASM is that Peter wasn't a kid, he might have been young at heart, but he'd long since outgrown the rookie stage. I might have been able to get past the loss of the marriage, but I can't ignore that we've lost the character of Peter Parker in place of some boring generic moron. Honestly, the character is shown so incompetent, that the happiest the writers would make me is to have him drop dead and turn into a Skrull.

3. Too many events especially in ASM.
In the past few years, so many things have happened to Spider-Man, that not a single one of them actually got the exploring it deserved. Because the latest new event was allready rushing in, while they hadn't even gotten past the last one.
This includes undoing the unmasking, before the writers had any chance to actually do something with it. (well other than Peter David, who at least tried to write some stories taht couldn't just as easily have been written with a Spider-Man who still had a secret identity.

4. The New Avengers being basically useless. I love the chars in the New Avengers, but so far they don't seem to have done anything even remotely of consequence. While I like the fight scenes in Mighty Avengers, I just can't stand most of the characters in that team,.

Is it so much to ask fo rmore heroisme from actual heroes?

Posted by liliaeth on 2008-02-22 16:44:22
Mighty difficult to read
(Oops, sorry about the above.)

I agree with the poster who moaned that all the Mighty Avengers sound the same. Especially in the thought bubbles - this experiment is not working, the cast think stupid and/or obvious things and it's pointlessly distracting.

Even more annoying is the tiny type used for the (unnecessary and boring) infobites Iron Man has 15 times a panel. And it's not just tiny type, it's tiny type printed in light green out of yellow - yeah, I got my eyes Lasiked but I don't yet have microscopic vision. Give us a break, huh?

Posted by Volthoom on 2008-02-22 17:33:59
First Time
I've never responded to a blog before, but I've always enjoyed reading this one and thought it was cool that I had a chance to raise a few complaints. None are meant to be negative, more like questions that desperately call for answers.

1. I was very open to the events of OMD and also looking forward to what BND had in store. However in all of the stories thus far, I feel as if I am being talked down to. The intellectual and creative stories JMS brought time after time seem to have been replaced with repetitive and non-progressing stories that I feel I've read many times before. Is it all culminating into a much bigger storyline, or is Marvel retreating to an old school take on Spider-Man and intent on keeping him there?

2. One of the worst things for me as a reader is watching such talented teams break up or leave a series. When an extremely talented team sticks together great things can happen. Look at Ultimate Spider-Man and JMS and John Romita Jr.'s run on ASM. I understand it is important for young talent to be given a chance, but it pains me to watch things like David Finch leaving Moon Knight, and I'm always worried about David Aja or Ed Brubaker leaving Iron Fist.

3. Lastly, I'd really like it if Marvel came out with more titles similar to the new Marvel Knights line. I loved books like Silver Surfer: Requiem and Spider-Man: Reign. These fresh looks at old characters are some of the most enticing things about Marvel in my opinion. I'm also looking forward to Millar's and Romita's Kick-Ass. These are the comics that i believe will garner respect for the comic medium and I hope will be expanded in the near future.

Posted by kennyvs.spenny on 2008-02-22 18:26:47
Hardcovers
My gripe has to be that the HC format is being overused.

I only buy trades and while I laud Marvel for their much more progressive trade policy (compared to the competition IMHO) but some of the titles that end up in a HC really do have me scratching my head. I also don't appreciate when a trade, particularly a HC has a huge amount of supplemental content and very few issues e.g. New Avengers; The Sentry.

Oh and on a final note. Not a complaint but phrased a suggestion instead. I would love for Marvel to have a publically stated trades policy, e.g. "all mini series will be traded 3 months after the final part" or something like that. I know everyone says us trade-only guys are killing the industry but we all just wanna put money in your pocket and the more info we have the better!

Posted by ukdavew on 2008-02-22 19:14:47
1) To much Shcok value, Killing Cap, Skrull invasion. Stop killing super heros. Stop killing mutants like flies. Just stop it. Please. I hate getting attached to a character just for it to maybe lose popularity or gaint o much and get killed. All these big events are driving me crazy

2) More Female characters deserve comics. I admit it I like hot women. Ms Marvel And She Hulk are my favorite books. I'd really like to see 1 or two more female super hero books. Spider woman or Arachne, Or X23.

3) Brand new day, spiderman not about youth, hate the revisions, blah blah you know the score. Youthful spider man belongs in ultimates. thats why the ultinmates is there

4) The utter disrespect for fans. Sometimes it seems like you people hate us. You want new fans, and once they become year old marvel fans you hate them to. So it's like hey come to marvel, get attached! Why are you attached stupid? Get out nerd.

5) Lenil Yu Is not a good artist. Seriously. More Cho.

6) Is it impossible to get some happy stories? With Clear Happy endings? Just a few? My job sucks enough can't I read about heroic triumph without loss on occasion?

Posted by Seru1 on 2008-02-22 22:38:44
Oh yeah!
And more black cat! She deserces ehr own solo book. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!

Posted by Seru1 on 2008-02-22 22:40:45
...
Stop giving Jeph Loeb work. He ruins every book he touches. Hulk went from one of the best books on the stands to one of the worst. The same thing happened with The Ultimates. Does anyone read his scripts? Does he even have editors? How is the drivel that he produces allowed to see print?

Posted by Rawnzilla on 2008-02-22 23:40:55
Gripes?
Tom . . . it should say something when you have to ask people NOT to gripe about OMD.

Posted by supergrande76 on 2008-02-23 00:20:53
Gripes
1. Beast...I started reading X-books in the early '90s and that beast looked sweet...the new dog faced beast(yes i know hes been like that for a while) looks terrible...bring back the real McCoy

2. Northstar...I was impressed that Marvel took a step forward a few years ago when Northstar joined the X-Men...But he never really got a fair chance at a starring role...Every mini story that featured him focused solely on his sexuality and never allowed the reader to see the real depth...then he dies, comes back to life, reaks havoc on Rogue's team...so now that he is alive again...put him in the forefront with real stories and real depth so he is more than just a token gay character...he would be a great X-Man.

3. Marketing...X-Factor is a spectacular title...Every issue amazes me yet it seems to be hardly a blip on the Marvel radar...I never thought that Madrox, Siryn and Guido(and of course Layla) would find there place among my favorite Marvel characters...that book is a real gem, show it off!

I like most of what I see(including OMD). And I'm pumped about the return of Self-friend Warlock(please be more than a stunt)...


Posted by theguymsu on 2008-02-23 01:15:48
Gripes
I just want to start off by saying how much I love a lot of what Marvel is doing, and have been doing, over the last few years. Love Marvel Adventures and all of the new, fun writers who have come through there. I love Runaways and Spider-Man Loves MJ, and I'm so grateful that you gave it those series the chance to thrive over so many issues. Love Colleen Coover's backup stories in X-Men: First Class. Loved Nextwave - so sad to see it go. Loved Slott's She Hulk. Love everything Matt Fraction is doing. Love Spider-Man Family. Love the Agents of Atlas. On to the gripes, then...

1. Internal consistency in individual titles.
Daredevil is a first rate example of this. The current story has run for seven years, without reboots, with fill-in artists that fit with the regular art team, and a story that could be read without any knowledge of the big, sweeping events of the Marvel Universe and its other titles. Really, I wish all your central books could be like this. Ultimate Spider-Man and Brubaker's Captain America other good examples of this.
An example of the opposite: Mike Carey is doing some fantastic work on Ultimate Fantastic Four, but has been sabotaged by art team change-ups that have had absolutely no rhyme or reason. From great, idiosyncratic Pasqual Ferry, to solid and cartoony Mark Brooks, to Tyler Kirkham's Top Cow house style, in six months - while Carey has been telling the same story. It shouldn't be like this.

Collections:
What Brendan HW said above. I would have liked to see Planet Hulk in softcover before World War Hulk started. Personal requests; but back in print the Alias Omnibus, the Sentinel digests, and the Milligan Allred X-Force/X-Statix hardcover(s).

MDCU:

MDCU
I would like to have the opportunity to download hi-res files I can read while offline, in a format (.cbr or .cbz) which lets me use my entire screen to view the pages, not making me have to give up space on the screen for superfluous flash menus. The creators should get royalties from digital sales.

Sean McKeever
To see the writer who has been the most successful in updating the Marvel template (larger-than-life heroes with relatable problems) for our times leave you for DC was a little heartbreaking. Please patch things up with him and bring him back after his exclusive ends.

and perhaps the most important gripe of all:
Costumes and overt sexualizing
I'm not saying that superheroes shouldn't wear costumes - it's part of the genre, part of the mythology, but I just wish you would try to do present that part with a little more dignity and internal logic. The costumes should be in keeping with the personality of the characters and the situations they face. If you want your comics to appeal to a broader demographic, you're putting a giant stumbling block in your own path by depicting pretty much all your all your female characters with plunging cleavages, low-cut pants and bared midriffs.

Posted by Josef Karven on 2008-02-23 03:23:45
Costumes
Lycra costumes that could work in the Marvel all-ages titles but seem ridiculous out of the more child-friendly comics. Worst offender: Wolverine wearing bright yellow tight and blue underpants whilst strolling through the hills of Afghanistan. The costume makes him look ridiculous at the best of times - but come on!! Also his personality does not seem to work with a super-hero costume. Spider-Man - now it makes sense he wears a costume. Iron Man - one of the best costumes in comics since Adi Granov drew it. Caps costume also make sense (the chain mail costume not the Ross shiny number).

Also Wolverine gets his mask ripped off in almost every fight. What is the point of it especially as he has no secret identity?

So, please - Wolverine is the worst offender but have a look around and give some of our heroes their dignity back. If not their dignity at least a pair of trousers.

Oh, and Ultimates 3 is a travesty


Posted by cikala suka on 2008-02-23 03:58:41
no widescreen resolution
the marvel wallpapers should be available in a widescreen 1680 x 1050 resolution.

Posted by reiner on 2008-02-23 04:42:48
Costumes 2 & EVENTS
Oh and please distribute David Aja's design for the new and much improved Iron Fist costume to all artists at Marvel.

While you've got me on my soap box let me put my tuppence-worth in about EVENTS. They are not a problem as you are in the business of telling, and I love to read, entertaining stories. If the EVENTS are managed well, if there are crossovers they include a genuine story purpose, not simply boosting sales. They should not ruin the flow of a series (I'm looking at you Messiah Complex sullying the gorgeous pages of X-Factor). I am really looking forward to Secret Invasion - it is a fantastic idea but sadly in the past fantastic ideas have remained just ideas and the big bang never really appeared. The pay off is never really a pay off and just another in a long line of introductions to the next event.

I'm sure this time it will be different though as Secret Invasion will be giving rise to CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI: 13. I know this is a gripes page but god-damn I salute all responsible at Marvel for giving Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk this as an ongoing, also Matt Fraction on Invincible Iron Man. Phew - you do a lot that pees folks off Marvel but you get just as much right.

Fix the costumes silliness and, as said above, sluttyness and we'll be well on our way (PS ... just because a person doesn't wear brighty coloured lycra and a mask doesn't automatically mean you have to dress them head to toe in leather okay?)

Posted by cikala suka on 2008-02-23 04:44:38
My Gripes
1). Too many mentions of the 'Lost' TV show. We know, you guys at Marvel really love the show. We know, you have the writer of 'Lost' working for you. We know you inserted a bunch of easter eggs involving 'Lost'. We know. Stop bragging about it. Get over it. Besides, he doesn't need the advertising.

2). Too many big events. Don't forget that there is such a thing as information overload. And alot of your events are just small ones that are overhyped, like WWH and OMD/BND.

3). OMD. We're not asking you to take it back. Just stop being unapologetic and admit that you screwed up. OMD was handled terribly. I love the direction that you guys went with BND (which makes up for the OMD debacle, so don't apologize for the end result), but seriously, would it kill you guys to admit that maybe OMD wasn't handled that well? It's not as if, as the number one comic creator, that you can't hit it out of the park all the time and that it's a sin to admit it. Besides, it's not like you'll be able to take it back... right? Which leads to my next gripe...

4). Takebacks! The resurrection of heroes or takebacks of various mistakes gets really, really lame after awhile. If someone dies, they should stay dead. If someone's depowered, stay depowered. Bring back consequences to certain actions, make the stakes higher, because it's hard to get worried about a character's fate when you have a feeling there will be a takeback, understand?

5). Too many titles. You're starting to bloat like the 90's comic bust. Not only are there too many spinoff titles for flagship characters, but it also stifles any chance for new creations to take flight. Sure, I love The Twelve and I can't wait to read Kick Ass, but I worry that anything past that won't get through because there's too much material out there.

Posted by DRock1 on 2008-02-23 12:51:12
OMD, Letter's Pages, and Digital Comics, oh m
While I very opposed to what OMD/BND is doing, you've already mentioned that you've had enough of those gripes (and I've sent some letters to Marvel containing some of them ;) ), so I'll suffice it to say that I'm dissatisfied with OMD/BND. ;)

So, perhaps my main gripe is the lack of letters pages in Marvel Mags. I would really love to see these become a regular occurance again. I realize that the Marvel boards, and other comics forums, exist for fans to express their opinion, but I personally would rather read the much more well written letters that make it into mail pages, than have to sift through pages of typo-ridden comments that just say how much something sucks, or how insanely awesome it is. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulting the Marvel Board users, I'm one of em! But I think many of us can agree that sometimes people can go a bit too overboard and have a bit too much drama on em. ;) )

My other main gripe is something that the editorial offices may have no control over, but you certainly know who to forward this gripe to, ;), and my gripe is this: that you guys discontinued your digital comic contract with GitCorp. I realize that you guys are trying to get us to use your digital comics unlimited, but I really prefer GitCorp's Adobe format, along with the fact that they include all the pages of the comic, including Bullpen Bullitens, Letter's Pages and ads, these make it feel much more like the real comic. I really have no intention of using MDCU because I don't like the format, and it also requires renewal. GitCorp's DVD-ROMs were a one time purchase, please bring them back! Or in other words: Make Mine GitCorp! ;)

That's about it from me, with the exception of my loathing of OMD/BND, I'm loving what I'm reading from Marvel right now! Keep up the great work!

-LOTRKing

Posted by LOTRKing on 2008-02-23 13:23:23
No standards
My biggest gripe is that standards for art have fallen so low. Back in the day, if you could not draw correct anatomy, costumes, expressions, backgrounds, storytelling, etc., you COULDN'T WORK for Marvel (with the exception of Rob Liefeld). I just got a look at Billy Tan's work on the X-Men and felt sick to my stomach. The linework and finishes are all pretty, but there is no foundation to his work (anatomy, consistency, etc.). Marvel was always the best because they kept their standards high in regards to their submissions. That's all.

Posted by sammassey on 2008-02-23 14:39:57
CROSSOVERS!

World War Hulk, Civil War, House of M... all acceptable. Decent stories that entertained.

I could go on forever about it but really the bottom line is I'm just burnt out from all these Crossovers. Not just Marvel but DC is equally guilty of this. What I would love more than anything is to just see a strong story told even if its for one issue, three, five, or twelve.

The most rewarding comics are books like Bendis' Daredevil or Ellis' Transmetropolitan, you get these stories broken up into individual parts all very strong on their own right but when you combine them it paints a much larger picture. You see character growth and progression, and the impact of the comic is just tenfold.

I dont need every writer to go for 40 to 60 issues and deliver an amazing story. But when you get a writer/artist on for 6 issues then another on for 3 and so on and so forth. This is almost as bad.

Those are pretty much my two biggest gripes

Posted by bryce_bozarth on 2008-02-23 17:48:21
Website Trade List
It would be helpful to me if you made your website easier to navigate when looking for trades. Example - I read Cap America & have heard that I would probably enjoy the current Iron Man series. I go to your website and cannot for the life of me figure out what Iron Man trades of the current series are out there. As a comparison, DC's website cannot be easier to navigate when looking for trades. Thanks.

Posted by camynnek on 2008-02-23 18:55:24
Let me care about the characters
My biggest gripe, for many years now, is that there is absolutely no reason to care about your characters or the major events in their lives. I don't care if a character dies, because she'll be back as a clone or a twin or a demon or just miraculously resurrected. Someone falls in love, someone sacrifices themselves, someone's powers are removed or identity is revealed, no worries, The next set of creators will make it all better again.

It's not that you don't have the right to do whatever you like with your characters. I'm not one of the fans who demands you do what I say or I'll deliver more useless ultimatums. But please, understand that every time you do something that restores the status quo -- especially without suitable reason or logic or even common sense, when the story is yanked back to square one so fast the readers get whiplash -- it devalues the original stories and makes it that much harder for me to care about the next Big Thing That Will Change the Marvel Universe Forever.

Over the years I've fallen away from most of the big books in favor of smaller, single-creator or single-team ones that stay in continuity and make the big changes emotionally powerful in a way that they simply can't be in a 616 book. Captain America's death? All I did was idly wonder how close to the movie he'll be brought back. When David died in Strangers in Paradise I was brought to tears because I knew that was it, that his death was, strange as it sounds, "real."

Flashy crossovers and character deaths that make the New York Times are great for intiial sales, but I fear you're leaving fans with no reason for emotional investment and every reason not to take anything you do seriously.

Posted by cabridges on 2008-02-23 21:40:23
My Gripe
It's not a giant gripe, but I'd like to see more comics about different characters, I took a LONG break from comics (around 1997-civil war) My favorites from when i used to read were, X-Man, Gambit and Venom.

X-Man was kinda killed off...or something...wow that title went to crap.

Gambit (despite the fact that he's always in your top ten characters on the encyclopedia) isn't being used at all. He did some stuff in Messiah, but he hasn't appeared in a title since, I'd also really like to see him in more marvel universe stuff , I hate how the X-men are in there own little corner of the Marvel U.

And Venom...just wow, the freaking scorpion...really? Bring back Eddie please.

Also the whole OMD thing, wasn't this what ultimate Spidey was made for? to get the new readers that are afraid of continuity in from the movies?

Oh and bring back Ben Reily, its not his fault the Clone Saga turned into a quagmire, i'd love him as Scarlet Spider in a solo title

Posted by Axle911 on 2008-02-23 23:05:42
I have gone to DC
"But you're not going to suddenly like a whole bunch of titles you weren't even thinking about a wek earlier just because you're pissed about something in a Marvel book."

Actually, I'm getting Flash and Robin in place of ASM. I never would have given them a second thought, but I'm digging them both.

Posted by theazor on 2008-02-24 01:17:11
still love marvel but...
I'm just now getting back into comics (heavily) after almost a 10 year hiatis. I took Civil War as a great oppurtunity to jump back into the MavelU. so cut me some slack if i'm not up do date on everything, still catchin up.

1: Why does the artwork in Punisher:WarJournal look like it was drawn for a Saturday morning cartoon series? i love the story and character but dropped the book cuz I couldn't stand to watch my favorite BA look like a smurf on steroids.

2: people need to stop griping about the way women are drawn. It's an American past-time to have women completely out of proportion with busts that will garantee lower back problems in the future. That's the way it has been, that's the way it is, and that's the way it should be. Nuff said.

3: I know you said not to gripe about this but.... Brand New Day. Hmmmm... I'm still here. But a BIG Hmmmmm. Spidey has always been my favorite and I love the web-head enough to keep buyin.

4. Better give Penance his own ongoing series after issue 5. Hugely under developed character as Speedball. Make up for it with his new persona. Lets face it... not many people can hand Wolvie his own a** and simply walk away.

5: Unless the movie is going to be post death of Steve Rogers, he needs to be reincarnated. You got plenty of time. Or the movie should have nothing to do with the title. Bucky's gonna make an excllent Cap and (i quote) Bucky "sure as hell aint gonna let anybody else do it."

6: If somebody dies (with the exception of Cap(because of the movie) keep them dead. And don't do it so much. Somebody dying needs to get it's impact on the story back. Cuz right now, Tony Stark could get blown to smitheriens and I wouldn't worry, he'll be back in a few months after the entire Marvel U spends almost a year remembering all thier old encounters with him. (thank GOD wolvie is done drinkin his sorrow away in Origins. Now we can get back into the story.

7. Is it just me or is Wolvie's main title gettin a little hard to follow. Maybe I just need to get some more back issues and get caught up. ps...that's another book leaning a little too close to Saturday morning Spiderman And Friends cartoon art.

other than those, and others I can't think of right now, I have no complaints. I get 12 titles a month, (one three times a month(stoked!) and i'm lovin every issue. Keep up the good hard work and I'll see ya in the pages!

oh yea... one more. Please trade World War Hulk already. I'm dyin here....


Posted by shadowspider5205 on 2008-02-24 01:22:45
Slowskies
1)I HATE trying to read digital comics and they never download. No, it is not my IP....I seem to get all the ads from marvels website a ok, but when I am ready to actually induldge in my comic fetish, I hit open and 20 minutes later still nothing....PALEASE PEOPLE. Other wise everything else is peachy! Keep up the good work guys!

Posted by built4spd on 2008-02-24 01:54:38
Senseless Murder
For me, there's a difference between characters dying and characters being murdered. A hero or villain falling in battle is okay. Blowing up a busload of de-powered mutants is not. It's tough to see a character you've been following for 30 issues randomly shot in the head by a sniper.

Posted by R Nitelight on 2008-02-24 07:08:51
Timely Comics, Marvel Scheduling...
1) Lateness. Some artists work faster than others, ditto writers. In 90% of cases or so, that shouldn't be a justifiable reason for a comic to be late. Pick a known slow artist/writer and you should schedule accordingly. Artist/writer taking longer than agreed should carry some sort of penalty, unless there are unique personal and unforseeable circumstances bearing in mind people have invested actual cash in it. Why should it be okay to invest my $ in something that never gets finished? For example, please don't rush out a KEY release like Civil War to hit a quaterly report date when the creative team are already telling you they won't be able to keep to it but that info isn't being told to the audience. Explain to the fans, don't shrug, spin and say 'that's just the way things are!' (Because I work in publishing and, no, really, they're not). I'd lose my job if I went to my publisher and told him we weren't coming out this month.


2) Marketing. Actually linked to the above: marketing should be fair and timely. Don't schedule the marketing for a comic if the talent hasn't even started it or looks to have other work which will take a priority. Bryan Singer's X-Men, Stephen King's Dark Tower, Joss Whedon's Astonishing... all probably worth waiting for, but frankly, the delays could have been predictable. Wait and schedule when approporiate rather than guesstimating. Also make marketing fair: believe in your story and don't misrepresent it . OMD's 'one of these people will save Spider-man?' poster was either pre-empted by big story changes or was not merely misleading but actually completely wrong if done on purpose. That's a not-common, but an example of a real peeve.

3) Intelligent long-term fans know you need a turnover and have to make sure your characters attract the next genration as well. But there are ways to do that without making existing fans feel redundant. You have an Ultimate universe, a 616 and a MAX imprint - there's little reason almost any story or arc can't be catered for to suit the demographic. Lets not homogenise the possibilities or lose one demographic for another when you could have them all.

4) Yes, grammar is important. WHOM instead of WHO may seem petty, but I've caught a few bad spellings and structures and some really should have been caught.

5) Largely you're doing a good job. There's a lot of great stuff out there. I purchase what I like and leave what I don't. Just don't let the marketing 'stunts' and 'events' muddy the waters too much because 'jumping on points' are also potential 'jumping off points' too. The Secret Invasion idea works well because you've apparently taken time and effort to get the anticpation right, rather than manafacturing it in a few short months. This is the kind of 'event' that works rather than those where we can see important elements just don't fit together because someone wasn't talking to someone else as much as needed.

The devil is in the details.

Posted by John Mosby on 2008-02-24 11:51:06
In response to your second participation exer
Well, this fits better with gripe, so here we go.

You mention that with the gripe exercise that there were too many gripes due to fan preferences. So, was it really to let us air out our beefs, or an excuse to reinforce a belief that the fan's gripes are too chaotic and therefore irrelevant?

It also doesn't help that the closest thing many fans can come to a consensus to, OMD, you told us not to gripe about (and we did anyways).

I'm surprised you didn't make mention of the increasing worries about Marvel's current lineup expansion, a potential for a second comic bust, or the overuse of gimmicks and special events. I can understand... you can't speak for all of Marvel and to answer those concerns would be too revealing of Marvel's practices.

Posted by DRock1 on 2008-02-24 12:05:11
My Gripe
Hank Pym now a B-list character
He is one of the earliest superheroes, a founding member of the Avengers, a genius in many fields, discovered Pym particles, responsible in some way for the creation of more marvel heroes than anyone else (wasp, scott lang, stature, bill foster, eric o'grady)
And yet people only see him as a pill popping wife beating loser. He has atoned for his sins and yet he still gets sidelined. His moments of glory are now few and far.
Marvel needs to bring Hank Pym back into the spotlight and make him a superhero again. And it would be easy since he has so many identities to choose from (Antman, Giantman, Goliath, Yellowjacket)

Posted by mace randu on 2008-02-24 17:44:22
Kind of a gripe?
First and foremost, I feel bad for you having to read all of these, it took me like a half hour. Most of these aren't really 'gripes', just things I would either like clarification on or like to see.

1.) My biggest problem is with Wolverine. Not because he is in so many comics, I understand and can handle that, but my problem is that he has to act like a fugitive with the New Avengers, but is seemingly devoid of any fear of being arrested or confronted in X-Men. Why didn't Tony Stark just go to the X-Mansion before it was destroyed and haul him in? Are Scott, Emma and the others really OK with him aiding known 'criminals' when they are consistently waist deep in their own problems without him adding something like that to it? Just clarifying how that works would be great.

2.) Black Cat. I admit it, I love the character. I'd love to see more of her, whether it be in the Spider-Man books to see how she fits in to the BND scope of things or in a team book that doesn't suck, like the New Avengers (I'm not in any way dropping a hint here). I'm not sure she's strong enough to support her own series, but I didn't think that Iron Fist would have been either, and his solo title is great. That sort of leads me to my next one...

3.) Lack of interesting female super-powered beings. It seems to me that the X-Men got all of the good super powered chicks. Outside of the X-Men, there are very few female super heroes that are compelling and interesting to read. Ms. Marvel is brilliant. Spider-Woman is great. Black Cat is a thousand times better than Catwoman. But other than those, most of the pre-existing female supers are lame. Take a few of them and breathe some new life into them. Make them worth my time again.

4.) I really like Brian Reed's writing, a lot. But when it comes to Ms. Marvel, it's just not really there. I love the title, even more so now that they have added Operation Lighting Storm, but that kinda defeats the purpose of her solo book. Bendis writes a fantastic Carol Danvers in both New and Mighty Avengers, could you maybe convince him to take over her title and give her the same treatment there?

5.) Jeph Loeb is a great producer. But his writing makes me want to gag. I'm not a fan of the Hulk so I can't complain there, but every month I buy Ultimates V.3 hoping it will be as great as the old Millar/Hitch days, and every month I feel like punching myself with how sour it has gotten. Maybe some editorial mandates are in order.

6.) I've noticed that New Avengers has become all street level characters, while Mighty Avengers has incorporated all of the big dogs and some of the more classic Avengers. If both titles are going to remain after Secret Invasion, a clear course should be set for the New Avengers. They *can't* go up against "Avenger-Level threats". They don't have the power to do so. And if you are going to merge the teams together, PLEASE keep Ares (but ditch the thought bubbles). Every time that god steps foot on a page, I'm sure that a smile is going to follow.

Posted by 616 Spider-Man on 2008-02-24 22:50:54
I'll keep it short.
Writers that use characters to tell their stories instead of telling a story with the characters.

Posted by Smakk9 on 2008-02-25 10:51:42
There seems to be a real turn towards the gimics that nearly killed the comic book industry years ago.

Do we really need a new blockbuster crossover every year?

Do we need so many variant covers?

Do we need all important story changes to appear in one-shots, anuals and mini-series?

It seems that the die-hards will just end up spending more money, and the rest of us will piss off somewhere else.

I currently ony buy Cap and The New Avengers from Marvel nowadays, (thoughroughly enjoyeded Terror Inc. though) and I'm thinking about dropping NA as it seems to be going nowherwe slowly, while all the pay-offs to the big stories it starts appear elswhere.

And don't get me started on Ultimates3! *spits on floor*

Posted by Boots on 2008-02-25 12:47:36
And stop restarting books from #1. Does that do anyone any good in the longterm?

Posted by Boots on 2008-02-25 12:57:03
Editing and Magic
One change I believe Marvel needs to make is to hire a story editor, someone who critiques story proposals and plot outlines as they’re submitted and catches plot holes and flawed concepts before a writer begins working on a script. Whatever process Marvel has in place for “breaking” plots isn’t working well. No writers should be outside the editorial review process. If there were an editor in place who had experience editing and/or writing SF and fantasy fiction, I’d expect the quality of the stories Marvel publishes to improve substantially.

As it happens, there was a gross blunder in MIGHTY AVENGERS #9. Bendis had Dr. Doom’s armor spew forth the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak as if they were a weird sort of energy beam, when Dr. Strange has to invoke Cyttorak every time the bands are used. The mistaken use of the bands ruined the encounter between Doom and Iron Man. It wasn’t a bad idea to end the fight without either suit of armor being shown to be superior, but the device Bendis used was terrible. A story editor could have caught and corrected the mistake.

I’ve seen complaints from within and outside of Marvel that magic doesn’t have rules. Actually, if one does research, he’ll find that there are spells with specific effects. Dr. Strange has a repertoire of spells with specific effects. That should be all that’s needed for guidance. If someone wants numerical power ratings for the spells, he doesn’t understand the uses of sorcery within stories. A sorcerer is an artist, philosopher, and scientist, all in one, not a boxer who sets out to injure his opponent or render him unconscious.

If Marvel Editorial wanted to bring order and structure to the Marvel Universe, magic could be used to do that. If deities controlled the flow of time and events in the universe, characters could age normally, age slowly, or stay at given ages. Children could age normally, then stop aging when they reached adulthood. Characters who died could be reanimated for specific purposes, and have specific vulnerabilities. All that’s required in order to dispense with the sliding ten-year timeline and passage of time without aging is to establish a top-down hierarchy, with the deities at the top, the cosmic characters below them, paranormal heroes and villains on a lower level, and normal humans at the bottom. There would obviously be some work involved with implementing the overall concept, but anything that made the Marvel Universe more like traditional SF or fantasy settings would be an improvement. The success of the “Harry Potter” novels demonstrates that readers young and old respond enthusiastically to fantasies that are structured and progressive.

SRS


Posted by Steven R. Stahl on 2008-02-25 13:28:51
Quickies
Generally, i don't think the MU has been in as good shape in a long time but.....I really miss my epics. You know, 9, 10 or eleven issues telling a complete story. Dark Phoenix type stories. I like the plethora of six issue TPBs about, seeing as there are just too many good books on the shelves to be able to afford them all, but this shouldn't preclude the occasional epic being put together.

Conversely, very few comics these days seem to have self-contained, done-in-one-issue stories. Sticking with my Uncanny X-men theme; Kitty's Fairy tale type stories. Or the first Lifedeath. Or Wounded Wolf.

Oh, and in hope rather than expectation, rehire Simon Furman, and get him to team up with Geoff Senior to bring back a certain robotic freelance peacekeeper in his original Transformers UK form.

But generally, I don't think we have ever had it so good.

Now, Mephisto, I'll trade you my NM Amazing Fantasy #15 for making BND cease to exist....


Posted by cjmcaree on 2008-02-25 14:00:45
More homework
I think Marvel writers/editors need to do their homework regarding character's history and powers [better].

Posted by stingermann on 2008-02-25 19:41:19
Y'know, I'm the griping type but I can't think of anything you guys are doing wrong! I mean, there are writers like Jeph Loeb and Paul Jenkins who I'd love to see you guys fire, but their work sells so well that SOMEONE must like them, so I can't argue. Aside from that, there are so many Marvel comics coming out that I like right now it's crazy. So please, just go on doing exactly what you're doing! Thank you!

Posted by MoriartyL on 2008-02-26 09:53:22
Oh, wait, I do have a gripe. I'm sick of non-ending endings. Take Annihilation, for instance: That would have been the best possible way for Annihilus to be killed. Have him go out in a blaze of glory, and then don't bring him back. (At least for five years or so.) Instead, the last page brings him back, which undermines the whole story. Or take World War Hulk, where no one is REALLY defeated, but just put into stasis. I think you ought to go for the endings your stories call for, even if it means losing characters.

Posted by MoriartyL on 2008-02-26 09:56:31
Tom Brevoort, what have you begun?

Posted by deworde on 2008-02-26 14:14:17
griping
Actually what annoys me right now is that everyone at both Marvel and DC seem so very defensive all the time. If you believe in what you are doing and you believe you are delivering a quality product
then you don't need to argue with the "same four fans" constantly.

Those of us that don't like it will drop the titles in question and find something else to do with our time and money. Meanwhile
you can continue to rake in the money from the majority that does like it.

Both DC and Marvel are constantly saying that opinions found on the internet do not generally reflect the opinions of the majority of the people who buy the books. Meanwhile it seems like every other blog from both companies is a talkback against something stated by someone on the net.

If it isn't relevant and has no impact on sales or most fans why can't the editors, writers, and artists just ignore it? It takes no energy or effort to NOT write a column.

Posted by izzatrix on 2008-02-26 14:58:29
Griping
1) I don't like Way's take on Deadpool in Wolverine Origins. The tone is all wrong... By all rights, dropping a piano on Wolverine should be awesome, but instead I left the issue feeling rather sad. Deadpool's popularity hinges on him being funny... Without his humor he's just another badass in red. His take on the character also makes me nervous about his upcoming run in a new Deadpool title. I don't think he's a bad writer, just not the right person for the title.

2) I don't like it when company wide crossovers invade the titles narratives nonsensically. I'd much rather see smaller scale company crossovers where only titles that are directly link to the event are included. Besides, there doesn't have to be a world changing event to get people emotionally interested in the story. In fact, it's just the opposite for me. Once cities/worlds/universes etc get blown up I have a hard time relating because I have no basis for comparsion.

3) The DC boards really do need an overhaul badly. They're clunky and the search feature doesn't even work properly.

Posted by ashez2ashes on 2008-02-26 23:55:59
Just a couple things
Digital Comics: As a poor college student, I rarely have a spare $60 dollars to spend in one go. But neither can I really support the long term expenditure of $10/month. I appreciate the idea that I could read every Marvel title in existence, but the reality is that I'm already reading all that I'm interested in for the time being. And I would much rather pay a la carte for the comics I actually want to read (say for $.99 each), as I would most likely use the service to keep my interest in a series while I wait for the trade.

Also, put up the Timely stuff! At the very least, I'd like to see all the stories that the members of The Twelve appeared in.

Cheesecake: I know you're probably tired of hearing about this, so I'm just going to give some general friendly advice: When hiring a penciller or a cover artist, ask yourselves 'What could be the potential market for this title?' and hire artists accordingly. Take "Heroes for Hire"-- that had a chance of becoming Marvel's "Birds of Prey", but it was killed by the cover of #13. Likewise, pornface inside a "Fantastic Four" book, regardless of the universe, is inappropriate for the First Family, especially since the F4 films are aimed more at children. But if you MUST do a cheesecake cover for an otherwises non-cheesecake book, then PLEASE offer a variant .

Posted by lexidizzle on 2008-02-27 05:12:27
My gripes
1.) First of all, I have every right in the world to invoke the name of a deceased creator to support my opinion and my beliefs about the creative direction of a book. Last time I checked I woke up in the United States and not the Soviet Union, so I'm pretty certain this right is not denied me. If I read a story about Sherlock Holmes molesting children by some hack author, I not only have the right to question the work, I have the moral authority to support and defend the canon of Holmes as set down by Doyle. So, yeah, that right does exist for me in a quantitative sense, despite what some editor may think.

2.) I really hate it when editors tell fans (the same people who buy these books and pay the salaries of said editors) that it doesn't matter what they say and that whether they buy the book or not means nothing to them. Please, get real. You really want to have that argument with fans? Because if you do I promise you it's an argument you're going to lose.

You really want to get in their face and say their threat, implied or not, will not be listened to by the writers and artists at Marvel? Think about that for a minute and get back to me.

Comics is not a one way street. Last time I checked selling comics is a business. Trust me, Marvel needs us a lot more than we need Marvel. That's not a threat -- that's just Economics 101. If Marvel made an editorial decision to publish nothing but funny animal books, the fans would be irate, and quite rightly. They probably would tell you they wouldn't buy any more Marvel issues because of this editorial direction. Yet you're telling us that wouldn't matter to you. C'mon, you're smarter than that.

So, yeah, maybe you should listen to the fans a little more carefully when they say something like this. They're not saying it to be mean or petty or in some diabolical way to subvert Marvel sales or destroy the name and reputation or Marvel, or scare you or any other editor into hiding.

They're doing it because they want to continue buying and supporting the title they love. They're doing it because they WANT to support you and trust you to give them a good commodity for their money.

So. Yeah. Listen to them. Even if you don't like what you're hearing. Your bottom line, and sales department, will love you for it. As will the fans. ;)



Posted by Iron Budokan on 2008-02-28 10:53:16
A Challenge
Here’s a challenge to Tom Brevoort. Since Aguirre-Sacasa’s YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #3 issue about Wiccan and Speed is coming up, perhaps Mr. Brevoort could describe how readers can make sense of the origins of the two boys as described by Vision II in YOUNG AVENGERS #11. I don’t believe that making sense of that sequence as written is possible. Aside from Vision II impossibly “knowing” what Wanda did, the idea that Wanda transfigured souls is meaningless in a metaphysical or, for that matter, physical sense. As written, the YA #11 sequence doesn’t establish any actual connection between Heinberg’s twins and Wanda; compared to Heinberg’s material, Englehart’s material in VISION & SCARLET WITCH #3 and #4 was as simple as A, B, C. The retconning in YA #11 wasn’t necessary; Englehart’s twins could just have been aged magically.

SRS


Posted by Steven R. Stahl on 2008-02-29 22:26:45
My Gripes
It's a short and sweet list.

1. No Resolutions with your big events. From House of M to Civil War to World War Hulk your concepts have been amazing (especially Civil War) but often times I feel cheated with some of the conclusions. I know you guys are trying to hook me to keep going with your next event, but I feel like I don't get a satisfactory conclusion for the most part. That needs to change.

2. I know you've heard a ton of One More Day stuff so I'll keep it short and sweet: As a reader I feel you screwed your audience. And me for crafting that tale.

3. I miss Marvel's Diversity. I know that seems contrary considering your ultimate lines, marvel knights, icon etc. but where I'm coming from is your superhero line. Just for fun I decided to read one particular line of books with the various Avengers books, and they almost feel like the exact same kind of story. I remember in the old days when Marvel's diversity in the superhero line was top notch. You'd have cosmic stuff like Silver Surfer or Thor, and you'd have the more character orientated Spiderman books or cool sci fi with Iron Man. Now it feels like it's all a little bit of the same thing. With some notable exceptions, it almost all feels like the same kind of story and that isn't good.

4. This may be more a continuation of number 3, but I'm tired of big events. There have been so many in the last few years I fear both companies (DC is just as guilty) have evented out the hell out of their lines. And in all truth, the best event wasn't supposed to be an event at all: Sinestro Corps was a storyline that took place for the most part in two comics. I rather have that kind of event than a company wide crossover. It adds to variety, not detracts from it.

5. For the love of God, no more Deux Es Machinas. Not just Mephisto, but Scarlet Witch, Franklin Richards, Onslaught...AH!!!!! No reality altering stuff should happen for the foreseeable future. If you put yourselves into a situation where that is what's required to change things, find another way.

Posted by Joshua P. on 2008-03-03 18:03:34
My Gripes
1. The killing off of Alpha Flight. Bring the team back. Say the ones that died were Skrulls. Give them a title again with a good creative team. Stop treating them like dirt.

2. Stop using a handful of characters for all the stories. I'm sick of every event (major or minor) only involving the Avengers or the FF or the X-men or any one hero from those groups. Tell the stories using other heroes. You want to sell more books then give us some variety.

3. Basing all events within the US. There's a big wide world beyond your borders, try setting some stories there using characters from those locals. One of the things that drew me to Marvel was that not every hero was American. Unfortunately, you've gotten away from that in the last few years.

4. One big event after another. A big crossover event is okay, but constant big events is tiresome.

Posted by Legerd on 2008-03-07 23:07:01
Hulk
Jeph Loeb's Hulk released every two months. 'Nuff Said. I remember when comics were a monthly medium.

Posted by Honkin_Man on 2008-04-12 02:37:58