Marvel VP of Sales blames diversity for falling comic book sales

[Trassk]

Why would Marvel attempt to charge people for shit Tumblr gives away for free?

I look at it as a failed experiment. Marvel saw the most vocal teens and young adults on social media, and figured those were the ones they should appeal to in the modern day. Problem was they didn't understand the nature of the social justice movement, how fickle and shallow it could be, and turned the marvel universe into something they thought would sell to them, when they just didn't care, like trying to get a ox to perform tricks.
So now marvel wrote itself into a corner, meanwhile DC just keeps doing the same thing its always done, and while not really breaking waves today, it is more secure.

The most popular titles and characters in marvel today are deadpool and perhaps guardians of the galaxy, because it does something different from the same old comic tropes.

[Dr Assbandit]

It's almost like people dislikes the leftist agenda.

It's almost like people dislike the righty agenda . Am I doing this right? I feel thoroughly stupid so I must be doing this right.

Back on topic, I don't see them mentioning maybe it's also a sign of the times and they are still trying to cling to comic books which are becoming an obsolete form of story-telling as we progress more as technology goes.

What are their internet subscription sales like? Are they seeing a reduced trend in both paperback and digital sales and how much have they inflated their costs over the past years? Also I see little to no advertising regarding comic books whereas I've seen The Walking Dead comic ads among other graphics novels listed here and there.

Lastly just how much more can they develop these characters and their stories that have been going on for years now? I believe a good story should have a satisfying ending, otherwise it will become a cash cow and you will have to resort to whacky ideas such Doc Oc Spiderman, female Thor, or the new Iron-Man (Woman). The problem isn't diversity, it's shoddy story-telling with trying to ride the coat-tails of established past characters.

To me this just seems like an issue with multiple reasons using diversity as a cop-out. For each person wanting diversity in media there are just as many if not more people claiming the sky is falling because "virtue signaling".

[Trassk]

So neckbeard man children want the same tired old shit that has been churned out for 50 years? Color me surprised.

This is why marvel is losing sales, because it tried to cater to people like yourself. When it did that, it bombed, and you don't have anything better to suggest for the company do you?

[Elba]

This is why marvel is losing sales, because it tried to cater to people like yourself. When it did that, it bombed, and you don't have anything better to suggest for the company do you?

Marvel is losing sales because comics are too expensive, they keep doing one event after the other and do a really, really shit job marketing to new readers.

They have to diversify. They need new readers. Women, people or color are huge untapped markets. The 40 year old virgin market is not sustainable indefinitely. They just gotta do it right.

[Wixwix]

It's almost like people dislike the righty agenda . Am I doing this right? I feel thoroughly stupid so I must be doing this right.

Sure, if that agenda had anything to do with pushing nonsense like diversity.

[Elba]

So they discovered that being a cuck doesn't pay when the vast majority of your audience are boys and men and they don't really care about female characters that they can't identify with. Aww...

Why can't they identify with women? Explain.

[Dr Assbandit]

nonsense like diversity.

[Draco-Onis]

Sure, if that agenda had anything to do with pushing nonsense like diversity.

I doubt you read any comic books much less know enough about the topic at hand to form an valuable opinion. This has nothing to do with agenda but everything to do with horrible business decisions made by marvel, they blame diversity because people like you who do have an agenda will take the bait and run with it.

[The Penguin]

Fundamentally alter or change long standing characters to appease PC Warriors that whine on Social media? Profit lost.
Don't change what's worked for ages, you won't lose revenue as quick.

Crazy I know.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

you don't think theses people are really gonna watch this or even think about any of this do you? there to busy complaining about sjw's to use there own brains in any way.

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Fundamentally alter or change long standing characters to appease PC Warriors that whine on Social media? Profit lost.
Don't change what's worked for ages, you won't lose revenue as quick.

Crazy I know.

just stop. your wrong in every way, they are not fundamentally altering any one they are almost all new characters.

[Draco-Onis]

Fundamentally alter or change long standing characters to appease PC Warriors that whine on Social media? Profit lost.
Don't change what's worked for ages, you won't lose revenue as quick.

Crazy I know.

I am baffled by the amount of people posting in this thread who have no clue what they are talking about. Marvel is scapegoating diversity and suckers like yourself get triggered and go on SJWs rants, here's a hint for you DC has diversity up the wazoo and they kicking marvel's butt in comic book sales.

[Elba]

you don't think theses people are really gonna watch this or even think about any of this do you? there to busy complaining about sjw's to use there own brains in any way.

Well, they link to their Rational™ Youtubers all the time and expect us to watch it. Seems only fair.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Well, they link to their Rational™ Youtubers all the time and expect us to watch it. Seems only fair.

ya but there videos help them keep there uninformed views they don't really care to learn any thing about comics they just want to complain about sjw's.

[The Penguin]

I'll just say Islam because the Quran is far more despicable than the Bible (which is terrible itself). It should be watered down as Christianity was but that may well be impossible.


[Infracted]

Rather than trash any faith, as the above post did, I invite people to think for themselves.

Time for another Episode of "Inconvenient Truths", brought to you by your resident history buff The Penguin.

In March 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy, ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). When they inquired "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury", the ambassador replied:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War

In short they are called to engage in wholesale murder according to what the Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman said to Thomas Jefferson.

This is not slamming a religion, this is an actual historic occurrence culled straight from Wikipedia. I am sorry if this bloody history doesn't fit with the narrative a lot of people would like pushed. Form your own opinions on whether this sort of thinking has any place in a civilized and free country that offers equality to all regardless of faith or gender. I suspect our views on this front will align in a rare moment of lucid clarity, because the facts speak for themselves.


[Infracted because Endus is a Cuck]

[Trassk]

ya but there videos help them keep there uninformed views they don't really care to learn any thing about comics they just want to complain about sjw's.

That's pretty ironic since your doing the exact same thing, just change the last word to "anti-sjws". Still, nice you acknowledge sjws are a thing

[Dhrizzle]

Well no shit Einstein. No one wants a female Thor, nor a black teeny female Iron Man.

Oddly enough Mighty Thor is Marvel's second best-selling book, and the Iron Man starring Riri is in their top ten. It seems like, despite protestations to the contrary, the best way for Marvel to introduce new characters and diversify their roster is to have them take over (or at least bounce off) already established heroes.

[Sunseeker]

It's not the "diversity" but the forced diversity and cringey identity politics thrown into those comic nowadays.

Women superheros are fine. Wonder Woman has been an icon for decades. It's when they force it down our throats that it gets annoying. Turning an icon like Thor into woman? Iron Man? Seriously? Could you not come up with a new, interesting female character?

TBH they should just fire their writers as they're most of the problem. The comics are full of brain-dead liberal virtue signaling nowadays. Shit gets old...

Noone is forcing anything down your throats. Riri is not Tony, not by a mile, and she's had 4 issues so far! For gods sake give the comic a chance, it's really not that bad (yes, I read them all). You know what's worse than Riri or She-Thor or whatever? Civil War 2. Arguably one of the worst crossover events in a decade and nothing more than a cheap excuse to allow Disney to make movies that tie into current comics.

Thor did not get "turned into a woman". Someone else was found worthy of Mjölnir and Throw found himself unworthy because he did some dickhole shit. I mean what are comics if they only ever tell the tales of a perfect person? Nobody likes reading about perfect people. Yes, Thor is a person. His rank and position come with being worthy of the hammer, when he isn't, he's just "Thor", another arrogant prick with a weapon. Not like you care for the reasoning anyway, I doubt you read comics, which only demonstrates my point.

Mighty Thor is a different character. Riri Williams won't even call herself Iron Man she's just being introduced in the comic called "Iron Man".

You Anti-SJWs are just as bad as the people you complain about. You don't even partake in the media and culture you bitch about but find plenty of time to bitch about it.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

That's pretty ironic since your doing the exact same thing, just change the last word to "anti-sjws". Still, nice you acknowledge sjws are a thing

how is it ironic at all? i read comics i know stuff like this is command in comics and has been happening back to the 80's i know that all of theses are new characters and that they aren't just gender swapping characters. i generally think a ton of the sjw stuff is stupid but i don't go and talk about things i don't care about and don't read because i think sjw's are ruining them because they don't effect.

i know your just trying to discredit me by calling me a sjw that alone is laughable with some of the posts I've made on here. if you have any relevant videos about marvel show them ill watch them but that won't change the fact that nothing they are doing now is different then the stuff they have always been doing and it won't change the fact that people who don't read comics complain about them because they think the sjws are getting something.

[Dr Assbandit]

In short they are called to engage in wholesale murder according to what the Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman said to Thomas Jefferson.

This is not slamming a religion, this is an actual historic occurrence culled straight from Wikipedia. I am sorry if this bloody history doesn't fit with the narrative a lot of people would like pushed. Form your own opinions on whether this sort of thinking has any place in a civilized and free country that offers equality to all regardless of faith or gender. I suspect our views on this front will align in a rare moment of lucid clarity, because the facts speak for themselves.

And to this day, billions and billions of Muslims massacre literally every foreigner they come across, slowly taking over those nations from within in their quest to spread Sharia law across the land .

I don't know what's sadder, that you actually think you're being intellectual by using that as an example of some sort of ace up your sleeve, or that you actually tried arguing an example from 1786 has any bearing whatsoever on current day events or thinking.

Oh and for the record they are wrong, on so many levels. So are you as a matter of fact but that's come to be accepted as a common occurrence on here.

[Mormolyce]

What they did to Doctor Doom was unforgivable.

Right?

They ruined him AGAIN.

Someone please sell FF back to Marvel, we have Dr Strange now so there should be no problem making a comics-accurate science/sorceror Dr Doom.

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How detached from reality do you have to be to equate someone hitting that knobhead with fighting Nazi Germany, who had an army, navy and airforce?

The Brownshirts didn't have an army, navy and airforce.

Could we possibly get back on topic? There's like a hundred threads for you to white knight for white supremacists in.

Random question, is everything in the respective comic book universes cannon to each other or do they branch out into different stories that don't relate to each other what so ever.

Well, as Noxx said it's incredibly complicated and confusing and off-putting to newcomers, the reason is that comics have been running a continuous story since the 60s (or 40s in the case of DC). Imagine if you were watching Lost: Season 75. Just a massive tangle of retcons, reboots, resets, reimaginings, continuity snarls...

But the short version is: Marvel was running one continuous continuity from at least the 60s* until 2000 when they released a new rebooted "Ultimate" universe which ran alongside the original continuity, so there was both Thor and Ultimate Thor, X-Men and Ultimate X-Men, Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man, etc. Two separate universes ("original" Earth 616 vs "Ultimate" Earth 1610), though of course they did crossovers. The idea was to simplify the complex continuity that developed over 40 years and make it more accessible, but of course comics being comics it immediately became immensely complex and probably made the whole thing worse. That ended in 2015 when they had a major event that merged both universes, so now their mainline superhero comics all in the same continuity again. Not including occasional stories set in alternate universes. Oh, and some whole titles are deliberately set in alternate universes. Comics love alternate universes.

DC has a somewhat similar history, the Golden Age started with the publication of Action Comics #1 (first appearance of Superman) in 1938. Both Superman and Batman stayed in print since then, even through the superhero slump in the 1950s, so DC had an unbroken continuity. However (very long story short) in the late 50s/early 60s they updated some of their hero origins, replaced a few (eg Barry Allen replaced Jay Garrick as the Flash, Hal Jordan replaced Alan Scott as the Green Lantern) etc, in a sort-of reboot, and in 1961 they acknowledged it openly by establishing that the old Golden Age versions lived on Earth-Two, and the Silver Age versions lived on Earth-One. Now it gets confusing. They did a lot of crossovers up until 1986 when there was a massive crossover event involving pretty much every DC character ever, called Crisis on Infinite Earths. This was intended to simplify the confusing and contradictory continuity and ended in the elimination of Earth-Two, so from that point on ("post-Crisis") DC was publishing one single continuity again. And then in the 90s, 2000s etc they had a bunch of other crises and other stuff and I won't go into that because it's too fucking complicated :P

TLDR: Marvel and DC both run at least one (sometimes two) main shared continuities, at least among their superhero titles (some non-superhero titles also exist in the same universe, plus DC has other "imprints"; different kinds of comics which may or may not be part of the main DC universe).

I have massively oversimplified here and people will probably be leaping to correct me :P

*Marvel actually began in the Golden Age with the publication of Marvel Comics #1 in 1939, introducing Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner and several Golden Age heroes. This ran for several years but superhero comics went out of favour in the 1950s, many comics companies started printing westerns, sci fi, supernatural/horror comics and the like and superhero comics were only printed erratically until the publication of Fantastic Four #1 in 1961, which brought Marvel superheroes back in vogue and kicked off the Silver Age and introduced many of the superheroes that are recognised today - Thor, Ant-Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men (though they didn't become a hit until a reboot in 1975), Daredevil (also became much more popular in the 80s), etc. Since then the Marvel Universe of superheroes have been in consistent print. The Golden Age was in the same continuity as the Silver Age, but there was a publication gap. Also a lot of later retcons.

(...and yeah, that's the short version.)