Marvel VP of Sales blames diversity for falling comic book sales

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Reading this I'm happy I just got into Thor and started at the god butcher arch this seems like madness even for comics

If you think that's complicated...remind me sometime to tell you about the "Summers Family Tree" sometime. Ain't nothing crazier than that shit.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

If you think that's complicated...remind me sometime to tell you about the "Summers Family Tree" sometime. Ain't nothing crazier than that shit.

i remember rereading few some old xmen comics, cyclops dad is a space pirate and one of his brothers is crazy in space its at that point that i was done trying to understand his family.

[Mormolyce]

Um, no. I don't think you understood exactly what I was saying. If you actually look at the first couple of issues, you will find that initially Thor was merely Donald Blake possessing the power of Thor but within the first 4 issues, this was changed (i.e. retconned) so that he was Thor. This is especially evident when he first goes to Asgard in the comics and he is recognized by the Asgardians as the actual Thor. The words on the hammer remained there and in the 1980s Walt Simonson used them to great effect for his stories featuring Beta Ray Bill and Frog-Thor... but the fact remains that initially, Marvel's Thor was not the actual Thor but merely Donald Blake possessing the power of Thor and, perhaps to further distance the character from Fawcett's Captain Marvel, this was quickly changed and Marvel's Thor became the actual Thor within the contexts of the stories.

That is incorrect, I'm reading 1960s Marvel right now and I can assure you he is still Donald Blake. I'm up to 1966 so far. I can post you screencaps if you like.

There has been no retcon, and in fact since the first issue of Thor the original Thor and the whole identity issue has not been so much as mentioned.

[Berndorf]

That is incorrect, I'm reading 1960s Marvel right now and I can assure you he is still Donald Blake. I'm up to 1966 so far. I can post you screencaps if you like.

There has been no retcon, and in fact since the first issue of Thor the original Thor and the whole identity issue has not been so much as mentioned.

Check Thor issue 159 and see if that issue did the ret con regarding Blake if you have it.

[Dhrizzle]

i remember rereading few some old xmen comics, cyclops dad is a space pirate and one of his brothers is crazy in space its at that point that i was done trying to understand his family.

I was going to write some details, but basically the Summers family tree spans several timelines and realities.

[Ivanstone]

Reading this I'm happy I just got into Thor and started at the god butcher arch this seems like madness even for comics

Comics should be about mad ideas exploding off the page.

All of this gender-bending, race-switching, sexual-reorienting is just business as usual to me. You're not a real hero unless you die at least once and have your lesbian person-of-colour sidekick/relative/friend/worst-enemy take over for a little while. This is normal.

I suppose its possible to be a little too weird. If Steven Grant decide to make Pope John Paul a transgender Asian person who grew up tough on the mean streets of Wadowice, that might be a little bit off. Then again I never read the Pope John Paul bio comic. Maybe that's why its one of the best selling comics of all time.

[Sherman001]

That is incorrect, I'm reading 1960s Marvel right now and I can assure you he is still Donald Blake. I'm up to 1966 so far. I can post you screencaps if you like.

There has been no retcon, and in fact since the first issue of Thor the original Thor and the whole identity issue has not been so much as mentioned.

HammerHead was right, he was just off by about SIX YEARS. The retcon happens in Thor #159, which was published in 1968. Sorry if I spoiled your reading, Mormolyce.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I was going to write some details, but basically the Summers family tree spans several timelines and realities.

and yet there still not interesting... sad really. well i liked hope but i have no idea where her story aqually went i totally lost it after savage came in and haven't looked into refinding where it went form there.

edit: thinking about it i didn't even like hope i just like the people she had on her team. indies arch with wolverine is the best of all the xmen arch's (not counting wolverine's solo arch's) id say. the whole summers family either seems boring to me or i down right hate them like scot.

- - - Updated - - -

Comics should be about mad ideas exploding off the page.

All of this gender-bending, race-switching, sexual-reorienting is just business as usual to me. You're not a real hero unless you die at least once and have your lesbian person-of-colour sidekick/relative/friend/worst-enemy take over for a little while. This is normal.

I suppose its possible to be a little too weird. If Steven Grant decide to make Pope John Paul a transgender Asian person who grew up tough on the mean streets of Wadowice, that might be a little bit off. Then again I never read the Pope John Paul bio comic. Maybe that's why its one of the best selling comics of all time.

well ya comics have a ton of mad ideas it just seems really odd to have thor being a body snatcher more or less.

[Sherman001]

There have been a lot of major changes to superheroes over the years that didn't go over so well and the changes were removed. Denny O'Neil's revamped Wonder Woman in the 70s was an example. He had Wonder Woman lose her powers, wear a pantsuit, and learn judo. Denny thought it was a great way of making her a more street level hero and more serious as a character. Then Gloria Steinem, a feminist icon of that decade, chimed in and said that he took the most powerful woman in comics and took her power away from her. DC eventually changed her back. Denny talks about this in interviews a lot.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I was going to write some details, but basically the Summers family tree spans several timelines and realities.

It's a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey...stuff.

[Mormolyce]

HammerHead was right, he was just off by about SIX YEARS. The retcon happens in Thor #159, which was published in 1968. Sorry if I spoiled your reading, Mormolyce.

YOU BASTARD.

I think I'll be up to that in a few months at this rate.

[Sherman001]

YOU BASTARD.

I think I'll be up to that in a few months at this rate.

I'm really sorry.

I couldn't find a "spoiler" shield in the control panel here. Otherwise, I would have made it a drop down or something.

[Mormolyce]

I'm really sorry.

I couldn't find a "spoiler" shield in the control panel here. Otherwise, I would have made it a drop down or something.

I'm just kidding, I know the outcome of heaps of stuff due to reading synopses of major arcs over the years. Still finding out heaps of things I didn't know though.

[Berndorf]

There have been a lot of major changes to superheroes over the years that didn't go over so well and the changes were removed. Denny O'Neil's revamped Wonder Woman in the 70s was an example. He had Wonder Woman lose her powers, wear a pantsuit, and learn judo. Denny thought it was a great way of making her a more street level hero and more serious as a character. Then Gloria Steinem, a feminist icon of that decade, chimed in and said that he took the most powerful woman in comics and took her power away from her. DC eventually changed her back. Denny talks about this in interviews a lot.

Generally speaking changes like that one aren't meant to be permanent though. dc recently did the same thing with Superman. They depowered him for like a year or two where he had hardly any powers and no one thought it would really last.