Not for the same reasons that a lot of others have. Many guys say that they gave up comics when they discovered girls. When I discovered girls I needed all the distractions I could get, so that's not me.
But at this point Marvel Comics is owned by the biggest media company in the western world. DC is owned by a company that would very much like to be that and is closer than most. And that creates a hierarchy. Writers and artists answer to editors. Editors are low on a chain of command that ultimately ends with executives and analysts. What they want is predictable product, so interesting ideas don't last long.
Just bringing it up because I think a lot of things are like that now.
2 comments:
As I remember my comic book history it was DC that came first with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (my personal favorite back then).
Marvel wasn't much of anything until the early 60s when brilliant Stan Lee arrived along with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. Then things started seriously cooking when they came up with Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and many more. I remember liking Dr. Strange in particular.
The problem now of course is that all the truly talented and creative people are gone and if there's anyone else in line they simply won't be listened to because creativity by committee never has worked and never will. From the evidence it appears that neither Disney or Warner Brothers has much clout with anyone nowadays. The board members don't understand what the customers want. The shareholders and investors don't care what the customers want. There's more than enough failure and incompetence to go around.
We'll see what happens next. Success often comes as a surprise.
You're right in broad strokes. DC was the most successful company in the early years. The Shazam version of Captain Marvel was also very popular in the 40s but DC sued Fawcett because that character was supposedly too similar to Superman.
Marvel's predecessor Timely had some successes in those days too. The Submariner came just a few months after Superman, and Captain America was first created as a World War II morale booster. Their rebrand as Marvel happened in the 60s, originally inspired by 50s monster movies and the dawning Space Age. Eventually they started attracting and playing to the counterculture. Dr. Strange was very good for that.
The problem with this monolithic corporate ownership is that it doesn't matter whether creativity by committee works. When you're playing with that much money committee is what you're going to get. They have long range plans they think are going to rake in billions of dollars. They're not going to bring in an eccentric or anyone who isn't 100% on board.
I'm sure creative people will make their mark. I just don't know where and how.
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