Superheroes are EVERYWHERE these days, and I do mean that. Captain America, Iron Man, Batman and Superman dominate the box office, The Flash runs across TV screens everywhere, Spider-Man and his web-slinging friends show up on school bags, T-shirts, notepads and lunch boxes (do kids even use lunchboxes these days? I’ve never actually seen one in my life), hell, images of Ms. Marvel were even used to awesomely deface anti-Muslim propaganda on buses. Literally no matter where you turn, you’re bound to run into a superhero sooner or later! These guys and gals are everywhere, our modern mythologies, the heroes that our children look up to and want to be like. It’s no secret that they came from comic books – I mean, the most popular subgenre in cinema right now is literally called “comic book movies”, but when’s the last time you’ve actually seen someone read a comic book? Like, just sit down on a bench in a park somewhere and read a comic book? Hell, when’s the last time you’ve seen someone actually talk about a comic book, outside of dedicated communities? When did you see one of the people you’re following on Twitter post something along the lines of “Holy crap, #TheVision is crazy! Best series this year, you should read it NOW!” That statement is completely true, but it also never happens – people just don’t talk about comic books the way they talk about comic book movies.
And I’m not pulling those facts out of my behind. Statistically speaking, people are just buying less and less comic books every single month. Wanna compare some numbers? Let’s look at last November’s comic book sales (which actually includes a lot of books released in December, because reasons), where the best selling Marvel comic book, the conclusion of “Civil War II”, sold 120,000 copies. That’s not bad, right? At $5, that’s over half a million in profits! Well, there’s a few things to consider here. This final issue of “Civil War II” is the conclusion of a major event (for reference, the conclusion of the previous “Civil War” sold over twice as much), and one sharing a name with one of the most profitable movies of the year. 120,000 copies is an incredibly low number for something that, under normal circumstances, should have easily sold between 250 and 300 thousand. To add insult to injury, the finale of this super special event that changed the Marvel universe forever was completely overshadowed by both issues of “Batman” released in the same period, which are completely ordinary and have no ties to any major events, outside of marginal connections to DC’s overall “Rebith” theme. The further you go back, the bigger the sales numbers rise. Even in the biggest depressions, people have bought a ton of comic books. Except today, despite the overwhelming presence of superheroes in our popular culture, their mecca lies abandoned.
Why is that, and more importantly, what does it mean for the future of comics? Well, to answer the first question, there’s a couple of reasons. One of them is that both companies (especially Marvel) have begun to rely on gimmicks and cheap hooks rather than on complex storytelling with compelling characters and interesting conflict. What if Captain America was evil? What if Iron Man was a black girl? What if Thor was a woman who had cancer? What if the original X-Men time-travelled to the present and stayed? These gimmicks sometimes provide devices for highly compelling stories (the aforementioned Vision solo series is basically built on the gimmick of “What if the Vision had a family?”, and it is amazing), but most of the time, they’re not enough to keep the reader’s interest. Why should I read about the evil Captain America when he’s doing nothing interesting? Why should I care about the black girl Iron Man when I know Tony Stark will be back in the role in time for the next Avengers movie? These gimmicks provide interesting and fun headlines, but more often than not they’re met with groans from the fans. Some of the best comic book runs of all time (Chris Claremont’s “X-Men”, Ed Brubaker’s “Captain America”, Matt Fraction’s “Hawkeye”, etc) didn’t rely on any gimmicks, they just gave us the characters in their natural habitat and let the stories develop on their own. When Jean Grey died in “X-Men”, we were invested in this because we knew this wasn’t just some kind of ploy to replace her with a young girl of color, it was actually a dramatic, earned moment. We had a reason to care, and to keep on reading. Now there’s no point in reading anything anymore – if you like an old character, you can bet that they’re going to be dying or turning evil sooner or later in order to be replaced, and if you like a new character, unless they’re immensely popular (like the aforementioned Kamala Khan), you’ll know in the back of your mind that they’re not here to stay. So why even bother getting invested in anything in the first place?
DC has been going on the right path here with their Rebirth initiative. They openly came out and said “We know what worked and what didn’t in our previous worlds, and we’re bringing the best of the best back and crafting stories that you want to read”. And trust me, it shows! Aside from the fact that not one, but TWO issues of Batman scored the #1 and #2 spots for sales in November, out of the top 25 top selling books for the month, only 8 were Marvel (and one was Star Wars) – everything else was either DC or third party, like Image’s “The Walking Dead”. Sure, DC still has a whole lot to work towards in order to rebuild that good will they lost since the launch of the New 52 back in 2011, but I believe they’re on the right path. As for Marvel… Well, that’s a bit more complicated. As of right now, Brian Michael Bendis, one of the worst writers currently working in comics, appears to be helming the direction the Marvel universe is taking, and that’s not a good sign at all. There will always be some hope, deep in my heart, that Marvel will change their ways and pull through, but if that doesn’t happen while DC continues to improve, expect me to jump ship and start supporting the company that truly deserves it with my money and attention. Hopefully that’s going to delay the inevitable doom of the comic book genre for at least a little while.