I really didn't feel like reading three pages of this, so if this point has already been addressed, forgive me.
A lot of it had to do with the technology they were using. While Image and Malibu (remember them?) were tearing it up, using new printing technology, better inks and paper quality, etc. etc. Marvel may as well have stayed in the 60s regarding those terms. They had some great artists, but if those artists' pencils are inked and colored using substandard materials, and then printed on substandard paper, it's going to look not all that good.
lol u got anymore of any of the stories. I like the one where hawkeye thinks he has a memory eraser arrow when it is a regular arrow which kills people.
Gender: Male Location: The Fortress, North Pole with Santa
Account Restricted
Yes Valiant (who were the best of that lot in my opinion) etc did break up the market initially, I think as a result of the silliness of the nineties the general quality has improved. Do you agree?
__________________
herd behavior is a comical thing - Thanks Silver Spider
marvel comics had obviously built up a decent sized fanbase by the 90's, up to around the early 80's comics for the most part were centralized to selling primarily IN COMIC STORES......however during this time period the industry experienced the effects of the anti hero addition to a comic book roster....dark heroes were new and intriguing...they also attracted a whole new variety of readers the popularity of comic books began to grow in proportion thus comic books were located in grocery stores, 7/11, and other establishments
..... With decent popularity...came the collecters.....collecters went out to buy comic books to capitalize on their popularity and make an investment by buying them.... Marvel saw the huge upsurge of buyers for the books...Marvel became overzealous, and began to print literally millions of copies of any given issue....as we all know..the more adundance a comic appears in...the less it's worth. Collecters drifted away as the drop in value of such items became more and more apparent, and much like any other fad, comic books had moved past the peak of their popularity to the generation of youngsters at the time..... Now marvel found themselves with litereally millions and millions of prints....but only a third of the buying base they had before...they lost a huge some of money....comics where pulled out of grocery stores and such and were again restricted t comic book stores for sale.......marvel went bakrupt because they lost a ton of money here..and on top of that made horrible story archs (spidey clones,) that fans didn't want to read and eventually neglected altogether, when the left over fanbase became slim...it was the fanboys that kept the books' income alive....
this is partially why marvel prints for books like ultimate spidey and xmen are so limited in thier numbers of printings..they're still playing katchup...
__________________ "damn jinzin, you're a real trooper, you provde fact after fact and pages and pages of proof and these wanton miscreants just keep at it"~MERC
Same comic-- 4 different covers and they're all collectable!
Basic economics. When something is rare, it is worth more. When you flood the market with a commody it goes down in value. Collectors think comics are valuable so they buy 2, 3, 4 different copies... and the companies print more. This goes on until people realize, hey, these aren't the mint condition $1,000 comics, and you aren't going to become an instant millionaire from having these, they aren't worth jack on resale. So people stopped buying them and the industry crashed.
Yes, specifically productions wise. After Marvel bought up Malibu, their art production increased greatly. I think also the looming spectre of bankruptcy made the focus on good story telling.
The fact that they weren't the most powerful, or weren't the most important team around, and that they're purpose was to handle mutant affairs and work to bring humans and mutants together, was the real appeal...but now that's all but lost.
These days, stories pander to the needs of overbearing fanboys.
We have Storm drawing energy from stars, Magneto opening wormholes, Wolverine can heal his way out of anything, we have an uber-powerful version of Gambit, (Sun-god or something, I don't know), there's a 'Godlike' Cable, and the shit just goes on and on. The icing on the cake is of course the Phoenix. Don't get me wrong, I like the Phoenix...I liked it when it was used in it's major story arc back in the 70's, and I don't mind if it's used sparingly, but now it seems to be all over the place...embroiled in every storlyline, (ie. Phoenix Whitehot Room).
I'm a huge fan of this new House of M stuff...and made the mistake of picking up Uncanny #462. What a bunch of contrived gibberish...Phoenix this, Phoenix that, STFU ALREADY!!!!1
Fantastic Four HoM is far superior in terms of story-telling...due to the fact that there's an actual coherent story involved. I don't plan to buy Uncanny #463.
Last edited by Lord S on Aug 5th, 2005 at 04:38 AM
KMC Community Forums
Aug 4th, 2005 10:29 PM
"damn jinzin, you're a real trooper, you provde fact after fact and pages and pages of proof and these wanton miscreants just keep at it"~MERC
