A visitor to the blog posted a comment on my pull list from 10/10/12, and I wanted to reply to it as a post versus just a long ass comment reply. Here is the original comment:
dunno y u even keep tryin to read marvel books ur alredy to rdy to hate em and u only just read em so u can complane about em. ur clearly too invested into dc's ecosystem cus u buy every book they put out or at least 90% of them. ur like a ps3 fanboy that says, ya i guess ill try out halo and then tries and is like well thats vborings its just a space guy shooting lazer beams and im not gonna go buy an xbox when ive got my ps3... u dont need to hate on the other guys just to make urself feel better just let marvel do marvel stuff and read all the dc stuff... some of us who like all comics can read both and not be a fanboy and like it all equally cuz COMICS R GOOD AND FUN. u cant go thru life being a negative person but u should focus on positive stuff like maervel makes lots of funny books and most of dc books are very serious. if u dont like funny books thats fine but dont poop on it all for every person. if u go back and only read marvel big event stuff for the last cpl yrs it seems pretty crappy and boring but theres still lotta good book there with lots of good artist and writing even if u dont like some of them. u cant see jerome opena on a dc book lol (but it would be cool i would see him on justice league or batman drool). dc on the other hand makes some boring books of their best hero like superman if ur a big superman guy u look at new 52 and say they arent making dc comics better all this is marketing stuff y would i read this crap? and u have reason to be piss off, everybody has lot of differnt taste so theres comics for all! but u brocke u go poo poo marvel suck and read a event or one book a year and go ya that sucks im done. what u say to a marvel fan who reads NO dc and says ok im gonna read a dc book i read this superman issue or some night of the owls event which i think is boring and says i give up on dc they only put out boring book? its frustrating i bet for u rite?
thank u for readin hello from deutschland. love christoph
My reply is as follows:
Christoph,
I like getting feedback from readers and listeners of the podcast so, first off I want to say Thank You for leaving a comment. All of them help me in some fashion. I will admit it was a bit difficult to read your comment, but I understand that there is a language barrier, and when that gets mixed with internet shorthand it can make for some interesting reading, but I got through it and here is what I have to say in response.
I know I have strong opinions about Marvel as a publishing house, and they are very negative at times, but I think what people forget is that I want to read about Marvel characters. I grew up reading X-Men, Spider-man, and Avengers so I have a close connection with these characters, which makes me want to read about them. Lately, that has been difficult because the stories haven't grabbed my attention and held it. Marvel seems to be using gimmicks and promotional ideas to drive story rather than taking the time to actually create some good solid books. Now DC is guilty of doing these things, but they seem to be more focused on making quality books than pumping out a gimmick a month. I have to say it; DC is driven more by story where as Marvel is driven more by money making schemes (#tomanyvariants is one example).
As Ryan Higgins puts it, "I have recently broken up with Marvel and so the wound is still fresh." This is true. When I got back into comics five years ago I was all about Marvel. I picked up almost every title, and was absorbing so much from Marvel that I would have considered myself a Marvel guy. Something happened with Marvel. The stories weren't hitting the quality mark for me, and I found myself looking for better reads. DC was where I found them. So, after a few years I became a DC guy, and Marvel became the ex-publisher that I used to like.
I know you compared my dislike of Marvel and love of DC to a PS3 guy hating on the XBox just because it is the different console, but being a PS3 guy, and not a fan of the XBox it wasn't about the systems. I never had a commitment to the games that were on the XBox, and to be honest I could never get used to the controller on and XBox. It never fit in my hands right.
Marvel has some great talent: Jonathan Hickman, Rick Remender, and Matt Fraction to name a few, and I've read some of these guys in single issue format, but I couldn't stick with the titles, because something turned me off of each book. With Hickman it was the summary page at the end of the Fantastic Four issues. I was really enjoying the stories and wanted to see that page drawn out, but they never were. I have gone back and read the early Hickman Fantastic Four stuff in trade, and I will say that I got through those issues with the summary final page, and the book is good. I am looking forward to reading more, but in trade not single issue.
With Remender I felt he took to long to finish the The Dark Angel Saga. I know a lot of people disagree with me on this, but I just wasn't hooked after six chapters. It also might have had something to do with Remender bringing Deathlok into Uncanny X-Force in the previous story arc, which I didn't even bother picking up, because I cannot read anything with Deathlok in it. That character just does absolutely nothing for me. I even stopped reading Jason Aaron's Weapon X run because of Deathlok.
As for Fraction's work what killed it with me was the grovel porn in Iron Man. Doctor Octopus is dying and he has to get Tony on his knees begging. I would have been okay with just that, but Doctor Octopus watches a video of it over and over at the end of the issue, and that was what killed it for me completely. It was a good thing to because right after that issue we entered the Fear Itself cross overs and I stayed away fro all of that.
I even jumped off Ed Brubaker's Captain America when it felt like it was repeating a story I read in a mini that came out a year earlier (Steve Rogers: Super Soldier to be exact). This surprised me, because I love Ed Brubaker's work overall, but even he is leaving Marvel for greener creator owned pastures.
I want to like Marvel again. I really do. But their track record lately doesn't give me much hope of that happening.
I think a lot of why I think so negatively about Marvel is the fact that they have the potential to put out some great stories about characters I like, but the House of Ideas seems to be running out of steam, and if I think positive about this I will just be disappointed like I was a few years ago. So, I stay jaded because I want to be pleasantly surprised.
Also, Marvel drew their line at $3.99 ($7.98 if it is a title that double ships) with a low page count and a digital code that is lost on me. I'm not made of money, so I have to be pickier about the books I actually buy month to month. I get more bang for my buck right now at DC than I would if I was picking up Marvel titles.
And as for the people that read Superman or Batman and aren't impressed or say it is boring all I can say, with confidence, is that when it comes to Superman they are not wrong, and with Batman they are completely wrong. But we all have different tastes, and you are going to read what you are going to read.
I will read the Marvel Now! titles that come out in the next handful of months (except for Captain America and Nova), and I hope one can impress me enough to actually buy a Marvel book in single issue format again, but that would take a real miracle.
Thank you again Christoph for your comment. Keep reading your funny books, and being a fan of all comics, because you are right; the world needs more "Comic Book" readers than fan boys with an axe to grind.
Sincerely,
Conspirator Brock
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