Marvel overhaul...what would you do?

[WalshieUK]

Listening to the Mayo Reports it's clear that Marvel are experiencing a gradual sales slump, with numbers being propped up by gimmicks, combined with a general air of reader apathy.

I've been thinking what I'd do in the imaginary world where I was given the task of overseeing a complete radical overhaul of their line.

One core problem is that there are just too many titles being published which dilutes the pool of creative talent they have. In addition to this a $3.99 cover price for 20 story pages just isn't good value for money.

I'd love Marvel to cut right back on the titles they publish, selecting just top level creative teams to focus on great story telling for their top titles.

I'd also like to see increased page counts in those titles...and only around 25 titles per month!

Here's a list of the titles I'd like to see them publish. I think if they focussed on great story and tight(ish) continuity across these key titles the increase in sales they could get would offset the decrease in sales from the 60 odd lesser titles they would no longer publish.

I'd love to hear ideas from fellow fans on what they might do, given a free rein.

I'd have 30 story pages in my $3.99 books, and 40 story pages in my $4.99 books (which would all be double features for those characters not able to carry their own ongoing titles).

Spider-Man (twice monthly) - $3.99
Avengers (twice monthly) - $3.99
X-Men (twice monthly) - $3.99
Thor (monthly) - $3.99
Captain America (monthly) - $3.99
Iron Man (monthly) - $3.99
Hulk (monthly) - $3.99
Wolverine (monthly) - $3.99
Daredevil (monthly) - $3.99
Fantastic Four (monthly) - $3.99
Punisher (monthly) - $3.99
Deadpool (monthly) - $3.99
Inhumans (monthly) - $3.99
Marvel Mutants (monthly) - $4.99- Rotating non-core X-Men and X-Teams
Marvel Heroes (monthly) - $4.99 - With Hawkeye, Falcon, Vision, Ms Marvel, Wasp etc
Marvel Street (monthly) - $4.99 - With Iron Fist, Cage, Moon Knight, Jessica Jones etc
Marvel Cosmic (monthly) - $4.99 - With GotG, Nova, Silver Surfer, Thanos etc
Marvel Magic (monthly) - $4.99 - With Dr Strange, Ghost Rider, Morbius, Blade etc
Star Wars (twice monthly) - $3.99
Darth Vader (monthly) - $3.99

That would leave a monthly slot open for events or other special mini series

It'll never happen....but good to do some wishful thinking!

[JohnMayo]

I like the basic approach you've outlined.

How would you cover the increased cost for the 10 additional pages on the $3.99 comics? Same question on the 40 page comics at $4.99.

[drew]

Marvel Mutants (monthly) - $4.99- Rotating non-core X-Men and X-Teams
Marvel Heroes (monthly) - $4.99 - With Hawkeye, Falcon, Vision, Ms Marvel, Wasp etc
Marvel Street (monthly) - $4.99 - With Iron Fist, Cage, Moon Knight, Jessica Jones etc
Marvel Cosmic (monthly) - $4.99 - With GotG, Nova, Silver Surfer, Thanos etc
Marvel Magic (monthly) - $4.99 - With Dr Strange, Ghost Rider, Morbius, Blade etc

cool idea - i would read them

[WalshieUK]

How would you cover the increased cost for the 10 additional pages on the $3.99 comics? Same question on the 40 page comics at $4.99.

Hi John.

To start with I think Marvel (in particular) comics are more expensive than they ought to be. DC can manage to produce 20 page comics for $2.99, and the likes of Valiant and Image titles often feature 24 to 30 story pages for $3.99. So I think Marvel could reduce their per page cost, and still produce profitable comics, especially if backed by a suitable marketing push as part of their (imaginary) relaunch to promote the fact that their content offers more bang for the buck than their major competitors.

I would even be happy with a slight decrease in paper stock if necessary.

[jrphoenix]

I love the concept. I would like Marvel to up the page count and ship bi-weekly fewer titles. I only started reading DC with rebirth and only really buy the $2.99 double shipping titles. I read so many books that the increased frequency helps me remember the story lines.

[NiklasJ]

For the extra price at marvel more pages would be nice ofc but i dont see how such a change now is going to get a big notice, too little too late.

As long as they get good content out the ship should sail along decently until the next big thing pops out like avengers disassembled or superior spiderman.

Fewer comics for the readers to keep track of and make it easy to spot whats different about each title. Now theyre at 70-80 titles a month, cut it down to 50 or so.

Im not sure what they can do to get a big push like DCnu52 or DCrebirth unless they actually do a full scale reboot, and i dont think thats needed/wanted, let dc tell "new" superman/batman/JL origin stories every year...

[nacho]

I'd love to see page-counts increase beyond 20, but asking modern artists to produce 60 pages a month isn't going to happen unless you're giving them a 9-month head start to get waaaaaay ahead. And padding books with backups by C & D-list talent isn't the answer either. That always feels very bait-n-switch-y. I'd rather just have cheaper 20-page books. In reality to pull it off, you'd really need to find teams of 2-3 artists that can produce similar quality and style. That has worked reasonably well in say X-Men Gold, but I'm not sure Marvel has enough talent to do that on nearly every title, even with a reduced title count.

The idea of trimming the number of titles down but increasing the frequency is fine with me. I love currently getting Batman and X-Men books twice a month. I'll be less excited if the quality suffers. However, I'm not sure there is enough "good" talent to pull that off on a line-wide basis. There is a reason half of Marvel's books have sub-standard art. If they had better artists in need of work, I assume they'd be using them.

As far as covering the costs go... Marvel would have to charge $4.50 for 30-page books to give us the same price-per-page as DC's 20-page $2.99 books. If the content is up to par, I'd gladly pay that, even twice a month for 30-page books. But if the quality dropped, I suspect most fans would have a quick trigger to drop titles that are that expensive and not delivering.

[jacovny]

This is a pretty obvious one that has been mentioned, but nothing affects my monthly DCBS order like 3.99 titles double-shipping. Asking me to pay 8 bucks a month for the story equivalent of a Sunday comic strip (B.M.Bendis, I'm looking in your direction...) is something my monthly comics budget just can't sustain. Right now, the one exception I'm making is Injustice 2. I even finally cut "Batman" this month for (cough) reasons.

[NicksPicks]

They can start by not rebooting every series and charging $4.99 to $5.99 for the "new" #1. I'd be interested in many Marvel series except for this high price of admission. And they can quit front loading series with "annuals" in the first few months, and to boot they often publish these annuals in the same month as 2 regular issues. I've dropped Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, and not even started several series because of these pricing maneuvers. The new FF is launching at $5.99!!! Just give us another 2 issues worth and make it a trade paperback at $10 to $12 at that point. And heaven help you if you like a property, because Marvel will explode that property into 10 different series and tie-ins (Spidergeddon, X-Men's colors, Infinity Wars/Warps, Venom, etc.). Otherwise, several of their stories are quality if they could just keep one direction for more than 6 months.

[drew]

They can start by not rebooting every series and charging $4.99 to $5.99 for the "new" #1. I'd be interested in many Marvel series except for this high price of admission. And they can quit front loading series with "annuals" in the first few months, and to boot they often publish these annuals in the same month as 2 regular issues. I've dropped Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, and not even started several series because of these pricing maneuvers. The new FF is launching at $5.99!!! Just give us another 2 issues worth and make it a trade paperback at $10 to $12 at that point. And heaven help you if you like a property, because Marvel will explode that property into 10 different series and tie-ins (Spidergeddon, X-Men's colors, Infinity Wars/Warps, Venom, etc.). Otherwise, several of their stories are quality if they could just keep one direction for more than 6 months.

cant argue with any of that - i feel price gouged by marvel and (less-often) DC pretty regularly

[williamnorman]

Hi there! Reading your thread is a real enjoyment for me. I am glad you were able to raise this query here. It's necessary to submit important questions for the audience to be concerned with!

[hasan459]

i would like to read them

[batman497]

I like the idea of doing the "Marvel Street" or "Marvel Cosmic" titles featuring characters who can't seem to sustain their own titles.