I love comic books. That’s a obvious. I especially love superheroes. As long as I can remember, I’ve thrilled to the adventures of Batman, Spider-man, the X-men, and the rest. It would give me no greater thrill than to continue to live vicariously through these colorfully dressed heroes today. But I can’t. And it’s the industry’s fault. Because of too many cross-overs, inprints, alternative ‘verses, and a plethora of duplicate titles–its become near impossible to keep up with and track of the events of my favorite characters.
Let’s say I was a young kid, new to comics. I walk into a comic book store with just one simple request: I want a Spider-man comic. Little do I know that I about to be inundated with so many confusing story-arcs, titles, and alternate worlds, that by the time I get them sorted out in my mind I’ve lost interest. I’m already at GameStop.
Spider-man alone has Amazing Spider-man, Spider-man, Web of Spider-man, Ultimate Spider-man, Astonishing Spider-man, and even more limited series, all with their own confusing and unsatisfying stories.
Why do the comic publishers do this? It’s not because they’re producing quality work. Most of the stories are hard to following, with meaningless, meandering plots. It’s all because if you make more comics, you can sell more comics. That’s the bottom line: Greed.
Like I said at the beginning of my rant, I would love to continue to follow my favorite superheroes, it’s not worth it. All I’d end up with is a box full of crappy magazines I never finished reading. Thank you, Marvel and DC, for killing the comic book industry.