Marvel Entertainment

As a die hard comic nerd and fan (comics and music are two of three of my passions) I am disappointed with Marvel in the past 5 years. They still put out awesome comics with story line continuations and other series, however, the branding in general has gone down especially since they’ve been hitting the big screen with comic to movie adaptations. X-​men were great, it’s the other stories that have embarrassed the brand. This was a hot topic at Fan Expo that I had with 3 other people during the Dr Who Q&A meet and greet. DC hasn’t been any better but still a larger improvement than Marvel has been. Oh and for f*ck’s sake I am tired of 6 comics hinting that Wolverine is dead.

#1 in the comics industry, with Spiderman leading the way, and rightfully so, with Tobey Maguire leading the way. Personally, I still like their rivals Superman and Batman more, but with names like Fantastic Four, and the Incredible Hulk, Marvel’s ain’t too shabby ;) Just a matter of personal preference.
No wonder Disney bought them out for $ 4 billion smooth ones about 5 years ago.

Big waste of time, very expensive just to see some super heroes clothing and play with some very boring games.
Your kids won’t meet with a super heroe, you can’t even take a picture.
Don’t go, don’t waste money like I did.

Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Marvel Girl, All these Marvels. Marvel comics have been my go to comics since I was a kid. Let’s face it folks, I was a Spider-Man.fan, then and still am. Matter of fact I don’t care he is dead. Then I branched off to Chris Claremont’s 17 years on the Uncanny X-​men. Even when I was a kid I could tell that Chris took these characters serious. That is an important aspect to a good comic/​graphic novel. Then Jim Lee happened in 1991 he created that iconic X-​Men cover.
Magneto was «beast» on that cover.
Nowadays I do find it hard t keep up with all of the stories. Let’s not even get on the price of a book. Starbucks coffee is cheaper. It’s going to take Timmy a lot of lemonades to get that new BLURAY Iron Man 3 flick. Hopefully he doesn’t download it the wrong way.

Review #1050: Confessions of a Marvel Zombie!
Anyone who thinks that Peter Parker is really dead and will never come back doesn’t know the comics business very well. That being said, I’m fatigued over the deaths/​rebirths, huge events, crossovers, renumbering of titles (‘lets have a 5^th #1 issue to jumpstart sales! but wait, we have 600 issues coming up! gotta go back to the old numbering so we can have a super-​sized issue!’), petty lawsuits (leave Gary Friedrich alone and start paying up to the architects of your shared universe!!!), and gimmicks (variant covers! enough already!!). As a fan of 30 plus years, I gave up on them for a time, until… I bought Amazing Spider-​Man #700 24 hours ago.
And it wasn’t boring, Dan Slott proving himself to be one of the better Spider-​Man writers of the past 15 years, Humberto Ramos giving his manga-​styled all to this milestone, giant-​sized (remember those?) edition. Nonetheless, I’m not convinced it will stick. After all, they’ve resurrected Elektra, Iron Fist, Captain America, Mar-vell…Jean Grey…
Conversely, Rich Remender (my new favorite comics writer) and John Romita Jr. (master craftsman of an artist) have just begun a terrific, Kirbyeqsue Captain America run, and I’m also getting a kick out of Mark Waid’s take on Daredevil. And who ever thought Mark Bagley would be drawing the Fantastic Four? On the trail of the FF, Jonathan Hickman, another new comics author I’m following, is writing 2 Avengers books??? Or how about Jason (Scalped) Aaron on Incredible Hulk? The creative teams have been interesting, and Marvel itself has gotten much needed infusion of new blood, Dustin Weaver being this generation’s Art Adams and Marcos Martin taking the soul of Steve Ditko and dropping it into the present, keeping the classic and timeless and… funky intact. Let’s also not forget Stefano Caselli or Oliver Copiel, two other Marvel artists whose work I can’t stop staring at.
Allow us TO forget the entire Ultimate line. It has its own convoluted continuity, defeating its purpose long ago.
But…Uncanny Avengers? Remender’s writing it, John Cassady’s drawing it. So far, it’s readable.
I complain ’cause I care.
P. S. Wolverine still has no right to be an Avenger. He’s in too many books already. Snikt! Bub!

I wouldn’t even give Marvel Comics a second thought in my adulthood if it were not for two things. One, the Iron Man movies are the only good movies to come out of this camp. I say this as a child who grew up with Tony Stark as my favorite hero and never envisioned him getting his own flick (played by the best actor in Hollywood). X-​Men were okay, Spider-​Man movies blow, second Hulk was decent, didn’t see Wolverine.
More importantly– two, my mind– numbing, soul sucking dead end job on third shift. The only reasons i don’t hang myself with my shoelaces there are your old back issues from the 70’s through the early 90’s. My friend is a comic fiend and likes to stop at used book stores on his way to work. He brings 50 cent gems in every night to read on our break. This leads to me digging through my old stash from 8^th grade and bringing those in to read. Even «How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way».
My Marvel history– –I inherited a stack of 80’s Iron Man and Spider Man from my uncle when i turned about 11. I got hooked! By the time i was 13, i was collecting three to four titles a week and drawing my own book. Now, i don’t know if it was puberty or the drastic drop in craftsmanship of their books, but by 15 i was done. I stopped cold turkey. Most fans will recount how this was the worst period of comic books ever. Crappy writing, ridiculously anatomically incorrect art (twig thin ankles, Nissan sized pecs, beach ball breasts) and just plain greed sank the industry and turned a lot of fans off. I still have never bought a new book since.
But those back issues are a true treasure. They help me to relive my childhood and spark conversation with coworkers. So until this economy turns around and i can get a decent job, make mine Marvel.
And D.C. sucks Captain America’s big toe.

Marvel Comics have always been my comic company of choice. up until recently my collecting habit was steady since I was quite young. Unfortunately with the punishing recession it was a hobby I had to give up. In response to this I would have to criticize the company for not being more in tune to its customers and be aware of the recession and just cut down on so many titles! Marvel though through the years has had good titles with solid story lines and poor ones as well. It should not be an obsession to have such huge crossovers every summer or fall and not have a good story. Some crossovers that the company have done are great while others not so much. Some may say that Marvel is more conservative than other comic companies and this may be true… I don’t know for sure but I do know back in the early 80’s they had the Epic magazine which was far from conservative. The stories and art were indeed a product of their time and looked much like the characters from the film Heavy Metal. While Marvel eventually ditched this magazine other competing companies then made truly some of the most non-​conservative and risk taking comics they could come up with. Namely much of the credit goes to Marvel’s biggest competitor DC Comics. In the 90’s then came a flood of comic companies blowing one’s mind with stories and controversy. In the end if you want just good old comic fun which is more or less clean compared to what is out there Marvel is great to start reading. Just be careful not to get too hooked since the company is apparently not really listening to how the economy is and is turning a blind eye to consumers wallets.