Marvel Comics is a business, not a religion (he said ducking to avoid bottles and tomatoes)! I understand that they have to sell books and they can do whatever they darn well please with their characters. I am also aware that there is no Captain America movie in production. All I can do is give a fair warning: These familiar tactics of this industry of pushing collector’s issues and poorly conceived films were once used in the early 90’s, and as a result, this particular company was losing readership by 10% per year*.

Undoubtedly, Marvel will choose to sit on the fence until it gets a positive or negative reaction. I however, do not share their interests. If this is a legitimate protest regarding the values of America, which I suspect it is not, I publicly challenge Marvel to manage to keep Cap dead until the American government cleans up its act. Which will probably be sometime in 3,900 years. If this is just some way of generating sales, as we pretty much know that it is, I am rather pleased with myself that I stopped buying their books years ago, and upon reading this, do not plan to resume any time in the near future.

*No, this is not a threat! I am not demanding a boycott! There is nothing between those lines! Please do not boycott Marvel. If you’re gonna stop buying all of their books, do it because you don’t like their content. Sorry, no facts!

Now, in less than a year’s time, we have to watch them stumble through some insipid retconning yet again.I understand the need to ignore or rewrite continuity in a title that has been around for decades. But for the past 20 years, both major comic publishing houses have gotten worse and worse at doing it. The ‘writing’ they have done to ‘correct’ whatever happened in the big money story arc has been reduced to something even my 12 year old thinks is lame.

Not to mention that Marvel’s latest trend for a few years is to make major, well known, well read, well documented characters behave completely out of their own psych profile.

Doctor Doom : Admits he can’t beat Richards, so switches to magic? Disregards any notion of honor and sacrifices his only love, the daughter of the only man he calls ‘friend’ to demons? To quote Richards a few issues before: “That, boy, is something Doom would never do.”

Spiderman: The most hunted hero in comicdom, reveals his identity, and paints big bullseyes on everyone he loves? please.

Reed Richards: Clones Thor, becomes a fascist, violates any concept of personal freedom, decides that the end justifies the means…. Wait a minute!
IF this is the new Mr. Fantastic, who the heck needs Doom???

Captain America: Gives up a cause he knows is just? Goes down without a fight? What the deuce??? This isn’t US Agent, is it?

Although, I kind of expected all of this from Iron Man, the drunken money grubber with no bid contracts, and a penchant for violating the law where it suits his own purposes. I was a die-hard fan of that title. Until Armor Wars.

Editors seem to have forgotten the meaning of the word HERO, much less superhero.

I don’t need it. The burden of proof is on the accuser.

So, everyone who’s saying how much this is alienating fans and how much it’s ruining the characters is going to step up first, right? With something to offer beyond their own opinions and the chorus of “me, too”s that follow?

You know when I started to really care about (i.e., “buy”) Spider-Man? When JMS came on board and “ruined” his origin. Gwen Stacy’s been dead longer than I’ve been alive, so “Sins Past” isn’t an insult to her memory for me, it’s just an interesting story. Want to know when I started buying New Avengers? Iron Man? Black Panther? Captain America? How about the folks I lent the first couple issues of Civil War and Frontline, who then bought the reprints and the rest of the series? Tried to get them on Nextwave, too, but most were content just to read mine. Which I guess is a far trade, since I only read borrowed copies of 52, but I really enjoy it. I didn’t care for Punisher War Journal #1, but at least one guy was looking to borrow it, since he didn’t have any money that week.

Those of us who like these stories are out there, we’re just less vocal about it. We don’t photoshop “funny” new word balloons – we don’t have to, because we got the story. We buy the books, read ‘em, enjoy ‘em, and buy the next one, without the need to go online and wade through the knee-deep complaints to be that one voice.

Honestly, I should stop saying “we,” since I’m no spokesman. I don’t go to a lot of comic sites (just CSBG, really), so it’s possible there are big congregations out there where everyone is praising the hell out of the book, and there’s one guy who hated it who feels shut out. But my point is, I know several people, both real-life and internet-y, who weren’t reading the comics before, but are reading them now, and plan to continue. To me? To the folks I know? The only thing bad about Civil War is what it’s doing to our wallets…

http://flogger.looble.com/2007/03/colbert-suspected-in-murder-of-captain.html

I don’t need it. The burden of proof is on the accuser.

Regardless of my opinion of Spiderman’s actions at the beginning of the arc, I got pulled in. In an attempt to figure out what was going on, I came here and started reading the spoilers and forum threads for different books. That pulled me into both Iron Man and Captain America AND 52. Then I found out Peter David was doing X-Factor again, that Morrison and Dini were doing work at DC, and the next thing you know, I’m reading EVERYTHING.

I’m 31 years old, and I must say, after a ten year break (that I thought was permanent), I’m pulled in again.

Oh, and THEN I found Fables. Good Lord.

Things like Spiderman unmasking and Cap getting shot all get props just for leading me to that alone.

Do you have some kind of information to back that statement up?

Oh, resurrection? Won’t bother with that. No Ultimates. I can’t read a book that doesn’t come out. Marvel should reemphasizing story telling like it used to. Onslaught was gold compared to this, pure gold. Atleast it had it’s story straight.

I’m still mystified as to how and why they think having all the Spider books be in the midst of impenetrable (and generally unreadable) multi-issue epics is a good sales tactic. Or why/how they wasted the entire Blade trilogy (and a season of a TV series) without being able to put together one decent issue of any Blade series.

“He let himself be humiliated and paraded about in order to save lives…”

Wow. Cap = Jesus.

I wonder whose sins he died for — Marvel’s or the readers’?

This is serialized fiction. While there are many “good” stories that could be told, what good is a “good” story today if it precludes good stories in the future?

As of #24, Cap had many good stories and I expect it would have been followed with many good stories–stories good for Cap fans. But now, the series must spend a certain number of issues featuring a dead Captain America. There is no quality possible for a dead Cap story that will entertain me as much as a live Cap story. Now I must either drop the title until Cap returns, or buy a bunch of issues I already know I don’t want. (I’d much rather spend my money on something other than dead-Cap stories.)

So we need to put aside this argument of “well, if it’s a good story” because one good story can KILL all those later stories that have to deal with the ramifications. (Think of sex without protection. Sure, it’s a “good” moment. But how good will it seem when you have to deal with a disease or unwanted pregnancy? Will it all seem worth it then?)

DC has been pushing me away for over a year now, and now Marvel wants rid of me too. Fine. But where will Marvel be if all the fans of Classic heroes get run off? Back to bankruptcy, I think.