Marvel is essentially doing away with their most popular character, The X-Men. As Scarlet Witch said “no more mutants”, seems Marvel is finally moving in that direction and not just for a cross over event.
Mutants and the word mutant will be phased out and seems to be replaced by Inhumans. One X-Fan has started a petition to get Marvel’s attention to stop the X-Men from being phased out of Marvel’s history. You cam check it out here.
Marvel has made a lot of story choices and decisions that have led to me dropping most titles a few years back. This is that type of decision.
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Agree 100%… go back ten years and all of my reads were marvel. Now, probably half and shrinking. Funny how people that call themselves “creative types” over there usually are the least creative. Seems the only way they can get out a story these days is if they kill someone, change gender or color of a character or have the character come out of the closet, rinse and repeat over and over again. It has gotten very stale.
Same here.
But I still don’t care. If I’m paying $3.99 or even…ughhh.. $4.99 for a book, it’s going to be an indie.
I actually read quite a few Marvel titles. I can say this, there are some titles that are being written by great writers (who are likely writing your favorite Image or other indie comic).. so they’re not all bad.
A few writers that come to mind that write really well for Marvel and themselves (indie self owned comics) are Jason Aaron, Fraction (probably not so much now afte Hawkeye), Remender, Hickman, Charles Soule..
I’m gonna blame the demise of the X-Men on Bendis though.. it’s gotten too soapy and just ridiculous to be honest.
I say, blow it all up and start over. I think phasing out the word mutant is absurd, there’s no reason to do that (unless their primary goal is to regain the movie rights). I’m also just X-Men’d out too..
I like Charles Soule, Hickman, love Sam Humphries. Just not digging the direction these books are going in. Throw in a $3.99 price tag and I will pass. Image has started raising prices recently and I am phasing out books I like but are not my top tier books.
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Yeah, I’ve been noticing the slight price increases as well on some titles or the sneak in the $3.99 when it’s usually $2.99.
The one thing I don’t mind is at $3.99, almost all Marvel books come with free digital code. DC books are $3.99 but if you want the digital code, it’s hiked up to $4.99. Lucky for me, I pretty much only read Batman. I did enjoy Superman Unchained but I’m just not a big DC guy.. never been.
I think they’re trying too hard to wrap all the stories around one central story in the Marvel Universe(s). Just let them be their own character I say.. probably one reason I love Moon Knight, Black Widow, and Magneto… all sort of doing their own thing in their own books with great writing and art.
To be honest, they aren’t helping things by making key characters gay just for the sake of doing it.. I for one really don’t care, because I haven’t read a new X book in some time, but I know a lot X Men fans that aren’t too happy with it. I also don’t think X Men is a character, nor Marvel’s most popular. That would probably have to go to Spider-man. However, if Marvel does this it will be pretty piss poor. IMO there are better characters in the X men alone than there is in the entire DC universe (excluding Batman’s side of course).
Its a business, things change hopefully for the better, things have been the same in comics for years! I personally dont think the inhuman characters are really that interesting over all but lets see how they work it. Marvels doing more interesting stuff and changes then DC’s change up at least in my opinion. Haven’t bought a DC book to actually read in months! Their art is also usually not very quality over all but they have some of the best older talent on tap? Much quality control is needed!
Alos big happenings lately in books are just half asst! Almost like last minute changes…!? One panel with a gay statement or one panel with important info or happening two or 3 panel deaths….most hyped stuff seems to get throne out all a sudden with last minute with weak sauce execution… no real build up or quality long term story mining going on. But they advertise and hype everything like crazy!?
I know I’m in the minority here…. but I feel like this is a positive step for Marvel. So many comic fans complain that comics are just repeating old stories and not telling new ones. Well…. here is Marvel kicking out an already told story (X-Men) and bringing a new story to the forefront (Inhumans).
Yes it does appear that pieces that are owned by other production companies are getting the shaft (FF, X-Men, Deadpool, and even Namor) and are being discontinued/killed off but thats the type of change that could lead to some more interesting characters being highlighted for the years to come. Just my two cents.
A valid point that comics do become stale. They are trying to pull in new readers.
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I agree with you, so you got one supporter! I can’t stand Marvel due to the repitition, and I doubt these changes still won’t draw me in. I find most Marvel titles to be just a little too immature for me (IMO), so changing something like “X-Men” to “Inhumans” already feels more serious. Also, some people might deem mutant as an ‘edgy’ word with all the political correctness going about these days.
Tell me why can’t both x-men and inhumans co-exist in the MU like they have for 50 years? Now its a novel idea to just take one and replace them with the other. Come on x-men fans lets do make our voices heard.
Most fans continue to ask for something new instead of recycled stories. Why would Marvel want to just repeat what it’s done for the past 50 years? Putting the Inhumans in more of a spotlight role and not highlighting the X-Men gives a whole new look to the universe especially after whatever it is that happens in Secret Wars. As much as I was a fan of the X-Men all of the stories lately have been pretty bland to me.
Just because the writers can’t come up with new stories isn’t the fault of the x-men its the fault of the creative teams they have in place. Go back to the roots and make the characters connect with fans.and lets tell the truth here killing off an entire universe of beloved characters in the x family is not a hip new idea. Its a spit in the eye to the fans and reads who buy the books.
^^^THIS
Smells of purely a $$$ move by a corporate ownership. This has to be purely to do with the movie rights. The films are where the big money is now and Marvel just happens to be phasing out their two big boys who they don’t own the rights to (Fantastic 4 being the other)… while also creating an Inhumans movie. In the end it might only be a name change… but it’s a sign of a corporate entity willing to disrespect years and years of creative history in order to go after a few extra bucks…
Well, last I checked Marvel and Disney were “for profit” companies.. so it makes sense to make business decisions to make more money! 😉
I wouldn’t say it’s disrespectful though. I mean, they do own the publishing rights to the characters and stories. If Robert Kirkman decided to just kill off everyone in The Walking Dead and you didn’t like it, it’s not your story, it’s his. When someone owns something, they have the right to do whatever they want with it or the story, name, etc.
Oh, no doubt. I won’t argue that not only is it their job to make money, but they own the characters to do as they will. They could change them all into Disney princesses and have them star in “Anna and Elsa Meet the X-Faeries” and they would have every right to do so. But just because they have the ability to do it doesn’t mean readers/fans should be complacent. To try to sweep under the rug over 50 years or so of characters and story that artists worked on and fans grew up with… just to A) reach a profit quota and B) passive aggressively hurt a rival movie studio … seems petty and disrespectful to me. Anyways, the Kirkman example only works if somebody else bought the property… and then decided to retcon the story history with vampires instead of zombies. Wait a minute… no one steal that idea….
I have pulled back significantly from Marvel. Got tired of giving them money for the same old stories. Star Wars titles and Amazing Spider-Man are the only ones I invest in constantly. I am really digging the creator owned titles and various independents now.
New Star Wars cannon is excellent!! Lovin how marvels horing yet playing everything out so nicely. i also want to see how secret wars plays ou……Marvels getting my money regularly.
More x-men!
Any thoughts on how this move might affect xmen silver age comics? Good? Bad?
They will still be in demand. And once
Marvel regains control of the movie franchise they will be back in the books. However, for the time being, they will not be prominent characters.
Thanks Anthony from the blurb about the petition. It seems I’m not the only one who sees the writing on the wall.
http://www.businessinsider.com/its-astonishing-how-far-disney-is-going-to-bury-the-x-men-2015-4
Nate. You are welcome. Glad to help you out. Hopefully it gets a good amount of signatures.
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I have pretty much stopped reading Marvel. Their books are pricey and poorly manufactured. Everyone knows if its marvel, you better not slide it into a bag, or you will loose half the back cover on the board. Reading Indies these days, Marvel doesn’t care about their readers, just thier bottom line.
Remember, to them, they’re selling a story that just happens to be printed on paper, not a collectible. Collectors are the ones that care about condition while Marvel just wants more readers because they sell’em at a base rate regardless if they go up in value or not due to demand..
Hogwash! Have you given stories a chance? Aside from that whole Axis thing, Magneto is a consistently intriguing read. Suspenseful, dark and down right amazing.
Amazing Spiderman is always solid too.
Let’s not generalize an entire company’s comics and writers as bad when clearly some are better than others.
This is just the next step in their corporate war with Fox who owns the rights to the X-men and Fantastic Four movie franchises. Is at all about profits. They don’t give a shit about the reader. Hawkeye by Fraction was the last Marvel comic I read and it will likely be the last.
http://screenrant.com/marvel-comics-movies-characters-carl-6766/
Exactly what I read. They don’t own mutants but do own Inhuman franchise.
The entire Inhuman thing has actually resparked my interest in Marvel, everything has become so stale the last 10 years or so, its become this repetitive show that just wont end, they make a new series, give it 5 spin offs, and expect it to be able to float. i hope if they do change the entire marvel universe that they stop with the 15 different spin offs and go back to the basics, just two inhumans titles, one spiderman, one spider gwen, heck, even bring back tales of suspense and journey into mystery back at number 1 and give us original topics and tales each issue, i hope the marvel universe shrinks and therefore we get tons of better, more concentrated content that people can actually enjoy without the gimmicks
I agree. The marvel univ. is so big that they don’t give the respect to every character and we never end up finding out what happened to that character. If they wanna remove X-men because of ownership, well that’s just the way business works. It has happened in couple of Indy books as well were people fight for ownership and the books lacks the talent that it once had. IMO if they need to make these changes because of greediness, then let them be. If the stories turn out to be good, I will be buying there books if not, I will drop there books just like I have done in the past. Just my opinion
I’m just going to go ahead and blame this on the fox movie deal.
I’m not a fan of the X-men, but what about Deadpool (another Fox project)? He’s one of Marvel’s most beloved characters. If they throw away Deadpol and I’m done with Marvel.
Please dont kill the x men i relate in everything with the x mmen cause im n imigrant in the united states we go trough tbe same strugles the xmen go trough fear hate discimination n we are misunderstood the same way the xmen go troug in the marvel universe so please keep the xmen