By Chris Snellgrove | Published
One thing Marvel Comics fans have long joked about is a bunch of superheroes from New York City. Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four…believe it or not, these are just a few of the characters and teams based in the iconic town. How and why does this happen? It's simple: Marvel Comics has always been based in New York City, and in the publisher's heyday, most of the writers, artists, and editors lived in that city. Accordingly, the stories they created reflect the lived experience of walking those streets, day in and day out.
However, these days, very few comic writers live in New York City due to the high cost of living. And now, even the company itself is leaving town. Earlier this week, Marvel informed its employees that it will be moving its publishing division from Midtown to Burbank, California, which is home to both Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Company. Along with this major change, the publisher has also named Stephen Wacker as its new editor-in-chief. These major changes at the House of Ideas have one major goal: to help Marvel Comics beat DC and become, once again, the market share leader in comic book publishing.
DC Keeps Kicking Marvel's Butt
If you only pay attention to superhero movies, you might wonder why Marvel would bother beating DC. After all, the DCEU has run itself into the ground trying to compete with the MCU, which is still ongoing. Now, James Gunn's DCU is rocking: Superman it was a success story last year, but Supergirlthe second film in this world of cinema, turned into a critical and commercial bomb. Throw in the fact that this year Spider-Man: A New Day again Avengers: Doomsday they will collectively make billions of dollars, and Marvel's cinematic success is undeniable. Unfortunately, the publishing side of Marvel has been losing to its biggest competitor.
How is Marvel losing to DC? As The Hollywood Reporter reported, Marvel “lost its position as the comic book market share leader for the first time this century.” In terms of numbers, ICv2 reports that DC has successfully captured somewhere between 34 and 40 percent of market share compared to Marvel's 29 to 33 percent. This is due to many things, including DC making their older works more accessible and accessible through their Compact Comics line and offering interesting new books such as Absolute Batman. Compared to DC's success, Marvel just seems like they just published filler to keep readers interested between movies.
The Extraordinary Team
Now, however, Marvel is making major changes to try to regain market share from their biggest rival. As Kevin Feige noted at a recent town hall event, moving the remaining works to the West Coast is intended to create a better synergy between Marvel publishing, animation, and live-action storytellers. This sentiment was echoed in a letter Brad Winderbaum (head of television, animation, comics, and franchise) and David Abdo (general manager, comics and franchise) sent to The Hollywood Reporter. “Bringing together our comics, film, television, and other creative teams will help us learn from each other, collaborate, and build on the strengths that make Marvel a true House of Ideas,” they wrote.
In a perfect world, this collaboration would give us projects of the highest quality X-Men '97 (when are we getting that animated cinematic universe, Brad?!) while developing the MCU, which has been very inconsistent ever since. Avengers: Endgame. If nothing else, giving the publishing division a new editor-in-chief would give Marvel Comics a leg up and help them give DC some serious competition once again. This, in turn, bodes well for the longevity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has been successful with adaptations of classic comics. The only way to ensure future films a rock to ensure that today's jokes don't swallow it.
If that happens, readers and viewers alike will proudly say “Make mine Marvel” again. If not, the audience of this news publisher can make their best impression of Spider-Man from Avengers: Infinity War by disappearing completely.
