My 600-Lb Marvel Is Killing Comics
Comic Reviews for the week ending 11/3/2024
Good morning, my friend,
Another Annuals Week has come and gone.
Marvel held up their expected dominance of the LCS shelves, but they earned our top marks for the worst publisher of the week. That’s not an award any publisher should want, but it’s an award that Marvel has earned.
Why the vehement reaction against the House of M?
Marvel frequently out-prints and out-ships every publisher, including DC. The amount of Marvel comics flooding the market on a weekly basis is more than Dynamite, Zenescope, Mad Cave, and Titan combined, and yet, the quality of the comics Marvel produces falls well down on the list.
How is Marvel still #1? In a word, Collectors.
If you’ve never watched the cable show “My 600-Lb Life,” it’s a reality show about morbidly obese people seeking medical help for their condition. In most cases, the star of any given episode is so large that they can’t walk more than a few feet without experiencing pain in exhaustion.
Invariably, the reason the patient at the heart of the episode is so obese has to do with the assistance of a caregiver or loved one in their life who continues to enable their eating habits by bringing them shocking amounts of food. In most cases, the enabler brings the patient food out of a sense of guilt, misguided love, or some toxic co-dependence.
Back to comics.
Collectors have an OCD-like obsession with never breaking a run, having every issue from their favorite character(s), regardless of the title, and picking up multiple copies of the same comic for the pretty covers.
If you’re a collector, this is no beef against you. It’s your money, and I fully support you spending your dollars as you see fit.
But understand that the collector market is driving the quality of Marvel comics into the cellar because there is no incentive to change. Like the toxic enablers on “My 600-Lb Life,” collectors are endlessly feeding Marvel’s bloated carcass beyond any healthy standard. As a result, Marvel can barely crank more than one or two decent comics despite flooding the market with dozens every month.
I frequently hear the phrase “Let the market decide,” and that’s a true enough statement, but Marvel (and DC, to a lesser extent) is an odd exception in that the market is unwittingly killing the industry that it loves.
If you’re an avid collector, I implore you to go cold turkey… just for a little while. Choose not to enable Marvel’s bad habits and force them to get back to a healthy state.
Marvel will never get better as long as collectors enable Marvel’s sinking standards because a healthy Marvel tells better stories and better stories are better for everyone.
Speaking of better stories, my new Storytellers newsletter launched this week, and the feedback is more than I expected.
If you haven’t signed up to receive the newsletter, here’s your chance.
Don’t miss out 👉 https://gabrielhernandez.net/newsletter
-Gabe
Next, our Pick of the Week for the most entertaining comic is…
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Now, let’s get on to this week’s reviews (and a little catch-up)
THUNDERCATS #9 – New Comic Review
RED SONJA (VOL. 7) #15 – New Comic Review
GRIMM FAIRY TALES (VOL. 2) #89 – New Comic Review
[Pick of the Week] THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #5 – New Comic Review
KOSHER MAFIA #3 – New Comic Review
THE MAGIC ORDER (VOL. 5) #2 – New Comic Review
IT HAPPENED ON HYDE STREET: DEVOUR #1 – New Comic Review
NIGHT CLUB (VOL. 2) #3 – New Comic Review
THE HEXILES #1 – New Comic Review
AMAZING SPIDER_MAN #60 - New Comic Review
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Red Sonja: Death and the Devil #3 (Dynamite Comics)
Hell Heist #1 (Zenescope Entertainment)
Shadowman: Soul Eaters #2 (Valiant Entertainment)
Exit City #1 (Mad Cave Studios)
Nemesis: Rogues Gallery #4 (Dark Horse Comics)
Revolution 9 #2 (Mad Cave Studios)
Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (Titan Comics)
Absolute Superman #1 (DC Comics)
Marvel Viewers’ Choice (Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to vote)
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