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so basically japan right now is producing content akin to the golden age of comics while the us has reached the sewer age of comics

It’s actually more like the US tries to use change existing IP to suit the whims of culture rather than make the effort to fund new IP that suits the audience they want. Sort of trying to saw off the edges of a square peg to suit a round hole rather than just getting a fresh peg for the task.

Yeah, there is some of that. Some of the new X-Men has taken a weird side track into the whole romantic dramaville zone.

But you gotta admit – if X-Men is about diversity, it has to change to fit the discussion about diversity in the US. Just I agree there should be less … dress up parties on the island.

I’m gonna agree with the “sewer age” concept. When I had to say “Miles Morales is NOT my Spider-Man,” I could tell something bad was in the making. By the time they got to Riri “Grand Theft Iron” Williams, it had fully metastasized into the disaster it is now.

However, after they made Punisher War Machine, I was willing to forgive quite a bit. The only thing bad about that one was the ending.

He stands off like a third of the Marvel Universe, blasts his way through most of Hydra, actually gets STOPPED in progress by a cranky Captain Marvel, and then they try to get themselves out of the corner they wrote themselves in by BRINGING RHODEY BACK FROM THE DEAD to beg Frank, pretty please with sprinkles, to get out of the suit. At gunshippoint, no less.

I can’t get into that. Frank just looks so fuckin weird to me

It IS a little weird. But Frank Castle in an Iron Man variant is too holy shit awesome to pass up. He makes the best point, too. “I’m just doing what you won’t.” And they come back with “We’re not him.” It’s the old argument cranked to eleven.

Yeah I’ll give you X-men, its just too much these days, and all the time travel its just UGH.

I hear they’re remaking the nineties X-Men cartoon. Hopefully it will feature fewer weird Professor X anguished grunts.

The main difference for me is manga, for the most part, stays within the creative control and thereby the unified vision of the original creator. Also, it ENDS at some point. A story that goes on and on, solely for the sake of selling issues ad infitum, can never be satisfactory. This is why completely checked out of the MCU after End Game.

Related to the subject of it ending, it also begins in a reasonable place. You don’t need decades of history of over a dozen franchises to know what the hell is going on and who the characters are, you just pick up volume one. Even getting into One Piece, with over a thousand chapters, is less daunting than trying to get back into superheros. Not to say all western comics fall into that trap, but there’s a reason Saga is the only one I follow.

One Piece is child’s play compared to the whole superhero ball of yarn.

Then again, at some point you realize the 50 years of backstory and history over dozens of properties don’t really matter. At that point, it’s over. The spell is broken. You might even be done with the whole thing.

Personally, I shouldn’t really say too much because I departed the superhero world a long time ago. In retrospect, it was mainly Frank Miller who mattered, and then not even all his work.

Ed will spend many of his discretionary $ here, and Rulette will appreciate all of it. And also having a guy in the store who looks her in the eye.

Now I’m trying to figure if Ed’s also doing some wingman reconnoitering for Mike.

The X-Men franchise turned into another Hickman D&D thing, until he got bored, then it turned into Let’s See How Porny We Can Get With Emma Frost.

Overall, I think it’s actually a good direction to go, but there’s way too many books and done are showing signs of reverting to the 90s. Plus…can we kill Wolverine and let him *stay* dead?

I followed Marvel comics from about 1969 to about 1974. Then I moved to the Netherlands where they weren’t as easily accessible. What attracted me was tge long-term consistency of the stories.
I’m back in Canada now and have been for a few decades. The comnents here tell me I have no interest in returning to the comics now. I’ll stick with anime and manga.

I don’t read comics since they started making them depressing. I really don’t like the constant relationship drama DC and Marvel seem fond of making these days. I may like some new versions of characters like Miles Morales, Riri Williams but I don’t want to see the characters I grew to love change so much like Hulk. Hulk is my favorite Marvel character. I really don’t like some of the things they have done to him in recent years. Immortal Hulk’s concept was good. But the relationship drama in it. Ugh…….

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