In a lot of ways, the holidays are about tradition. Everyone’s got ’em. It might be a family latke recipe, or getting together to watch Die Hard, or arranging the Christmas tree ornaments so the cats don’t knock them off the lowest branches. Here at Multiversity, we have an annual tradition of looking at shared comic book universes and politely ask them to do something differently. It’s one part new years resolution, one part gift giving- to us, every one!
Today, we are taking a look at the red brand, Marvel Comics. We’ve been pretty excited about a lot of Marvel books this year, and we have a lot of suggestions of how they can continue to capitalize on their success. Let’s take a look!
We still want imprints
This is far from a novel suggestion, I’m pretty sure we’ve had it before, but Marvel NEEDS imprints. Despite everything, 2020 has been a strong year for artistic variety at Marvel and this is the way to continue that. We’ve already gotten a million new ‘Marvels’ titles from Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, why not wrap those together into a package? Stuff like Hill House, Sandman Universe and Young Animal have given DC Comics arguably their best titles of the last three years, there’s no reason it couldn’t do the same for Marvel. Additionally, so many great creators have steered away from the Marvel bullpen because of how they’ve chafed against its continuity and confines, it’s a disappointing loss of otherwise eager talent. By giving them a space for this wider variety of artistic direction you give all these new storytellers the means to use your IP without its trappings. I mean, the reason we got “Fantastic Four” #1 in the first place was because Stan Lee went against the editorial direction and shoved some ragtag loners into spandex, why not create the spaces for that same lightning in a bottle? – James Dowling
More Writer’s Rooms
In TV, you’ve got the writer’s room, a collection of creatives shouting ideas at a white board and collaborating to figure out the best story. Comics are already a collaborative medium, so it’s kind of nuts that it took so long for someone to put those ideas together. But that’s exactly how the X-Office functions, and the results speak for themselves! (And yes, this is not the first time I’ve suggested that Marvel make everything more like their “X-Men” line). Marvel creators tend to live all over the world, so collaborating in a physical space is usually not an option, but in 2020 that wasn’t really an option for anyone. So the X-Office used technology and created what sounds like a vibrant and creatively fulfilling chat. X-writers say that their colleagues offer great feedback and help them write the best versions of their ideas. And that energy shows on the page!
Now, I’m not saying that everyone in the comics biz would be great in a writer’s room. You hear stories that some comics writers are… to say someone isn’t really a people person is putting it gently. This hope also addresses that! If being a good collaborator becomes an important job requirement for writing a Marvel comic, hopefully that will help eliminate rude, difficult, and harmful people. The kind of writer who is good at respecting their artist and editor will also respect their fellow writer. Not only will working conditions improve, but it’s clear that this style is great for making excellent Big Two superhero comics! -Jake Hill
Hire. Less. White. Men.
(Yes, I said this yesterday in the DC Wishlist, too.)
This is a call to do this at all levels, from the creative staff (writers, illustrators, colorists, letterers) to editorial to their TV & movies staff (which is more a Disney controlled endeavor, I imagine.) I wanted to single out a group to hire more of in the title but, hell, it’s more a matter of making a concerted effort to hire people who better reflect the world outside my window than the world inside a gated community. That said, hiring more Black creators and especially editorial staff would be a much needed start.
Not giving every big name property to the same 5 writers would also be a great caveat to this. Look, I love Aaron’s work. I would much prefer to see a black writer or, even better, an entire black team on “Avengers.” Or an entire team of women. Or women of color. Queer creators across the spectrum? Maybe more Jay Eddin Cyclops. He made me love Cyclops god dammit! This list from Tim Hanley helped illustrate a small segment of this.
Continued belowLike, Ta-Nehisi Coates on “Captain America” has been luminous and Gene Luen Yang on “Shang-Chi” has been the perfect balance of martial arts action, nuanced character study, and fun, superhero nonsense. Imagine Avengers with Coates and a whos-who of artists or a Defenders series by Yang with Sana Takeda on art (it wouldn’t work because Takeda needs way more time per issue to give us the kind of quality we got on “Monstress” but still.)
Imagine a Thor book written by an all-female creative team. Imagine more than you currently are, Marvel. You’re getting there but not nearly there enough. – Elias Rosner
Get smart, get implicative
I don’t know how intentional of a trend this is, but I’ve noticed a lot of the post-Fresh Start Marvel titles (plus “Squirrel Girl” when it was still releasing) have found huge success in bringing the tropes or subtext of their main characters to the forefront, making cliches into advantages that demand greater creativity but produce smarter, rewarding stories. Hulk has always been about tortured monster cliches and this vaguely threatening idea of psychological deviance, so “Immortal Hulk” emphasises and satirises that by making Hulk entirely unkillable, nocturnal and ruled by the ‘Devil Hulk.’ But by putting Bruce Banner and all his alters in therapy and bringing taxonomy to his mentality Al Ewing, Joe Bennet and co. get to do something genuinely novel with the character. Similarly the X-Men have been drenched in deaths and rebirths all throughout history to the point of flippancy, by making resurrection ingrained in the new era of X-Men stories Hickman has made a story that is inherently constructive and more implicative because of the rules it holds itself to. Why can’t we see this with Spider-Man or The Avengers or any of the popular characters caught in cycles of repetitious storytelling? I want to see Marvel using their top-heavy continuity for something more than just a mystery villain, mash-up character or call-back joke, play with something thematic, make a statement. – James Dowling
Don’t Hire Scumbags and Fire Current Scumbags
I won’t name names of who I’m thinking of here re: hiring because I don’t want to speak Lashon Hara about things I’m not really up on. Instead, I’ll use a highly publicised and well-sourced event as an example: the Akira Yoshida debacle. Marvel’s handling of this is emblematic of a larger problem in comics — and all industries — but this is the Marvel section so I’m just going to highlight what it means for them. For those who don’t know, C. B. Cebulski, the current Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, once posed as a Japanese creator named Akira Yoshida.
Now, I’m sure Cebulski is a great guy and a wonderful Editor in Chief, but that does not matter here because he never actually faced any repercussions for, I repeat, pretending to be a Japanese writer back while he was a regular editor at Marvel. Moreover, he was hired to the EIC position with Marvel knowing this. That should not happen if Marvel was actually committed to making good on any of their promises about equitable and safe workplaces. The job could have easily gone to another fully qualified person.
It also does not bode well for any promises made regarding what would happen in even more serious situations, like when other higher ups show open, blatant, and poisonous racism or when accusations of sexual assault occur in the workplace.
Couple this with Marvel’s abysmal protection of their own staff from toxic fans’ online abuse, usually against their female staffers and creators, and it’s clear they need to make a more tangible commitment than some words on paper affirming what should be the bare minimum. Walk the walk, Marvel, and fix your shit. – Elias Rosner
The Numbers Game
Every year I complain that Marvel is doing something dumb with numbering their books. They didn’t suddenly become smart in 2020, but they didn’t get dumber either. OK! Good trajectory. Keep up the good momentum. I’ve spent a lot of time considering different ways to number long-running ongoing comics series, and I’ve reached the conclusion that there is no definitive “best way,” but there is a worst way, and that is when you change the numbering system every year. Right now, Marvel is producing more miniseries than they used to, and legacy numbering sits right on the cover besides the smaller volume numbers. Fine! That seems like a fairly good system. Now just don’t go and start changing crap again. You readers will thank you. -Jake Hill
Continued belowPlease for the love of god, give ongoing titles to someone other than a straight white guy
It blows my mind that we’re in an era where DC is better at this than Marvel, post-’Future State’ it seems like the DCU has purged so much of that gross New 52 mountain of privileged masculinity working on their books. Like they’re still only achieving the bare minimum but Mariko Tamaki get’s to write BATMAN! It’s awesome! Meanwhile in the House of Ideas “Avengers,” “Spider-Man,” “X-Men,” “Fantastic Four,” “Daredevil,” “Thor” and “Iron Man,” are all written by white guys, with not much more inclusivity on the art teams. It’s undoubtedly getting better (even though “Children of the Atom” is apparently being held hostage), but I just want to see some disparate voices writing key Marvel characters and not just getting driven after writing a series that gets no advertising and then having it cancelled after one or two arcs (RIP “Ironheart,” “Iceman,” “Nebula” etc etc etc). Now a lot of these current writers are genuinely making a concerted and conscientious impact with their books, but then there’s always going to be creators like Dan Slott actively hijacking the subtext of outsider stories, I don’t want to be witchhunt-y but his stories are just so emblematic of this problem: the fetishization of Silk, throwing Franklin Richards out of a mutant identity, the crude and heavy-handed use of racial allegory in “Iron Man;” it’s all just regressive storytelling and we need creators who are going to move with the social climate, not despite it. – James Dowling
We don’t need the end of the world every day
Knull, Kindred, The Black Winter, what do they all have in common? They’re the latest original villains from Marvel to get any kind of longevity and advertising, and they’re also worn-out semi-personified MacGuffins whose threat level is as universal as their personality is minimal. The biggest bad guys at the top of every list of Avengers villains will more often than not, just be giant evil space men or such, the only difference between them and these new kids on the block is that we’ve just had enough stories and exposure to accept that Thanos, Galactus and Mephisto must be a layered characters because they’ve been around for a while now. I feel like there’s this counterintuitive belief at Marvel (and, to be fair, in a lot of dominant media) that higher stakes mean an elevated story when in actuality they tip the scale deeper towards the certainty of a heroic victory. Knull’s black goo isn’t going to eat the Earth because that’s where Howard the Duck lives and he’s not going to die off-page in a Venom book. The Griever at the End of All Things (god that is way too long of a name) isn’t going to un-make the Multiverse because that’s the fucking Multiverse.
When you’re betting for all the marbles none of the other kids are going to want to play, especially when you’re directing the game of marbles and you always end your game of marbles by losing the War Machine (or Goliath or some other black sidekick) marble, giving the other kid an evil space god marble, then sweeping the board, saving the day and returning to status quo with your game swiftly forgotten. Event comics can still work masterfully without needing or emphasising cataclysmic stakes, ‘X of Swords’ was great because its focus was on the intricacy of its new characters and locations, rather than the certain doom they spelled. Similarly, “Guardians of the Galaxy” is great! It has so many killer issues that centre around the threat of emotional decline or a fractured identity, without even needing some big evil boogaloo to tie it together. There’s a place for planet eaters and reality destroyers, but I really wish we could find something else to squeeze into the limelight in the year to come. – James Dowling
Keep Up the Good Work!
I cannot recall a time in the last ten years when Marvel’s books have felt stronger than they do now. While not everything you hear behind the scenes is perfect, you hear lots of great stories in interviews about young creators being supported, finding wonderful collaborators, and growing as artists. Not every story is like that, so my dream for 2021 is to do more of what works. The folks who seem happy working for Marvel? They are doing excellent work. Those things seem to go hand in hand. Imagine that! Let Marvel continue to grow as a company. When creatives feel safe, when their work environment isn’t a hostile boy’s club, everyone benefits. Including us, the readers! I want to live in a comic world like that. -Jake Hill
Continued belowMoratorium on the 20,000 books a month publishing choice
This probably would impact the weirder books in the line but I’m glad that Marvel has a smaller output since coming back from the shutdown. We don’t need close to 100 books a month from one company y’all. We especially don’t need 20,000 tie-ins to every event where “someone invades Earth with an interchangable, faceless army” twice a year. It’s overkill and while there’s often a gem in there, like “King in Black: Namor,” more often than not we get 30 “Empyre: Captain America’s.” -Elias Rosner
Create an Actual Application Process
For fucks sake, it’s 2020 and Marvel & the direct competition still haven’t put in a real system for submitting pitches and applications to work at the company like, uh, literally every other industry. It’s a “who do you know” type deal still and that’s really unconscionable considering they’re owned by two of the largest multinational entertainment conglomerates in, well, the world. This would help increase the talent pool and make a more equitable system since, unfortunately, most of the people hiring are cis straight white dudes and are primarily friends with cis straight white creators.
The same goes for paying living wages and GIVING FUCKING HEALTH INSURANCE & PENSIONS to their employees. I’ve said it multiple times but get your shit together Marvel and treat your workers well. Ike doesn’t need a seven figure salary (I presume) while their colorists cannot afford their cancer treatments and have to work from their ICU beds, which is disgusting even if he wanted to be working for whatever personal reasons. -Elias Rosner
DRM-free please?
I know this will never happen in a million years but can we finally start allowing for DRM-free downloads so that I and others can not feel like their collection is trapped either on a sub-par reading system or Amazon? Please? DRM-free downloads don’t increase piracy Marvel but it does make it easier for me to read it and organize it the way I want (like making a custom digital reading order for the Dawn of X era.) Please. -Elias Rosner
More Jeff
MORE JEFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. – Elias Rosner
