CaptainMarvel1957 wrote:

Meanwhile, do you think that the reboot is a necessity to attract newer readers? Marvel always did have complex storylines with references that could go back to the first pages of any book. With Spider-Man having over 500 issues it could be that a reboot will make the book a bit more reader friendly for new readers and allow them to jump onboard without feeling lost. Remember, Disney built an empire on releasing its classic films every five years figuring that every five years they had a fresh and brand new audience.
I don't think a reboot is ever necessary, or even desirable. I always hear the complaint that continuity presents problems for new readers. Well, Marvel had a remedy for that in the 70's. They were called "reprints". Viola! Problem solved. You could pick up reprints of the earliest issues of most major titles and it was all easy, cheap, and fun.

The problem is that starting in the 80's, the companies began to hire hacks who had no experience growing up with the characters. The characters meant nothing to them. And then the company was taken over by a successive string of scumbags who looked at the characters as nothing more than dollar signs and who used and abused them in any insane way possible if they thought it would generate cash for them. This is why Galactus gets his ass trashed about 3 times a year when some hack writer decides to showboat his writing "skill" by churning out some garbage that the company calls an "event" and writes up some stupid new uber-god character who kicks Galactus's ass along with Eternity's and every other cosmic being's ass. During the idiotic Infinity Gauntlet Trilogy they even invented new cosmic godlike characters in order to make Thanos-with-gauntlet look more powerful. It was the ultimate case of "mine is bigger than yours" in comic format, and quite sickening.

Marvel used to respect its characters. DC always sorta lacked that pride. But with Marvel it was like the characters were family. Now they're like underwear...wear them today, throw them in the laundry bin tomorrow.

Jeff Mclachlan wrote:

And Count Karnstein, I'm partial to the 60's Marvel books too, and I can see how being away from reading comics for several years can make the current books seem pretty alien when you give them a casual glance years later. But I hope I never reach the point where I automatically dismiss any form of current culture on that basis. The "All old--Good, All-new--Bad" argument gets more attractive as you get older, but deep down most of us don't really believe that's true, do we?
I reject damn near everything about our current culture. Precious little of it is worth the time of day. Most things have degenerated to the point when I think we're close to a complete collapse of society and having to rebuild the country from scratch, and the sooner the better. And yes, I truly believe that it's pretty much all bad. There are few if any true absolutes in reality, but it seems to me that the exceptions are becoming more and more rare. So the "all old = good, all new = bad" thing is pretty accurate, with rare exceptions.

Comic books cannot be satisfying for me because they are no longer comic books. They are not the same medium they once were. They are not the same vehicle they once were. They serve a far different purpose, with far different methods and far different results. Calling a $4.00 roll of toilet paper with a pretty cover and a Marvel logo on it a "comic book" is insulting to what real comics are (were). The average person will look at an issue of Spiderman from 1968 and an issue from 2008 and call both "comic books". But that's like looking at a redwood tree and a dandelion and calling them both "plants".

It seems obvious that comic companies are clueless because they need to keep re-inventing and re-booting things every few years. And they have to have epic-level, universe-shattering "events" several times a year. Hell, they now do that on a weekly basis! And yet those same characters previously stood the test of time for 20, 30, even 50 years without such drastic, desperate measures. Suddenly we hit the 90's and beyond, and there's a reboot or reworking every few years, and cosmic level stories with an ever increasing level of absurdity every few months!

Proof once again of my theory that everything has its "shelf life" and nothing you can do can extend that shelf life without totally corrupting the contents!

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted in a profoundly sick society."

- Krishnamurti