Over the past few years, Marvel has been publishing a series of comic series imagining the end of several classic characters including Iron, The Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and the latest is Daredevil: End of Days. Of course, these are are all alternate Earth stories. Any fan knows that after 50 years, Marvel will never let any of these franchises end for good.

When reading a book review about the decline of the superhero comic book industry, where the top selling books sell hundreds of thousands when they used to sell millions. The article asks and answers a key question:

If no cultural barrier prevents a public that clearly loves its superheroes from picking up a new "Avengers" comic, why don't more people do so? The main reasons are obvious: It is for sale not in a real bookstore but in a specialty shop, and it is clumsily drawn, poorly written and incomprehensible to anyone not steeped in years of arcane mythology.


In a much hyped series from Marvel Comics this summer, for example, the Avengers fight the X-Men for inscrutable reasons having to do with a mysterious planet-devouring cosmic force, a plot that makes no sense to anyone not familiar with ancient Marvel epics like "The Dark Phoenix Saga." The story is told in two titles, one called "Avengers vs. X-Men," with a big "AvX" logo on the front, and the other called "AvX," with a big "Avengers vs. X-Men" logo on the front, presumably so you can keep them straight.

The big problem with superhero comics may be that the character's and concepts of the team are relatively stale due to a lack of innovation and new characters.

Consider the current roster of the Avengers, 17 of the 18 members were created 30 years ago or more.

Many of the most prominent members of the DC Universe date back to the 1940s in their origins.

In some ways, this wouldn't necessarily be a problem except for the innovation of Stan Lee, who brought continuity to the world of comic books and let his character change and grow.

Prior to this, characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were like many other fictional characters, particularly in the funnies. They'd be as likely to age and change as Popeye the Sailor or Mickey Mouse. They remained forever ageless and continuity between adventures was limited.

But people decided they liked continuity and so both Marvel and DC did it. They let their characters change, grow, and have ups and downs.

But all this growth and change to the status quo presented a real problem for comic book companies. Were characters getting too old to appeal to youth of today? Had the continuity got too complex for people to understand? The DC universe has rebooted twice in the past 30 years. And characters in both universes have had major plot changes undone for the most improbable reasons. Characters were repeatedly violated to serve the companies' agendas.

The comic book companies have seen fit to do a wide variety of head fakes with fans, killing off characters only to bring them back through well-worn tricks of the trade. The public is really catching on. It was breaking news when Superman died in 1993, it was national news when Captain America bought it in 2007. The news of Peter Parker's death in Amazing Spider-man #700 was greeted with a yawn. The comic book companies have even managed to do death to death, taking the drama out of even that event.

Is there a way back for Superhero comics? Sure, and it stars with actually giving some hereos an end.

To be continued in next post...