The Decline of Superhero Morality... and Sales!
In the last 2 decades, American superhero characters have achieved success in both film and TV like never before. This explosion of popularity has continued to ripple with dozens of new movies and shows being announced all the way to 2020. Superhero properties have also gained huge momentum expanding onto other multimedia platforms such as video games and online content. It is a time period unseen before in American superhero history.
Yet, where unimagined success has been achieved by superheroes in every field of modern entertainment , the one area that has not only been unsuccessful and is currently on the decline happens to be comic books itself, the origin point of all these fantastical characters.
Recent news article on comic sales decline:
http://www.newsarama.com/29277-comic-book-sale-take-a-plunge-in-april-down-for-the-year.html
So why is that?
It is no secret that Marvel has dominated DC in comic book sales ever since Stan Lee retooled the superhero formula during the 60’s by making these simple candy-colored power fantasy characters more relatable with them mirroring our everyday plights. Superheroes suddenly have to fight villains and save lives while dealing with common problems such as catching a cold or the need to pay rent. Superhero books since then have become increasingly more layered and complex as the years go by, and one of the biggest stumbling blocks they face today is the "over-mirroring" of our current events and social issues.
Both Marvel and DC both have taken social agendas and have been emphasizing them more and more in their stories and characters. The biggest problem from what I can observe is that they are not putting out these stories to address the issue and make a difference, they are simply exploiting this idea in a hollow manner to raise sales. Homosexuality, feminism, religion, racial diversity, sexual deviances, and so on have been used as marketing ploys in pursuit of what they publicize as “expanding the readership”. No matter what type of comic books, whether American or Japanese, they are a form of escapist fantasy. While it’s good to reflect a certain degree of reality in entertainment, having too much can become a hindrance to a reader’s enjoyment. And what the big two publishers seem to have forgotten is that that the main target demographic for superhero comics (ever since the inception of Superman), are kids, adolescent boys and teenagers, and they don’t buy comics for those reasons! And these special groups they try to target in general do not read superhero comics on a regular basis!
“Who in the world are you guys trying to sell these books to?” "Do they think kids responds to this stuff?" are the questions I frequently ask myself when I see images like this from recent comics.
It’s disheartening to see how the comic book industry has gone against the successful business formula they have been practicing (solid characters, fun action, good storytelling) and abandoned them for fluff pieces or shock values that will not sustain them. Marvel and DC make all these efforts to try and create media coverage to spike sales, but with each what they deem successful attempt, it ends up eroding their core fanbase more and more in the long run. Loyal readers who have purchased superhero comic books for 10, 20, 30 even 50 or 60 years have now started to drop their habits of buying them. These books are no longer the type of entertainment that caters to their escapism. All these great characters the core fanbase look up to as heroes and role models no longer stand for the morality and decency that is so fundamental with the idea of what it is to be an American superhero.
Superhero comic books are hitting an all time low while everything else related, whether it’s movies, TV shows, games, toys, apparel, candy and merchandise are soaring in sales and popularity. And that’s because these other media are portraying them correctly in the public eye.
Imagine a kid just coming out of the latest Captain America movie feeling excited and wanting more of his adventures. You take him into the local comic shop and this is what you find inside the newest issue of Captain America comic...
It’s absolutely ridiculous to have the latest Captain America movie crossing over into the billion dollar mark while it’s comic book counterpart pullings in only around 60,000 copies.
And I strongly believe that if Marvel and DC want to regain their sale numbers for comics, they have to restore their characters’ principal and morality back to the basics and direct their business strategy toward the right demographic audiences again!
Chi Wang
Fore more related reading you can check out some of these articles.:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/01/27/retailers-complain-about-collapsing-marvel-and-dc-sales/
http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/content/comic-book-retailers-sound-dc-marvel-sales-drop
http://hiddencity.net/blog/the-decline-and-fall-of-dc-comics/
http://www.comicbooked.com/grant-morrison-believes-comics-are-dying/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/08/27/talking-to-a-dc-comics-beancounter-about-whats-really-hurting-comics-sales-the-movies-and-cartoons/