Why I Gave Up on the Marvel Universe...

by funnyberserker

 For the past three or four years, my awareness of the events in the Marvel Universe (theatre fans: that is one with The Avengers and X-Men in it) has been limited to either playing Avengers Alliance on Facebook or scrolling down a discussion forum on Comic Book Resources. At my age, this is fair enough. I ought to have grown out of childish power fantasies at around 18, and my enthusiasm for the adventures of Wolverine and Cyclops and Captain America was probably a manifestation of an urge for childhood certainty.

1. Events
Ever since Civil War, an event mini-series that pretended to be all about the conflict between justice and freedom but was really a series of 'who will win in a fight out of Thor and Goliath'episodes, Marvel has had a bunch of major events, including Fear Itself (Nazi Space Gods and who will win in a fight out of The Thing and Squirrel Girl), Secret Invasion (a rehash of a classic 1970s Avengers story-line and who will win in a fight out of Wolverine and Spider-Woman) and Siege (who will win in a fight out of Norse Gods, Ares and an ersatz Superman who had been dumped into continuity).

These days, the much vaunted consequences of each event have been reversed. Regardless of the jeopardy suggested in each drama, it has all returned to the status quo. And like the denim coated rockers who liked to chuck one out over the dressing room balcony, the status quo of Marvel is a conservative riff on the same old blues.

2. Sexism
Seriously, I am ashamed of the way that women are represented in most comics. Even if Marvel has never reached the apex of exploitation found in some independent comics (hello, Avatar!), Electra and Night Nurse spent a bit too much time bending over.

No more page three? No more Ninjas in high heels and thongs. 

3. Repetition
There is a constant refrain on the message boards that Brian Michael Bendis has 'ruined' the Avengers, by using popular characters (Wolverine and Spider-Man) and giving them the same speech patterns. It's more that the Avengers have ruined Bendis. His run on Daredevil was an effective take on the vigilante culture that is the bedrock of superhero morality: his Avengers was the same set of fights, played out with slight variations.

Even the characters started making jokes about how often they fought ninjas, but awareness of a weakness is not addressing it. Secret Invasion was a remix of the introduction to the Kree-Skrull War. Siege covered similar territory to Civil War. Civil War revisited those 1960s' comic where heroes would fight by mistake. 

Of course, all of this was made to look fresh by my next complaint...

4.Realism

Comics are unrealistic. Blokes fly, women wear high-heels for fighting. Ancient gods tool about in New York. Realism, in comics, translates to 'being nasty'. And so: realistic depictions of Ares getting torn in two. 

5. Resolution
This is a catch-all, but nothing ever changes in the long run. Characters die, and come back within a month. I can't even be bothered to list how many things promised BIG CHANGES which were resolved by the next promise of BIG CHANGES.