Comic Store In Your Future: When Will Marvel Get Their Mojo Back?
· BCPosted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: comic store in your future
Comic Store In Your Future: When Will Marvel Get Their Mojo Back?
Comic Store In Your Future asks... "When Will Marvel Get Their Mojo Back?" And just how are they going to go about doing that?
Published Sun, 14 Jun 2026 08:33:08 -0500
by Rod Lamberti
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Article Summary
- Comic Store In Your Future argues Marvel Comics has bigger brands than ever, yet relaunches and weak sales show fading momentum.
- Marvel’s reliance on blind bags, gimmicks, and five-issue minis is hurting readers, trades, and long-term comic sales.
- Star Wars, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and Spider-Man prove Marvel struggles to turn movie hype into comic success.
- Comic Store In Your Future says Marvel needs stronger leadership, better Marvel Studios synergy, and comics fans want to read.
Former Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada once said of DC Comics, "They have Batman and Superman, and they don't know what to do with them. That's like being a p— star with the biggest d— and you can't get it up." I always believed that Marvel and DC could sell more comic books; print is not dead. Other countries easily outsell the United States print-wise; comic books got their start in the United States, though they now trail sales-wise behind other countries.
Joe Quesada's quote could easily be applied to Marvel Comics currently. Their characters are much more well-known worldwide than they were when he first started at Marvel years ago. Avengers, X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and more, of course, had movies that made the characters even more well-known. Yet somehow titles like The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel have needed to be relaunched multiple times. Marvel is like a race car driver that has led the American pack for so long; they are lifting their foot off the gas.
When Marvel first started publishing Star Wars comics again years ago, the excitement and talent were there. The sales were there. At the time, it looked like a sure thing that Marvel would stay in first place in the American market while DC would be stuck behind them. As a reader, I was enjoying the heck out of the Star Wars books at the time. Fast forward to now, Darth Maul's limited series is doing great while Marvel is unable to get the classic Star Wars characters an ongoing monthly. I read Star Wars #10, the last issue, and, truthfully, was disappointed, along with a lot of people here who picked it up.
Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts/New Avengers movies came out. Their current comic series sales-wise? Not exactly high numbers. Disney's takeover of Marvel Comics has not led to an increase in Marvel's sales. Disney's ownership actually held them back at times. Pettiness over another studio having a Fantastic Four movie led to there not being a Fantastic Four comic title. Stupidity led Marvel to try to push the Inhumans over the X-Men. The various Inhumans series Marvel pushed out failed.
Marvel has relied on gimmicks so much and neglected its readership for years: blind bags and more blind bags. Come June, Marvel will celebrate 616 days with blind-bag sets priced at $14.99. Leave it to Marvel to raise the price. The Daredevil blind bags sold out for us at $5.99 each. Come September, Marvel will have a DNX blind bag. Queen in Black blind bags are coming out in July. How long will the blind bag craze last?
It is like Marvel doesn't believe in their characters anymore. Five issues currently, what is Marvel willing to do? A new Spider-Man title came out this year, along with a new Spider-Man movie later in the year, and the writer of the new Spider-Man series goes on podcasts to get stores to order more, so it may get past five issues. What the heck? Can you imagine a writer for DC saying a new Superman or Batman title needs help to make it past issue 5? DC just extended Firestorm for goodness's sake.
I remember people buying Marvel because of the stories. Back in 2010, when I first opened Rodman Comics, Uncanny X-Force was very popular; I was reading it too. Loved it along with many other fans. People were reading it. Deadpool was a member, and he was cool as heck in the book. There was even a joke about the various teams Wolverine was on at the time. A black ops X title. It sold. Why are the Absolute books for DC doing so well? So many people are reading them. Every Wednesday that an Absolute Batman issue releases a new issue I know it is going to be a great sales day. Absolute titles bring people in; they want to read the stories.
A blind bag is not for people who want to read a book. I understand why they are popular; it is like playing the lottery. Opening one and hoping to get a sketched cover by an artist would be so cool. I would love to say it happened to me. It would be exciting. Blind bags and Marvel relaunches do not help their trade sales. Trades are for people who want to read a story arc. Marvel goes for the quick buck, and has been doing so for so long that it is hurting them more and more.
Marvel's characters are more popular than ever, and Disney now owns them. Though somehow that did not help sales. Having Kevin Feige behind Marvel Studios making movies based on comic book storylines that don't carry over into the actual comic books is terrible. The studios and publishing should have had much better marketing together when new Marvel movies were coming out.
When it was recently announced that Marvel Comics President Dan Buckley will be leaving Marvel Comics Studio's Kevin Feige released this " From events like Civil War, Secret Wars, X-Men: Age of Krakoa, and the soon-to-be-released Marvel Midnight imprint, to the expansion into video games, television, animation and more, Marvel's influence on popular culture expanded under Dan's leadership, bringing our characters and stories to new fans around the world. Dan has left a lasting mark on Marvel's legacy and on the comics industry, and I'm deeply grateful to him and pleased we will have his full support through this transition."
X-Men Age of Krakoa? Seriously? What comic book storylines were under Dan's leadership? Kevin Feige is no James Gunn; DC has its studio head championing DC Comics comic books, what a concept. James Gunn, during his far shorter time in his role, has pushed DC Comics far more than Kevin Feige has pushed Marvel's actual comics during his many years with Marvel Studios.
I have had customers tell me that their friends or coworkers know the Marvel movies, though they have no idea they were based on actual comic books. Many people have no idea that comic books are still being made. Kevin Feige promoted the Marvel movies for years, though he never made much effort to credit the comic books that launched the characters and storylines.
There used to be a Marvel Creative Committee. This paragraph is from a previous article from 2023 that Bleeding Cool's own Rich Johnston wrote: "Ike Perlmutter set up the Marvel Creative Committee to take an overview of all of Marvel's operations, in games, toys, theme parks, TV, and movies, with the expressed intent to keep them true to the comics and the brand. The members included Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Joe Quesada, publisher Dan Buckley, and president Alan Fine. But relations with some of the movie directors and Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, seem to have been rather strained along the way."
Ben Fritz reports that he heard that "during the production of Iron Man 2, members of the Creative Committee hated how Iron Man acted when he was drunk, including a moment when he pees in his suit. That scene stayed in the movie, but the Committee convinced Feige to trim some dialogue they thought made Iron Man seem cruel." At the time, I was told that this included a drunk Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., striking Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, in frustration, and that the Marvel Creative Committee recalled how hard it was to bring Hank Pym back from a similar scene in the Avengers comics all those years ago, and got the scene amended. But Ben reports that it went beyond that into money. "
Imagine Iron Man II, the movie, featuring a scene in which Iron Man strikes Pepper Potts. That very well could have hurt upcoming Marvel movies at the time. The Marvel Creative Committee no longer existed, and Marvel kept pumping out movies. In recent years, Marvel movies have not been as big hits as they once were. Maybe time to bring a Marvel Creative Committee back to help out the movies? Long past time for Marvel Studios and Marvel Comics to work together to promote comics. With the recent and upcoming leadership changes, I do hope to see Marvel change direction. Give people comics they want to read. Marvel, can you take some Viagra and get back to your former glory?
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