Sparky Prime wrote:Just being idea based doesn't mean it'd be a good story or will be what the fans want Dom. People tend to read a story for more than just an idea.
BINGO!! And I would go so far as to say that this is likely true of most potential readers that are not reading, and I say that as someone who fits into that category. There are several things that prevent or drive away new readers:
1. Story reboots: It's not going to bring in new readers to reset things every year and constantly tell readers "that thing we just told you happened? Yeah that didn't actually happen." Really? Well then why the fuck did I read it? Fiction is like someone telling a story, but comics are like five drunk and high people standing around arguing about what really happened in a story and none of them can get the details right.
2. The backlog: Some comics have been going for decades. And that can be daunting to new or casual readers. Sure it's easy to say "Just pick a story and read it.", but that's not how most people look at fiction. Most of us look at this the same way we would a tv show or series of movies or video games: We're going to want to start from the beginning so that we get the whole story. Because that's how most fiction works. There's only two mediums I can think of where it's ok to say "just start where you want" and that's comics and soap operas. And Dr. Who. But generally when most people approach a story, they want to start from the beginning. Which leads to my next one:
3. Confusing numbering: It's all well and fine to reboot things in an effort to bring in new readers and starting over with numbering, on the face of it, might seem like a good way to do that. But, that has to then be consistent. I refer back to my Thor example as why this is a problem. It's because the renumbering doesn't stay consistent. The new Thor series started off with a new story and new numbering and, just 20 issues into it, they reverted back to legacy numbering. Now I ask you, if you knew nothing about comics and tried to track down this run of comics, and you found out that there were ~580 issues of a previous Thor book, then another new series with 1-20 which then jumped to 600... Jesus, I'm writing this and I can't even believe I'm writing this, and I think even I lost track of that already. This tendancy is just one more thing keeping new or casual people out of the hobby.
4. Crossovers/the annual "big event": I think most new readers and casual fans want to be able to just start reading a book about a particular character or small group of characters and be able to read about JUST those characters without having to go through an annual event where we have to pick up 20 other books about characters we have no interest in or don't give a shit about just to get the full story about the ones we're interested in. I was particularly irked by this during the "World War Hulk" event because I was reading a few titles at the time, but then had to read a crap ton of other comics, some of them specifically about the Hulk, A character I really don't like on general concept and principal, just to keep up with what was going on in the three I was reading. Which is bullshit. Exactly the kind of bullshit that I, as a casual reader and definitely new readers are not going to tolerate.
On a side note, and to respond to Dom's comment about a consistent ongoing narrative: Again, yes, I do expect that. Because historically, in my experience with comics, that's what I've consistently gotten from comics. My only exposure to reading them as a kid were the original Marvel TF run, including parts of the UK run. Which was a consistent narrative that ran for ~5 years. And then, in my adult life, again, the experience is with TF comics. First with Dreamwave, which kept things going consistently and now with IDW who has been going on with their consistent narrative for over ten years and for a lot of that consisting of at least two titles per month. So why wouldn't I expect that from other comics? And this also applies to the "start from the beginning" thing too because I've had several times where I've read the original 80 issue run beginning to end as one continuous story. And I usually read G2 after that as part of that reading experience because it's part of that same story. Hm... You know what I haven't done though? Read the original 1-80, then the recent Re-G1 and then G2 all together. I might do that actually. See how it shakes out.
Anyway, this is just the perspective of a casual fan of comic characters and a few of the obstacles that keep me from getting into the hobby. Right now, I think the best thing that Marvel and DC could do to draw in new readers would be to start new comics featuring versions of their characters from the cinematic universes, start all of them from number 1 and just let them keep going as long as the movies continue making money. No reboots, no annual events, and no renumbering. And, keep those stories separate from the convoluted universes that they have now. Oh, and they could cross advertise it with the movies!! What a concept! Seriously, just a little blurb during or before the opening credits "See the continuing story in ___ comics on sale now at comic book stores everywhere". I'm willing to bet that they would draw in a lot of new readers if they knew they could see more of that story they just watched on screen and that it would keep going.
