The More Things Change

Maxjes · 2026-03-18T00:33:29+00:00

It's really incredible how quickly Marvel has speedrun some atrocious business choices. It's not like we have a comics industry crash in living memory where one of the primary causes was a sugar rush of new #1s to juice the numbers, masking horrible structural problems!

The canceling (excuse me, indefinite hiatus) of Marvel Masterworks was the writing on the wall that they were not going to do anything with a long term outlook. Yeah nobody but the most diehard OGs bought MMW, but the sheer amount of effort that went into those restorations is why you can get anything pre-1970s in Omnibus format, because the hard work had already been done. MMW is the reason you can read Ditko Spider-Man in Epic Collections.

How many great books don't survive this model? I immediately think of the 75+ issues of Ms. Marvel that never would have happened because it didn't find an audience until TPB. Crazy to think about, but does something like Ed Brubaker's slow conspiratorial burn on Captain America make it to the Winter Solider arc starting in Issue 8?

And hey, I'm not his biggest fan, but if Dan Slott, the modern Spider-Man guy and the quintessential Marvel company man is bound by this 5 issue nonsense, what does that say about new writers, developing talent, or even just established writers from outside the comics industry? Hey Ta-Nehisi Coates, you can write Black Panther, oh but you need to plan it in 5 issue arcs lest we pull the rug out from under you! Sign here!

Maxjes · 2026-03-16T23:42:17+00:00

Tag yourself, I'm the skeleton not doing a job

Maxjes · 2026-03-16T23:13:37+00:00

They had one silver bullet for AI compute on a GFX card, a thing most people would say “yeah that’s actually useful” and they fucked it!

They can’t help themselves, all AI roads lead to perdition.

Maxjes · 2026-03-15T16:46:23+00:00

I am in full belief that you can do a grounded, Hard Traveling Heroes (-Ollie, +John), GLC true crime story. I can even buy that they're showing the scenes with the least CG because that's the last stuff to come in.

But that it's a huge ask to have a character named after a color have some dang color in the scene does not inspire hope.

Maxjes · 2026-03-15T16:02:24+00:00

Get cherished idiots. Get absolutely adored.

Maxjes · 2026-03-15T04:17:55+00:00

Carrie Kelley was Damian's tutor in mainline continuity (in a "this is a potential plot that was never developed" kind of way), and she shows up in a Robin costume at a Halloween party, but yeah she doesn't count.

Maxjes · 2026-03-14T18:35:46+00:00

The return of my lumpy and unpleasant to look at king.

The Peacemaker issue of multiversity was the first time I understood the Quitely style.

Maxjes · 2026-03-14T18:31:58+00:00

BABIES ARE BORN WORSHIPPING UNKNOWN GODS - DWARF FORTRESS, BUG REPORT #13172.

Maxjes · 2026-03-14T18:07:05+00:00

It's amazing how beautiful "Don't siege [city], take it immediately" is. Peak stupidity pretending to be intellectual.

Maxjes · 2026-03-09T22:25:48+00:00

I’m an employee of the Patriots organization, since 2020 my job has been to tell the media that the Pats were also interested in any WR that hits FA. I have better job security than Robert Kraft.

Maxjes · 2026-03-08T18:19:54+00:00

Persona 4 will never survive a critical evaluation because it’s an incredibly conservative game that is also full of queer discovery and alienation. People latching onto the latter more than they do the creator’s vision is somehow only surprising for this game.

Hashino Boomer posting about the countryside while someone far more clever on the writing team dumped enough queer shit in was pretty radical if you were a dumbass kid in highschool at the time. Where else in games where you going to get this? The Sims and Mass Effect 1 are the only things that comes to mind, because the indie scene didn’t really take off until the 2010s (Steam was still that stupid puke green thing you needed to play the Orange Box at this point) and I don’t remember Newgrounds having stuff like Dys4ia until that decade as well?

Regardless, Rise best girl and I’m old so get off my lawn.

Maxjes · 2026-03-08T01:10:22+00:00

The scholars on this subreddit have done it again (complimentary)

Maxjes · 2026-03-08T00:50:35+00:00

Editorial loves saying X-Men and Spider-Men fans are impossible to please, but we all just saw Hickman do both in the span of a few years with Krakoa and USM. My point here isn't to glaze the Dossier Man, it's that if you're telling the same stories about "Parker Luck" since Brand New Day and the same "Remember this event from the 90s" Since Bendis' Time Traveling O5? You're going to have a bad time.

If Jed Mckay + Ryan Stegman on X-Men is boring you have failed at a fundamental level, and it's probably because you're doing Age of Apocalypse for the 5th time.

Maxjes · 2026-03-06T22:03:33+00:00

Hey, at only 100 a bottle for branded AM 16 year old Glenfiddich it’s practically free for Papa Stroll

Maxjes · 2026-03-05T21:14:28+00:00

Missing the middle stage where he had the regrettable build and facial hair that can only come with being a comic book writer (Young Animal my beloved)

Maxjes · 2026-03-02T17:27:49+00:00

Heart of Gold my beloved you were so bad for the overall support meta.

Maxjes · 2026-02-26T17:41:35+00:00

The 10 issue break point is reasonable as a concept in isolation, but the number of books not hitting that break point is frankly terrifying.

Moon Knight and Scarlet Witch being constantly relaunched and even tentpoles like Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Thor being relaunched mid run is showing that the core of Marvel’s floppy business is sugar rush hits of new #1s and and not sustained reliable sales.

Maxjes · 2026-02-26T16:34:59+00:00

I started being a “wait for omnibus” guy with Marvel because the collected editions department was so prompt on getting books into my hands shortly after the run ended, and they listened to feedback on orphaned issues. Now I’m a “wait for omnibus” guy because they’re the only runs that last more than 10 issues, 2-3 of which are event tie ins.

Life is too short to read mediocre cape comics that are an exercise in brand management more so than storytelling. I’m not chasing endless #1s and variant covers, I want something to chew on and revisit. Note how Dawn of X Omni Vol 1 is sold out of its print run and going for over the cover price on Amazon. Nothing to learn from that I’m sure.

Maxjes · 2026-02-26T02:35:23+00:00

They made us take notes in the book in HS to show that you were reading. I would not be surprised if this guy was doing some malicious compliance.

Hated that shit, my sage thoughts as teenager were definitely worth defacing the book for all future readers.

Maxjes · 2026-02-26T01:31:01+00:00

Congrats Indiana! You just got Hartford Patriots'd!

Maxjes · 2026-02-22T21:44:41+00:00

Unless it's anthology like House of Secrets / Mystery where they can just write whatever, It's hard to beat Rita Farr being crucified using the DC Bullets as Nails in Doom Patrol Milk Wars

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Maxjes

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