Goodbye Marvel

Ever since Marvel announced that they were being bought out by Disney, a corporation I have nothing but contempt for, I have considered cutting all of the Marvel books out of my hold stack. While the Disney buy-out was a pretty large step towards removing Marvel shit from my life, it wasn't the first nail in the proverbial coffin. For years Marvel has been staging huge events that cross over through all of their titles and change the characters based on the outcomes of said events. Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, etc, have all changed the "status quo" of the Marvel Universe 'forever.' Or for about a year until the next world-changing event.

I can't take it anymore. I want to read an X-Men book because I like the X-Men. I don't want to have to purchase six different tie-ins to know what the fucking X-Men are doing. The X-Men have no business being in the Avengers, and vice-versa. Leave these teams in their own goddamn books! Or at least keep each book within its own corner of the Marvel U, self-sufficient and without having to feel the effects of what some S.H.I.E.L.D., (or H.A.M.M.E.R. or D.I.L.D.O.) asshole is doing. If a writer on one book wants to include another group that is fine, as long as I don't have to buy both books to know what is going on in the one book I actually give enough of a shit to read.

I understand it is about money. Marvel is a business and they need to sell a certain amount of product to continue being viable, but they are really stabbing themselves in the crotch here. Eventually everyone will get sick of having to buy every book to know what the fuck is going on. What it is beginning to feel like is a choose your own adventure book that requires all of the pieces to be purchased separately. Only in comics could publishers get away with this shit. If the new Cormac McCarthy book was released in different books that only had certain chapters, people would flip the fuck out and storm the publishers building. Let each piece stand on its fucking own.

So my solution to this is to stop buying Marvel books altogether. I will let the storylines finish and then I am done. I will stick to the books that can tell a story in 22 pages a month that makes sense from one month to the next and that don't require me spending an extra $100 a month to know what the hell is happening.