Almost There! Diamond announces preliminary OCT numbers

[TruBlud71]

Diamond, on it's retailer website has a capsule breakdown of the October sales numbers.
No surprise, Blackest Night put DC solidly in number one. In fact, DC practically owned the top 5.

But more impressive is that the unit share and dollar share of the big 2 are now a mere sneeze apart.
Marvel still holds leads in both categories by a narrow margin with unit share being 40.15 to 37.70, and dollar share being 36.50 to 33.80. That's a difference of 2.45% in unit share and just 2.70% in dollar share. This despite the huge disparity in the number of $3.99 books being offered, where DC has about 20% line-wide, while Marvel carry's a 60% number of titles at $3.99 or higher.

Once not long ago, Marvel looked like the indisputable industry leader. That lead has now almost entirely evaporated. I, for one, wonder if Marvel is hearing a message loud and clear from retailers and readers alike that a higher price point (and "darker" "real life" stories) was not and is not the answer.

[archer9]

Diamond, on it's retailer website has a capsule breakdown of the October sales numbers.
No surprise, Blackest Night put DC solidly in number one. In fact, DC practically owned the top 5.

But more impressive is that the unit share and dollar share of the big 2 are now a mere sneeze apart.
Marvel still holds leads in both categories by a narrow margin with unit share being 40.15 to 37.70, and dollar share being 36.50 to 33.80. That's a difference of 2.45% in unit share and just 2.70% in dollar share. This despite the huge disparity in the number of $3.99 books being offered, where DC has about 20% line-wide, while Marvel carry's a 60% number of titles at $3.99 or higher.

Once not long ago, Marvel looked like the indisputable industry leader. That lead has now almost entirely evaporated. I, for one, wonder if Marvel is hearing a message loud and clear from retailers and readers alike that a higher price point (and "darker" "real life" stories) was not and is not the answer.

A few points.

One, it's taken an Event, you know those things that all fans "hate" to help DC close the gap.

Two, what will DC do once Blackest Night ends.

Three, if "darker" stories aren't the answer then shouldn't Blackest Night, a story about zombies rising from the dead not be selling well?

Four, I know you have a grudge against JoeQ & Marvel but do you really really think DC will sustain anything like this once Marvel starts Siege & the return of the Heroic Age?

Five, keep up these threads though cause your grudge sgainst Marvel really does amuse me.

[TruBlud71]

A few points.

One, it's taken an Event, you know those things that all fans "hate" to help DC close the gap.

And Siege is an "Event", so is "Fall of the Hulks", the third part of the "Messiah" trilogy, the "Realm of Kings". Marvel can start proclaiming itself "event free" all it wants, let's see them back it up. Hint: It isn't going to happen.

Two, what will DC do once Blackest Night ends.

Hopefully? Take an "event" break, but eventually there will be another event. It looks like the big one for 2009 will be built around the Superman franchise and will be a result of the "World of New Krypton" story and the "7734" story.

Three, if "darker" stories aren't the answer then shouldn't Blackest Night, a story about zombies rising from the dead not be selling well?

I think it's hilarious that the companies are riffing off each other. Marvel had Zombies and Dark Reign, so DC came up with "Blackest Night" (which really is more a continuity story than anything else, you just have to be a huge DC geek to see it. This is the book that should have been Final Crisis). Now Marvel is doing Nerosha. Yawn.
Also, DC is doing all this around a mini-series with a set number of issues. Dark Reign has been a series of cross-overs, one-shots, mini-series, et al. It feels like it's been going on forever (it's been at least a year). And most people are depressed enough about the state of the world that they'd rather not endure a year of "Bad guys/corrupt guys win. Good guys, common man gets screwed over." That's what we have newspapers and TV for.
For all that it is a variation on a theme, Blackest Night is escapist in that most of us are less concerned with Zombies in real life than we are about corrupt politicians and the loss of civil liberties.

Four, I know you have a grudge against JoeQ & Marvel but do you really really think DC will sustain anything like this once Marvel starts Siege & the return of the Heroic Age?

Oh wow, here we go again. The Mighty Marvel Martyr Society is pointing fingers and talking about a "grudge" by ONE GUY. I'll restate for those who missed it the first however many times, I have never been to the Marvel office, never met or spoken to Joe Quesada. Do I resent that Marvel as a company and Joe as their primary spokesman lied for over 6-8 months about their rationale for a price increase during a recession? I sure do. That's called an opinion.
Were there many people who question these "dark reality driven" story trends? Who questioned a price increase? Who questioned editorial decisions that (TWICE) saw Joe Quesada push JMS so far that he eventually LEFT the company? (Despite the fact that everything JMS wrote sold like hotcakes) YES, YES, and YES.
These are realities and people are entitled to have opinions other than yours.
I find your "grudge" against me as laughable as you seem to find my "grudge" against Marvel. I'm willing to bet I buy more Marvel books a month than you do as well. Why? Because I generally like Marvel characters.
As for how well "Siege" will tie things up, let's wait and see. Certainly it will sell. But will it adequately answer 5 years of questions? (Avengers: Disassembled, House of M, Secret War, New Avengers, Civil War, Death of Cap, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege) All in 4 issues? Really? Frankly, I have been less than satisfied by most of the "conclusions" to the grand story-telling scemes of Brian Michael Bendis. So if they manage to actually pull it off, bravo.
And there has to be a "Heroic" age. What else can Marvel do without forcing readers to commit suicide? DC is slowly pulling even and what does DC excel at? Telling the same stories of the Heroic Age again and again.

Five, keep up these threads though cause your grudge sgainst Marvel really does amuse me.

I live to amuse you.

[archer9]

Yes I know you don't have a "grudge" against Marvel. Or at least that's what you claim. You can throw whatever numbers at me that you want it's obvious you want to see Marvel fail as a company. By voicing your displeasure for their current & future storylines you've showed that your non-grudge is purely based off of your own selfish reasons. We get it, you don't enjoy the current status quo. That's fine, but some of us do. I could care less if Marvel lost some footing in the sales charts because DC has an event going on. In fact it's about time DC has caught up with Marvel. Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, 52, Countdown, Amazons Attack, & Final Crisis couldn't do it. So congrats to Geoff Johns for finally doing it. You post all of this every month like you expect Marvel to just shut down one day & close their doors. All the books that landed in the top ten for Marvel didn't have a event of miniseries attached to them and don't say Dark Reign is an event cause it's not; it's the status quo of the Marvel U right now. Either way I was being honest, you & these asnine threads to amuse me so keep it up. Though considering it's been 24 hrs & I'm the only that has posted maybe no one else cares anymore so maybe you should stop.

I do think the name calling is funny though. I love when I have something positive to say about Bendis or Marvel I'm a Bendis-Worshipper, Marvel Zombie, & whatever it was that you called me. I have a word for fans like you as well. You're a dickbag. So keep it up buddy.

[TruBlud71]

Your "word" like your character is so classy.

I work in comics. Wouldn't it be self-destructive for me if Marvel just went belly up? What I would like to see is better all around policy at Marvel. Quit screwing over the middlemen and the customer to make an extra buck basically.

And if you don't think Dark Reign is an event, you're delusional. Go back and look at DR: Elektra, DR: Young Avengers, DR: Made Men, DR: The Cabal, DR: Sinister Spider Man, DR: Mr. Negative, DR: Zodiac. Jeezuz, if that's not an "Event" heading, what is?

And yes, you are every bit the "Marvel Martyr" that I am that "Marvel Grudge" guy.

You really don't see the big picture because as a typical Marvel fan you're caught up in the Capitalism will make it all good in the end/don't see the forest for the trees" crap.

When the economy was in the toilet (if it can be said to be crawling out now), Marvel UPPED the number of titles it produced, RAISED PRICES on MORE than half of those books then spent 6 months throwing excuses like a monkey does ecrement before someone finally came out and said "OK, yeah, we wanted to make a buck." Meanwhile DC kept a fairly steady number of titles, not flooding the market generally (I grant you that Final Crisis was a huge exception and Blackest Night is more or less following that pattern), and keeping most of it's books 78% or higer at $2.99 or less.

I think if you proposed a cover price of less than $3 to Marvel, the guy in front of you would have a heart attack.

This same thread is getting a pretty healthy response over on the DC thread suprisingly. Though now that Rama is running a front page article bearing the numbers out, I can see why most of the Marvel faithful are keeping their opinions to themselves until their team rallies. After proudly proclaiming that Marvel was the clear #1 and there would never again be debate on that, suddenly the world looks shaky.

Will Mickey Mouse show up in a Marvel Comic?
Will Joe Q let Mephisto and a deal with the devil be the whole story going back to Avengers: Disassembled?
Is Red Hulk Millie the Model in drag?
Who knows?

[comicsareliterature]

1--Dark Reign isn't an "event", it is a year long theme that is going on throughout the 616.

2--Maybe Marvel fans are being quiet because we are amused at how happy DC fans are to still be #2? I know I am enjoying the breast beating going on...

3--Marvel's world does not look any more or less "shaky" than DC's. You are a retailer, so you should know that other than BN, DC's books keep seeing sales decreases, just like Marvel's. Marvel doesn't have a main "event" book out, didn't ship Reborn, and DC still could NOT capitalize enough to take first place. What do you think will happen to DC when there is no BN event? At least we have seen that Marvel, without a mega event book, can still sell better than DC while DC has a mega event book. Who is truly "shaky", Trublud? Event books are supposed to supplement a company, not be its only means of support!

Keep up the good fight, Tru, it is always worth the price of admission.

[hhbx]

Jumping in for no reason:

1--Dark Reign isn't an "event", it is a year long theme that is going on throughout the 616.

To this day I still wonder if Dark Reign is an event considering it actually has all the trappings of an event with Red Sky tie-ins and plot centric character crossovers and how it's been used to brand various titles and how most pros and critics outside of Marvel Comics are listing it as an event because of how closely it relates to an event and how it's been advertised.
(beware the run on sentence...BEWARE!)

2--Maybe Marvel fans are being quiet because we are amused at how happy DC fans are to still be #2? I know I am enjoying the breast beating going on...

That and the Marvel fans usually love to sit back and laugh at the top ten books as that what counts the most then fall on large market share lead if they need something to counter back with. That and, well...Marvel fans being quiet about Marvel and letting someone else talk....heh, that's kind of funny.
Course, a good number of them are dicks as well so mileage may vary.

3--Marvel's world does not look any more or less "shaky" than DC's. You are a retailer, so you should know that other than BN, DC's books keep seeing sales decreases, just like Marvel's. Marvel doesn't have a main "event" book out, didn't ship Reborn, and DC still could NOT capitalize enough to take first place. What do you think will happen to DC when there is no BN event? At least we have seen that Marvel, without a mega event book, can still sell better than DC while DC has a mega event book. Who is truly "shaky", Trublud? Event books are supposed to supplement a company, not be its only means of support!

I guess that also poses the question later, how many events and crossovers does it take to equal a mega event.
Seriously though, to this day I still wonder how much do variant covers factor in since Marvel's output of variant covers more then doubled their closest competitor's amount and the Diamond reports are usually ordered books not actually books purchased.

[BlyndeAssassin]

in this thread and others, there have been complaints about the $3.99 books.

I don't have a problem with it. It's your money, spend what you like. But it is funny to see people in this actual thread mentioning the $3.99 price point at Marvel and how it keeps them away.

and last months number 1 book (from DC) was Blackest Night....know how much it cost? $3.99
and the #2 book? $3.99 Captain America Reborn (from Marvel)

August #1 book Blacketst Night #2 $3.99 followed by Captain America Reborn $3.99

July #1 Cap Reborn in the top spot and Blackest Night #1 in the #2 spot. Both $3.99

June sees a $2.99 book from DC take #1 (Batman and Robin #1...I really love this title) Cap Reborn is in 2nd place with a $4.99 price tag!

May has Marvel at #1 with Dark Avengers and DC is in 2nd with Batman: Battle for the Cowl. Both books are $3.99

April has DC taking the #1 and #2 spots! Detective Comics #853 and The Flash: REbirth #1 Both books by DC are #3.99 The rest of the chart is amazing it is followed by Dark Avengers, Wolverine: Weapon X, New Avengers, Batman: Battle for the Cowl, and Hulk #11! All of them are $3.99 and yet they make up the top 7 books!

The top 3 in March were: Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Batman: Battle for the Cowl. All at $3.99

You aren't going to believe the top 7 in february!

Amazing spider-Man is at #1, Batman at #2 (3.99 each). New Avengers and Thor are third and 4th. Both books are 4.99 each. Dark Avengers, Hulk, and mIghty avengers follow at 3.99 each.


So, are people really 'rebelling against the 3.99 price point at marvel' as you claim? Because they seem to be buying up $3.99 books just as much from DC. DC was smart to price the books at $2.99, but it just goes to show that they lost revenue by not upping the books. It is clear that there is an audience for the higher priced books especially during en event. I just listed the top books in the past 10 months, and all of them were 3.99 or higher.

This is why Marvel can sell less books and still be the # one publisher, even though their top book doesn't appear in the top 7 of the the top 10 chart.

The question now lies in this...how many of you would still have bought all these tie-ins if they were all $3.99?

[mgmonkey]

I've been mouthing off about being anti $3.99 for a while now, it doesn't mean I'm boycotting $3.99.

It means I dropping titles that are less of a "must read" to compensate.

Luckily that has also tied in with me finally chopping the Avengers, X-Men & Spidey from my pull list

Pre Secret Invasion I was buying about 15 Marvel titles and about 4 DC.

Now it's about 5 a piece.

I'm definitley more inclined to look towards picking up new DC or Indie titles than Marvel at the moment, and I've bought around 15,000 Marvel comics in the last 35 years and always thought of myself as a Marvelite.

[archer9]

Your "word" like your character is so classy.

I work in comics. Wouldn't it be self-destructive for me if Marvel just went belly up? What I would like to see is better all around policy at Marvel. Quit screwing over the middlemen and the customer to make an extra buck basically.

And if you don't think Dark Reign is an event, you're delusional. Go back and look at DR: Elektra, DR: Young Avengers, DR: Made Men, DR: The Cabal, DR: Sinister Spider Man, DR: Mr. Negative, DR: Zodiac. Jeezuz, if that's not an "Event" heading, what is?

And yes, you are every bit the "Marvel Martyr" that I am that "Marvel Grudge" guy.

You really don't see the big picture because as a typical Marvel fan you're caught up in the Capitalism will make it all good in the end/don't see the forest for the trees" crap.

When the economy was in the toilet (if it can be said to be crawling out now), Marvel UPPED the number of titles it produced, RAISED PRICES on MORE than half of those books then spent 6 months throwing excuses like a monkey does ecrement before someone finally came out and said "OK, yeah, we wanted to make a buck." Meanwhile DC kept a fairly steady number of titles, not flooding the market generally (I grant you that Final Crisis was a huge exception and Blackest Night is more or less following that pattern), and keeping most of it's books 78% or higer at $2.99 or less.

I think if you proposed a cover price of less than $3 to Marvel, the guy in front of you would have a heart attack.

This same thread is getting a pretty healthy response over on the DC thread suprisingly. Though now that Rama is running a front page article bearing the numbers out, I can see why most of the Marvel faithful are keeping their opinions to themselves until their team rallies. After proudly proclaiming that Marvel was the clear #1 and there would never again be debate on that, suddenly the world looks shaky.

Will Mickey Mouse show up in a Marvel Comic?
Will Joe Q let Mephisto and a deal with the devil be the whole story going back to Avengers: Disassembled?
Is Red Hulk Millie the Model in drag?
Who knows?

As far as me being classy, if you don't like mud being thrown at you then don't throw it first. Was i upset that Marvel upped prices? Sure, but I'm also upset gas has gone up, groceries has gone up, interest rates have gone up, movie ticket prices has gone up, etc. Some titles I chose to keep reading & others i dropped. I'm not mad at Marvel because I didn't expect them to answer "why" they were raising prices. I know the reason is to make more money in this day & age. ____ happens in this world & you can either accept it sometimes or cry about it on the internet. So the store that you work in has lost some business. That sucks for you but you come on here & suddenly proclaim that it's a common theme all over. I go regularly to a Graham Crackers Comics store in the Chicagoland area. The manager there told me that other than alot of miniseries the ongoing Marvel books are still selling as good as usual. You showing that 4 titles related to Blackest Night & a title written by Grant Morrison helped DC do well last month doesn't show me that Marvel is suddenly going out of business. It shows me that you have a grudge.

Joe Q isn't the devil that you want him to be. He doesn't choose waht pricing should be. As such no one should expect answers from him. Especially ones he probably wasn't authorized to answer.

[comicsareliterature]

To hhbx:

1--Dark Reign is a theme running throughout the 616, it is not an "event", in the traditional sense, because there is no "event" title. It is simply a commonality experienced by Marvel's heroes and villains throughout the year. WWH, CW, SI, those were all "events" because they not only had multiple tie-ins and related minis, but there was a center piece mini series related to the theme that was important to the overall understanding of what was happening. Dark Reign doesn't have that.

2--You realize that by blanket calling a number of Marvel fans "dicks" you put yourself at risk of seeming to be the same? Most Marvel (and DC) fans are quiet, in regards to these message boards, just so you know. Out of curiosity, are you equally interested in labeling the DC fans who always comment as "dicks" as well?

3--Variants definitely have an effect on sales. How much of one is hard to determine. Most retailers do not over order books to a severe degree to get the variants unless they have a customer who will pay large amounts for it to compensate the store for the cost of ordering the variant. Also, having a 1 in 10 variant is less likely to affect sales to the same degree as a 1 in 250 variant. Still, it is hard to determine since there are no real hard and fast numbers to help. The one thing I can say, most stores do not have tons of Marvel or DC product just sitting on shelves for the fun of it. No store that intends to survive over orders books without being able to sell them on a regular basis because that store would go bankrupt.

[fuzwadd]

Congrats to DC. They've spent a long time in the #2 seat and they out did themselves in October. I'm mostly a Marvel person, but honestly...if I can still get the comics I want and enjoy them then I could really give a rat's @$$ who is #1.

This is almost becoming a sport that doesn't have a championship. Two teams slugging it out to win, with each claiming that they are the best. Until one goes completely out of business and sells off their characters to the other (which will never happen) then there will never be the "be all, end all" winner. Support one or play the field, but ultimately enjoy aspects/titles that you like.

[X-punged]

Dark Reign is a theme running throughout the 616, it is not an "event", in the traditional sense, because there is no "event" title. It is simply a commonality experienced by Marvel's heroes and villains throughout the year. WWH, CW, SI, those were all "events" because they not only had multiple tie-ins and related minis, but there was a center piece mini series related to the theme that was important to the overall understanding of what was happening. Dark Reign doesn't have that.

Quite true.
In a way doesn't that make it worse?
As opposed to reading a center piece series, a whole collection of titles is needed to get a clear understanding of what's happening in Marvel's universe. Granted that in several events the entire wasn't told, civil war being the most egregious example, this avoidance of the appearance of an event, by eliminating a mini series, is just a cop out.
Of course, it can be said that the upcoming siege mini, is in fact the event series. And dark reign is just a year long preamble that provided cover for a company that overdoes the foreplay, and still leaves the reader unsatisfied.

[poneley]

What exactly are people arguing!?!!?!??!!?

I agree with Archer9, it seems like the only reason TruBlud71 keeps making these threads is to continuously harp about how he dislikes Marvel's current creative direction and the price bump in the books. There is nothing interesting in hearing someone harp about that. Where's the interesting analysis of the sales charts?

For example, we recently had the Ultimate Comics relaunch-- how did that go? Did Ultimate Spider-Man win or lose readers? What about Millar's Ultimate Avengers book-- how well did that do?

DC has a huge hit with Blackest Night-- is the event helping push up other DC books?

I thought what BlyndeAssassin wrote about a lot of the top selling and most anticipated books being $3.99. So much for hating the higher price point.

If you want to play the "who sells more books" game then examine what either company is doing increase readership on their monthly books. I'm curious to see what kind of numbers Green Lantern will pull after BN ends. What kind of numbers did that book get before BN? What kind of numbers will Andy Diggle's Daredevil get? What about when the new Thor team arrives? Is DC doing anything interesting in their regular monthly books?

[BlyndeAssassin]

Dark Reign is a theme running throughout the 616, it is not an "event", in the traditional sense, because there is no "event" title. It is simply a commonality experienced by Marvel's heroes and villains throughout the year. WWH, CW, SI, those were all "events" because they not only had multiple tie-ins and related minis, but there was a center piece mini series related to the theme that was important to the overall understanding of what was happening. Dark Reign doesn't have that.

Quite true.
In a way doesn't that make it worse?
As opposed to reading a center piece series, a whole collection of titles is needed to get a clear understanding of what's happening in Marvel's universe. Granted that in several events the entire wasn't told, civil war being the most egregious example, this avoidance of the appearance of an event, by eliminating a mini series, is just a cop out.
Of course, it can be said that the upcoming siege mini, is in fact the event series. And dark reign is just a year long preamble that provided cover for a company that overdoes the foreplay, and still leaves the reader unsatisfied.

Are you for real? I remember after the CRISIS even a few years ago, a bunch of DC titles had the ONE YEAR LATER banner slapped across their covers. Did that mean that you needed to read 'a whole collection of titles to get a clear understanding of what was happening' (as you put it about Dark Reign)....? No, of course it didn't. It was a brand to let people know that those particular titles were all participating in the 'OYL' push by DC. (while '52' was supposed to fill in that missing year). Dark Reign, just like ONE YEAR LATER is a brand, letting readers know that the book is under and umbrella of continuity. I read Dark Avengers and Thunderbolts. I don't read any other 'dark reign' title at all, and yet I have had no trouble following what is going on in the 2 books I read.

There was recently a Dark Avengers/X-Men crossover. I haven't read X-Men since Grant M. stopped writing them. I skipped the whole crossover, and yet I was not lost at all. I don't need to read every book that has DARK REIGN on the cover, becuase I am not interested in every character/every book.

So, yeah, BOTH companies have used 'branding' on their covers to convey a theme when they are not doing an event. It doesn't require you to read every title, because it is a theme, not an event. Please do not act like DC has never done it. Because they have. And when DC has done it, they haven't required you to read every single book to get what is going on. Just like that hasn't happened when Marvel has done it.

[X-punged]

Are you for real? I remember after the CRISIS even a few years ago, a bunch of DC titles had the ONE YEAR LATER banner slapped across their covers. Did that mean that you needed to read 'a whole collection of titles to get a clear understanding of what was happening' (as you put it about Dark Reign)....? No, of course it didn't. It was a brand to let people know that those particular titles were all participating in the 'OYL' push by DC. (while '52' was supposed to fill in that missing year). Dark Reign, just like ONE YEAR LATER is a brand, letting readers know that the book is under and umbrella of continuity. I read Dark Avengers and Thunderbolts. I don't read any other 'dark reign' title at all, and yet I have had no trouble following what is going on in the 2 books I read.

There was recently a Dark Avengers/X-Men crossover. I haven't read X-Men since Grant M. stopped writing them. I skipped the whole crossover, and yet I was not lost at all. I don't need to read every book that has DARK REIGN on the cover, becuase I am not interested in every character/every book.

So, yeah, BOTH companies have used 'branding' on their covers to convey a theme when they are not doing an event. It doesn't require you to read every title, because it is a theme, not an event. Please do not act like DC has never done it. Because they have. And when DC has done it, they haven't required you to read every single book to get what is going on. Just like that hasn't happened when Marvel has done it.

Dude...
At what point did I declare this was a DC vs Marvel battle for shamelessness?
Cause, I didn't.
Commenting on the disingenuous nature of the 'non-event' status of dark reign, is not praising DC.
And stating that dark reign didn't have a central series, doesn't mean that other titles' readability, such as the ones you denoted, was impacted.
(However, it has with X-men Legacy, which I was buying up until it became integrated into the 'dark'-ness. So after utopia, I have a poorer understanding of a series that I was following).
To clarify, what I did say was that the full scope of what's occurring in dark reign isn't to be gleamed from reading a couple of titles.
Nor is the comparison with one year later apt. One year later was more of a gimmick-based, as opposed to an interconnected, brand like dark reign. What DC did by shifting their timeline forward, was no more than skipping a section of time, but dark reign introduces the central story element of Osborn's rise to all affected titles. So there is some level of connectivity within banner titles.
Finally, none of what you wrote negates the suggestion that siege is the event series for dark reign, since it finally resolves the year long preamble built under that banner.

[Robin_Goodfellow]

To clarify, what I did say was that the full scope of what's occurring in dark reign isn't to be gleamed from reading a couple of titles.

How do you cope with the real world?

I mean, to understand the *full scope* of what's going on with the current political administration you'd need to read Newsweek, Time, The Post and The New Yorker, watch CNN, Fox, and The Daily Show (gotta get all sides of a story to truly understand it).

Even then, you'd only get the central 'Dark Avengers' view of the world. To fully understand what’s happening you'd also have to read/watch the news from all 50 states, as well as the international news (something from every contintetn AT LEAST). You’d also need to read blogs, subscribe to journals, and learn a few new languages so you could gain a true understanding of how the Far East's is reacting to the new president, or the current propaganda Russia is putting out.

Of course, none of these outlets are without bias. To *really* understand American politics you’d need to go undercover in the White House, the Senate, the military, congress . . .

. . . or, I suppose you could not worry too much about getting the *full scope* on what's going on in American Politics.

Of course, if that doesn’t worry you I have to wonder why you’re so concerned about getting the *full scope* on the fictitious politics of the Marvel Universe . . .

[X-punged]

How do you cope with the real world?

... extensive prattling ...


Of course, if that doesn’t worry you I have to wonder why you’re so concerned about getting the *full scope* on the fictitious politics of the Marvel Universe . . .

How do I cope?
By laughing at people who can't even have a simple discussion on comics without resorting to passive insults and foolishness.

[EmreArif]

It'll be restored when The Blackest Night end. Marvel's vision far more progressive than DC, It's that way since 90's.

[Evil Twin]

I'd have a hard time calling either DC or Marvel "progressive" in regards to superheroes. In fact, I'd argue that more often than not it's the opposite. With anything really "progressive" quickly restored to the status quo.

To me, it's all been diminishing returns of "progressiveness" since the days of Kirby, Ditko, and Lee. Those guys created their own characters. And, until either of the big 2 can create new characters that are popular for a significant length of time, then I think it's a hollow claim. To me, Marvel's progressiveness is Deadpool. DC's is probably Fables.