8 Ways DC And Marvel Make It Impossible For Fans To Read Their Comics

You want HOW much for that issue?!

Spider-Man Hydra Cap Sad Times
Marvel Comics

Whether you're into comic books or not, it's pretty much common knowledge that collecting them isn't the easiest hobby to entertain, particularly so if you're following the big two (Marvel and DC). Today's readers now not only have to navigate decades' worth of contradictory continuity when they embark into the medium, but price inflation, annual events and constant reboots as well. Point being, it's a difficult time to be a comic book fan, and both DC and Marvel have a lot to answer for when it comes to engaging their audiences effectively.

Apart from the odd blip here and there, it's widely accepted that comic book sales have been experiencing something of a slump for the past few years, a trend exemplified by the staggeringly low figures recorded by Marvel in February of this year. Numbers have somewhat improved since, but the company's bizarre response to this decline left much to be desired, and indeed, illustrated a tacit unwillingness on their behalf to appropriately analyse just why exactly people aren't picking up comics in the same way that they used to.

I mean, it's not really all that complicated. Poor editorial and business practices have ensured that a lot of fans simply feel unable to continue to support the big two, or worse still, get into comics at all in the first place. The fact that fans struggle to get into the medium year after year is, quite simply, tragic, and the big two having no-one to blame but themselves.

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Content Producer/Presenter
Content Producer/Presenter

Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.