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

5. So. Many. Reboots.

DC The New 52
DC Comics

I don't know if you've heard, but comic books are notoriously difficult to get into, and anyone (and I do mean anyone) who has been faced with the task of introducing a newcomer into the medium will agree.

Picture this: you meet someone who absolutely adored Daredevil's Netflix series, and really wants to check out some of the source material. Where do you set them off? Well, you'd probably think about starting them on Frank Miller's stuff, right? Hopefully. But what if they're not too keen on checking out the classic material, and just fancy looking at some of the newer stuff? If that was the case you would, most likely, send them in Mark Waid's direction to check out volume 1 of his run. The problem, however, is that there's more than one first volume of Waid's work. In fact there are three, because his run was sandwiched in the middle of a reboot called All-New Marvel NOW! (not to be confused with All-New, All-Different Marvel, or just plain old Marvel NOW!), so you can see how this can get pretty confusing fairly quickly.

DC aren't blameless here either, and although the New 52 attempted to condense and streamline the universe for a relatively younger audience, it was so picky with its continuity to the point where no one actually knew what had transpired in the new timeline. Point is, there have been so many relaunches and reboots now that the big two are actively damaging their chances of engaging new readers, and - perhaps most damagingly of all - alienating old ones.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.