5 Reasons Marvel Comics Are Failing

2. Too Many Retcons

Marvel Smashed
Marvel Comics

Altering the history of characters to accommodate a new story is a good way to lose readers. One of the most notorious of these was Spider-Man's first love, Gwen Stacy having bore not one, but two children to Norman Osborne, and they would be trained to kill Spider-Man when they had grown.

The original plan was to have Peter be the father, but Marvel didn't want to have Peter appear too old because of it. J. Michael Straczyncski, who wrote the storyline goes back in time and damages the memory of Gwen Stacy, for what? A cheap shock to get attention.

Unsurprisingly, it pretty much disgusted readers.

Why can't Marvel just tell a story without affecting the history of characters long gone? It can't be that hard right?

Contributor
Contributor

A Samoan that watches too much wrestling, too many movies, reads too many comic books. I tell people that my favorite candy bar is "Whatchamacallit" just so they can be confused for a moment.