Manga will Take over DC & Marvel and That is Okay.

Intro

So you might have heard about the decline in the quality of comics at Marvel and DC. People often confuse this with the popular soundbite: the comics industry is dying!! As obnoxious as that talking point is online, especially among the comics gate community (and other circles). They are not entirely wrong, admist the deluge of Marvel and DC movies, the endless comic books of dubious qualities, and the utter explosion of Manga on the scene, it's no wonder people are worried for the future of DC and Marvel. But I want to be optimistic; I always try to be. So I would like first to acknowledge the reality of the situation and give my opinion on where things could go and, hopefully, where we could avoid a tragic future.

The downfall

There is an important fact that I should inform you before I begin, the comics industry is not dying. They are booming right now thanks to the indie scene and the manga explosion. However, DC and Marvel have been seeing decreasing returns on their comics, persistently from at least the late 2000s early 2010s. The movies and horizontal integration by Disney for Marvel for example keep both companies alive and allow them to carry the losses.

DC/Marvel aren’t in a crisis, they are struggling to remain relevant and trying, much like most major entertainment companies, to best cast as wide a net as possible with minimal risk. As well as struggling to keep up with the rise of streaming and video games as an alternative to comics. The internet loves to claim things are dying, they love to point to the smug hacks that are not helping with the decline in comics, and say they are killing comics. The internet loves to host funerals for things that are not dead yet. So it is important to keep things in perspective.

Why do I read manga over comics?

This answer to this point is comprised of two parts. The quality of manga against comics, and the diversity of manga genres and topics against the homogeneity of comics in topics.

Manga has a strength against DC and Marvel in that the mangakas tend to worry more about appealing to the degens or to providing an entertaining product. That isn’t to say that manga is vacuous of themes or political ideas. It’s more that most mangakas want to tell a story as opposed to ranting like the self-righteous pricks that inhabit Marvel and DC. I read stuff like Berserk, Uzumaki, or Chainsaw Man cause they are very entertaining and offer insight (in verifying degrees of course) into the human condition. I don't get that in most comics from DC/ Marvel. It’s an endless sea of superheroes getting into contrived situations. There are only so many stories one can do with Batman or Superman before you either start repeating yourself or going to extremely outlandish scenarios that don’t fit with the characters. Like that one time, The Joker got pregnant for some bloody reason.

I dislike Isikai or long-run manga such as One Piece for similar reasons, they go on for too long and devolve into filler, or contrivance upon contrivance. They tend to pander to the lowest common denominator (often very extremely questionable age differences), the visual equivalent of high-sodium junk food.

The difference between the Isikai and DC/Marvel’s output is that Isikai is only one genre in the manga medium. If you want to understandably avoid the brain-rotting stuff you can read Spy Family or Berserk. If you want something lighter you can read JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure If you want something more intense, there is Death Note or Uzumaki. You have a choice within Manga. You have options to best cater to what you want. You will not find this in DC/Marvel.

Is it a bad thing?

Manga has been filling a void in my comic diet, there is a larger range of genres for a start. DC/Marvel is not producing horror, romance, or anything really that doesn’t involve superheroes. You won’t find the dark fantasy thrills of Berserk/Jujistu Kaisen nor will you find the comedy of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. You will find Peter Parker fighting supervillains for the one hundredth time and Supergirl is complaining about being disrespected for the ten thousandth time. You can find terror in PTSD Radio or Uzumaki while expecting none from DC/Marvel’s output.

Is it a bad thing that Marvel and DC are declining when they are unable to shape up to the competition? They are more than happy to let large consumer bases go hungry due to their aversion to new ideas or genres. Are we not surprised that the competition is winning?

Honestly, I am not, DC/Marvel are too big as companies to risk hiring horror artists for comics, they will never have another Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman cause doing something outside the superhero format is too risky, a possibility to lose some money as opposed to (theoretically) no money.

While this sucks, cause I would love to see an American Junji Ito rise in the DC/Marvel ranks but in the absence, we have the indie scene filling in their shoes. Comics like The Silver Coin and Wytches all deserve to be read and enjoyed. If we only focus on the big companies and the sensationalist headlines as our guide to reality, we will miss out on great indie hits.

If Marvel/DC want to survive, and they don’t embrace their self-destruction, they will have to follow the money. If they see that The Drifting Classroom or Lament of the Lamb is selling better than the Pregent Joker (for example) comic, they should reconsider their focus and maybe expand their lineup. Maybe recruit some comic writers/artists that can do other fields asides from superheroes. Let the indie market flourish, let manga push DC/Marvel to be better. Complaining will not solve the decline, competition and artistic endeavors will.

Things will be okay

It hurts seeing smug self-satisfied people use the skin of your favorite superheroes to preach and complain about you the primary audience. It hurts seeing Batman/Superman get disrespected by people who don’t care about the source material. But it is important to not feel doomed about the arts, as popular the desire for constant bad news often is online. Things might be bad now at Marvel and DC, but companies at the end of the day will only chase the profits, they will do everything in their power to remain in existence. If things keep going bad for DC and Marvel, they will try to adapt their output to better suit the market. We might see this happen in our lifetime or we might not.

Maybe we would see DC/Marvel crumble, go bankrupt and something new will rise from the ashes. Nothing lasts forever. Take comfort in the fact that this is the case, we can get good art eventually, but how that comes about will be up to the future. Everything turns to dust and soon something new will come up. How that will happen is up for debate.

Competition is a good thing in any free market. Manga is a powerful example of this, cause they are providing what people want, escapism/different genres. Manga offers people what comics lack. As a result, the manga industry is booming and DC/Marvel is declining. A powerful competitor incentives reformation and improvement for everyone. We get great art and artists get paid what they deserve.

Same with indie comics, Dark Horse comics, and French comics are doing well. They offer more than what Marvel or DC are putting out cause they provide more interesting stories, less preaching, and better writing quality. That is the beauty of the free market. We can always find something new, something better than the big players in the industry. We just have to accept that the titans we once knew are not the same as they were, and we have to push them to improve, or break.

Conclusion

I try to be an optimistic man at heart, I am not perfect in this goal and I often have sunken into periods of sadness over the state of things. I want people to keep hoping and working towards a better world because if we don’t then the spiral into oblivion awaits us. I reject this. DC and Marvel are not doing well, your beloved characters, my beloved characters are being disrespected and used as puppets for lecturing as opposed to telling good stories. That sucks. But from the ashes of the portia, something new can string up.

Please consider reading Black Masquerade: The third entry in the Eight Nightmares Collection, now available at selected retailers.

Where Dreams are Lost is on special at Smashwords for 1.23$ for the month!

Acknowledgments

Any Patreon supporters, go here! The first 100 patrons get everything!