Fool's Wisdom

marvelmaster616 asked: I apologize if you already answered this question, but could you please explain why it is no longer possible or too difficult for Marvel and DC to do a crossover story like they did in the late 90s?

brevoortformspring:

It’s mostly a question of desirability.

Back in the 90s, for all their size, Marvel and DC were both run like “Mom ‘n Pop” shops, Whereas now, both companies are part of larger conglomerates with larger concerns.

On the most basic level, what incentive is there to do, say, BATMAN vs IRON MAN, which will cost the same to make as any other book that we’d publish, and from which we’ll only receive half of the profits? We could put out any other IRON MAN book, and DC could put out any BATMAN book, and in all likelihood do better—even if the overall sales aren’t as good. To say nothing of the complications of the collected edition, and the digital rights, and so forth.

The only real reason to do big crossovers is for the fun of it.

Or maybe because it would be a good story.

This may be the final time I do this sort of thing, because no matter how frustrated I get with the stuff Mr. Brevoort says – and he’s absolutely correct here, when it comes to facts; I just think the philosophy is absolutely wrong – since he doesn’t engage in debate (he’s said at least twice that I remember that he doesn’t see social media as a forum for any kind of debate, instead using his online presence as a simple Q&A exchange) it’s sort of a silly waste of my time to respond.

But I’m gonna, just a little, because it is exactly this attitude that is driving me away from the comics that I love.

It absolutely disgusts me that it always seems to come back to money for Marvel’s – well, for DC’s too, I’d imagine – editorial and publishing staff.  What happened to just publishing well-written stories with good art?  People will buy work that doesn’t suck.  You don’t have to kill off characters at random, retcon your entire fictional universe, or any of that crap: just give us well-written stories with good art and we will buy your stuff.

(No, the profits from the ‘90s are not coming back.  No, that will never happen again.  But for God’s sake, take a look at Japan and Korea, where their comics industries are practically printing their own money. Why?  Two reasons.  They produce a quality product for a reasonable price, and even more importantly, they haven’t written off women and girls.  Like Marvel and DC have.  But that’s a subject for another post.)