Will DC gen 5 fail/success effect dcuo?

I would like this ...

I like how everyone's forgetting that the Marvel books that crashed and burned had other things wrong with them - America was boring in the way that her going on adventures in time and space while unravelling a conspiracy closer to home had no excuse to be, Inhumans verses X-Men was a badly characterised mess, Thor had a very divisive overarching plot with War of the Realms that only served to make Jane look out of place, Ironheart was flat and remained so until people other than Bendis started writing her at which point her popularity went up (also, her book got an accurate rename when Tony came back which probably helped), and Wasp just wasn't promoted very well - the people that have read that book love it but I've only got a sample size of about 4. The only one I can think of that struggled specifically for legacy reasons was All New Wolverine and in that case the resistance was from Laura fans who were worried about the direction she was going in.

By contrast Ms. Marvel always does pretty well despite having arguably the worst single issue of the ANAD era (I'm talking of course of the election promotional special that came out after the election it was promoting - oops). And Moon Girl did well enough around its younger intended audience (and very few people cared about replacing Moon Boy or even knew there ever was a Moon Boy anyway).

Not saying the standard price isn't a bit high but digital copies are that expensive because Comixology will put them in a 60%+ off sale soon enough anyway. Collected editions for 2.99 is very good value.

As much as it pains me to credit DC editorial with anything in recent years, they kinda did - while Luke Fox is not the longest serving member of the Bat-family by any stretch he did have a run a few years ago. And frankly, at least it's not Damian (though that might not be fair as after all I'd rather see Harper or Cass or even Colin in the Bat-costume than Damian so I'm probably too biased there). Anyway I'm more annoyed with making Jon into Superman - what sense does that make?

I remember after Final Crisis Donna briefly became Wonder Woman and Dick Grayson got a stint as Batman, and there were far less people complaining then (about that at least - all the stuff going on with Tim and Cass and Damian was another matter) despite or even because of the fact that nobody expected that to last very long, so why not let Luke Fox have a go for a bit? I have some issues with the way it's being promoted as a long term thing but that's on the marketing rather than the writing.

And let's also remind everyone that somewhere around that time there were four different Flashes.

Anyway, as for DCUO, it's not like it hasn't had future episodes before (what's the Future Batman/Future Luthor raid called again?) and we don't know that 5G is going to be dead on arrival, we're just assuming it is because DC haven't exactly been batting centuries with their shake-up events (looking at you Heroes in Crisis). If there's something worth adapting then of course it should be done. And for the record, Metal is not my favourite book by any stretch of the imagination but I like (theme wise) the game version.

Wow, this is all about the comics, huh? I've shared my opinion about 5G on the CBR forums enough already.

As far as DCUO goes? I don't think 5G and it's success or failure will make much of a difference. The New52 hit something like eight months after DCUO began, and it didn't affect the game. The other initiatives the comics have done, like DCYOU, Rebirth, etc., haven't impacted the game in any severe, meaningful way. Sure, some DLC's are built around new stories like Metal or the "Aquaman is replaced by King Rath" stuff. A character or two have gotten Rebirth costumes (like Superman and Wonder Woman). But that's it. There's been no huge re-work of the game or anything. Cyborg was a member of the Titans this whole time, despite not having that history after the New52. And I doubt 5G will be any different. Might we get a DLC set in the future where Superman's son is flying around in the cape? Maybe. But outside of some style sets and a DLC I doubt 5G would have any more impact than anything else. And I doubt it'll last long enough to really matter anyway.

And I don't buy the rumors that AT&T is gonna close the publishing down either. Everyone thought Disney would do that to Marvel, or at least put Mickey Mouse into the Avengers or turn the whole MU into a bunch of princess stories. It never happened. It won't happen to DC either, though something *might* be done about the distribution model (and I hope something *is* done, because that needs to change). Comics don't make much money but they do generate *some* profit, and more importantly they hold legal ownership and provide super cheap story ideas and storyboards for larger media adaptations (and fans end up as focus groups who pay for the privilege too). At worst, the comics are a loss leader. At best, they generate a small amount of revenue. They're not being shut down. But I do hope something is done about distribution. Changing that isn't killing comics, just the direct market. And the direct market needs to die anyway.

But even if DC's publishing closed its doors, DCUO is a licensed game. What happens to the publishing shouldn't impact DCUO, as far as I'm aware.

The Lords say why are you against Damian being the next Batman? It is his right to take up his father's mantle. Let Luke Fox go open up a Radio Shack and sell universal tv remote controls.

It's a misconception that comic fans do not want diversity. There is not an issue with diversity. Instead, readers have an issue with continuity. We invest years, often decades, into reading these books and following these characters as they pass through the hands of multiple writers.

Diversity is great. A complete ignoring and undoing of continuity is not.

I'll hit a few examples to showcase exactly what we're talking about. With the death of Tony Stark, we got Riri as Iron Man, and the readers largely seemed to hate her. Why? Because it was a bad story that made no sense in the greater realm of continuity. If Marvel wanted the role of Iron Man to be held by someone black, the readers would have readily embraced Rhodey as Iron Man again. James Rhodes had been a close friend and ally of Iron Man for years. Rhodes had experience and training with the Iron Man suit, which Tony Stark felt was important. Rhodes had a close enough relationship he had proven he could be both responsible and trusted. And, perhaps most importantly, Rhodes had actually BEEN Iron Man in the past.

If instead what was important in the Marvel bullpen was to make Iron Man a female, then Pepper Potts would have been the logical choice. She had a close relationship with Tony Stark. She had training, via the Rescue armor. And while Pepper's role as Rescue had not actually been given any offensive capabilities in her previous armor, it is not far fetched at all to think that the death of Tony Stark could have pushed or motivated her into taking this one extra step. Again, this was a transition with an established canon character that the Marvel fans would have readily accepted.

But instead we got Riri. Riri was an untrained, inexperienced person with zero ties to Tony Stark and no background or history that would make the reader feel invested in her. She mimicked Tony Stark's tech by illegally copying it. Then she took it out for a reckless joyride, using it for self-indulgence instead of for anything responsible. Illegally copied Iron Man tech and used it for selfish purposes is literally the origin for half of Iron Man's villains! But instead of the Avengers trying to stop her, she gets randomly invited to join the team? "Hey, you have no training and you're an immature, reckless child with the power of a nuclear weapon in your hands and no understanding of the implications of what you're doing. How would you like to be thrown into some life and death battles that you're ill-prepared for?" Is it any wonder why the Marvel fans didn't embrace the character? It's not because she's a woman. It's not because she's black. It's not because she's diverse. It's because the character made no sense, the story was dumb, and it felt entirely disjointed from the regular Tony Stark story that we'd been following for decades. Had it been Rhodey or Pepper, it would have felt as though it was a proper continuation of the greater Tony Stark story. But this ham-fisted, forced character of Riri was too out-of-place. It didn't work.

And if you were a more casual fan, more of an MCU person, then Rhodey or Pepper still were recognizable, but this random new girl leaves a reader totally lost.

There is a difference in the passing of the mantle of a hero, like Barry Allen's role as Flash moving to Wally West, his established sidekick, after his death. The fans are ready to embrace that. This is not the passing of a mantle; it is the replacing of a character. It's removing EVERYTHING canon about the original character in order to force a new one that the fans have not been introduced to previously.

The opposite of this diversity push is the changing of a canon character. Taking an established canon character and then changing something noticeable about them. It is an affront to the fans because it disrespects the years of canon that were previously established. I'll cite an alternative example for this.

All-New Iceman is gay. Years of Iceman being heterosexual in the comic books, time spent basically as a millionaire playboy flirting with supermodels, and extended relationships that were well documented with other X-Men characters like Shadowcat, the character is changed to be gay. Some poor writing tried to vaguely justify this as "Well, he was just in the closet and hiding it, and all the numerous sexual relationships he had with women were just his ways of repressing the truth." Except when those repeated relationships were written, they were never written with that in mind as the long-term story arc. So they are expecting the reader to believe that while Iceman was dating Shadowcat or Polaris, he was actively lying to them, manipulating their feelings as a part of an elaborate ruse to hide his sexuality, while also having regular mind-links and telepathic connections with Professor X AND Jean Grey AND Emma Frost, and no one ever said anything? Numerous mind-reading people knew, and nobody ever told Bobby "Hey, it's okay. We know and we still love you." Nobody ever felt bad and said "Hey, Shadowcat, I don't want this jerk hurting you like this. He's really gay, and all his 'I love you's are just lies." And I just do not believe that none of the various telepaths he's been around have ever noticed, because Teen Jean picked up on it in about 2 seconds of surface incidental mind-reading. What, does Emma Frost respect privacy so much she never probes deeper than that? Or how about the fact that Beast came out of the closet as openly gay on world news and the entire X-Men team still accepted him; that didn't make Bobby feel safe enough about telling the truth? There are holes in the continuity big enough to drive a truck through.

Does that mean that the reader is homophobic or against gay characters? NO. They're against bad writing. If Bendis wanted a gay character on the core roster of X-Men, he could have included NorthStar as a larger part of the team, or stepped up Anole, or Bling. NorthStar had just had that incredibly successful and popular first-ever gay wedding as a part of the X-Men comics, and the fans celebrated it. And why? Because the NorthStar character has been written as a gay character who had hidden feelings, came out of the closet, had various relationships, and now finally had found lasting love. They already had a great gay X-Men character that they were openly ignoring, and instead they were trying to ham-fistedly force the character trait of being gay onto an established heterosexual character. And why? Why doesn't NorthStar deserve that spot on the team? Why is the "coming out" portion the only part of a gay character the writers are interested in; why can't the character still be a central figure once being gay is no longer the focus of everything the story is telling, and instead they get to be a deeper character with their own individual goals and motivations? Bad writing and crapping all over canon does not get justified in the name of diversity, and being against bad writing does not make a reader prejudiced. I have never complained about NorthStar as a part of the main roster; I'm actually an old Alpha Flight fan because of all the time I spent living in Canada. If Bendis wanted a gay character on the team, he could have rocked NorthStar as a team leader and I would have loved it. Hating the gay Iceman arc has nothing to do with a character being gay and everything to do with the story being bad.

Rather than taking characters that readers have loved and followed for decades, and trying to change or replace them with something more diverse, the writers need to use the existing diverse characters they have in a larger capacity, or introduce new characters, to tell their own stories. If you have a new black, female hero who is well written in her own right, you don't need to kill and replace Tony Stark to try and force Iron Man fans to like her.

It's not about diversity. It's about bad writing. I'd have hated Riri just as much if he was a white boy. It was just a bad story.

Brit I usually think your posts are well thought through but not so much this time.

Are you presuming to know exactly what all comic book readers are thinking? I can only imagine all the triggered fanboys if someone on the opposite side of the argument dared to make such a bold claim. I can go on youtube right now and find people very pointedly and angrily complaining very specifically about diversity so the idea that no comic book reader cares about that is just completely false. Best to speak to your own opinions rather than try to make it seem like everyone agrees with you, by doing this you pretend all the genuine gate-keeping douchebags don't exist. And no i'm not talking about those with nuanced views, memey content or even those who like to be controversial, I'm talking about those who are very open about their distain specifically for diversity, not just in comics but in life, it's quite easy to find on YT.

Oh, and for your iceman rant, Phillip Scolfield recently came out as gay, mid-50's famous and beloved TV presenter in the UK. He has a wife he has been married to since 1993, they have children. He has many gay friends who are also in the public spotlight and of similar age who have been out for a long time, yet he waited until 2020 to come out. According to your rant this should be impossible, due to the fact other people were not only openly gay around him, but were embraced by the world. So what are you even saying Iceman should have come out sooner? That it's implausible? Seems real life disagree's with you. Each and every individual will deal with things differently and to presume you know exactly how every closeted person would behave and act is entirely arrogantly presumptuous.

And with the acceptance of Beast coming out, would not the same apply to him as Iceman, if not about the supermodels then at least about telepathy from another member, you are saying someone should have outed Iceman, why didn't anyone out Beast? Is it perhaps that Iceman is more like a character people want to project themselves onto compared to Beast that people seem so non-phased by it? (i'm actually gen asking here I didn't know the Beast thing)

People don't buy good writing, that should be evident by comicbook sales. They buy established and well known names. That isn't to say a character can't get a push but just like WWE ultimately the character needs to get 'over' with the fans, and with such a bloated roster in both DC and Marvel let's not pretend it's easy to get a new character coming up through the ranks. There are loads of comics with good quality writing that are not popular as the character/s are not popular, it's literally as simple as that. If anyone new is coming in just like with WWE the best way to get someone over is to tie them in with someone who is already over. The exact way to do that functions differently from WWE but the net effect is intended to be the same.

If Phillip Scolfield and his wife had also been living with three or more mind-reading psychics, then yes, I do not believe it would have stayed hidden for almost 30 years. I did not witness the 30 years of Scolfield's history leading up to this. I was not privy to every detail of his personal life within his home, including thought balloons where he narrated directly to me what he was thinking and how he was feeling without realizing that an audience was being made aware of these things. I did receive that sort of additional information regarding Bobby Drake.

It's bad writing because it's poorly written in the context of the story. The story was handled by multiple writers over the years. Each puts their own individual spin on the character, but they need to respect the continuity of what came before. Rather than looking at YouTube or Reddit for some random sampling of what some outspoken biggoted reader thought, let's look at actual numbers. Diamond Distributing sales numbers, that will tell us exactly how many copies of a book were sold.

Astonishing X-Men #51 (NorthStar's Wedding) - 82,654
All-New X-Men #40 (Iceman comes out) - 50,770

Astonishing X-Men 51 almost cracked the top 10 books for the month, and did it in the middle of June when it was up against both of the major summer crossover events from Marvel and DC.

All-New X-Men 40 came in at 35th, and was losing in sales to such juggernauts as Image Comics' "Saga", during the dead months of spring.

The readers showed up, voting with their wallets, in 60% higher numbers in support of an established canon gay character rather than the changing of an existing established straight character to become homosexual.

I don't presume to speak for every single person on the planet. There is no single issue in the world where everyone would agree. Even implying that everyone would or should agree with a point of view suggests ignorance. Instead, I just follow the facts and the data, and reflect the way the majority of people feel. You can open the Diamond Distributing sales data, which is all published online, and check the numbers yourself if you like. Rhodey taking over as Iron Man did well; Riri taking over did poorly. Heck, Doom taking over as Iron Man did poorly. Both black and white, male and female, it did not matter. The only time the fans voted with their wallets and supported the change was when the change was done with an established canon character who made sense to fulfill the role.

A new black Iron Man (Rhodey) sold better than a new white Iron Man (Doom), so long as the story was well written and felt like part of the larger story arc. Stupid changes for change sake, whether or not they involve diversity, will be largely reviled for exactly what they are: change for the sake of change.

So...l had a friend that wanted to get into comics. I told them to get into Batman. Problem is, when you go to get into anything comic related, there are 15 different continuities. Which Batman story do I read? The one where Batman is good? Bad? Has ____ as Robin? is old, young, is played by _____ there are just too many stories out there (some that just end without being finished mostly) to waste time being invested. They need to limit what goes out and stop wasting people’s time.

The point was a counter to you saying Beast was welcomed when he came out as if that should be a mitigating factor. I suppose it's my fault for taking it out of the context of everything you had presented before it. Nevertheless, you weren't privy to every detail of Bobby's life either, just the parts that were pertinent to the story being told at the time, you weren't privy to all of his thoughts, only the ones that were pertinent at the time.

It's also funny that you mention him being a millionaire playboy but don't see that as pandering, 'oh look another hero who just happens to be a dashing lady's man with lots and lots of money', how is that not bad lazy writing just copying what everyone else was doing and pandering to a specific demographic? Of course that's fine because being a millionaire playboy is apparently a totally relatable and realistic and doesn't just lazily happen to happen to every single hero ever(now I'm over-stating it). Tbh I don't even recall this being a part of Bobby's personality but whatever.

And I never said it was good writing, but let's not pretend comic books are some bastien of literary excellence so it's best not to blow that 'good writing' horn too hard before some actual good writing shows up to call comics bad writing.

My point about youtube creators (not reddit) was a counter to the idea that you know what all book readers are thinking. And these 'random outspoken biggoted readers' are not as random as you are trying to make out and far more popular than you might care to admit, and it's not just comics they are bothered about. Regardless let's stay on topic, sales are in no way an insight into whether something is bad writing. You cannot tie bad writing to sales. Good writing can receive poor sales and bad writing can receive good sales. The second part of your argument does not support the first. Even if you think you can decimate why the 30k didn't buy into it, what about the other 50K, you are so confident in saying all their opinions aline with yours?

This is all besides the point anyway, which was that like it or not, there are people that think the way that Lantern_AdamK4 described, and to come back acting as if they don't exist is disingenuous. I dispute you're idea that it's only 'random bigoted readers' but admitting they exist is at least a start. The rest of the discussion is pointless it's been hashed out so many times so many times it's all just a regurgitation of everyone's favourite talking points, no one gives an inch and we all carry on just the same. Plus look at 2020 so far, trust me 'your side' won the culture war, this decade will see the dismantling of the so called 'liberal agenda', for better or worse.

You're sounding like Damian himself there - his right? Anyway, Damian's ego puts even his grandfather's to shame and his default impulse is to run through anyone he doesn't like - which is anyone except Colin (New Earth continuity) and Jon (Prime Earth continuity) and maybe Dick depending on what mood he's in (and maybe Bat-Steph but those two were only funny because they were so volatile and that might still be retconned out anyway - DC continuity is a tangled mess of New Earth and Prime Earth right now). He's far too much of a loose cannon to be trustable as Batman and sure that is in part due to his age and upbringing and could in theory be something he'd worked to surpass but every time one of the writers tries they get replaced (or Super Sons get cancelled etc.) and it's back to square one again.

I would just like to point out that with the Flashes thing I was referring to the almost Ping-Pong nature of it. Barry dying and Wally taking over was one thing - Wally dying and Bart taking over, dying, Wally coming back, Barry coming back, Bart coming back (and Jay there throughout) all happened in pretty quick succession but I don't recall all that much griping, or at least I don't recall this particular sort of it.

It probably didn't help that Doom and Riri were competing with each other. Sure there are multiple Spider-Man books but they didn't start them simultaneously. And in both cases there's the drag factor that was an overworked Bendis not exactly doing his best work. Plus, way back when Rhodey took over, was Tony all that popular?

Not that I'm excusing early Riri though, in case any of you are thinking of buying some ANAD books about a genius girl using science and technology in her struggles I consider it vital consumer advice to say that both Wasp and Moon Girl were both better than Ironheart. Possibly Shuri's book too but I don't know anything about that one.

He isn't, he just mooches off people who are (his fellow X-Men, specifically Scott [with The Professor's money], Warren and Emma). It was sort of necessary to explain how they could get all their hi-tech gear and have bases big enough for their sizable roster (at one point when the school was actually functional they had over 300 students - good luck fitting them in a two bedroom detached). And he wasn't a dashing ladies man either, he just liked to think he was.

While I have no doubt there are people here who agree with this, I think the proposition that reading is "passe" to an entire generation is highly dubious. There is no shortage of YA books and readers.

Some people are readers and some are not; thus it has always been. Literacy rates in the U.S. have barely budged in many decades, after decades of growth. Relatively recently, the average quantitative literacy scores of adults increased 8 points between 1992 and 2003.

Sources: https://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/PDF/2006470.PDF
https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp

Perhaps there's a generational drop in readership, but I'm not aware of any statistics that bear it out. Which suggests that this is merely a difference between individuals. People have different attention spans and preferences. They always have.

What is predictive of interest in reading are educational levels and average family income. It also tends strongly to be the case that when parents are avid readers, so become their children. When not, not.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/24-...read-a-book-in-the-past-year--heres-why-.html

The main cause of the decline of comics sales from the 1960s through the 1990s and since is distribution. Comics used to be on spinner racks in almost every supermarket and drug store and general store in America. That all fell apart decades ago and thus the rise of independent comics shops, which require a special interest to visit. It was inevitable that the print runs of comics would drop from millions to thousands when that transition happened. Comics have been a niche and shifting more and more to trade book format where you can still find national distribution in book stores.

The comforting trend, of course, is the rise of comics in electronic form. But price is still a major issue unless you are content to buy memberships in https://www.marvel.com/comics/unlimited and dcuniverse.com, where you still can't keep up on current books either until months have passed or you're willing to pay for individual expensive issues.

Comics also, obviously, used to be huge business when they cost 10 cents or 12 cents or 25 cents or even 75 cents. Since then, they've become not-remotely-cheap. Other than used.

and changing them to pander to a certain group or culture seems to be the trigger for most objectors, because name me a comics character that's 40 years old that hasn't undertaken drastic changes from time to time.

Certainly Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have all been drastically changed over the decades.

Superman once fought against greedy bank owners and politicians and threatened to kill them. Later his main problems were with Lois Lane and his secret identity. Later he split into Superman Blue and Superman Red, with entirely new powers. Then there was the period where kryptonite ceased to hurt him. Clark Kent became a TV reporter and then he wasn't again. Then his origin was entirely redone by John Byrne. Superman's parents were alive, then dead, then alive, then dead, then alive, and at this point I forget which they are. Once he was the only survivor of Krypton, then he was one of a dozen, then the only one again, then there were more again, and on and on. I can keep going.

Batman went from fighting crooks to fighting monsters and aliens in the 1950s. Then he had a New Look. Eventually there were other Batmen. Alfred died and came back to life. Robin was killed and replaced and then replaced again and again. The Batmobile has had 800,000 looks. Batman's parents were once killed by an anonymous gunman, then they were killed by Joe Chill, then they were killed by the Joker, then it was back to Joe Chill and so on. Once Batman carried a gun and then he never did again except now in the modern movies he loves big guns. And so on.

Wonder Woman has had more looks than I can count and more origin stories than I can keep track of.

Let alone the story of Hawkman and Hawkgirl/woman over the years. They're Egyptian, no, they're aliens, no, they're both, no, really, we can explain! Again and again!

Hal Jordan started off with a "mystic" green "lamp" in his early issues and there were no Guardians of the Universe or galactic sectors until later when Julie Schwartz invented them. Since then, Earth has had how many Green Lanterns? Seven? Eight?

Jimmy Olsen went from being a side-kick to a major part of Jack Kirby's New World. Talk about changing legacy characters!

Like I said, name a character that's been around for forty or more years who hasn't had drastic changes.

But it's changes to gender and ethnic background that turn some people into ragers. Suddenly comics characters aren't uniformly white and almost uniformly male. This clearly bothers many people a great deal more than uniform changes or power changes or backstory changes. Funny, that.

I believe there are enough Superheroes / Heroines (and villains) out there of various ethnicities / races to greatly reduce gender or racial bending.

I am "NOT" for totally eliminating such practices if well-done and thought out.

The Universe that the late (and great) Dwayne McDuffie created had ALL SORTS of diversity. That was The Dakotaverse and it ultimately blended into the DC Universe.

Racism / sexism / ageism "DOES" exist but I strongly believe that there is more ignorance / laziness out there in regards to producers / writers than actual malice.

Detective Comics (DC) -



Marvel -



I believe Marvel CU is a bit ahead of DC CU but look no further than The Shadow Cabinet (DC) for diverse characters.

Build it / Make it - and folks WILL watch it, DC.

Who said anything about "malice"?

A recent interview with Candice Patton (Iris on CW’s Flash) illuminated my issue with character race bending. Candice notes her aggravation with being given material and direction that left her as just a white woman wearing black face. It’s only been with this current season that the new show runner has introduced some actual elements of black culture into her depiction.

I just don’t understand why people could be happy with these token appeasement race bends thrown out by white producers so they can pat themselves on the back. They’re not trying to give representation or diversity - they just want to put on the face and say they’re “woke” because that’s the style this season. It’s offensive; but we have people grabbing up these scraps from the floor as though it was something respectful.

Make a Miles Morales. Make a Kamala Khan. Make a Michael Holt. Make a John Stewart. Make characters who can be who they are instead of giving a hand out of 50 year old white characters wearing shoe polish.

It is up to the Young Generation to complain about it.

Once these young'uns start petitioning for better representation things will start changing.



Me? I'm just some Older Guy that wants a BETTER future for my young sons growing up...a better TV / Movie representation for THEM.

ANY change from this point will come from Young Voices.

Fair enough.. but literacy doesn't mean what it meant before the advent of the internet.. if you mean the literary arts, then yes I agree.. if you mean straight up reading words.. forums, articles.. then that's a horse of a different colour. Everyone who interacts with the internet everyday.. reads a substantial amount. Myself included.

This is where you lose me..

I don't know what America is like in that regard (for 100% certain).. but here in Scotland the grandparents spend a significant amount of time teaching the our young to read.. parents too.. but in my experience grandparents, but that might be a cultural difference.

Money and income matter 0% afaik here.

And about the stats, no I was just citing my own experience.. I said 'must' asin~ 'it mustn't be only me who feels this way.'

I totally agree. Price is a huge factor. I read many many comics as a child (Barrowlands Market, Glasgow).. stopped during the nineties when they doubled in price here (all US exports doubled in price) and just didn't go back.. in fact from 2000 to 2010 I pretty much know none of the Marvel or DC storylines off the top of my head. iirc around 2014 I started watching comicstorian and comics explained while I would fix guitars.. *that* felt closer to the experience I wanted rather than to have to give up attention on something else.. I could do both and feel satisfied.