On-line now there are a large amount of people who are pointing out that at this time in the USA Manga (Japanese comicbooks) are more popular than the new issues of traditional comicbooks by Marvel and DC. Their claims as to why this is focuses on their beliefs that the comicbooks have become 'woke' over the last few decades and that has driven away the fans. They are openly ignoring that both Marvel and DC have been doing 'woke'/political storylines for well over five decades now, only focused on the 'wokeness' of todays' comics that they disagree with.
For the record, Manga is as 'woke' as it gets. LGBTQ+ characters have been in Manga for decades. There are so many gender fluid characters, as well as countless androgynous characters and that is nothing new. 'Mary Sues' are everywhere in Manga. In fact just about everything that is being claimed as the problems with traditional American comicbooks right now, can be found in Manga and has been there for some time.
However the facts are the Manga is out selling the big two comicbook companies at this time. So why is that?
Manga has been growing in popularity over the last few decades and the availability of Manga here in the states has also been growing as well, making them cheaper and easier to get a hold of than they were a decade ago, with a far greater variety than ever before.
Also, it is easier to get a complete run of a Manga series, as most Manga series have an actual end point. With only few that are on-going, most do not hit the triple digits in volumes. Compare that to Spider-Man, in which the main series 'The Amazing Spider-Man' nearing issue 900 right now, and then you have over a half dozen other Spider-Man series that have been put out over the years that are directly connected to that same over-all storyline, making it a good two thousand or more comics that are part of that nearly 60 year old (Next year is the big anniversary) history. It is not cheap or easy to hunt all that down. Same kind of thing with other big time, long running heroes like Superman and Batman. Manga on the other hand, it is far cheaper and far easier to get a complete run of the series, making it much easier to get into the story and feel as if you are not missing out.
Both Marvel and DC have been aware of this problem for some time and have been doing all kinds of marketing to try to get new fans. DC has reset their universe a few times to try and create a new starting point for fans to jump in, which have not paid off the way they had hoped. Marvel keeps ending series and then starting them back up with promise of that being a perfect point for new fans to jump in, but it has not attracted the numbers they had hoped for. It really is just that hard to get new fans interested in such long running storylines and there really is no method to fix this.
I think one reason the MCU has been as successful it has been, is because you can jump in easily and get caught up with little effort. There is no feeling of being overwhelmed with all that is out there, although given time this could happen.
Manga for the most part plays out it storyline with a solid conclusion. You do not need to be invested in several thousand issues/volumes.
There are real, known issues that are helping fuel this change and it really has nothing at all to do with Marvel and DC being 'woke' or political. regretfully I am not sure if there is any real solution to this, as the decline in sales has been happening for some time now and it looks to only be getting worse. It is possible that we may be close to the end of super hero comics as we know them. And this is not a new revelation.
Go and enjoy your comics and your manga, which ever best fits your interests. The market is going to do what the market is going to do. This could just be a fad that will past in a few years, or not. It doesn't matter really and these trends have nothing to do with the nonsense reason being put out there.
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