Before I start this, I am very aware that Captain Marvel belongs to Marvel and Catwoman to DC and that both would conduct business differently because they are not the same company.
As I was perusing Tumblr the other day, I stumbled across a post by comic guru Ryley St. Batman with this alarming piece of information:
“In not so great news Captain Marvel is apparently not selling too hot and there’s legitimate worry of it being canned. Marvel will probably keep it on the shelves a little longer than they usually would a series because it’s fans (no matter how few they are) really adore it, and they want to try and keep more female lead books on the shelves, but unless something happens to boost sales it seems like it might not last too much longer.”
When I asked him where this information was coming from, he responded:
“When I wrote about it for Population GO I used Bleeding Cool as a source because they’ve been reporting on the rumor, but there’s also the trends of how Marvel functions when cancelling series and whatnot. Look at the numbers for series they’ve canned in the past and you can see that CM is around that same number or below. “
I just about lost my mind. Captain Marvel (written by Kelly Sue DeConnick) is a well written book, with a strong female lead.
Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel is a refreshing female character who isn’t all about sex appeal. Nor is she meant to be an overtly feminist figure.
She’s just an Avenger doing her job, and that’s what makes her character compelling.
The fact that she’s a woman is not a plot point (other than the fact that the previous Captain Marvel was a man), and so what you get is a wonderfully well-rounded character flying around and fighting giant robots made of WWII fighter planes. It is fully brought to life by a series of wonderful artists, all with completely different styles, and cover art so good it makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry
You may be asking yourselves. “What are you so mad about, Eastyn, I understand that you’re sad it could be cancelled, but what’s the big deal?”
I am mad because I hear rumors of Captain Marvel being cancelled due to low readership, but the New 52 Catwoman is still in print.
I don’t even know where to begin my list of complaints. But, let us start with the terrible writing. I started reading Catwoman a little bit ago, and realized it was a big waste of my money.
I kept reading in vain hope of it getting better, but it actually just got worse. The writing is confusing, there’s no continuity, the language in it is appalling not to mention Catwoman is reduced to an over sexualized party girl (being sexy is one of Catwoman’s things but in this series, it’s her only thing) who has none of the intellect that one would expect from a master thief who manages to steal the heart of Batman.
Honestly I would watch Halle Berry as Catwoman rather than read this comic again.
Here is a gem from a Batman News review of the most recent Catwoman issue, #16:
“I don’t want to waste a lot of time talking about this comic. It’s garbage.”
I could definitely go on as to why it’s so terrible and why it makes me so sad that this comic is continually in production, but I won’t, because then I might be arrested for how negatively I feel towards Ann Nocenti’s writing.
A side note, Nocenti is also set to write Katana, which is a character I would be interested to learn about, but since she’s writing it, I just won’t even bother.
Now that you know how I feel about both comics. It is difficult for me to not draw my own conclusions about the reasoning behind Catwoman having a larger readership than Captain Marvel. It is no big surprise that the world of comics is heavily dominated by men (not to say that there are no ladies reading comics, but come on, let’s get serious here), and in a male dominated readership, what is going to be picked up faster?
This:
Or this:
I can’t just blame the men either. What girl doesn’t want to be Catwoman? Who doesn’t want to flip around in tight black body suits, stealing shinies, throwing out quick-witted quips and having a crazy romance with the one and only Batman?
Honestly, I picked it up regardless of the reviews because I wanted it to be good, I wanted to love Catwoman, but I just can’t justify purchasing this comic anymore. I promise you that I am not the only one, there’s probably a good handful of ladies who pick it up for the exact same reason. Catwoman is cool. She’s edgy, and compared to her, Captain Marvel is a huge ‘L’ ’7′.
So here’s what I am suggesting. Marvel, DC, are you listening? I’m about to give you the best advice you could ever receive. Marvel: Keep Captain Marvel. Do some promoting of her. Get her name out there. She’s quite honestly the best, and I’m stoked with this comic in more ways than one. Get the word out there! Appeal to younger girls. She’s a great role model, and tell male readers that they aren’t going to be sold some feminazi insanity either. She’s a super hero, her boobs just aren’t hanging out all the time, and it’s a wonderful world!
DC: Fire Ann Nocenti. Get rid of her, just do it. She’s ruining a wonderful character. Hire me instead. I’ve done the research, I even have a storyline planned and the first issue completely written out. I did this out of pure rage for how the series was headed, so you know there’s heart behind it.
Anyways, how do you feel about this, dear Panel Bound readers. Any fans of the new Catwoman? Captain Marvel?
I perfectly understand what you’re feeling, because I recently went through the same situation: I saw some series I loved getting discarded, while some others which had far less quality went on. I’ll make you an example.
Blue Beetle was a fantastic series, and you know why? Because of the attention given to family, Mexican culture and mythology. Blue Beetle never showed just a superhero kicking a villain’s ass: there was always something more intriguing and instructive to read.
There’s another thing that made that series so special. Superhero comics usually don’t give much importance to the private life of their main character (they tend to focus only on the “costume on” part); Blue Beetle, on the contrary, didn’t focus only on his fights with this villain or that, but also on his school life, his best friend Paco, the girl Jaime had a crush on, Brenda… also, the moments he shared with these characters were not useless: on the contrary, those relationships deeply influenced his career as a superhero, because one of his main villains was Brenda’s aunt, and Paco became a villain too after some issues… it’s so sad that a series that had so much quality and so many details you normally never find in superhero comics is gone for good, while some others, like Catwoman, go on.
Talking about Catwoman, you’re not the first blogger stating that the plot of this series is a mere and goofy excuse for showing Selina Kyle naked as many times as possible, and complaining about the appalling language (http://tessatechaitea.tumblr.com/post/38395720726/heh-so-yesterday-i-accidentally-bought-catwoman).
Anyway, I don’t think that people buy this series only because of Selina’s boobies: surely some readers spend 2,99 $ each month solely for them, but I think that Catwoman is selling so much because she has a large number of fans who buy the title no matter what, because they’re in love with the character, or simply because they buy all the Bat – titles. Basically, Catwoman is a title that automatically sells itself. Unfortunately, some other titles (Captain Marvel, Blue Beetle and so on) aren’t that lucky, so, despite being a better product, they constantly risk cancellation.
You wrote “being sexy is one of Catwoman’s things but in this series, it’s her only thing”: if you want to read a series with a sexy leading character but also an intriguing plot, I do suggest you to read Witchblade. It faced a sort of reboot from issue # 151, and it’s been pure awesomeness each month since then.
It is certainly difficult to watch a good comic get put under by lack of readership, especially when it is a comic that you can personally relate to.
I 100% agree with what you said about Catwoman. Her being part of the Bat-titles, she will be picked up as part of a collection, and the comic does sell itself. That being said, I just wish that it meant DC would put more time and effort into it. Catwoman has a sort of Antihero feel to her now, that could be so good as a story line, but nobody is touching it.
I will definitely check out Witchblade then! Thanks for the suggestion.
*I wrote a response to this earlier, but I don’t know if it was posted, so I’m trying again!*
Thank you as well for your reply! : )