while I am not a big fan of the current Marvel Star Wars comics , I do find this interesting
Out of curiosity, what do you generally not like about them? Most of the reaction I’ve seen to Marvel’s sw comics has been positive; the recent Vader and Kanan comic series in particular are really popular.
If you don’t mind me butting in;
This all depends greatly on who you ask. Some people really hate the new SW Marvel comics with a passion, while most people I follow online seem quite indifferent to them. I personally stopped paying attention a while ago, finding it to just be too much and not being too impressed overall. Don’t get me wrong, some of it’s been great. I actually think Charles Soule’s Vader series is up there with the best SW comics of all time, but the rest has been quite average I feel. There might be a generational thing as well, and/or a feeling that the tone of the new comics aren’t all that consistent. I tried reading the Aphra series, and while it was fine enough, I just never got the hype. It just seemed kind of dull to me. As for the main series following Luke and the other OT characters, it just doesn’t fell like the OT at all, and the characterization feels off to. It lacks that old serial charm, and instead feels like it takes itself way too serious. Maybe that’s why the Vader series has worked so well (though I personally thought he art in the first run by Larroca was pretty bad).I also think that the new comics, regardless of what you think of the art, writing, etc. feel so much more pointless nowadays. Before there were multiple cartoons and live-action series the EU existed in novels and comics, yet both of these mediums feel more like filler than anything of consequence, so that might be a factor for a lot of fans as well.
^ yeah , I agree with most of this ,and I will add that most modern comics don’t really do much for me when they are 5 to 6 bucks for a single issue that can be read in five minutes as opposed to the original Marvel Star Wars which had narrative captions that enhanced the stories for me . Same goes for most of the 80s comics I read . Back then , four issues were the equivalent of a full movie for me , as each was about a half hour read . Plus , they had the benefit of doing things that movies can’t really do ( kind of hard for me to explain , for the best idea of what I am talking about , read the book Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud ) .
I completely forgot about the ridiculous prices they demand nowadays. I know times change, but taking comics away from comic racks in regular stores (or the equivalent of this) was a huge mistake. Spending 4 dollars each month on what feels more like a standalone scene in a larger narrative than a complete story or “episode” just doesn’t feel worth it, especially when you either have to buy them digitally or go to specialized stores. The latter of which aren’t always an option at all if you don’t live in a large city (this goes double if you live outside America or the UK).
I’m also quite tired of obvious padding for the trades. Some writers do this much better than others, but even then you might as well wait until the TPB. Funnily enough I think Chares Soule has been a good example of both approaches. I enjoyed his Vader series because, among many other reasons, each issue felt like a satisfactory read. Not as self-contained as older comics were, but enough that I didn’t mind waiting a month. is Lando series on the other hand, although I did think the end result was fine, felt like it was two issues too long. Had this story been told in the 80’ s I think they might have managed to even squeeze it into one issue, but he could have easily have told it in three and not lost a single story beat.
Either modern comics need to return to their roots and get single issues back into grocery stores and the like, or they need to commit to the trades and adopt a more French/Belgian approach with each writer/artist team making just a couple of large graphic novels per year.