A Letter To The X-Office
I sent this letter to the X-Office email address recently, and after a recent conversation here I thought I'd post it here. I don't expect to hear back from Marvel at all, because that seems to be their response to criticism these days, but here it is.
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This is something that I've been watching build since at least Avengers vs. X-Men, and while it's mostly about the X-Books I've seen it from the other offices as well. It's a sense that Editorial is frankly notlistening to their readers. And I don't think this is an exaggeration, but it's reflected in the sales as well.
Sales for the X-Books have been troubling since From the Ashes began. X-Men were historically one of Marvel's strongest performers, but since FtA began the lineup has been getting beaten up on the sales rankings charts not just by other Marvel properties, but by DC and even Image. Characters whose books have historically sold well such as X-23 are now dropped out of the Top 50, if not the Top 100. It's certainly hard to get a true sense of how books are performing since actual sales numbers have been withheld for some time, but there's an inference to be made when the Top 50 was formally dominated by the X-line, but now we're lucky to see 3 - 4 X-books in that range.
There can be a lot of factors involved, but I think one that is continually being overlooked, whether it's just an oversight or outright refusal to acknowledge the situation, is Editorial not actually listening to what their readers are saying.
I first really noticed this trend during Jordan White's tenure. White's at times trollish response to fans contributed a sense that he really didn't care about the readers' interests. This is exacerbated by a questionable view on the makeup of the fanbase. Editors like White and Brevoort seem to be operating under illusion that the core readership is still made upf of teenagers. This has led to the "Perpetual 20s" of the Original Five, where Cyclops, Jean, Bobby, and Warren are never allowed to age older than their 20s because readers would find them "unrelatable." This extends beyond just the X-Office, with Spider-Man being an excellent example; Despite constant fan pressure about bringing back the Spider-Marriage and undoing One More Day, Editorial continues to double down on the idea that their readers couldn't relate to Peter having a happy and healthy marriage. The reality is that the average reader age has increased over time. Younger audiences are faced with more competition from other sources of entertainment, and it's now people in their 30s and 40s who are the core readership. And yet we're not supposed to find older characters relatable?
And this ties back into feelings, as a fan, of not being heard or listened to. For example, in her recent X-Men Monday Q&A with AitP, Jody Houser was asked about the appearance of Laura's friends from Academy X, characters that fans have been asking to see more of since AvX (and Jordan White even acknowledged they were in high demand!) especially in regards to revisiting Laura's friendships with Mercury and Dust, only to answer that there were no plans for them to appear at all. Hellion specifically received multiple inquiries during that same Q&A; in fact for years he has been one of, if not the, leading question-drivers on Laura's books because it's a relationship many fans are still widely invested in, and want to see developments like NYX #8 and Laura Kinney: Wolverine #7 meaningfully followed up on. The fact that this can be asked again and again and again and again and yet nothing actually be done with it leads to a sense of alienation and that fans' interests are not being considered.
Art is certainly subjective, and artists need some freedom to tell the story they wish to tell, but when it's also media intended for consumption there comes a point where not listening to readers becomes negligent in what the books are meant to be. Instead, readers are met with patronizing sarcasm, (White) disregard, (Brevoort) or outright hostility (Lowe).
It's an incredibly frustrating experience when it seems that editorial is only willing to acknowledge feedback that promotes what they want to believe. This is most evident when viewing the letters columns. Looking back through back issues in the 80s and 90s I'm often astonished at just how nasty some of the letters were that were not only printed, but even responded to! Yet that provided a sense that concerns were actually being heard. Now I seldom see meaningful criticism in the letter columns, and almost exclusively praise and cheerleading as if there is no such criticism at all.
I frankly don't expect this email to receive much more than a cursory look or at most a form reply thanking me for my comments. But I do expect that sales will continue to slip the longer Editorial continues to double down on its direction rather than taking a step back and acknowledging that readers simply aren't engaging in their direction, and no amount of event gimmicks or shiny slate of new #1s are going to change that.
