Marvel executive Tom Brevoort would rather make Marvel Comics fans angry than indifferent... and I think he's succeeding.
What Brevoort seems to miss is that if the underlying problems never improve, anger does not remain anger forever. Eventually anger burns itself out. It exhausts the reader.
There was a time when I bought Marvel Comics constantly. I followed multiple titles. I cared about what was happening in that universe. When stories disappointed me, I argued about them. I discussed them with friends. I paid attention to editorial direction and creative teams.
In other words, I was engaged.
But over time that engagement eroded. Not overnight. Not in one dramatic moment. It happened gradually as the same frustrations repeated themselves again and again. Stories that felt disposable. Editorial decisions that seemed driven more by short term shock than by long term storytelling. Characters treated less like evolving personalities and more like interchangeable intellectual property pieces on a board.
At this point I have not regularly purchased Marvel comics in years. In fact, over the past year the only Marvel books I have bought at all have been the Fantastic Four and the Gargoyles crossover, plus one other title that was cancelled. That is it.
Everything else simply fell off my radar.
And the reason is not because Marvel made me angry.
It is because Marvel exhausted my anger.
That is the flaw in Brevoort’s philosophy. It assumes that provoking fans keeps them engaged indefinitely. But in reality, fans are not an infinite resource of emotional energy. If the product continues to frustrate them without rewarding their investment, eventually they stop investing.
From the outside that indifference probably looks like silence. The arguments disappear. The debates stop. The passionate complaints vanish.
So when I hear an editor say he would rather make fans angry than indifferent, what I hear is someone who fundamentally misunderstands the long term relationship between creators and their audience.
Anger is not a strategy. It is a warning sign.
If the warning signs are ignored long enough, the end result is exactly where I am now.
A former reader who simply stopped paying attention.
