The industry has always been about appealing to kids (generally) and to the tone of the times. I'd argue that Batman's "Dark Knight" incarnation strikes such a huge chord nowadays in that it reflects the simmering anger just under the surface of society today--quite frankly, the urge to beat the living shit outta someone who's wronged you or wronged others. That's REAL, and that's one reason why characters like Batman and Wolverine strike a chord with fans.

But do the times really dictate the need for SO MANY DIFFERENT BOOKS? They can call this a solution to the sagging economy, a cure-all for the slump in the comics industry before Marvel's movies got it back in stride.

But it just feels like TOO MUCH MATERIAL, like a flooded market. A lot of these characters simply don't need their own books.

Granted, it's not a new thing--in the day, you had, maybe, three or four Spider-Man titles. Fine. But they all ENDURED beyond just a couple of years--"Marvel Tales," for example, was made up of reprints of past "Amazing Spider-Man" stories. It served a purpose, and gave the more mature reader a reason to read. Plus, they were ALL CANON. Now, this muhfucka is an Avenger AND SUPPOSEDLY AN X-MAN? No.

Jump over to the X-Men: you see a book for some random Hellfire Club muhfucka. Why does this character need a title?--and don't tell me it's by "popular demand", because you can't FIND ten fanboys who popularly demanded this. It's FLOODED--boil some of this shit down, I say.

They need to stop relaunching "She-Hulk", FOREVER.

Ms. Marvel is one of my 70's crushes, but she don't need a book (in fact, every reattempt at Captain Marvel makes me cry for the Mar-Vell I grew up with). Black Widow doesn't, either.

Cable never needed one--in fact, there's WAY too many X-Men books.

"Genext"--the X-men's kids? Don't need a book--just work them into "New Mutants".

Same for the Exiles. Same for "Young X-Men".

And then there's the Justice League--they need to boil some shit down, too. DC wouldn't HAVE to do a "52" series if they'd just stayed mindful of the reasons the Crisis had to occur in the FIRST place.