With Marvel Comics announcing a line-wide overhaul of its titles this year, many fans are wondering what it means for some of the relatively new titles that are just finding their groove and the Legacy renumbering of long-established books. Based on how well previous overhauls have gone for the publisher over the last decade, it’s difficult to say.

Neither Marvel NOW! nor All-New, All-Different Marvel were the most well-received "reboots" by fans. But while the Legacy initiative is really still too young to deem it a failure, this is something that hasn’t stopped Marvel from kicking off reboots in the past. Now, some of comics’ mightiest heroes are on the precipice another potential nosedive, and it’s a shame.

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Why Marvel Comics has been losing market share and good will with long-time fans has been attributed to numerous theories, some of which are quite dubious. Cries bemoaning examples of perceived “affirmative action” with regards to establish heroes facing changes in their ethnicities, gender or sexual identity has been cited (despite the fact that many of these books are some of Marvel’s most popular). Meanwhile, other readers claim the overall quality of the books has suffered due to constraints on creative teams, thus leading to low sales numbers. But the real cause might be the fact that Marvel Comics is trying to have its cake and eat it too -- not by simply integrating new characters into the Marvel U, but by simultaneously embracing its long-standing mythos even as it appears to be pushing it aside.

The biggest issue with comics in the modern era is that they are by and large hidden from the public eye. In order to obtain "floppies," a customer has two options at their disposal. They can either go to a specialty store (if there’s one in their town) to make a purchase, or sign up for a subscription service online, be it digital or mail order. Both of these options can be quite daunting for unguided newcomers. Sure, comic book movies are the new shorthand for blockbuster cinema, but maybe if the parent studios behind them advertised their source material in any other manner beyond ads for comics in other comics, they might make some new True Believers.

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The fact of the matter is, there is always room at the table for new comic book fans. For the most part, the community is made up of loving, welcoming nerds, people who want nothing more than for everyone to share in their love for the vast mythology comics has been building for nearly a century. What Marvel needs to realize is that making a launch pad for new readers doesn’t require reboots every two years. Clearly, it’s not working. Perhaps the better solution is to more effectively reach out to the masses. Comic readers are going to buy comic books no matter what (childish boycotting aside), and rebooting a bunch of titles only pushes longtime readers away -- especially when story arcs and character development points are left abandoned because of it.

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Despite mixed feelings fans have had about some of the books under the Marvel Legacy banner, reclaiming the triple digit numbering for many of the titles was a step in the right direction. You can bring in a new creative team, advertise a high numbered issue as “new,” and still make it work. Just look at what Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely did during their now iconic run on New X-Men, for example. The title of the book changed, but the numbering stayed the same, which indicated to long-time readers that, yes, this is still the same story you’ve been following for years. It also indicating that it could be a great starting point for people who have never read X-Men. This is how Marvel can have it both ways.

From an outside perspective, it’s easy to see comic books (especially within the superhero genre) as an impenetrable fandom. But in the age of instant information, anyone can become an arm chair scholar on any subject over the course of an afternoon of Internet research. There's no reason for a new reader to feel intimidated by comic books with numbers higher than shoes sizes. If someone picks up the first issue of a new story arc and a big event is referenced, they have three choices: Find and read the books covering the aforementioned event, power through and allow the creators to fill in the necessary blanks along the way, or scroll through a wiki on their smartphone until they’re up to speed. While the third option may sound like blasphemy to some fans, the fact is, it's just as valid as the other, more traditional ones. The problem lies in the fact that unless Marvel is actively trying to cast a wider net (while continuing to appeal to longtime fans), this hypothetical new reader may never pick up a Marvel comic in the first place -- and that's a real shame.