Marvel Comics has a distinct 90s problem - and if they're not careful, the could lose most of their readership before they've even realized their critical mistake. The company is over 50 years old and thus has plenty of nostalgic properties, from Spider-Man to the X-Men to the Incredible Hulk and more. But recently, the company is seemingly laser-focused on bringing back very specific properties - the stories from the 1990s - and this is unfortunately a grand mistake.
The classic "nostalgia cycle" is simple to understand and very easy to notice: a belief that audiences will consider a piece of media nostalgic if it debuted 20-30 years ago. The 1970s saw a resurgence of works set in the 1960s; the 2000s, the 80s, and so on. From 2015 onward, the 90s were seen as nostalgic, and thus films like Captain Marvel took place in the 90s (complete with references to Blockbuster, RadioShack and dial-up internet). Marvel comics are guilty of the practice as well, but unlike the films, entire storylines from the 90s are brought back, and therein lies the problem.
2021 alone has seen three separate revivals of 90s storylines: Darkhawk, Heroes Reborn, and the Spider-Man Clone Saga (others still, like the X-Men Legacy series, appear; it's no accident that the 90s X-Men animated series revival is also planned for Disney+). Darkhawk was a 90s hero that received a cult fan following, but he wasn't particularly memorable or stood out from the crowd (his disappearance after the decade proved the fandom was only fleeting). A new Darkhawk appearing in 2022 (after the old one was killed in 2021) did not suddenly fan the flames for a Darkhawk resurrection on par with the likes of Iron Man.
2021's Heroes Reborn crossover is only tangentially related to the original 1996 story. Captain America, Thor, the Fantastic Four and others were quasi-rebooted with new stories by up-and-coming creators, but the book was not looked upon favorably; this makes the decision to reboot the book at all questionable. The same question hangs over 2021's new Clone Saga. The original was widely considered a narrative mess, so why bring the story back? In a way, the creative team did not - the new Clone Saga features Miles Morales dealing with three clones instead of one accosting Peter Parker, and it's clear that none of them are even close to the original (the most shocking element of the 90s saga).
Marvel's adherence to the Nostalgia Cycle forces the company to bring back multiple 90s storylines. Unfortunately, those storylines were all considered subpar at best in their day, and they've not aged well since. If even the readers of the old comics are unlikely to respond positively to the rebooted stories, why would anyone else? Marvel Comics may have weaponized the Nostalgia Cycle in the MCU, but for the comics, it's best they steer clear of the 90s narratives for the time being.
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January 30, 2022 at 09:23PM
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Marvel's Faith in the Nostalgia Cycle Is a Huge Miscalculation - Screen Rant
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