In a recent interview with ICv2, Marvel's David Gabriel said that in October there was "a big shift in the entire industry, and there were a lot of factors behind that. I think everybody had a modicum of blame publisher-wise. I think the economy had a little bit to blame. By economy, I'm talking about what was going on in the outside world which led to people not necessarily wanting to spend money in that October-November time frame."
Gabriel also said that tastes had changed, and that "there was definitely a sort of nose-turning at the things that we had been doing successfully for the past three years, no longer viable. We saw that, and that's what we had to react to. Yes, it's all of that."
When asked about why tastes had changed, though, Gabriel said: "I don't know if that's a question for me. I think that's a better question for retailers who are seeing all publishers. What we heard was that people didn't want any more diversity. They didn't want female characters out there. That's what we heard, whether we believe that or not. I don't know that that's really true, but that's what we saw in sales."
"We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked."
However, a lot of Twitter users were quick to disagree with him, as reported by BBC, as they say that sales have fallen instead because of things like "editorial interference," a lack of imagination, and replacement of characters with similar versions.
David Gabriel has since issued a statement to ICv2 defending the new characters, making it clear he wasn't abandoning them with his previous comments. "Discussed candidly by some of the retailers at the summit, we heard that some were not happy with the false abandonment of the core Marvel heroes and, contrary to what some said about characters "not working," the sticking factor and popularity for a majority of these new titles and characters like Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, The Mighty Thor, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, and Moon Girl, continue to prove that our fans and retailers ARE excited about these new heroes. And let me be clear, our new heroes are not going anywhere! We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel Universe and pair them with our iconic heroes."
"We have also been hearing from stores that welcome and champion our new characters and titles and want more! They've invigorated their own customer base and helped them grow their stores because of it. So we're getting both sides of the story and the only upcoming change we're making is to ensure we don't lose focus of our core heroes."
What are your thoughts on reduced sales in recent months?