I’ve always wondered what percentage of DC and Marvel action figure collectors still actively read contemporary comics. I’m old school. I liked the days when bad guys either robbed banks or wanted to rule the world as opposed to stuffing mutilated girlfriends into refrigerators or repeatedly murdering children’s parents in front of their eyes.
I'm all over. I read contemporary comics, but I also read all eras. Fortunate to have friends and technology that let me get whatever runs I ever wanted to read.
Started in the 90s, but the content I read was 80s and even 70s alongside the at-the-time-current books. Wizard magazine helped a lot: they talked about everything, and provided plenty of context. Back issues were spotlit, and usually cheap. They also did special magazines that mainlined anything you ever needed to know.
I also find 80s comics - at least Marvel's - didn't treat you like you were incapable of catching up. I jumped into Outback X-men, and the caption boxes and editor notes were enough to tell me why a returning face was a big deal, or why so and so hated someone else. If I wanted to dive deeper, back issues. Otherwise I understood context clues and kept going. I feel like a lot of books, certainly with the constant reboots and erasure of big issue numbers because they are "intimidating", are doing it wrong. I was never intimidated by a book being on issue 280. It made me feel like I was part of something bigger.
Anyway, I read contemporary superhero books, but it is mostly habit or love of characters. Otherwise my money goes to indies and other genres. I also enjoy most mid-70s books on up. There's a magic to them.
Toy-wise, I appreciate Todd hitting all eras. I really appreciate that he stayed on top of Metal and other stories even if it took a while to get to classic standards. As Marvel used to say, it's always someone's first issue. If Speed Metal Flash is what onboarded somebody and they want to talk to me about more comics, I'm for it.
I'm usually surprised that Hasbro lags behind the current. I thought for sure Krakoa (now five years old!) was going to feed their X-Men line. Nope. I guess they did tap Spider-Verse (the comic) indirectly with the variants. I like that Todd can show something and have it available within the month, especially when it's something on the shelves.
That said, I'm always of the belief you need evergreen Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spidey, Wolverine, etc. Keep the classics handy and explore with new things.
It is always funny to see the Internet get upset about character reveals while oblivious of time. I saw people upset they were doing "new books" like Generation X. That roster's 30 some years old now, and more relevant to me than the OG New Mutants. Blame my parents for conceiving me then and not earlier. But make both teams, for real. I want both.
