Thread by @KurtBusiek

Every now and then I find myself wondering what it would have been like if the New Universe had been a universe a lot of readers wanted to buy.

I mean, the opportunity was there. They just needed to pick a target audience that existed and create books that actually targeted that audience, instead of “books that had principles Jim Shooter wanted comics readers to like."

They could have aimed it at younger readers, trying to create a whole line that’d be a gateway in, like TRANSFORMERS and GI JOE were.

They could have aimed it at older readers, doing smart comics for people outgrowing the regular line.

Heck, they could have done another line just like the regular line, since the readers of that were already coming into stores and buying that sort of thing.

They could have tried an SF line. Or a fantasy line. Not likely a crime line would have worked.

But something coherent, something targeted, something that aimed at readers they could reach with material they’d enjoy.

Not a bunch of hastily-concieved stuff thrown together at the last minute that was a lot like regular Marvel but less splashy.

Jim’ idea of “the world outside your window” didn’t mean “a world you could believe was a world like your own with superheroes added” but “a world where the super stuff was never so loud it couldn’t be denied.”

Which ended up meaning “superheroes, but quiet."

Doing something loud — but something that had an actual focus — would have been more likely to catch on.

Especially with consistent creative teams.

The time was right for omething like that. But the line was so very wrong.

I may have been unclear in this first tweet.

I didn’t mean “what if more people had wanted to buy KICKERS and MERC and STARBRAND.” I meant, “what if Marvel had done a different line of books as the New Universe, ones people would have wanted to buy?"