Realization about superhero comics

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After having experienced the best that the genre has to offer, i have come to the conclusion that i love a select few superhero comics, not the genre as a whole.
My favorites are usually using superheroes to say something thematically and explore ideas. Like watchmen, astro city or allstar superman.
They make things more interesting by putting the heroes in a tangible historical context free from continuity fat, like dc: the new frontier, watchmen or Marvels.
Often it's more about the big ideas/high concept/cosmic mythology like Jack Kirby on fantastic four and new gods or Grant Morrisons dc work.
Or the crime noir take of a prime Frank Miller.

Some type of justification/take that is innovative is required. A new run on a character just to keep the title ongoing seems creatively bankrupt to me.

Even with longer runs that I like (Kirby/Lee fantastic four, Frank Miller daredevil, Alan Moore swamp thing, Morrison jla and animal man, Walter simonson thor etc) there is a structure/vision from beginning to end.
Anything that is the indefinitely ongoing continuity soap opera of most superhero comics im not going to like.
Also, the heights of my favorites are rarely going to be replicated within the corporate landscape of modern marvel/dc.
That's why im mostly done with superhero comics and will occasionally check in to see if there is a new immortal hulk type of exception

 

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A new run on a character just to keep the title ongoing seems creatively bankrupt to me.

Even with longer runs that I like (Kirby/Lee fantastic four, Frank Miller daredevil, Alan Moore swamp thing, Morrison jla and animal man, Walter simonson thor etc) there is a structure/vision from beginning to end.
Anything that is the indefinitely ongoing continuity soap opera of most superhero comics im not going to like.

This is one of the tricky things with serials especially the cape books. It's meant to be a disposable product. There origin is in newspaper strips and it was supposed to be something you read to pass time on a Sunday and then you moved on.

As they moved into their own books, they were meant to entertain kids. When the market started shifting in the 80s there developed a tension between the literary aspirations of the creators/readers and the commercial demands of the market. Marvel aimed for older kids as a readership and they aged into college kids. The IP had to be sustained to keep the money coming in but the creators and the readers wanted more substance.

We saw what the genre could be but the market put pressure on what the genre had to be. The direct market caused the market to shrink even further due to limited distribution and the product became targeted more and more towards the demographic that was steeped in the genre and less aiming at grabbing new readers.

We see how Manga dominates the field now and part of that success is wider distribution, clear numbering (Volume 1, 2, 3, 4 ect) and stories that end. It appeals to a wider demo while the big 2's demo narrowed to those "super readers" who were heavily invested in the overall lore.

Someone wrote a whole dissertation on this subject: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1316&context=etd