Make Mine Marvel Again: Introduction

By Jeff Hill Features 02/07/2013

I know what you’re all thinking. “Crap. Jeff’s going to talk about Marvel and how they’ve crossed him yet again.” But chill for five and hear me out. Travel with me, if you will, to a time not long ago, where I was chatting with a friend of mine who knows little to nothing about comic books but reads my reviews on the site because, well, he’s a good friend. He asked, “So you’re pretty much just a DC guy, right?” I nodded. Then he had a follow-up question that required significantly more than just a simple nonverbal yes or no shake of the head. He asked, “Why do you hate Marvel so much?”

I ended up saying something along the lines of “Well, I’m not mad at Marvel, per se, just disappointed.” All kidding aside, this really got me thinking. I legitimately used to love Marvel. Actually, at a time, I think I might have actually liked the product that Marvel was delivering even more than that of the Distinguished Competition. And I miss those times.

That being said, I’ve decided to not dwell on the present and spend every single week bitching about Marvel and taking everything so personal. No, I’m going to do something that I feel is both more productive and less angry. Life is too short. I miss “Stan’s Soap Box.” I miss the “Make Mine Marvel” banner. I miss the crossovers and the larger-than-life connected universe of heroes and villains and the rotating doors of the afterlife that they so brazenly walked through on a monthly basis.

In other words, I miss Marvel.

So, I’ve decided to start a new column, alongside of my existing Stir the Pot Saturday weekly and event coverage. But this is going to be a column that isn’t just a place for me to spout off my comic book religion and get up on my moral high horse. I’m not just going to be loud and obnoxious so I can feel that I’ve won. No, this is going to be something else entirely. Part rewind review and part hope for the future, each time I revisit this column from now on, I will focus on a comic storyline or run from the Marvel Vault that I have particular fond memories about and talk about why I love it. Then I will simply ask Marvel why they have strayed so far off the path of greatness, why they have lost me as a reader, and why they just don’t seem to care any longer.

Because I know, deep down, they do still care. Someone there has to. Even though, like a majority of the things that I have learned to know and love, they may be owned by a faceless multibillion dollar conglomerate, that shouldn’t change things. There still has to be someone going in early and staying late at the House of Ideas, each and every day, in hopes of a bringing us all something amazing. Something spectacular. Something uncanny. And something that will get this lapsed fan and lifelong DC Comics supporter to step into the comic shop one day soon and say “Make Mine Marvel” again.

I can’t wait to get started. And I hope you’ll join me. See you in the funny pages. ‘Nuff said.

Jeff Hill / About Author

Jeff Hill is a moderately reformed frat boy turned writer who left teaching after 10 years to split his time between Nebraska and New York and focus on his writing career. His work has appeared in dozens of publications and his mom has a binder full of copies for any doubters. He is the Chief Creative Officer of Comic Booked and is currently pitching the novels Dead Facebook Friends and Dead Week to agents in New York and Los Angeles. Jeff is a graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a regular participant of the Sarah Lawrence College Summer Seminar for Writers, and a past faculty member of the Writer’s Hotel. He can be found on both Twitter and Patreon as jeffhillwriter.