Let’s run down the list of Marvel fanfic groups, past and present. It all started with MV1. Then others popped up. Marvel-X, Avengers 2000, Marvel 2000, Marvel Revolution, 2099 Underground Revised, X – M, Marvel: Dark Design, Strange Tales, Marvel Omega, Ultimate Marvel, Marvel Anthology, My Marvel, Marvel Knights, Revolution X, Age of Onslaught, Avengers Reborn, Marvel Year 2, Alternate Marvel, Altered Visions, and many, many more.
Now, let’s run down some of the DC groups, past and present. Faux DC, DC Heroes, Vertigo: Subculture, DC Legends, JLU: 2001, DC Anthology, DC Omega, DC Infinity, DC Reborn. Not as many in there.
What about Image? Well, there haven’t really been any Image groups, at least not to my knowledge. I’ve been involved in a few attempts to start Image groups, such as Shattered Image and ReImaged. Neither got past the planning stages. DC Omega, which I run, has an imprint for Wildstorm and Cliffhanger properties, both once part of Image.
But why stop with comics? What about groups centered around popular television shows? The short-lived Channel Surf attempted this, which I will go into more depth shortly. Or what about video game fanfiction? Why isn’t there a site where people can write titles based on Resident Evil or Final Fantasy? What about anime and manga? What about a site dedicated to the old pulp characters like the Shadow and Doc Savage?
Whenever a non-Marvel site is attempted, it falls apart shortly after its initial launch. Or even worse, it falls apart before it even has an initial launch. So the question then becomes, what is so special about Marvel? Why do Marvel sites have a longer lifespan than other groups?
The first reason for this is continuity. Marvel was really a trendsetter when it came to continuity between books. With DC, continuity was never much of an issue before the Silver Age and things arguably got more complicated when DC started to use continuity. One of the keys to Marvel’s success has been the shared universe of characters. As someone who has written for both Marvel and DC sites, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I feel there is more pressure on me to get my issues out in a timely fashion.
It’s the shared continuity aspect of it that really drives this feeling for me. With DC, the settings of the characters are so different that it’s easier to fall into the trap of writing in a vacuum. Metropolis is different from Gotham which is different from Star City which is different from Oa which is different from Themyscria and so on and so forth. But with Marvel, the majority of the action is set in New York. The Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and countless other characters are all based in New York. Cramming all of these characters into one location makes it virtually impossible not to have them cross paths. In DC, Batman has to hop in a jet and fly to Metropolis if he wants to talk to Superman face to face. But in Marvel, if Spidey wants to have a chat with Daredevil, all he has to do is swing by Matt Murdock’s apartment. If Captain America needs a word with Mr. Fantastic, he’s only a few miles away from the Baxter Building.
The characters being in such close proximity makes the universe so much smaller. Superman can fight Metallo in Metropolis, level the city, and it’ll have no effect on what’s going on with the Flash. But if Magneto creates his own country in X-Men, the effects of that could be felt in the pages of Avengers and Fantastic Four. This is seen numerous times in Marvel fanfic groups. To use Marvel Omega as an example, in Avengers Noh-Varr staged breakouts at various superhuman prisons. The impact was felt in many different titles, including Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New Warriors, and Mutant Underground with Liberty Legion and Thunderbolts being affected by the fall-out. The Thing’s rampage in Fantastic Four caused an appearance by the New Warriors and the Hulk as well as led directly into the events of a crossover with Avengers.
This shared continuity is what seems to cripple other sites. DC does have shared continuity, which is probably why those sites have a slightly longer shelf life than other non-Marvel sites. But Image sites, most of those properties, even if they are in a shared universe, tend to be pretty insular. This is the problem I found with the Channel Surf experiment. All the titles were stand-alones, just like real television shows. It wasn’t a shared universe and because of this, there was less pressure to produce regular content—I know I fell into this trap with my work on Angel with Brad Horton.
Another reason for more Marvel sites is the shared continuity offers better cut-off points. If you look at the majority of Marvel sites, many of them have cut-offs right after big events. Marvel 2000 has “The Magneto War,” Altered Visions has “Eve of Destruction,” MV1 had “Heroes Reborn,” and so forth.
And, a prime reason for many when writing fanfic, is it gives fans a chance to right perceived wrongs with their favorite characters. Particularly within the past ten to fifteen years or so, there are a lot of things fans feel writers have screwed up in regards to Marvel characters. The Clone Saga, The Crossing, Onslaught, Disassembled, Planet X, The Twelve, Civil War, The Other, etc. Regardless of whether or not you agree that all these were mistakes (and not even I do), these are some common ones that pop up in discussion. Marvel’s increased focus on commercialization, for good or worse, has alienated some readers. These readers have turned to fanfic because they’ve found there is far more focus on staying true to the characters.
Will more sites pop up in the future dedicated to non-Marvel properties? It would be great if this happened, but I personally don’t see it happening. Our little community is stretched pretty thin as is and unless there’s an influx of new talent, the number of sites—Marvel-based and otherwise—will start to decline in number.