Chapter 132: Unrests of the Trumped
The Big Two are long-time players in the American comic book industry with characters and stories that have been holding out for more than a decade or two.
What DC and Marvel know is that superheroes always work out and they have been competing against each other on that superpowered warzone. Every super-character they've whipped out is either a knock-off copy of a counterpart or is about to be a knock-off copy of a counterpart.
As long as a certain character has an inkling of success, they would make their own version of that character in a different name, orientation, or representation.
They do offer different perspectives to their characters though as DC focuses more on embracing the power while Marvel is about dealing with the curses that come with it.
One goes for the god-like and over-talented while the other goes for something humanly relatable. Of course, there isn't a true generalization as they come and go between the two extremes.
In any case, the Big Two is always about superheroes and their storytelling interpretation of them. This was the "mainstream" as they know it and even the whole of society considers comic books to be about superheroes.
This was the super genre that comic book publishers were good at and their techniques on it have been continuously polished ever since.
Marvel and DC have been masters at the superhero genre and considered that superheroes are the way that comic books would go forward.
Even indie publishers with other storytelling methods know that their genres can't tap into major success without messing with the Big Two and superheroes.
The comic book industry was way too tricked into the superhero and Big Two initiative that they didn't know anything else that could be more popular.
It should have been the comic book status quo for many years to come. Not until the new and unimpeded momentum of Creed Comics told the Big Two and the entire comic industry that there was something else to be hyped up about.
Alexander Creed introduced stories that would go on to be much more popular and sought after than anyone else could have expected.
The most unfortunate for the competitors part is that the techniques used by the Creed newcomers are an amalgamation of many things that they weren't prepared for.
Their honing of methods against the superhero genre became moot as the new stories didn't employ much superheroes at all.
Perhaps TMNT and RoboCop were the most attuned to the hero-type but they offered so much more than good guys besting their bad enemies. The former was more on explorative teenage joy while the latter was more on a deeper deconstruction of society.
Sure, the Big Two superheroes could do those things as well but there was just an advanced charm that Creed titles and works had in them.
Creed Comics movement brought about an industry upheaval that none of the existing publishing companies could have readied themselves to.
Consecutive releases of popular titles and stories that everyone can't get enough of as it was way too expansive and continuous that everyone can't help but get hooked for what's about to come next.
The Creed artists have a steady release schedule that trumps the delays and release gaps that the Big Two and other publishing companies are frequently in trouble with.
It ensured the readers to remain hooked and enforced the idea that the Creed brand won't falter much on their release promises. Just the adjacent week releases and many mass releases that were done were enough to tell people that the artists weren't running out of steam.
Every competitor artist could only complain at how monstrous the elusive Alexander Creed and his comic-making team were. Steady weekly releases of a single comic title clearly weren't improbable as everyone thought it was.
Quality and quantity stories were already stumping the competition from fighting back yet Creed Comics didn't stop there.
It was still unclear at the start but Creed surveys, popularity polls, and popularity rankings slowly gain momentum to be an immaculate activity to be done on comic book stores.
The top recognizable heroes like Spider-man and Superman were still pulling in sales but Creed characters were slowly phasing others out. The popularity of the popularity ranking posters is enough to tell people about that.
Since Creed characters and titles are the only ones that appear on the eye-catching posters, it conveyed a message to those who don't know that Marvel, DC, and other publication heroes weren't popular at all.
It dipped the visibility of the competitor titles further and further as new customers continue to be pulled in and follow the flocking Creed crowd like ignorant sheep.
DC tried mitigating such unfavorability by copying the survey strategy but failed miserably due to the fact that having another survey was a tedious process.
The Creed movement didn't stop at those stories and surveys though as the introduction of the Volume Books put another advantage that they would find hard to beat.
The old school trade paperbacks could still sell but how could they compare to Volume Books with a 10-in-1 compilation of the most in-demand stories of the present time.
DC and Marvel Volume Book attempts would probably fail with all the discontinuity and storyline mess that trade paperback compilers had to shuffle through. It was just an artistic mess and it was best that they should just stop emulating the Creed Volume Book strategy.
Horror uprising was another movement brought by the Predator was something that they can't play around with as the cursed CCA is still hanging above their corporate addendum.
Finally, to push the Creed brand further into major dominance was the successive release traps of merchandise that they have done this recent December.
The competition can't help but curse as even toys and crossover stories were being annexed with everything related to the Creed brand.
It was just vexing and exasperating to be against an enemy that always improves on what they are already good at.
Eventually, people realized that their superheroes were becoming foils and playing second fiddle. It wasn't bad overall since they were still selling but the trend seems to be heading towards something unfavorable.
If the downward trend continues, then they might become antiques and had already passed their respective peaks.
As much as the respective comic book corporates panicked, so did the writers, artists, and employees that fall under their corporate umbrellas.
Creed Comics was bad news for them and they hope to cling to the reality that they were always the best and undisputed.
It wasn't as worst as the Twitter rages that they would do in the 2020s but it was still a worse situation to be in.
They wanted to complain and make their anguish and Creed-trashing be known to print and TV media.
The competition would surely not let their competitor stand out. Whatever means was possible as long as it allowed them to get ahead.
Since they can't beat them through healthy competition, they can still work on with shameless deviousness and aggressive tactics that would rattle anyone directed with it.
The Big Two and other jealous indie publishing companies were hatching up their schemes and anyone who would bear the brunt of their collective attacks should probably brace themselves for the trouble that would come their way.