It's no secret that Marvel's comic book sales have been in a downward spiral for a while now. Even Marvel's VP of comics, David Gabriel, had to admit this in a meeting with distributers. In that meeting he said that readers don't want to see more diversity in their comics. He attributed this to their slumping sales. I don't know if that's really the case, look at the Miles Morales Spider-Man. He's one of their best sellers right now. I believe that it has more to do with them screwing around with classic characters and turning them into something that they're not. Examples? Having Thor lose his hammer only to have Jane Foster become the "female" Thor, or having Tony Stark pass the Iron Man suit over to Riri Williams, or more recently having Captain America turn into a Hydra agent. It's not that they're upset about "diversity in comics," they just want to read their favorite comics and enjoy the characters that they grew up reading, not a different person playing that same character. I know I used Morales' Spider-Man as an example of a great comic book, but he's in a different universe than Peter Parker's Spider-Man, and you can still read Parker's Spider-Man adventures if you want to.
The Captain America turn is really hurting Marvel's sales. Thanks to the movie Captain America: The First Avenger, people associate Hydra with Nazis. Marvel has tried to explain to people that Hydra and Nazis aren't one and the same, but it hasn't worked. In fact, their sales have dropped so much that Marvel sent out a press release begging fans to stay. Check it out:
“With Marvel Comics’ ‘Secret Empire,’ the forces of Hydra have taken over and, due to the villainous actions of the Red Skull, have manipulated Marvel’s greatest hero, Captain America, and forced him to adopt their cause."
"At Marvel, we want to assure all of our fans that we hear your concerns about aligning Captain America with Hydra and we politely ask you to allow the story to unfold before coming to any conclusion. Captain America, will always be a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe who will stand up for what is right, and ‘Secret Empire’ will be the biggest challenge Steve has ever faced.”
It might not sound like actual begging, but can you think of another time when they sent out any statement asking fans to stick around to see how the story unfolds? Most people would do that on their own, unless the story sucked or the story angered them to the point of dropping the title from their reading list. Kind of like what's happening now with Captain America. Steve Rogers may return to the man he was before this Hydra storyline began, but unfortunately for Marvel, the damage has already been done.
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