Comic book feedback: Letters lose to the Web

Geekdom used to be so lonely, and that’s why kids -- and grown-ups -- wrote letters to comic books.

Beginning about 45 years ago, hard-core fans started to send in letters on sheets of notebook paper. They would praise superheroes, but also take umbrage with story arcs or abuses of mutant powers, or point out tiny inconsistencies in the canon, or decry super-gaffes.

DC Comics recently announced the end of its letters-to-the-editor pages in all of its titles, more or less admitting that no one was really taking the time to write and mail letters to superheroes anymore.

DC’s decision to kill off letters -- and with Marvel Comics inclined to do the same -- is a surrender to the far superior powers of the Internet. Fans haven’t complained about the loss; they’re too busy flaming each other on comic book Web sites.

Online, thousands of comics fans, most of them using clever pseudonyms, are joined in a steady, more satisfying fray of criticism, debate and adulation. No longer marginalized or lonely, they swarm by the tens of thousands to annual comic book mega-conventions in San Diego and Chicago, where creators from Marvel, DC and other publishing houses await their probing comments. Fans have forged a direct link to writers, artists and editors, many of whom respond online to questions within a day.

At Marvel Comics, only one current title is featuring any letters from readers -- “X-Statix,” a new addition to the copious “X-Men” family of titles, and one that drives its readers into a froth of advice and opinion.

Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada admits that the letters format is rapidly dying. “There may be a time when someone sends in something that is incredibly touching or valid and needs to see print somewhere, somehow,” he says. “Otherwise, the Web is so much better.”

“Fans take it for granted now, all the ways they have to offer feedback,” he says.