Very great analysis on this. The sports parallels definitely help to flesh out the rollercoaster that is Marvel currently. My gripe. The look of the new Marvel comics looks too...generic?! To explain, I don't like the little Marvel box with the issue number. It reeks of a corporate brand. The covers, although having some great artwork, fall flat when you go beyond that.

There's too many unnecessary titles of characters that didn't need their own solo stories. Spider-man has succeeded because his look has mostly stayed the iconic red and blue suit for his entire story, if you don't include random other suits or the black and white/venom Spidey we got in the 80's. X-men '97 is seemingly going to succeed because it is rooted on the best looking costume designs that we love from the best last era of X-men stories we were given. I've seen the later changes of characters like Cyclops or Professor X and I just wanted nothing to do with it. Character consistency is key!

To go back to your sports comparison, sports have an edge over the comics industry. Sports betting is an interactive way to get people who don't like sports on board to compete in things like fantasy football. The term "the window" comes to mind when seeing a team on the threshold of winning a championship. Many teams miss that window and rebuild every ten years, and sadly will sell out stadiums every season no matter how bad the team is. Marvel is that team. They build hope through a blockbuster film, or a rebranded twist of a story they already told decades ago, hitting those who have the nostalgia bug, but they can't keep the momentum and they go back to square one.

I'm sad that I have sympathy for Marvel because they were such a large part of my childhood, but truthfully, Image and DC are reinventing the wheel with fresh ideas and better stories.