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  • Is Netflix Changing Our Collector Mentality When It Comes to Marvel Media?

    Marvel fans have often been considered a key part of the collector demographic when it comes to merchandise, and even the main properties put out by the brand. The Marvel fandom has been collecting comics, action figures and other Marvel related stuff for decades, and since the franchise has been purchased by Disney, there are now more Marvel related products than ever before, which can be easier than ever to find, too.

    But, while our consumption of Marvel themed products may have gone up, the way we get our media now means that collecting Blu-Ray DVDs, or even just keeping our own libraries of Marvel movies, shows and cartoons on our devices, is less popular than it used to be.

    Netflix and Other Streaming Services and Our Shift in Viewing Habits

    Netflix now make a lot of original Marvel content, and there is generally no dispute among Marvel fans about the high quality of these shows. With properties like Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Luke Cage winning critical acclaim, there are even fans of the street level, longer stories shown in these works who aren’t particularly interested in The Avengers or the other cinematic Marvel outings.

    Netflix Makes Collecting Boxsets a Bit Redundant!

    When a new Netflix season is released, as Jessica Jones season 2 was last month, and Luke Cage season 2 is set to be in the near future, fans have the opportunity to watch the entire season at once if they want to, or enjoy episodes on their own schedule, rather than waiting for weekly episodes. The binge-watching format is something that has done well for Netflix but has also changed the way we think about consuming a season. It is like owning a boxset, but of a brand-new show. As you might expect, this makes waiting for a traditional series to finish and a boxset to be available to buy much later seem like an odd thing to do, even though that was always something collectors would do in the past.

    Streaming Vs Owning Media

    With Netflix, you can watch your favorite Marvel show as often as you like, whenever you like, so it is in practical terms the same as owning a copy, but you don’t own or store the files. There are a lot of benefits to this, which have made creating digital collections of Marvel media less appealing. You can access them from any internet enabled device, so you don’t have to worry about what files you have where, it takes up no space on your hard drive, and you don’t have to worry about losing your collection.

    While there are very good ways to protect a digital media collection and ensure you can recover data in the event of a problem, some people are just opting not to curate a collection at all, and to stream whatever they want to watch without actually owning it.

    It is interesting to see how we have become less attached to our media collections with the advent of things like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and it will also be interesting to see whether in the future this will translate over to Blu-Ray collections too.

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