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Most comic readers have at least one less well-known character that they adore, but it can be hard to find those characters' adventures on the stands. At least at Marvel Comics, however, there's still a place for comics that star more obscure characters, says editor Tom Brevoort, even if they can be a tough sell.

"Oh sure. If you look at our Previews catalog in any given month, we publish somewhere between 55 and 75 comic book releases a month. And within that, not everything is an established perennial title or perennial character," Brevoort tells Word Balloon. "We're always doing things that are experimental, that somebody has an idea for, or that somebody thinks is a cool idea or a great story. So there's definitely room for all of that."

There are obstacles to those kind of titles, however, in a market where sales does nearly all the talking and in which there is a wide array of titles not just from Marvel but from DC and even other publishers. For characters that have less name recognition, like Union Jack, who is named in the interview as an example.

"It can be hard to stand out from the clutter because while we're doing 70 titles, DC is also doing 70 titles, and Image is doing whatever they're doing, 40 titles, let's say, and everybody else is doing their part. And so it can become difficult for a Union Jack to stand out from the pack unless it's got exactly the right creative team at the right time, or the right story, or it just happens to hit," Brevoort explains. "But we do that stuff all the time. We try new things, we bring back old things, people show up, our creators come in and have ideas for things, or they have a real love for some of Marvel's publishing history and they'll have an idea for a story that will excite people, and we'll go 'OK, sure, we'll try that. Why not?'."

I'll admit, there are times when I wish Marvel would give a little more time to their B and C-listers. The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the X-Men are the pillars of the Marvel Universe, but the characters who aren't the biggest public favorites are the publisher's bread and butter, the tapestry of heroes and villains who make the world of Marvel feel complete and lived in.

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