The problem being that excepted sometime DeFalco (We got your Namor and Mark Gruenwald's Quasar for an exemple), the following EICs have all been worse than Shooter.

And Shooter's first years were a new golden age to Marvel.

I agree w/ JB. I've seen him give Shooter credit when it was due ( the John Byrne Modern Masters volume as well as other places.). And John was hardly alone when it came to criticizing Shooter's less- than  stellar moves.

If I may be so bold, JB seems to be one of those "bluntly honest" types. He calls it as he sees it and lets the chips fall where they may. I have friends like this and they keep me honest. More people should be like this.

I apologize to Mr. Byrne in advance if he considers this inaccurate.

I can see this.  I remember Jim Shooter appearing to inject a whole new vitality into Marvel Comics from about 1978 to about 1983, maybe 84.  However, I think alot of credit should go to Archie Goodwin for getting the Star Wars books going.  It's my understanding that Star Wars from about 1977 to 1980 had a lot to do with Marvel overwhelming DC.  And truth be told, my first comics were Star Wars as well.  I wish JB could have done more with that series, although we do have the cover to issue 13.

But I do see Shooter fullfilling Claremont-like dialogue "with power comes corruption... with infinite power comes infinite corruption."  Okay, maybe Shooter wasn't infinitely corrupt, but once an idea of his worked, he seemed to think ALL his ideas were amazingly great. 

Ooohh, Contest of Champions sold out... Let's do Secret Wars.  What, everyone thought that was good too?  Let's do Secret Wars 2 and make every title do a crossover.  And let's create a whole New Universe and all glory go to me.  And let's create a kids line called Star Comics all glory be unto me.  I'll share a little Epic glory with Goodwin... because I'm a good guy. 

I can totally see that.

Also, at first, Shooter appeared really good at attracting good talent or enticing them to come to Marvel.  But by the end, he has lost most of the better artists.

DeFalco was okay.  Certainly better than what followed.

I liked Secret Wars 2. *lowers head in shame*

It's my understanding that Star Wars from about 1977 to 1980 had a lot to do with Marvel overwhelming DC.

How did the Star Wars title sell compared to Marvel's flagship titles of the day?

There were a number of things that helped Marvel overtake DC.

Once they got their own distribution deal clear from National in the late 1960s, they were able to expand the number of books they could produce (no more shared titles). Prior to that, I believe they were restricted to just eight titles a month.

That ultimately led to the mid-1970s when Marvel was punching out somewhere around 60-plus books covering everything from super-heroes to monsters to science fiction to Kung Fu comics to talking ducks -- you name it. It wasn't as diverse a market as the 1940s, but it was a pretty creative period (when paradoxically everyone involved in the industry thought it was mere hours away from death). DC was caught flatfooted, but after changing management they expanded their line-up too. However, the DC Implosion in 1978 axed many of their new titles before they had a chance to get established, so Marvel was left with a good portion of the rack space by default.

Also DC and Marvel both increased the page counts and price tags of their books in the 1970s, with a new story backed by reprints. However, Marvel almost immediately cut their prices and dumped the reprints. DC didn't follow suit for about six months and it was during that timeframe that Marvel really took control of the market as more kids bought their cheaper books.

Looking back at it now as an old guy economist, DC has always liked targeting a higher price point. They were the first ones to introduce the 25 cent giants and the 50 cent giants. They introduced Dollar Comics in the mid-1970s (aka the 80 page giants) and the Baxter Format in the 1980s (aka the $5 comic). I'll throw this out to the group, but by and large, hasn't DC been the one to up their prices first?