Much of the current trend with Marvel stems from it and DC Comics massive poodle screwing a couple of years ago.
At one point, there were (and still are, methinks) something between 5 and 7 different Spiderman series going on at once.
As well as the same number, at least, of X-Men titles, and a plethora of supporting characters. Thus, in order to keep up with the activities of your favorite characters, Marvel has you buying something between 10 - 20 comics a month, possibly, depending on how diverse you are.
Comics are actually more like 2.95 an issue these days, not counting the various independents out there which often cost more.
So that's something between 20 - 60 bucks a month, assuming that you aren't expanding your horizons or trying anything new.
And any comic store owner worth his salt is going to be trying very hard to get you into other comics.
So people got very tired of the whole mess (reinventing Superman didn't help) and comic sales dropped drastically, and a ton of comic shops closed.
Our problem becomes, in fact, not so much accessibility, as the need for profit. This is discussed at length in Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics and Warren Ellis's Come In Alone, as well as other resources...as companies become more interested in getting people to buy comics, than in producing quality stories that are going to hold readership, the more likely it is that people will lose interest.
Anybody who's going to spend that much wants some sort of guarantee of quality story, rather than crap, crap, crap, and a bit of light here and there.