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“That’s a nice improvement over the previous floppy sales level of this TPB juggernaut, and better than its previous volume #2 sales level ! I will not wait any longer and make it a win !”
Well, I guess you’ll change your mind with the sales of number 3 in january that seems to have fallen to the 32.000 mark. If the fall don’t stop quickly, it’ll end with really lower numbers than the previous volume.
SCARCE- Xavier Lancel said, on 2/11/2016 1:42:00 PM
Indeed, that was one of the biggest shock of January top300! And I indeed changed my mind and took back my W vote, you are absolutly right – I wrote it yesterday :p
chris said, on 2/11/2016 2:03:00 PM
Hey, another excessively negative piece. Must be another month.
SCARCE- Xavier Lancel said, on 2/11/2016 2:06:00 PM
Proably something I ate. It’s still struck. Wait for January, it’s even worse.
Eh, 4 win, 15 Fail, that’s probably better than what DC did or will do :p
brian the brain said, on 2/11/2016 3:19:00 PM
I think the issue here is the premise that books that had < 1 years runs, ended just a few months ago,and relaunched with the same creative team, should magically do better or deemed failures if they fall back to their previous numbers.
David Blot said, on 2/11/2016 4:28:00 PM
Marvel could also be perfectly happy with that :: they just sold more comics, period, of everyone (and I mean all of them) of there books at least for a month or two.
Zach said, on 2/11/2016 5:16:00 PM
@Brian – seems like a pretty reasonable barometer for determining failure.
@David – I don’t know why Marvel would be perfectly happy with that. They sold a a few copies of a lot of books. That’s a rather resource-intensive way to “win” the sales charts. Takes burning through a lot of talent, promoting a ton of low-selling books, pissing off retail partners, etc.
Skottie said, on 2/11/2016 6:32:00 PM
In before Dan Slott shows up to argue how Spider-man’s sales are actually a success by means of copious amounts of spin.
David Blot said, on 2/11/2016 6:46:00 PM
@Zach “Pissing off retail partners” (and fans too I should add), is probably the baddest part of it, true.
But as long as the same fans and retail partners are still buying number ones like crazy, they just have (we just have) what they (we) deserve.
Like Xavier said – most of those new books are back the way they were before the relaunch, but in the meantime they sold X times more comics with a new number one, and still some more with a new number two, and even a bit left on a new number three. And that means a lot lot lot more money and comics sold at the end, much much more than if they would have kept the numbering going on.
It’s still the same book, the same heroes, sometimes the same artists than before, but for at least for three months, it sold like pancakes.
I know you will say “in the long term”. But honestly, let’s stop fooling ourselves : in the long term there will be still Spider-Man, Avengers and Deadpool comics, whereas a number 334 or a new number 1. It’s just that the new number 1 sells way better than 334. For how long will it work ? That is the question, but for now it’s still working, and working really well.
Crossovers and variants seems more of a problem, really.
(oh, and like Xavier, I’m french too, so I hope my english is ok !)
Kentucky Fried Horse said, on 2/11/2016 7:26:00 PM
It’s pretty obvious to me from reading these columns that most fans, in spite of what the world thinks, generally want the characters they’ve been used to for years. Sam Wilson as Cap is bombing badly. It’s actually a pretty decent read, but you’d never know it by the sales numbers. Cue the return of Steve Rogers to the role just in time for the movie in May.
If you take away what makes a character popular, it takes away readers who were drawn to what made the character popular in the first place. Superior Iron Man didn’t sell very well. I really think part of the reason was the altered outfit and Tony’s even more arrogant and overbearing than usual personality. I’d say that’s one reason that the all new, all PC Avengers crashed between the first and second issue. To most people, the Avengers are Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, etc., not Jane Foster Thor, Kid Nova and “Ms. Marvel”. Such a title might get critical acclaim, but that doesn’t always translate to sales. Same premise of movies and tv shows that don’t translate into box office and ratings. “Steve Jobs” is an example of a recent film that was almost universally acclaimed, but bombed at the box office.
Too bad really, that people don’t want to try new things. I think the Howling Commandos, Squadron Supreme and especially Red Wolf are all good reads. I don’t expect any of them to make it past issue 12 at this rate.
If Marvel and DC want to right their ships, they probably need to wise up and go back to the tried and true. It’s been worse at DC: when they did the reboot that gave us Emo Superman, Amazon rape culture Wonder Woman and the like, it looked like it would work at first, given the sales numbers. However, five years on it just doesn’t have the lasting appeal of the original versions. Perhaps Rebirth will start to fix that.
“That’s a nice improvement over the previous floppy sales level of this TPB juggernaut, and better than its previous volume #2 sales level ! I will not wait any longer and make it a win !”
Well, I guess you’ll change your mind with the sales of number 3 in january that seems to have fallen to the 32.000 mark. If the fall don’t stop quickly, it’ll end with really lower numbers than the previous volume.
Indeed, that was one of the biggest shock of January top300! And I indeed changed my mind and took back my W vote, you are absolutly right – I wrote it yesterday :p
Hey, another excessively negative piece. Must be another month.
Proably something I ate. It’s still struck. Wait for January, it’s even worse.
Eh, 4 win, 15 Fail, that’s probably better than what DC did or will do :p
I think the issue here is the premise that books that had < 1 years runs, ended just a few months ago,and relaunched with the same creative team, should magically do better or deemed failures if they fall back to their previous numbers.
Marvel could also be perfectly happy with that :: they just sold more comics, period, of everyone (and I mean all of them) of there books at least for a month or two.
@Brian – seems like a pretty reasonable barometer for determining failure.
@David – I don’t know why Marvel would be perfectly happy with that. They sold a a few copies of a lot of books. That’s a rather resource-intensive way to “win” the sales charts. Takes burning through a lot of talent, promoting a ton of low-selling books, pissing off retail partners, etc.
In before Dan Slott shows up to argue how Spider-man’s sales are actually a success by means of copious amounts of spin.
@Zach “Pissing off retail partners” (and fans too I should add), is probably the baddest part of it, true.
But as long as the same fans and retail partners are still buying number ones like crazy, they just have (we just have) what they (we) deserve.
Like Xavier said – most of those new books are back the way they were before the relaunch, but in the meantime they sold X times more comics with a new number one, and still some more with a new number two, and even a bit left on a new number three. And that means a lot lot lot more money and comics sold at the end, much much more than if they would have kept the numbering going on.
It’s still the same book, the same heroes, sometimes the same artists than before, but for at least for three months, it sold like pancakes.
I know you will say “in the long term”. But honestly, let’s stop fooling ourselves : in the long term there will be still Spider-Man, Avengers and Deadpool comics, whereas a number 334 or a new number 1. It’s just that the new number 1 sells way better than 334. For how long will it work ? That is the question, but for now it’s still working, and working really well.
Crossovers and variants seems more of a problem, really.
(oh, and like Xavier, I’m french too, so I hope my english is ok !)
It’s pretty obvious to me from reading these columns that most fans, in spite of what the world thinks, generally want the characters they’ve been used to for years. Sam Wilson as Cap is bombing badly. It’s actually a pretty decent read, but you’d never know it by the sales numbers. Cue the return of Steve Rogers to the role just in time for the movie in May.
If you take away what makes a character popular, it takes away readers who were drawn to what made the character popular in the first place. Superior Iron Man didn’t sell very well. I really think part of the reason was the altered outfit and Tony’s even more arrogant and overbearing than usual personality. I’d say that’s one reason that the all new, all PC Avengers crashed between the first and second issue. To most people, the Avengers are Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, etc., not Jane Foster Thor, Kid Nova and “Ms. Marvel”. Such a title might get critical acclaim, but that doesn’t always translate to sales. Same premise of movies and tv shows that don’t translate into box office and ratings. “Steve Jobs” is an example of a recent film that was almost universally acclaimed, but bombed at the box office.
Too bad really, that people don’t want to try new things. I think the Howling Commandos, Squadron Supreme and especially Red Wolf are all good reads. I don’t expect any of them to make it past issue 12 at this rate.
If Marvel and DC want to right their ships, they probably need to wise up and go back to the tried and true. It’s been worse at DC: when they did the reboot that gave us Emo Superman, Amazon rape culture Wonder Woman and the like, it looked like it would work at first, given the sales numbers. However, five years on it just doesn’t have the lasting appeal of the original versions. Perhaps Rebirth will start to fix that.