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Thanks for this great interview

It’d be nice if Marvel (and, to a growing extent, DC) would be more open about its cancellations. This growing habit of “listed this month, not next month” is very irritating. I didn’t know Illuminati was cancelled till I read the final page of #7.. At least in the 70’s, there was an excuse (flimsy as it was) for cancellations not being announced—some decided so fast that DC would have their little box saying something like “next issue on sale the third week of July” in the final issues.

“Even after having watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I had to check to see who this character is. Releasing an ongoing series focused on him seemed to me to be quite a daring move -or am I the only one who totally forgot his part in the movie?”

Poe Dameron has a lot of fans. It’s not that surprising to see Marvel try a series for him.

Merci pour les conseils culinaires en fin de rubrique. ;)

Pleasantly surprised the racists haven’t come out in response to the comments about black characters (and also pleasantly surprised about how well two of those books are selling).

You can not be a racist, and still be glad that as clichéd, unnecessary and overhyped a character as Red Wolf is failing.

Why does it matter if they put FINAL ISSUE in thr solicits?

Chris: simple courtesy for people paying dollars to buy their products.

You’re a bit harsch on Moon Knight I think, it’s not that a much a popular character for a start, both first and second issues went on reprint – and besides it’s beautifully drawn.

Why does it matter if they put FINAL ISSUE in thr solicits?
==================================================================
Chris:

Some of us aren’t rolling in mounds of cash. Ergo, we have to adhere to a budget each month. If I see a title I buy every month isn’t solicited and it doesn’t say “final issue”, how do I know it’s not coming back next month? Hard to commit to a new title if I’m not sure the unsolicited title is coming back or not. And, like most other comics fans, my budget is not flexible–once again, no mounds of money lying around. So, yes, it WOULD be nice, and it’s not too much to ask, for Marvel and DC to have the common courtesy to let us know when they’re cancelling a title. Considering the dwindling readership these days, the LAST thing they need is more disgruntled—possibly soon to be former—readers.

Yep, like Rob said. For us, overseas consumers, we HAVE to preorder a title to have a chance to read it. We don’t have racks with all the titles available to choose from. Comics shops with original floppy comics wouldn’t survive with racks like that. So we preorder. And yeah, knowing a title is stopped would be nice, same thing with knowing if it’s a limited serie or not.
That’s also why double shipping is so annoying because it cuts your monthly budget, even when you did not add any new title to your “list”.
But, apparently, from what we can see of Marvel’s floppy policy, they just don’t care about floppy readers at all.
Which is a bad move: how many times do floppy readers think “well, I’ll get in in trade paperback format” and then forget about it later? Or finally buy it, but second handed, because it’s cheaper?

WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE. Sigh.

12/15 Weirdworld #1 – 30,288
01/16 Weirdworld #2 – 17,759 (-41.4%)

This book is so excellent. It’s honestly better than a zillion tons of the other crap Marvel is putting out right now, but alas, that never seems to matter. It isn’t an event title (wait, aren’t fans tired of those?! Until there isn’t one, then they whine they need one!) and no one dies (only to return six months later) so I guess there are no reason to buy it. Great art, wow story? Eh, I’ll wait for Civil War 3, please.

Fans are a fickle lot. They complain about event books, but hate when they don’t have one to complain about. They hate cheesy death announcements, and then help sell the book into the six figures! And do we need to at least give Marvel some props for attempting to put out niche books and see what would stick? Apparently, nothing. For that, again, I blame the fanboys (and girls.) I mean, how many times does everyone also complain about all the Spider/Bat/Super/Wonder books out there in comics land? But whenever the big two attempt something new, no one buys them. I’ve heard this complaint so many times it makes my ears bleed. It’s like we all literally ignore the complaining we aim towards comics on a daily basis. It’s maddening! I want something diverse, unique, cool! But when I’m given it, I’m gonna whine and want the same tried and true I’ve gotten the last umpteen years! No one wins, no one wins…

Spidey/Deadpool is ongoing? Okay. Looking forward to seeing what the sales drop to when Kelly and McGuiness leave the book within six issues.

@Nathan Aaron – one thing to bear in mind is that the people who say they want things probably really do want them and buy them – it’s just that there are a whole lot more people who aren’t saying anything at all but they are buying the opposite of what the first group wants.

Nathan Aaron, what did you think of G0dland, and Bitch Planet? Have you read Shark-Man? What about Bendis/Gaydos’s Alias? Have heard of Joe Sacco? Or that run by Lutes, Unstable Molecules? What do you think SLAM!-c’mere, do you want to see me make this pencil disappear….? Just only spend on the stuff that counts; stop buying the repetitive crap, unless you are at a used book store, or a flea market, or at a serious discount.

‘Comic Books’ are too small, and flimsy, and look like they are strictly for kids any way -it would be cool if there were more ‘Rollingstone’ sized magazine like sequential anthologies. People would spend on that as much as they wait in lines for a cheap Tshirt from China that has a trendy brand name on it. Americans love to be pretentious, spending, bigots that would love to show off their Punisher *magbook* if it was done right, if it looked cool, and functioned sequentially in a way that was bad ass… for example.

Hey Nathan Aaron, FYI:

It Will Never Love You Back: Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter, and Why the Corporation Cannot Be Your Friend
by Charlotte Finn February 1, 2016 12:00 PM
http://comicsalliance.com/ike-perlmutter-marvel-entertainment-consumers-and-corporations/

Read More: Marvel, Perlmutter, And Why Corporations Aren’t Your Friend | http://comicsalliance.com/ike-perlmutter-marvel-entertainment-consumers-and-corporations/?trackback=tsmclip

Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics
by J.A. Micheline August 4, 2015 2:00 PM
http://comicsalliance.com/marvel-boycott-axel-alonso/

Read More: “Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics” | http://comicsalliance.com/marvel-boycott-axel-alonso/?trackback=tsmclip

Nathan, perhaps start a petition to boycott -what do you want to boycott today, NAy? NAy?

Hey Nathan Aaron, FYI:

It Will Never Love You Back: Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter, and Why the Corporation Cannot Be Your Friend
by Charlotte Finn February 1, 2016 12:00 PM

Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics
by J.A. Micheline August 4, 2015 2:00 PM

Nathan, perhaps start a petition to boycott -what do you want to boycott today, NAy? NAy?

Marvel makes comics starring Marvel characters. People who read Marvel Comics usually want to read about Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, etc… A lot of what they are publishing nowadays is chasing away the loyal fan who just wants to read about their favorite characters. Yeah there’s room for Weirdworld but if fan’s aren’t buying the A-List books (excluding Star Wars) you can’t expect sales for B and C level titles to be great. Marvel, for the last decade, have invested more on the names under the title than the title itself. That makes for creator loyalty, not brand loyalty. Why read a Marvel book trying to be an Image book when you can just read an Image book?

FWIW, with DC and Marvel both putting out so many new series all the time (including renumbered ones), I’m not sure it’s possible for any series to “stabilize” for long.

About Star Wars sales, maybe we should also consider that the book started with John Cassaday on art and covers, and now it’s Deoadato or Leinil Yu. All of them are A list artists sure, but well, some are more A than others. I personally stopped after Immonen’s arc, maybe some other readers did. Looking forward to know who will be the next artist. Maybe they’ll be back on major ones, or slightly slipping on the B list ones.

Also, the fact the comics didn’t gain any new buyers (and worse, lost buyers) since the movie is out is not a good sign. Maybe the star wars mania is a already a bit passé, Marvel was definitely wise to launch the book nearly two years before the movie, but they’ve got to find another big hit now. It won’t be Star Wars for a while, at least not before the next movie – so a long while – and even then, it will never come back to those first issues sales.

@Nathan
The way I see it, Events and big names are creating a lot of static through which even very good titles have a hard time emerging. Maybe Marvel ought to create a Vertigo-like imprint for all the odd ones out to find a nest.

“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.

Everyone do yourself a favor and please pick up Vision, there’s two issues out so far (third issue hits on 1/6) and it’s really something different, but not odd for odd’s sake, just a unique narrative voice with great art too.

‘The next step will be anniversary relaunch issues: “look, it’s the 10th relaunch of this series, let’s celebrate it!”’

This is a hilarious and oddly foreseeable eventuality, and, given the sales on the current volume of Captain America (the ninth, by your count), one Marvel could have the opportunity to inaugurate in only a matter of months.

While I think the general idea of evaluating the benefit of the relaunches is sound, I do think that expectations for upticks on books from this particular relaunch might not need to be high. Marvel didn’t relaunch individual books based on the need to gain sales for that book. They relaunched everything, pretty much just on the basis of “we’re only going to do Secret Wars for a couple of months”. So while they may have taken the opportunity to rearrange some creatives, the only reason a lot of them relaunched was just because everybody was doing it. Peer pressure, as it were. What this DOES tell us is how relaunches (regardless of reason) are not as effective as they used to be.

Tom King’s work, including Vision and Omega Men, seems to be developing a habit of garnering critical praise but netting minimal sales. I think a part of this is the character driven marketing the big two are pushing. Few people are going to pick up a book that focuses on a C/D list character if you market it on the strength of said character.

If the big two marketed these no-name books as TOM KING stories, and pushed the hell out of him rather than their small potato properties, it’s possible that they’d see sales rise.

Wasn’t The Vision in that last Avengers movie?

Conventional wisdom probably dictates that The Vision charts higher than Tom King at this point. And Marvel is generally more likely to push their stable of characters over an online favorite.

I lived and participated (slightly) in the 90’s speculator bubble. Looks like it is happening again but this time, I am not buying multiple copies of every #1. Guess I learned a little something in my youth.

Tom King did write the digital smash Injustice Gods Among us based on the video game. true, but he is a best selling author.

@Tim – that logic just doesn’t hold up. Media ties in having varying effects, particularly when there’s media that’s just based on one thing (Watchmen, Walking Dead) vs media that’s based on multiple series (most superhero stuff).

I’m pretty sure it was Tom Taylor that wrote the video game comic. And a quick web search suggests that the best selling author is another person altogether.

On MIRACLEMAN: “Renumbering the title for each reprinting period has done wonders for it.”

We were just discussing this at our store ordering meeting today, as we’re being asked to order #1 & 2 of “MIracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham: The Silver Age”, where the NEW NEIL GAIMAN COMICS will be printed as issue #3 (and forward) of that series.

Interest is pretty low in the reprints (we’re somewhere in the 20 copy range at the main store), but I don’t see how I’m expected to order up on #3? How many people are going to jump on at that point? I actually think more people would grasp it if it was #25, honestly — I mean “#3” will be Neil’s ninth issue of MM, right?

Re-serializing MM was almost certainly a tactical mistake — the early issues just aren’t very good, in the context of 2015, and it created a fair amount of ennui about the character as a whole. In retrospect, they really should have just gone straight to book, monthly on the first four volumes, then did “New” MM as a #1 from the material that was supposed to be in #25 originally, and done a “#0” bumper of #23 & 24 — then they would have had some real excitement. Not now, though.

-B

that is sweet

The Guerra variant cover image and most of the named artists were not solicited in time. Also Jamie McKelvie’s variant is now meant for A-Force #3 (series schedule moved by a month).

Welcome to the cynical circle, Todd! :)
Only two comments:
– comparing Dr strange and Thor numbers doesn’t seem fair at all, especially for the Doctor. The last ongoing serie for the doctor was so much time ago that there is no real point of comparaisons, except that Dr strange was never a huge seller, but did manage to keep its ongoing title during more than 20 years.
– the creator mix is quite different. Many names are new and some associatiosn are quite new, let’s be fair. We can’t say that Marvel hasn’t put a lot of innovative titles with this relaunch. Of course, if you only lokk at the big titles, nothing has changed much, but the rest of their catalog is quite daring and innovative (and expensive too :p ).

Looking at the diamond numbers for the past couple of years gives such a flawed idea as to how its doing. Its not like the way it was in the past where the direct market is the main sales number and even then the Diamond numbers were still flawed. It doesn’t take into account the rather sizable digital numbers, where books like Spider-Gwen have such a huge audience that’s not reflected in these numbers. All the numbers to is allow people to manipulate them and show a small example in order to push their agenda.

“It doesn’t take into account the rather sizable digital numbers, where books like Spider-Gwen have such a huge audience that’s not reflected in these numbers”

And where can we see this digital numbers? I can totally believe Spider-Gwen selling big online but I’d like to check out the sales figures myself.

Mike

Bob, who’s your source on Spider-Gwen’s digital sales? The only digital comic at Marvel I’ve gotten confirmation *from Marvel* on a consistently percentage of digital sales is Ms. Marvel. From what I could tell, and I couldn’t get a straight enough answer to suit me, Ms. Marvel seemed to be selling close to (but not quite) print numbers in digital. Which was an anomaly. If Spider-Gwen is doing the same, then that’s two books out of the entire line.

Depending on who you talk to, digital is still 10%-15% of total sales and since there’s no more newsstand for Marvel, that leaves 85%-90% of the sales to Diamond. It reflects the reality of the Direct Market, where many retailers rely on Marvel to get them into the profit column each month.

But really, accusing somebody who wrote a book on how the digital market works of ignoring digital to push a print agenda? Grow up. There’s better trolling to be done than that.

To be fair on Dr Strange, Marvel tied the incentive for variants on Dr Strange to Thor, so Marvel expected some sort of comparison. Sadly it was exceed 175% of Thor to get the variants, so they expected it to far outsell Thor

From an artist perspective that Iron Man Cover looks okay, but the computer lettering with all those style filters (embossing) added looks hideous. I don’t collect super hero books these days, but I would think all the movies and cartoons out there are creating a somewhat over saturation of the market. Perhaps people are looking elsewhere for something new. Rebranding of things don’t make for new.

Marvel need to do something to create buzz beyond the first issue. How they do this I don’t have the answer, but I would say this would need to be a long term thing and not reliant of the variant covers. Possibly they could do a big push on the tpb collections with an attempt get people to jump onto the floppies after.

Great analyses Todd! Good to see you here.

Once the delays and extra issue were announced I dropped Secret Wars. It was the first Marvel event I’ve indulged in since 2010 and I don’t see any reason to do these anymore.

I’m trying all of the #1s but reboot fatigue, lack of star talent and cost are looking like ANAD is a jumping off point for me. It’s looking like I’ll settle around the 6-7 title mark where pre-Secret Wars I was at the 15-16 title level.

Same thing happened with DC’s reboot too though. These reboots tend to shake the tree enough that I guess I’m one of the old base that falls off and haven’t really come back in any substantive way. I guess it’s up to some new fan to take my place at the superhero shops at this point.

I suppose Marvel should just switch over to an “every issue is a #1” relaunch! Maybe an Amazing Spider-Man #1, Amazing Spider-Man #1 (and in tiny print 1.1) and A,mazing Spider-Man #1 (1.2), and so on. ;) I jest, I jest, but I swear, this is how it’s going. At some point the companies (not the fans) decided the only thing that sells are #1’s and variant covers. It’s the usual short-term money making thinking, unfortunately. And the fanboys blindly fall into the trap, and become addicted to the idea, as well.

But also, wow, the new creative teams on these relaunches are just a big no for me. Even my best friend, and we’ve both read comics since we were in grade school, told me every single Avengers relaunch is horrible. We both bought them all before the relaunch, after, every single one dropped. And The Vision, Starbrand and NightMask, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, etc. – it’s just a personal preference, but the whole “indie” art thing at Marvel has killed my desire to buy these books, books that, if they had a more “traditional Marvel art style” I’d probably snatch up! I think overall the relaunch is just a mess in terms of characters and creative teams.

I personally like more “realistic” artwork, which is why most of my money goes to Independents now. Butch Guice, Alex Maleev (one hold=over at Marvel), Mike Perkins (the other), Michael Lark, Bill Sienkiewicz, Steve Epting, Gabriel Hardman, etc. All, at one point, Marvel artists…

Brandon should love TDK2, it’s great. That’s the kind of idiosyncratic comic I’d like to see more of from the Big Two.

They already said Hulk was going to be in Thor Ragnarok.

B…but… CBR gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars! Now I don’t know what to believe!!!

The 2 “Last Days” issues of “Punisher make Dick Cheney look like a liberal. It was full-blown neocon bomb-all-the-savages b.s. The irony is that Edmonson is a huge war-loving neocon who for some reason hasn’t been willing to demonstrate his claimed patriotism by enlisting in the military. I guess like most neocon’s his age, Nathan has been backed up on personal chores this past decade. He’ll get to proving his warrior nature after he is done cleaning his DVR of backed up episodes of “Real Housewives.”

He’s a piece of shit writer, as well. Not just a cowardly armchair General, but a shitty writer!

[…] The Beat – Red Wolf #1 […]

Yeah! He needs to realize he isn’t allowed to not be liberal!

And Magic Wind is unreviewed and unloved by all…

What are they gonna do with the other 18 pages?

In other variant cover compilations they did in the past (like the “art appreciation” covers, funny that no one complained that those were appropriating the classic European art culture…) half the pages were cover reprodutions and the other half were the artists explaining what were their inspirations. Those were quite interesting, I must say.

Dan, I don’t think Xavier is calling the new ASM a failure. He calls the title itself “successful.” I think he’s speaking to the diminishing returns of the constant relaunches the industry seems to be experiencing. Now that’s not a new argument, but it is an argument that the industry seems to be ignoring right now.

An Amazing Spider-Man #1 that sells fewer copies to stores than a Spider-Gwen #1 from just a few months earlier is a disappointment. Trying to pretend otherwise is kind of silly.

Mike

“the ASM #1 from last year (which was the first “ASM #1 in 25 years”

Dan Slott needs to check his dates, or his math. The Howard Mackie/John Byrne relaunch was in late 1998. But then, it is hard to keep track with all of Marvel’s renumbering…

Sorry, Carl. You’re right. Was typing too fast. I used “25 years” in an earlier post elsewhere and that was still on my mind.

*17 years.*

Still a good stretch of time though.

MBunge, I am nothing but impressed with Jason & Robbie’s success on Spider-Gwen, whether it’s their success out of the gate with Edge of Spider-Verse #2, the launch of Spider-Gwen #1 earlier in the year, or the relaunch of Spider-Gwen here. It’s a phenomenal team with a phenomenal take on the character. They deserve all the kudos and high sales they’re getting.

People can come up with whatever metrics they want to try to slam the current ASM book. Doesn’t faze me. We started out roughly in the low 50K zone. Over the course of 6 years we bucked industry trends and got our sales to go up. By the start of 2013 we regularly had both issues in the Top 10. And we’ve pretty much stayed there to this day. What’s silly is to try to paint that as a disappointment in any way.

There’s a good chunk of carry-over data missing (For example: ASM should have RYV and the previous series attached to the data), as well as several of the percentage calculations.

But I think the better comparison vis a vis ASM might be #2 — in May ’14 ASM #2 sold ~124k, compared to ~111k here, or about 10% down. That, I think, clearly shows the diminishing return of the constant industry-wide relaunches.

-B

Yes, I’ll put back those Spider-man numbers back. with all those relaunches and SW mini interruptions, the back numbers can look a little messy. i’ll try to clean that up a little.
Opps, catch a mistake: that’s Mark badger in the Dr strange collection comment, not Mike, sorry about that..

And Dan, I don’t remember ever saying that ASM was in disarray or that I slammed the book. As Alex pointed out, I even said several times that the normal sales on ASM is quite high and very good and that the Spider-Man franchise is at higher level in years. But calling the #1 relaunch an amazing success, I’ll not say that. It can’t be all praise.
And who cares about the TOP 10 positions? Sales numbers are what’s important. A title with less tahn 100K can be number #1 on month and would have been # 12 once month before. that’s not important.

And big thanks to Alex for his editing and the rapidity whith which he did it!

I’d say the same carryover data also for Iron Man, and probably Inhumans. You’re missing % changes on Spidey ’99 #2, 1602 Angela #4, and Figment #2. Since that is Figment *2*, ‘d also probably add historical carryover from series 1, were it me.

But that’s nit-picking )

-B

Dan Slott thinks the last ASM #1 was boosted by the movie ASM2? If you want to talk about poor sales, that thing bombed domestically and led to the entire film series to be rebooted again. Not sure he really wants to associate that thing with his book.

Not sure why he doesn’t want to be satisfied with the fact he produces a generally good and high-selling monthly title. Whining over diminishing returns is quite petty.

Skottie, I’m not saying ASM2 boosted sales. We came out right before anyone had seen it. I’m saying that the millions and millions of advertising dollars that plastered Spider-Man’s face around the world– JUST when we releasing a new AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 played an ENORMOUS amount into the sales of that first issue. That climate got my dumb face on TV for interviews– and on Page 3 of the Daily News. It got the “triumphant return of Peter Parker” in the comics ONTO the news, in magazines, and all over. And a LOT of that was due to the HYPE of a big screen movie that was coming out. That’s not rocket science. :)

I went with Black Knight and Ms. Marvel. I like how Ms. Marvel has a Spider-Girl type story so I’ll stick with it for a while.

The All-New, All-Different Marvel Universe is here-yeah blah blah blah blah -marvel pro fan boys and staff dimwits strike out again.You call shit creativity ?I call it utter utter crap.me no buy-bye bye.See you at my blogs for intelligent stuff.Long Live Toreus and the gang.

It’s fanboy. It’s nostalgia. But it can still be fun. I loved the new Thor, and enjoyed Ms Marvel. Scanned the Black Knight in the shop and wasn’t impressed. Maybe on a slow week. Not touching Guardians.

Thanks for the reviews.

“but the series (secret wars) has been hit with massive delays. in spite of this, marvel has decided to continue the publisher’s plan to re-launch the entire universe with all-new , all-different marvel.”

considering how every time we turn around it seems that the secret wars series keeps getting pushed back, i’m curious, what other options did they have? were they gonna stop putting out new books until the secret wars series finally finished? maybe just put out reprint books until the secret wars finale, or just release any finished pages of the series, a few pages at a time until it’s all done. i guess they could have mad scrambled some more battleworld and warzone books, but would that have made the fans happy or just piss them off? a massive , company wide, game changing, mega event, and the flagship book of the entire enterprise is no where to be found. that’s gotta be embarrassing.
i wonder if the massive delays are holding up any plans or release dates for stories or books that would spill the beans of the secret wars finale if they come out before the finale.

“What other options did they have?”

Well, there was always “behave like a professional publishing company, don’t indulge in editorially-mandated mid-series rewrites, and schedule enough lead time to produce the comics on the solicited dates”, of course. But that would imply a level of competence and planning that seems sadly lacking in the modern comics industry. I imagine that Sol Brodsky and John Verpoorten are turning in their graves…

Any thoughts on the Perlmutting of Squirrel Girl into a non-mutant?

I didn’t pick up New Avengers due to the cost for the week piling up; glad to hear some of these titles were hits. I like a jokey Avengers book to a certain extent. Secret Avengers went a little far for me, but Bendis’ Avengers struck the right tone.

Secret Avengers with Kot sort of developed further as it progressed — there were some real dramatic moments peppered in with that really interesting Modok subplot that was just absurd.

How many pages of Amazing 1 and Avengers 1 are simply preview? Tha would really be disapointing if, in the end, those extra size made the reader pay extra for only preview pages.

They’re not preview pages, they’re all original stories. But he’s they’re just acting as preview pages with no real need to not read them and just wait to buy the actual books.

Hey what happened to Superior Iron-Man? Was there resolution to that idea, or is he still ‘as much of a jerk as usual as a result of whatever that crossover series decided’?

ANAD Point One #1 gives you Agents of SHIELD, Carnage, Contest of Champions, Rocket Racoon & Groot, Daredevil and All-New Inhumans.

Amazing Spider-Man #1 gives you separate stories of Web-Warriors (5 pgs), Spider-Man 2099 (5pgs), Silk (5pgs), Spider-Woman (5pgs), and Miles Morales Spider-Man (7 pgs).

Avengers #0 gives you Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimates, A-Force, and Squadron Supreme.

Out of about 20 titles previewed with this first wave, I was looking at 7 titles that were covered in some form or another by these books (even though I read all of them).

I’m walking away with 3.

“Pass, stopping here with all the Spider-verse books except Silk, Spider-Woman and Spider-Man 2099”

So by “all except” you mean half.

I had the same question about Iron Man’s shift from “Superior” to “Invincible;” and I’m really surprised by the thumbs down to Spidey – I thought that was a dynamite first issue, well-written and gorgeous to boot.

The solo titles were all pretty good. Never been a fan of paying for what are essentially previews.

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Thanks Evan! Chris: well, it seems those are original short stories.

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If you don’t think they’re doing what is implied why act like they did something wrong?

FWIW, Hercules has never been known in the Marvel universe as anything but straight. We are currently going through Secret Wars, which shows different riffs on different characters; certainly a riff on an alternate Hercules COULD be bisexual as the mythological one. The one of Marvel’s past hasn’t been, so let’s not act like they rewrote their own character.

To clarify, Chris, my opinion is that Marvel didn’t set out to hurt anyone when they made the editorial change, but they should have been more aware of how fans would react to this change before they made it. Then, when they heard the fans lashing out, Alonso and comapny reacted by trivializing the fanbase’s concerns, escalating a misunderstanding into an argument. That latter bit, ultimately, is where Marvel err’d.

what editorial change? hercules in the 616 MU has always been straight and still is. man, marvel cannot win. they change the color or gender of a character, they get shit over it, they keep a character that’s always been straight, straight, and they get shit over that. does every character have to become someone else to what they were, and if not , there’s hell to pay? does every character have to stay the same and if not, there’s hell to pay? alonzo & co. were just as insensitive to fans that were pissed about a female thor as they are to fans that are pissed about not having a bi-hercules. but i guess depending on which side you’re on, you may or may not have a problem with who they’re being jerks to. by the way this “all-new , all-different” nonsense this just that, nonsense. except for spider-man and maybe a few other characters starting from scratch, every character is picking up right where they left off before secret wars and we’re catching up to them eight months later. just a lot of characters being shuffled around onto different teams, settings, etc. this is not a “new52″ type reboot. it’s just the illusion of being an “all-new, all-different” reboot.

Speaking as someone who actually does have a horse in the race, abc, the difference comes down to which group is in a position of power. The mainline Thor whose adventures we will be following is a woman now? Great! Chalk one up for representing women readers searching for more heroes they can relate to. And hey, Odinson’s still out there, so fan’s of the *character* can still follow his brave deeds aplenty, and moreover, look kids! Reprints! Collections and catalogues full of thousands upon thousands of pages all sorts of manly Thor-ness across many a title over many a year!

Meanwhile, who do I, as a bi-male reader have in the Marvel U? Alright, Loki, could be inter — oh, wait. That pretty much just came up in interviews and didn’t really get explored in the title. Also, there’s that whole “trickster” stereotype that causes complications if he’s going to be the only rep for bi pride out there. Okay… Ah! How about that Herc guy? As the author stated, most of the Marvel U version of Hercules’ implied bisexuality was invented in years past on the readers’ part due to his connections to the Hercules of Greek mythology. Enter Pak & Van Lente, who bring this just a little bit into subtext in the book itself very slowly over the course of their run. Cool! Maybe this is something we can run with, right? Oh, and there was that cool alt-universe stuff going on between him and alt-universe Wolverine in that X-Men book that about twelve people read? Hey, in-story precedent! Cool!

But…wait…Mr. Alonso? What’s that? Not even a “Wait and see” or “This isn’t a road we’re going to explore at this time…? Just a…”No, you’re all wrong?” Well, that’s… That’s just… What’s the word for that? Oh yeah, it hurts. Bloody smack in the face the way he said it (and not the fun kind).

Before Secret Wars, I was picking up about a dozen Marvel books a month and a fair share of collected editions, anywhere from $100-$300 worth per. I dropped the monthlies during the big event, while I waited for some other favorite creator-centric runs to wrap up, but after this? Bye, Marvel. Already cancelled pulls of titles I would have been picking up; my money’s already where my mouth is. I’m sure you won’t miss it, but it’s all I can do. Sometimes I love you guys at the House of Ideas, but this is ugly disdain.

Oh man, my grammar is atrocious when I’m angry. Spot an error? I probably already did and am secretly ashamed, weeping at the lack of an “edit” feature.

Thom, seriously, if you’re willing to drop Marvel over this, they won’t miss your dollars. The character has always been depicted as heavily straight, so why should they change it to accommodate a tiny handful of readers? Guarantee you it would piss off a lot more readers than it would please if Marvel decided to go this route. Many would view it as a publicity stunt, since homosexual rights and transgender issues are the hot topic at the moment. Marvel is a business so they’d be more willing to lose their one to two percent of bisexual readers rather than the the 30 to 40 percent(estimate) of the fanbase that would probably not be down with this idea/storyline.

“The character has always been depicted as heavily straight, so why should they change it to accommodate a tiny handful of readers?”

Because there aren’t enough gay and bi characters represented in comics and this one with his already existing historical background would be pretty much perfect.

“Guarantee you it would piss off a lot more readers than it would please if Marvel decided to go this route.”

I’m sure it would. Maybe that would be a good thing. If you really think 30-40% of the readers would have a problem with Hercules being bisexual you have a very low opinion of those people.

“Marvel is a business so they’d be more willing to lose their one to two percent of bisexual readers rather than the the 30 to 40 percent(estimate) of the fanbase that would probably not be down with this idea/storyline.”

Wait… Marvel’s “Hercules” has a “fanbase”? Because, like, as a retailer a see a character that was d-list at best, until Marvel (nearly) literally *forced* “Incredible Hulk” readers to buy his book with a character/title swap that kept the underlying series code in every retailer’s database. Which, as I recall, did nothing but shed readers month-by-month, and held on to the schedule largely because of crossover tie-ins and the spikes they brought. So, maybe profile raised to c-list?

You’d kind of HAVE to do something radical with the character (er, not that bi-sexuality itself is radical, but having sexuality be anything but a prop for a one-dimensional character like Herc, now that would be a radical thing in Marvel comics) to get retailers to order enough copies to be able to launch an ongoing… and succeed. My native order for a non-superstar team on a Herc book would be like maybe 15-20 copies, max? Less than half of what I’d order for the B-List characters, and twice that for the A-List. That way leads to cancellation. If it were the “All-New, All-Bi Herc #1″, dunno, I am in San Francisco so maybe that would move it from C-level to B-level orders for curiosity seekers, but even if I was some place more conservative I’d probably split the difference because there’s nothing inherently commercial about the Marvel version of the character.

(which is why you haven’t had a Herc comic any time lately)

So, yeah, as a retailer, I think the market would very much reject your math — a “controversial” Herc comic would sell better than a “boycotted by partisans” one.

-B

I find the invocation of “power” ironic, since it’s pretty clear who has the power in these situations. Hint – who found a more receptive audience online, the people who complained about making Rawhide Kid gay or the ones complaining about restoring Hercules’ heterosexuality.

And just to be clear, I’m talking about the initial, prepublication reaction. Once they actually saw the all-new, all-gay Rawhide Kid, I would guess the reaction was largely unanimous across all sorts of lines.

Mike

Uhhh, so this 2009 Spider-Man/Deadpool crossover issue was just my imagination?

http://marvel.com/comics/issue/24418/amazing_spider-man_1999_611

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[…] Comics Beat reports no other details regarding the title, release window, or plot details are available at this time. […]

[…] Comics Beat reports no other details regarding the title, release window, or plot details are available at this time. […]

[…] Comics Beat reports no other details regarding the title, release window, or plot details are available at this time. […]

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as is apparently the Deadpool issues from from I think 2012.

[…] Comics Beat reports no other details regarding the title, release window, or plot details are available at this time. […]

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Also in Ultimate Spider-Man Season 2 Episode 15 Ultimate Deadpool they teamed up. That episode was particularly entertaining.

[…] Comics Beat reports no other details regarding the title, release window, or plot details are available at this time. […]

[…] Comics Beat reports no other details regarding the title, release window, or plot details are available at this time. […]

[…] the first ever in the Marvel universe for the two heroes to team up, and since the Comics Beat has no other information on the possible plot of the Spider-Man / Deadpool project, Deadpool fans, especially, will come to […]

[…] the first ever in the Marvel universe for the two heroes to team up, and since the Comics Beat has no other information on the possible plot of the Spider-Man / Deadpool project, Deadpool fans, especially, will come to […]

Tim Seeley is perfect for Blade.

Still don’t get why Marvel’s writers keep trying to push the Hood. He’s just a thug with the power to teleport and shoot two guns at once. He fits better as some random villain in an issue of Marvel Team-Up than as a Kingpin type schemer. The character didn’t even catch on during Bendis’ high selling Avengers run where he showed up more often than some of the actual cast members.

Black Ant…really? That’s a character?