So Marvel is renumbering books AGAIN and abandoning the Legacy numbers for some books 1 1

[Mercury Man]

On 2/22/2018 at 8:45 PM, Doktor said:

whatever-the-simpsons-is-at for a cultural touchstone that manages to be that that 0.00000001% show)

Ironic that it is a cartoon- basically an animated comic. 

[paul747]

Marvel suxxx it !   Less retailers coming soon.   Every reboot might grab a couple new readers but it kicks out more and more of the core older readers and collectors.  The variant game is out of control. 

[D-Optimist]

F marvel straight up...

Haven't read any of their events since Secret Wars (which was dope).

I do the back issue thing mostly and some indies... gonna quit action comics after #1000... collecting tom king's batman... walking dead and southern bastards... my pull list is weak lately... 

want to collect ASM tho... as long as Alex Ross stays on the covers atleast... Marvel lost me man... the legacy #'s was a positive step... but they relaunches are trash... new # 1's trash...

also not letting the characters age or stay dead always bugged me about the big two...

Edited February 24, 2018 by D-Optimist

[Buzzetta]

Bombard them with tweets instead of voicing your opinion here.  They do not come here.  They do see their twitter account. (Or their assistants do).

[Azkaban]

 I quit buying all of the titles back in 96 when they started for the first time with the renumbering. They didn't care about me then and I never went back. I only collect the older stuff now. 

[Mercury Man]

With the exception of Ghost Rider, Avengers #1 is at least a team line up I could get behind.  The lineup blows away the last few years selection. 

[500Club]

11 hours ago, paul747 said:

Marvel suxxx it !   Less retailers coming soon.   Every reboot might grab a couple new readers but it kicks out more and more of the core older readers and collectors.  The variant game is out of control. 

This.  I mean, in Sean Howe’s book, ‘Marvel Comics: The Untold Story’, it was recognized in the 90’s that every time Marvel did a gimmick, sales spiked, then settled to a level lower than before the gimmick.

I get that the thinking is that Marvel publishing doesn’t really matter to Disney, save for as an R+D entity, but they still need readers to function as such.

[TSwift25]

On 2/24/2018 at 9:09 PM, 500Club said:

This.  I mean, in Sean Howe’s book, ‘Marvel Comics: The Untold Story’, it was recognized in the 90’s that every time Marvel did a gimmick, sales spiked, then settled to a level lower than before the gimmick.

I get that the thinking is that Marvel publishing doesn’t really matter to Disney, save for as an R+D entity, but they still need readers to function as such.

I really think this is kind of the end of the brick and mortar comic shops. It would seem Marvel's only function to Disney is as an IP factory. Whether that's in print or digital is really of no concern. You're going to see fewer and fewer people buying the monthlies, instead just waiting for collected editions. And if that's the case, it's not a far step to just going digital for the collected editions, or Marvel Unlimited.

It's really bad for the hobby, long term.

[Mercury Man]

19 hours ago, TSwift25 said:

I really think this is kind of the end of the brick and mortar comic shops. It would seem Marvel's only function to Disney is as an IP factory. Whether that's in print or digital is really of no concern. You're going to see fewer and fewer people buying the monthlies, instead just waiting for collected editions. And if that's the case, it's not a far step to just going digital for the collected editions, or Marvel Unlimited.

It's really bad for the hobby, long term.

And Black Panther is doing mad money $$$ right now in the theaters.  I still think the medium needs monthly comics.  It's overkill at the moment.  I just think Marvel needs to go to about 11 titles per month.   We don't need 4 X-Men books.  We don't need the Champions, or Defenders, or Gwenpool.   We definitely don't need The Great Lakes Avengers.   I would keep it to this:

1) Amazing Spiderman

2) Captain America & The Falcon

3) Iron Man

4) Hulk 

5) Thor 

6) Black Panther

7) Avengers - with a strong female lead presence *Led by Ms Marvel, Black Widow, The Wasp etc.*

8) X-Men

9) Daredevil

10) Fantastic Four (but put them off-world-  Give them a Space Station, or a Mars base or something-stick to intergalactic

11) for the 11th slot, I would take a character and run it for a 12 month storyline.  For example do a Power Man/Iron Fist story for a year.  Then when that was over do a Punisher arc for 12 months, then do a Deadpool etc.   

 

[sonicyouth1]

Marvel is incapable of good storytelling because of all the PC red tape, social taboos, SJW  back and forth, and stock holders bottom line. 

Lets stop pretending Marvel exists.. they died when Disney took over.  It's getting old. Jim Lee and Todd Mcfarlane won...  it's over.

We could erase the last 10 years of marvel storytelling and noone would notice...or care. 

 

I can think of 2 original superhero creations in the last 15 years worth a damn,

 

Fantomex (w/ Eva) and Winter Soldier.

 

Marvel is creatively bankrupt.

/one thousand facepalms

 

[Doktor]

12 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

And Black Panther is doing mad money $$$ right now in the theaters.  I still think the medium needs monthly comics.  It's overkill at the moment.  I just think Marvel needs to go to about 11 titles per month.   We don't need 4 X-Men books.  We don't need the Champions, or Defenders, or Gwenpool.   We definitely don't need The Great Lakes Avengers.   I would keep it to this:

1) Amazing Spiderman

2) Captain America & The Falcon

3) Iron Man

4) Hulk 

5) Thor 

6) Black Panther

7) Avengers - with a strong female lead presence *Led by Ms Marvel, Black Widow, The Wasp etc.*

8) X-Men

9) Daredevil

10) Fantastic Four (but put them off-world-  Give them a Space Station, or a Mars base or something-stick to intergalactic

11) for the 11th slot, I would take a character and run it for a 12 month storyline.  For example do a Power Man/Iron Fist story for a year.  Then when that was over do a Punisher arc for 12 months, then do a Deadpool etc.   

 

I think it needs to be a little bigger lineup than that. There's too many X-characters for only 1 title. 1 "school" book and 1 "mutant adventures" book at bare minimum (but maybe that's because I'm an X-junkie.) And I think the line can handle another maybe 5-6 alternating solo B & C-list books. I'd also argue that Black Panther, though it's doing very well in theaters right now, has never historically been able to carry a solo title for more than about 5-6 years without needing a break. We'll see if the movie can bolster it out of being a C-list property.

[The_Endless]

I just want good stories that are not interrupted by silly mandates from management/editorial. Is that too much to ask? Guess my pull list will continue to be dominated by Image.

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

23 hours ago, sonicyouth1 said:

Marvel is incapable of good storytelling because of all the PC red tape, social taboos, SJW  back and forth, and stock holders bottom line. 

Lets stop pretending Marvel exists.. they died when Disney took over.  It's getting old. Jim Lee and Todd Mcfarlane won...  it's over.

We could erase the last 10 years of marvel storytelling and noone would notice...or care. 

 

I can think of 2 original superhero creations in the last 15 years worth a damn,

 

Fantomex (w/ Eva) and Winter Soldier.

 

Marvel is creatively bankrupt.

/one thousand facepalms

 

Both of them are well over 10 years old.

[Mercury Man]

11 minutes ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

I can think of 2 original superhero creations in the last 15 years worth a damn,

Agreed, but also illustrates it CAN be done.  Marvel just chose to replace our beloved Legacy characters with, younger, diverse knock offs.  They could do so much better with a kid like Miles Morales, than just make him Spiderman Junior. 

[Mercury Man]

13 hours ago, Doktor said:

We'll see if the movie can bolster it out of being a C-list property.

I think you strike while the iron is hot.  Give Black Panther your best writers, artists, cover artists.   This is the diversity push they have been trying to tap into.  They have people's attention with the movie.  Build on it with a remarkable Panther run.    

Edited February 28, 2018 by Mercury Man

[Doktor]

1 hour ago, Mercury Man said:

I think you strike while the iron is hot.  Give Black Panther your best writers, artists, cover artists.   This is the diversity push they have been trying to tap into.  They have people's attention with the movie.  Build on it with a remarkable Panther run.    

And make damn sure that Priest's BP series is in trade & available. 

[ComicConnoisseur]

Looks like Marvel hit a huge homerun with Black Panther as the Black Panther is dominating the Amazon best seller graphic novel lists. The last time I saw that much dominance was when Walking Dead dominated the charts during the tv show's first two seasons.

Edited March 4, 2018 by ComicConnoisseur

[ComicConnoisseur]

On 2/22/2018 at 3:56 PM, Chuck Gower said:

I'm not sure I can see Star Wars fatigue on the horizon, I think any movie that breaks the BILLION DOLLAR mark worldwide, we can assume they're still in the safe zone. 

As far as Marvel Comics...

It seems that Marvel is trying to keep their characters in a form of stasis so that they can't upset their use in other media. 

I'm sure no one thought Wolverine was REALLY dead for good, and the timing of his return isn't really a curiosity....

The comic books are for people who love the characters, or are drawn to the 'events', not for sequential numbering addicts. 

(I know everyone complains about the numbering, but Marvel gave it back and still the sales numbers were pathetic.)

Is this a good move for Marvel? 

Yes. 

Because here's where Marvel makes their money: From Retailers. 

Retailers BUY #1's and 'event' books regardless of if their customers do, because Marvel can print them an endless number of variants to entice it (see what I did there?) to allow retailers to make their money off it, while eventually selling off the dead stock for $1. 

The dead stock for RETAILERS. Once Marvel sells it they don't have to worry about it.

The big retailers, or smart retailers, or crafty retailers - the one's with the customers who HAVE to HAVE every Variant at $25 to $100 - will make sure they have plenty of stock on Cover A to sell to anyone who wants one, but really make up for it from Variant sales.

A success for Marvel, a success for the retailer, a satiation for the completist, the speculator, the average buyer who loves the character, and the subscriber.

A media sensation keeps the character in the public eye and then...

It all dies down from there. 

Of course there were endless copies of Amazing Spider-man #25 (Vol 4) in dollar boxes with it's $9.99 (you can buy a NM on mycomicshop.com for $3 - it's actually tough in NM because the heavy binding), and everyone moaned and complained - SEE! It's a failure!

No.

No it wasn't.

It was the top selling book on Diamonds monthly chart at 113,000 copies (through JUST Diamond North America) OR what would be the equivalent of selling 5 1/2 months of the title at $3.99 each. 

Marvel doubled the sales of Amazing Spider-man for almost half the year in ONE MONTH of sales.

Which means, in terms of PROFIT - if they average a paltry 51,000 copies a month for 10 months of the year at $3.99 each, but sell an 'event' book for $9.99 TWICE a year - it averages out to the profitability of having a 100,000 copy a month $3.99 book for the year. 

The greed and OCD of speculators, is what is keeping this all afloat. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

 

Good post. 

[ComicConnoisseur]

On 2/21/2018 at 10:57 AM, Buzzetta said:

I am sure that issue #10 / 700 of Avengers will be some double sized $15 priced book.

I am sure that Marvel will publish issue 1,000 of Spider-man no matter what the at then current numbering system is. 

 

But it is stuff like this that gets me to say, why bother and I should sell everyone only to pick up a Marvel unlimited subscription again to catch up.

Exactly as I find it hard to pay $3.99 for a 15 minute read when I can pay $9.99 a month to read virtually as many Marvel comics as I want or when Amazon sells digital Marvel Masterworks or other graphic novels for under $3.99 that have hundreds of pages to read .

Let's face it the monthly is on it's way out and only the LCS and speculators are the main buyers who are keeping it afloat.

 

Also a monthly is a long time to wait for something.

I know when I read something for 15 minutes I don't want to wait a whole month to read another chapter.

They could get away with that month long wait in the pre-internet days, but not so much now.

Edited March 4, 2018 by ComicConnoisseur

[Lonzilla]

2 hours ago, ComicConnoisseur said:

Exactly as I find it hard to pay $3.99 for a 15 minute read when I can pay $9.99 a month to read virtually as many Marvel comics as I want or when Amazon sells digital Marvel Masterworks or other graphic novels for under $3.99 that have hundreds of pages to read .

Let's face it the monthly is on it's way out and only the LCS and speculators are the main buyers who are keeping it afloat.

 

Also a monthly is a long time to wait for for something.

I know when I read something for 15 minutes I don't want to wait a whole month to read another chapter.

They could get away with that month long wait in the pre-internet days, but not so much now.

You can't replace the feeling of physically turning the pages and hitting an "oh !" moment while holding the book in your hands, so I'll never go digital.

Hey, we're OLD and the days of the spinner rack and plunking down a quarter for the latest issue of ASM are long gone, as is the continuity. At $4 or $5 a pop I'm less willing to take a chance on a book because given the current direction of Marvel there's a 90% chance that it will blow and I'd rather spend that money at Popeye's.

I'm down to 3 steady Marvel titles a month because the writing has been exceptional: Thanos, Dr Strange and Moon Knight and I'll pick up anything with Adam Warlock in it just because. DC wise it's Mister Miracle and Batman, and whatever else Tom King decides to do.