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Post by DE Sinclair on Oct 27, 2015 9:44:00 GMT -5
That's true, but if I remember correctly, they all appeared immediately while the core series went on. Here, every other series was suspended because the world(s) had ended and the only thing left was Secret Whatif World. You're correct, there was no hiatus of the regular series while the original Secret Wars unfolded. They used it to create mysteries to increase readers excitement when the characters came back with unexplained changes (where did Spidey's black costume come from? Why did the Thing stay behind to be replaced in the FF by She-Hulk? Etc) that were later covered in the Secret Wars series. The execution of the slow revelation of what happened when they were off-Earth was done reasonably well. The Secret Wars series itself was just ok, in my opinion. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 29, 2015 6:32:53 GMT -5
Hey guys, how is 1602: Witch Hunter Angela? I couldn't care less for the character, but I see Frazer Irving is drawing some nea pages in it... I haven't read it myself, but a friend of mine said that the writing was very up and down, depending on whether Gillen (which she loved) or Bennett (which she found mediocre) was writing. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2015 9:45:53 GMT -5
I would love to see a comparison of the sales of the replacement series with the series that they replaced - IMHO, most of the replacements have been abysmal, so without the draw of continuing a run on an existing series, I would expect sales to have dropped off a cliff after most of the first issues. Judging from this post on CBR, not only have the sales been pretty disastrous, but the relaunches aren't doing too well either: www.comicbookresources.com/article/tilting-at-windmills-trouble-on-the-horizon |
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Post by The Captain on Dec 18, 2015 10:16:07 GMT -5
I would love to see a comparison of the sales of the replacement series with the series that they replaced - IMHO, most of the replacements have been abysmal, so without the draw of continuing a run on an existing series, I would expect sales to have dropped off a cliff after most of the first issues. Judging from this post on CBR, not only have the sales been pretty disastrous, but the relaunches aren't doing too well either: www.comicbookresources.com/article/tilting-at-windmills-trouble-on-the-horizonNot surprised. I find myself less and less interested in picking up new series every time they relaunch, even for characters I've loved for decades. Sure, I still get Captain America and Iron Man (although I skipped Superior Iron Man), but I'm not buying Thor or any Avengers titles any more. Part of it is that I'm one of the old "get of my lawn" guys, but I like it when creators stick around on a title for more than 6-8 issues, because it allows them to build some continuity (even if it is just within that title) rather than have the status quo restarted every time a new writer takes over the title. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 18, 2015 13:48:10 GMT -5
I couldn't agree more with the article... I'm torn between wanted there to be a crash so the Marvel and DC smarten up and being concerned that if that happens they'll never recover.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Dec 18, 2015 14:35:56 GMT -5
The only Marvel or DC book I have bought constantly in the past 4 years and more is the only one which has had the same creative team under that lenght, and that is Batman.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2015 15:32:51 GMT -5
I couldn't agree more with the article... I'm torn between wanted there to be a crash so the Marvel and DC smarten up and being concerned that if that happens they'll never recover. A crash won't really hurt Marvel or DC, as publishing is such a small part of their revenue structure, bu it would put thousands of small business owners of lcs's out of business. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 18, 2015 15:42:17 GMT -5
I don't know... I mean, it wouldn't hurt Disney or Time Warner certainly, but Marvel and DC could end up being simply IPs, rather than lines of comics... that would hurt (me, at least!)
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2015 16:07:22 GMT -5
I don't know... I mean, it wouldn't hurt Disney or Time Warner certainly, but Marvel and DC could end up being simply IPs, rather than lines of comics... that would hurt (me, at least!) They are IP factories now, they just operate in multiple media forms, the loss of one, their least profitable one at that, isn't going to hurt the company. It may hurt you, but not DC or Marvel. They would still have a back catalog to sell in publishing (though to the book market not direct because the direct market is not likely to survive if 75% of its product disappears). Someone here in another thread linked Brian Hobbs new Tilting at Windmills column here this morning. It's an interesting read and he thinks that a lot of stores are going to be hit hard and may be forced to close in the first quarter of 2016 is they don't have 3-6 months of operating capital already salted away because sales are taking a huge hit, both companies broke the reading habits of habitual buyers, actual point of sale to end customers are down on new launches despite orders to Diamond being up, and long-time successful titles are starting to shed readers/sales to end sale customers too. He has been shedding as much as he could doing FOC each week to try to correct orders to reflect what he's actually selling vs. what he thought he could sell when he placed the initial orders. A lot of shops aren't as diligent with that and are going to wind up with a lot of capital tied up in unsold product and no liquid capital to pay invoices. There had been a lot of growth over the last 7 quarters but quarter 4 of 2015 has seen a sharp down turn and quarter 1 2016 looks worse, and since a lot of smaller shops depend on sales of this week to pay for next week's orders with out having operating capital available for a rainy day, it could have some grim affects as that rainy day looks like it could hit. The sad part is, Hibbs is usually one of the more hopeful, proactive retailer voices out there, but this part 6 months he has really soured on the practices of Marvel and DC and the effects it is having on the long term health of the market. If his optimism has been drummed out by what's going on, it's a sign the concerns may have some traction and not be someone crying wolf this time. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2015 3:26:12 GMT -5
both companies broke the reading habits of habitual buyers, actual point of sale to end customers are down on new launches despite orders to Diamond being up, and long-time successful titles are starting to shed readers/sales to end sale customers too. I don't follow DC, so I can only comment on the Marvel half of this, but I think that comment is spot on, and will possibly turn out to have been a disastrous misjudgement by the company. There's an awful lot of long-term fans (or rather a an awfully large proportion of those long-term fans) who buy series because they've always bought that series and will buy it until doomsday, hoping that there will be good run(s) in there sometimes. Along comes this big event, where all their emotional investment in the characters goes out the window - suddenly there are 15 Iron Men and 37 Captain Americas and 199 Thors and whatever happens to each one doesn't matter because you can't tell whether that one is significant or just some cannon fodder from universe 1993232X, and all your regular series are cancelled, and instead you have a bunch of fill-in limited series, most of which are terrible. The company sees this as a relaunching point, a way to merge the good bits from 616 and Ultimate and a few others (a soft reboot, in anything but name), a way to revitalise readers... but what the readers see is a giant jumping-off point - "their" series have finished, now there's all this new "stuff" that needs to re-engage them, and it's just a perfect opportunity to break the habit. The new series are going to have to be very good to avoid sales taking a massive bath, IMHO. And so far, most of them haven't been. |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Dec 21, 2015 11:23:51 GMT -5
both companies broke the reading habits of habitual buyers, actual point of sale to end customers are down on new launches despite orders to Diamond being up, and long-time successful titles are starting to shed readers/sales to end sale customers too. I don't follow DC, so I can only comment on the Marvel half of this, but I think that comment is spot on, and will possibly turn out to have been a disastrous misjudgement by the company. There's an awful lot of long-term fans (or rather a an awfully large proportion of those long-term fans) who buy series because they've always bought that series and will buy it until doomsday, hoping that there will be good run(s) in there sometimes. Along comes this big event, where all their emotional investment in the characters goes out the window - suddenly there are 15 Iron Men and 37 Captain Americas and 199 Thors and whatever happens to each one doesn't matter because you can't tell whether that one is significant or just some cannon fodder from universe 1993232X, and all your regular series are cancelled, and instead you have a bunch of fill-in limited series, most of which are terrible. The company sees this as a relaunching point, a way to merge the good bits from 616 and Ultimate and a few others (a soft reboot, in anything but name), a way to revitalise readers... but what the readers see is a giant jumping-off point - "their" series have finished, now there's all this new "stuff" that needs to re-engage them, and it's just a perfect opportunity to break the habit. The new series are going to have to be very good to avoid sales taking a massive bath, IMHO. And so far, most of them haven't been. Plus they helped a few creators to reach star status, who now are loose on the creator owned market, and all those jumping-off points are as many jump-in points to newer and fresher series created by thos very same star creators that Marvel (or DC) helped bring to our attention. |
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Post by earl on Jan 21, 2016 22:33:22 GMT -5
Marvel and DC both seem to just be putting out boodles of junk trying to keep up market share. If it was me, I'd think DC and Marvel both should be more trying to concentrate on quality to try to build trade series that could be evergreen in back list would be more of a priority.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 22, 2016 18:06:53 GMT -5
Marvel actually seems to be getting better at this: Star Wars, Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye were all huge trade sellers.
DC... less so. I'm not seeing a new Sandman, Preacher, or Watchmen in the last couple years.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 25, 2016 17:08:47 GMT -5
I'm enjoying the core Secret Wars book, but so far, virtually all of the tied in series have been a bit... I dunno... what can I say about them... sorta, well... crap, basically. The X-books have picked 3 awful eras to focus on - 92, Inferno and Age of Apocalypse, and I just have no interest in revisiting those. Old Man Logan - better than expected. Weirdworld - meh Captain Marvel - much like the prior series, OK but I'm just not engaged Angela - not interested Spider-verse - not interesting Renew your vows - not interested Inhumans in any shape or form - not interested Ghost Races - meh Where Monsters Dwell - meh A-Force - OKish Overall, apart from the core series, it's looking like a massive jumping off point for me, and I still don't get a view what the end-point is supposed to be - the message about "this being our new reality" implies Battleworld for ever, but I don't believe that. Obviously I didn't pay money for any of these, but they are starting to filter through the library. Read: Phantom Eagle - Garth Ennis, fun in a Hitman-lite sort of way. The poor Phantom Eagle is recast as a total idiot. I read Spider-Verse, which was a Flash Thompson who is now Venom-centric story. He bosses Captain America and Spider-man around, then dies. If someone dies in Secret Wars do they die in real life? I am hold # 8 on the HC of the main series, so I won't know for a month or two. But Spider- still an A + because of Stegron. I got the name of both of those wrong: It was Where Monsters Dwell and Spider-ISLAND. |
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Post by the4thpip on Jan 31, 2016 7:00:52 GMT -5
Not surprised. I find myself less and less interested in picking up new series every time they relaunch, even for characters I've loved for decades. Sure, I still get Captain America and Iron Man (although I skipped Superior Iron Man), but I'm not buying Thor or any Avengers titles any more. Part of it is that I'm one of the old "get of my lawn" guys, but I like it when creators stick around on a title for more than 6-8 issues, because it allows them to build some continuity (even if it is just within that title) rather than have the status quo restarted every time a new writer takes over the title. You're really missing out on Thor. One of Marvel's best books currently. |
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