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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2018 19:39:04 GMT -5
So I got this i my e-mail from Marvel Unlimited, talking about how many issues they added to the Unlimited service in 2017, but I was intrigued how they divided the ages of )Marvel) Comics. It starts with the Golden age as most age breakdowns do, but it goes its own way after that. I am also somehwat perplexed by the era they call the Marvel Main Event... I am not sure that's how I would divt up the era of Marvel, and I definitely wouldn't use those terms to describe those eras (I am ok with the first 2, but after that...) -M
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2018 19:49:17 GMT -5
Some other notes in the e-mail,
the top read issues on Marvel Unlimited in 2017
Civil War II #3 and 4 and Civil War (first series #1)
top read series on Marvel Unlimited in 2017...
Uncanny X-Men (1963 series) Ultimate Spider-Man (2000 series) AmazingSpider-Man (1962 series)
top read writers on Marvel Unlimited in 2017
Brian Michael Bendis Jason Aaron Chris Claremont
top read characters...
X-Men Spider-Man Avengers
so mostly the usual suspects, but it seems the more casual reader doesn't seem to share the hardcore fans antipathy for Bendis' Marvel stuff that I see online at comic sites all the time as he was the most read creator, and produced one of the top read series and 2 of the top read issues of the year.
-M
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 2, 2018 20:27:59 GMT -5
To be fair, most casual readers are reading Civil War because Bendis wrote it, they're reading it because it's an event... and I bet X-Men and Spiderman are the top ones whether Bendis writes them or not.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2018 20:43:47 GMT -5
To be fair, most casual readers are reading Civil War because Bendis wrote it, they're reading it because it's an event... and I bet X-Men and Spiderman are the top ones whether Bendis writes them or not. And then to be fair, most casual readers don't bitch and moan how much they hate books and hate Bendis then buy the books and support his work with their wallets anyways because they can't have a hole in their collection. They also don't get upset because the writer isn't slavishly following something that happened in 2 panels in 1967 rather than what works or is needed for the story at hand and enjoy things as long as the story in their hand is something that entertain them for what's on its pages, not what was on the pages of some other book from some other series at some other time. In the mass market, it matters less why they are (or aren't) reading something, it simply matters that they are and if they are reading it, and coming back for more, then that's the best indicator of what the market actually needs to grow, not what someone posts on a message board or in facebook comments. -M
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 2, 2018 20:49:54 GMT -5
Very true. It'd be interesting to see how many casual readers actually know Bendis' name, and realize who the writer is. It would obviously be very hard to define, but I would guys the average casual reader cares about the characters first, and probably the art style second.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2018 20:58:55 GMT -5
Very true. It'd be interesting to see how many casual readers actually know Bendis' name, and realize who the writer is. It would obviously be very hard to define, but I would guys the average casual reader cares about the characters first, and probably the art style second. Bendis name was pretty prominently out there on MTV when they did the Spider-Man animated series there, and he appeared quite often as the face of Spidey creators at Marvel, and for however successful it was, the Powers series on Playstation TV also featured his name quite prominently and he did a lot of facetime/tv appearances about the show putting his name out there. It was also one of the few names put in the credits of the Sam Raimi Spidey films as a name at Marvel behind Spider-Man, and his Ultimate Spider-Man books were quite successful in the Scholastic market getting into homes and putting his name with Spidey for a lot of folks outside the direct market. He's had a NY Times best selling book about writing comics that featured Spider-Man quite prominently in its trade dress, and teaches comics writing at a university that at one point offered online access to the course and I think offered video packages of some of his classes to other educational institutions as a teaching resource for that kind of class. So he's not a household name, but his name is out there in a lot of places associated with comics, Marvel and Spidey. -M
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 3, 2018 0:47:31 GMT -5
Using the name Golden Age, up to 1959 is probably a bit much. I would have gone with Golden Age, Atlas Age, Marvel Age, Roy Thomas, et al Age, Shooter Age, Bankruptcy Age, Quesada Age, Disney Age; but, then again, that's too on the nose and snarky. Seriously, for branding purposes, I'd stick with what I suggested through Marvel Age, then maybe Expansion Age (don't think that is really the dominate theme of that decade). I get that they mean the 80s began the Big Event mini-series; but, I don't know that it dominated Marvel as much as DC, by comparison and that was still mostly in the latter half and into the early 90s. Then again, I don't think there are too many people at Marvel, now, who know their Asgard from a hole in the ground about this stuff and it was probably thought up by marketing people anyway. Kind of reminds me of Vince McMahon's official WWE version of wrestling history, vs the reality of it.
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Post by Randle-El on Jan 3, 2018 14:31:43 GMT -5
The ages are divided by decade, which is a pretty simple (if arbitrary) way to divide the eras, so I don't think a lot of deep thinking was involved in creating the categories. Second, I would bet that the staff member who came up with this chart is somewhere in his 40s, which means that he/she grew up reading Marvel Comics of the 80s, and thus remembers that era as being Marvel's "prime". If you notice, every other era is named for what actually happened in that era (the major exception being "Golden Age", but that's a fairly standard name for the earliest era of comics, not to mention a typical name for the early years of anything), but the 80s is called Marvel's Main Event -- clearly indicates that whoever came up with this thinks the most significant developments happened during that time.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 3, 2018 14:57:34 GMT -5
Huh. Do they have any Patsy and Hedy/Linda Carter Student Nurse/Kid Colt: Outlaw...
Stuff from the sixties that I haven't actually read?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2018 15:24:22 GMT -5
Huh. Do they have any Patsy and Hedy/Linda Carter Student Nurse/Kid Colt: Outlaw... Stuff from the sixties that I haven't actually read? I don't think they have anything up on the site that wasn't made available in print at some point via Masterworks or some such for the older stuff. They have a lot of the pre-hero horror stuff from Tales of Suspense, Strange Tales and Journey into Mystery (some form Astonish too I believe), but was pretty light on western and romance stuff in the pre-hero or heroic era of Marvel. They may have added something since I last checked the release calendar from the 60s, but for the most part it focuses on the capes and tights set plus the 70s stuff like Dracula, Werewolf, etc that had ties to the capes and tight set. I am guessing it's because the stuff that's seen print is already been through production and whatever restoration or color touches were needed is already done, so there is no additional production costs besides digitizing it (and most already exist as digital files for print production) to make it available. To make most of the western, romance and other non-hero stuff, there would be production costs associated with it and I am not sure it would generate enough views to warrant those costs at this point unless it was going to print first to rcuperate some of the production costs via sales. -M
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