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Post by MRPs_Missives on Nov 20, 2024 18:59:10 GMT -5
I don't know if its sales are sustainable, but it's sales are through the roof and another printing is coming (4th or 5th) after the the one coming out next week because the demand is still there. It's the best selling direct market comic of 2024. All told it's sold over 400K copies of the various printings, and the demand for it still hasn't been met. That's 100k more than any other book this year and almost twice what last year's top selling book sold. Folks here aren't liking it much, it's obvious form the comments, but it's getting a lot of positive buzz and sales are still growing from word of mouth. Is it sustainable? Probably not at those levels, but it could lose 75% of its sales and still be a top selling book in the direct market, and still be selling about twice what most of the top books are achieving in sales. So its resonating with at least some sector of the audience. Doesn't mean its good, but quality and sales have pretty close to zero% of a causal relationship in comics. DC will continue it as long as its getting numbers and Snyder and Dragotta want to do it. Even if it drops to less than 50K copies by it's 8th or 9th issue, it will still be in the top 10% of titles selling in the direct market. -M Oh yeah, I have no illusions that my disdain for it is the norm. The numbers don't lie, this book is absolutely killing it and even though I'm not a fan that's ultimately good for the folks at DC. My only hope that the edgelord stuff just doesn't set the tone for all books as I much prefer books like Taylor's Night Wing or Waid's World's Finest to Snyder's Batman lopping dude's hands off with a battle ax he "hid" on his chest. Well, at least according to the advance press, the Absolute line is supposed to be distinctly different than the main line in tone, theme, and presentation, and there are more absolute books coming-I've seen at least Flash, Martian Manhunter and I think 1 other I can't think of off the top of my head, so I think those themes will be explored in those boos rather than the current iteration of the the main line in the All-In initiative. I think the different tones is intentional and what was being marketed in the All-in/Absolute Launch. They wanted the All-In books to have a more classic feel and the Absolute books be something different. So at least for now, I don't think that tone will bleed into the other All-In books. Now when current teams leave and All-In runs its course, and they come up their next initiative, I would guess all bets are off, but that's a bridge to cross down the line, and by then the shine may be off the Absolute line as well. -M |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 20, 2024 19:30:48 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I have no illusions that my disdain for it is the norm. The numbers don't lie, this book is absolutely killing it and even though I'm not a fan that's ultimately good for the folks at DC. My only hope that the edgelord stuff just doesn't set the tone for all books as I much prefer books like Taylor's Night Wing or Waid's World's Finest to Snyder's Batman lopping dude's hands off with a battle ax he "hid" on his chest. Well, at least according to the advance press, the Absolute line is supposed to be distinctly different than the main line in tone, theme, and presentation, and there are more absolute books coming-I've seen at least Flash, Martian Manhunter and I think 1 other I can't think of off the top of my head, so I think those themes will be explored in those boos rather than the current iteration of the the main line in the All-In initiative. I think the different tones is intentional and what was being marketed in the All-in/Absolute Launch. They wanted the All-In books to have a more classic feel and the Absolute books be something different. So at least for now, I don't think that tone will bleed into the other All-In books. Now when current teams leave and All-In runs its course, and they come up their next initiative, I would guess all bets are off, but that's a bridge to cross down the line, and by then the shine may be off the Absolute line as well. -M As a concept in the short term I can definitely get behind it, it's just that it doesn't feel unique enough to be sustainable long term. The whole intent seems to be "Bigger and Badder!" with it not being good enough that Batman punches people and occasionally drops people off buildings, no, now he lops off limbs and disfigures them for life. And since Frank Miller already upped the anti on the the suped up muscle car that is the Batmobile and raised it with a Bat-Tank they had to go bigger and give him a five story high dump truck that can drive through whole buildings. Other than giving us a more extreme! Batman it just doesn't do anything all that interesting or worth exploring. Something like Kurt Buseik's Creature of the Night definitely would have made for a better long term story; you get all the classic beats of Batman lurking in the shadows and taking on organized crime and super villains but the idea that Batman is somehow Bruce Wayne's ID come to life rather than Bruce Wayne himself fighting crime in a costume adds a unique layer worth exploring and would give rise to stories you couldn't tell otherwise. To a lesser extent we saw some of that in Absolute Superman and Wonder Woman. In the few pages that didn't feel like they were riffing on a Meatloaf album cover or a scene from the Heavy Metal movie the idea of Wonder Woman being raised to be a witch by Circe was interesting and the contrast between the Circe we know and her slightly softer mothering side was interesting. And on the other hand, instead of giving us a out of left field twist like that with Superman Aaron kind of brought Superman back to his roots but in a very modern way as we saw Clark standing up to a mega corporation and helping the oppressed workers with the seeming help of super technology which was very on par with his origins in the 30's as a hero of the oppressed. Both of those takes just had a lot more nuance than Absolute Batman, but even then the very idea of heroes on a world dominated by Darksied just seems limiting because if they win then what's the difference between them and the original? |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Nov 20, 2024 19:48:40 GMT -5
Well, at least according to the advance press, the Absolute line is supposed to be distinctly different than the main line in tone, theme, and presentation, and there are more absolute books coming-I've seen at least Flash, Martian Manhunter and I think 1 other I can't think of off the top of my head, so I think those themes will be explored in those boos rather than the current iteration of the the main line in the All-In initiative. I think the different tones is intentional and what was being marketed in the All-in/Absolute Launch. They wanted the All-In books to have a more classic feel and the Absolute books be something different. So at least for now, I don't think that tone will bleed into the other All-In books. Now when current teams leave and All-In runs its course, and they come up their next initiative, I would guess all bets are off, but that's a bridge to cross down the line, and by then the shine may be off the Absolute line as well. -M As a concept in the short term I can definitely get behind it, it's just that it doesn't feel unique enough to be sustainable long term. The whole intent seems to be "Bigger and Badder!" with it not being good enough that Batman punches people and occasionally drops people off buildings, no, now he lops off limbs and disfigures them for life. And since Frank Miller already upped the anti on the the suped up muscle car that is the Batmobile and raised it with a Bat-Tank they had to go bigger and give him a five story high dump truck that can drive through whole buildings. Other than giving us a more extreme! Batman it just doesn't do anything all that interesting or worth exploring. Something like Kurt Buseik's Creature of the Night definitely would have made for a better long term story; you get all the classic beats of Batman lurking in the shadows and taking on organized crime and super villains but the idea that Batman is somehow Bruce Wayne's ID come to life rather than Bruce Wayne himself fighting crime in a costume adds a unique layer worth exploring and would give rise to stories you couldn't tell otherwise. To a lesser extent we saw some of that in Absolute Superman and Wonder Woman. In the few pages that didn't feel like they were riffing on a Meatloaf album cover or a scene from the Heavy Metal movie the idea of Wonder Woman being raised to be a witch by Circe was interesting and the contrast between the Circe we know and her slightly softer mothering side was interesting. And on the other hand, instead of giving us a out of left field twist like that with Superman Aaron kind of brought Superman back to his roots but in a very modern way as we saw Clark standing up to a mega corporation and helping the oppressed workers with the seeming help of super technology which was very on par with his origins in the 30's as a hero of the oppressed. Both of those takes just had a lot more nuance than Absolute Batman, but even then the very idea of heroes on a world dominated by Darksied just seems limiting because if they win then what's the difference between them and the original? Comics have always upped the ante in terms of pushing limits and power creep, especially in long-running series or alternatives to existing characters. Supes when from leaping buildings and being stunned by bursting bombshells to juggling planets and surviving ground zero of a nuke, Spidey, the Avengers, Wolverine, all of them get more extreme and suffer form that up the ante power creep or limit pushing. Eventually it reaches a point that interferes with good storytelling, but it's not unique to Batman or the Absolute line, it's pretty much the par for the course for all long-running Marvel/DC features. I have thoughts that its a byproduct of audiences sticking around too long on characters and fans becoming creators who want to do that with the characters they grew up with so they grow with them and audiences (understandable but misguided as it is) and because keeping things the way they are comes across as being dull and predictable. So I'd rather see something like the Absolute line be trotted out, played with, and then shuttered when it runs its course than see it muck things up int he main line. If I try it and I like it, I will read it, but if I don't, it's easy enough to leave it on the shelf, where it will stay for as long as enough people enjoy and buy it to be viable. All runs come to an end, whether I like them or not. Series will continue, but runs vary in quality. No matter how much I like a run, or how successful it is, it will only last as long as the creator remains interested and the sales keep it viable. So if a run I like changes or ends, so be it, I'll enjoy it while it lasts and find something else to enjoy when it ends. I don't sweat how the success of lack there of of a different series is going to impact that run because that run will end when it ends regardless. And upping the ante, power creep and pushing extremes have been baked in to super-hero comics since the 40s, so I am not going to sweat how that impacts runs I like either. Its one of the few constants in super-hero comics so it doesn't matter what I think about it in a sense. It's not going anywhere. And the success or length of success of the Absolute titles won't affect its presence or lack there of in other comics overly much. -M |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 20, 2024 19:55:41 GMT -5
As a concept in the short term I can definitely get behind it, it's just that it doesn't feel unique enough to be sustainable long term. The whole intent seems to be "Bigger and Badder!" with it not being good enough that Batman punches people and occasionally drops people off buildings, no, now he lops off limbs and disfigures them for life. And since Frank Miller already upped the anti on the the suped up muscle car that is the Batmobile and raised it with a Bat-Tank they had to go bigger and give him a five story high dump truck that can drive through whole buildings. Other than giving us a more extreme! Batman it just doesn't do anything all that interesting or worth exploring. Something like Kurt Buseik's Creature of the Night definitely would have made for a better long term story; you get all the classic beats of Batman lurking in the shadows and taking on organized crime and super villains but the idea that Batman is somehow Bruce Wayne's ID come to life rather than Bruce Wayne himself fighting crime in a costume adds a unique layer worth exploring and would give rise to stories you couldn't tell otherwise. To a lesser extent we saw some of that in Absolute Superman and Wonder Woman. In the few pages that didn't feel like they were riffing on a Meatloaf album cover or a scene from the Heavy Metal movie the idea of Wonder Woman being raised to be a witch by Circe was interesting and the contrast between the Circe we know and her slightly softer mothering side was interesting. And on the other hand, instead of giving us a out of left field twist like that with Superman Aaron kind of brought Superman back to his roots but in a very modern way as we saw Clark standing up to a mega corporation and helping the oppressed workers with the seeming help of super technology which was very on par with his origins in the 30's as a hero of the oppressed. Both of those takes just had a lot more nuance than Absolute Batman, but even then the very idea of heroes on a world dominated by Darksied just seems limiting because if they win then what's the difference between them and the original? Comics have always upped the ante in terms of pushing limits and power creep, especially in long-running series or alternatives to existing characters. Supes when from leaping buildings and being stunned by bursting bombshells to juggling planets and surviving ground zero of a nuke, Spidey, the Avengers, Wolverine, all of them get more extreme and suffer form that up the ante power creep or limit pushing. Eventually it reaches a point that interferes with good storytelling, but it's not unique to Batman or the Absolute line, it's pretty much the par for the course for all long-running Marvel/DC features. I have thoughts that its a byproduct of audiences sticking around too long on characters and fans becoming creators who want to do that with the characters they grew up with so they grow with them and audiences (understandable but misguided as it is) and because keeping things the way they are comes across as being dull and predictable. So I'd rather see something like the Absolute line be trotted out, played with, and then shuttered when it runs its course than see it muck things up int he main line. If I try it and I like it, I will read it, but if I don't, it's easy enough to leave it on the shelf, where it will stay for as long as enough people enjoy and buy it to be viable. All runs come to an end, whether I like them or not. Series will continue, but runs vary in quality. No matter how much I like a run, or how successful it is, it will only last as long as the creator remains interested and the sales keep it viable. So if a run I like changes or ends, so be it, I'll enjoy it while it lasts and find something else to enjoy when it ends. I don't sweat how the success of lack there of of a different series is going to impact that run because that run will end when it ends regardless. And upping the ante, power creep and pushing extremes have been baked in to super-hero comics since the 40s, so I am not going to sweat how that impacts runs I like either. Its one of the few constants in super-hero comics so it doesn't matter what I think about it in a sense. It's not going anywhere. And the success or length of success of the Absolute titles won't affect its presence or lack there of in other comics overly much. -M Very true, and usually I don't mind it...it's just here with Batman it seems like one-upmanship just for the sake of it rather than for something that helps tell a story. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Nov 20, 2024 20:40:09 GMT -5
I don't know if its sales are sustainable, but it's sales are through the roof and another printing is coming (4th or 5th) after the the one coming out next week because the demand is still there. It's the best selling direct market comic of 2024. All told it's sold over 400K copies of the various printings, and the demand for it still hasn't been met. That's 100k more than any other book this year and almost twice what last year's top selling book sold. Folks here aren't liking it much, it's obvious form the comments, but it's getting a lot of positive buzz and sales are still growing from word of mouth. Is it sustainable? Probably not at those levels, but it could lose 75% of its sales and still be a top selling book in the direct market, and still be selling about twice what most of the top books are achieving in sales. So its resonating with at least some sector of the audience. Doesn't mean its good, but quality and sales have pretty close to zero% of a causal relationship in comics. DC will continue it as long as its getting numbers and Snyder and Dragotta want to do it. Even if it drops to less than 50K copies by it's 8th or 9th issue, it will still be in the top 10% of titles selling in the direct market. -M Oh yeah, I have no illusions that my disdain for it is the norm. The numbers don't lie, this book is absolutely killing it and even though I'm not a fan that's ultimately good for the folks at DC. My only hope that the edgelord stuff just doesn't set the tone for all books as I much prefer books like Taylor's Night Wing or Waid's World's Finest to Snyder's Batman lopping dude's hands off with a battle ax he "hid" on his chest. It's the same BS with Death Metal. I can't believe they sold that much given the fact that Snyder directly ripped off Judge Death with "The Batman Who Laughs" IDK, not that I can say much given my love for Lobdell's Red Hood & The Outlaws series |
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