Marvel March 2013 Solicitations

[JewishHobbit]

Soooooo.

How about those X-Men comics... huh?

[hippie_hunter]

Originally Posted by THANOSRULES

Your breaking the restaurant analogy down too simply...If I decide i want catfish I went to restaurant X to get it. I bring my family with me..maybe more..maybe I like the catfish so much I have my birthday party there. But no catfish and it doesnt mean i still go to restaurant X to buy the steak.

Its very standard for restaurants to have a few items on there menu that they think "by there presence" will add a few people through the door that normally wouldnt come. Pizza places that still carry anchovies..etc.But were getting crazy here.

Basically what I am thinking of here is something like Ghost Rider. Theres nothing really like that book and I have a few friends who only buy GR at marvel, but will check out more and more marvel books over time.

Essentially this is how Marvel was built..they came late to the party and established books over time. They built up core books and experimented with developing others , some flopped, some didnt and became core books.

You can't develop new core books without this. i don't think we disagree on this, more on what time you give to figure out if its working.

Oh no, I broke it down perfectly and your restaurant analogy was perfect. You see, any company just cannot thrive on serving a customer base that is so small (and shrinking I might add) to the point where you're losing money. It's bad business practice to allow high selling products that make profits offset the losses made by products that lose money. You have to make as much profit as possible.

I see something like Green Lantern..which was a lower selling DC book for YEARS before it became a top 10 seller the past 5 years or so. It takes time sometimes.

Poor analogy because even though Green Lantern wasn't a top seller before Geoff Johns, but it wasn't anywhere close to being one of DC's lower selling titles. Before the Rebirth era of Green Lantern, it was still selling above 40k. It sold more than several Batbooks like Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Gotham Central, Catwoman, Batgirl, and Birds of Prey. Green Lantern was a mid-range title like the Superman books, Detective Comics, the Flash, and Outsiders. DC's lower selling books were books like Aquaman, Firestorm, and Hawkman.

The situation like Green Lantern is nothing like what has been going on with characters like Black Panther, the Punisher, and Ghost Rider where nothing is working at all. It also took making Green Lantern an integral part of the DC Universe in order to become the massive success that it is now. You can buy Green Lantern being an essential part of the DCU. Marvel on the other hand is never going to treat Ghost Rider and Moon Knight as integral characters to the Marvel Universe like Iron Man and Captain America.

[Colossal Spoons]

Originally Posted by JewishHobbit

Soooooo.

How about those X-Men comics... huh?

They're pretty good

[JewishHobbit]

Best they've been in a while.

[hippie_hunter]

I'm liking the direction the X-Men books are going for the most part. There are a few stinkers here and there, but the flagship titles are at least good.

[Colossal Spoons]

I am patiently waiting for Bendis to go Bendis on the franchise though.

[Thwip!]

Immomen is kicking ass on ANX-M

[runawayboulder]

Immonen kicks ass on anything.

[JewishHobbit]

Originally Posted by Colossal Spoons

I am patiently waiting for Bendis to go Bendis on the franchise though.

You mean bring the awesome until I squeel like a little girl

[Colossal Spoons]

Originally Posted by JewishHobbit

You mean bring the awesome until I squeel like a little girl

Is that how you feel about the majority of his run on Avengers?

[JewishHobbit]

His New Avengers, yeah. It had its stinker moments but for the most part I actually really enjoyed New Avengers. Now, I didn't much care for his stuff when he branched from that... such as his Mighty Avengers or his Adjectiveless Avengers (save the second arc), but when he stayed with the street-level team I thought he did great. His Dark Avengers was hit or miss but the idea, overall, was good. I think people just got into this Bendis=Evil mentality and he could do nothing right. I was getting pulled into that mentality right about the time of Siege, I think mostly due to reading Dread's rants, but then I sat back and shook my head. Read over it again and realized I was just getting caught up in the hype. I decided at that point to stop being one of the anti-Bendis sheep and just read it for what it was. It wasn't the best comic run that I've ever read but I found it enjoyable.

And yeah, he has his flaws as far as "Bendisisms" but as people who read his Avengers throughout can tell you, he actually improved on those a great deal the further along that he went. He grew as a writer I think. His pointless chatter, though appearing here and there, no longer takes up pages and issues. He doesn't write for trade anymore. He's been writing some good conclusions to the stories he begins. He's been utilizing every character instead of having so many background characters (Storm and Quake being the exception... but that was in Adjectiveless Avengers). His characters have a good voice. Etc.

So yeah, I honestly have high hopes for All New & Uncanny. He seems to be bringing a new level of enthusiasm that we've not seen from him in a while, and with how much he's grown I think he's going to have a great run. Not to mention that the X-Men are more street-level than the Avengers, which plays more to his strengths.

In 4 issues of Avengers, he had people up in arms yelling and screaming. In 4 issues of All New X-Men, he has nothing but praise. Keep it up

[THANOSRULES]

Bendis left the Avengers franchise in a much better place than he found it...actually an all time high (and not all because of him)

[hippie_hunter]

Bendis' run on Avengers was for the most part enjoyable. I would say from New Avengers #1 to Siege, it was pretty damn good. The only problems I had with it were Avengers: Disassembled and the stuff that came out from the Heroic Age relaunch where it was pretty clear that Bendis was all out of ideas.

Based on his All-New X-Men, I'm looking forward to his Uncanny X-Men.

[runawayboulder]

The time where Bendis fell flat in my eyes was during Secret Invasion. He was doing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers plus the SI story (along with USM). When he's stretched thin like that, his quality takes a massive hit and it wasn't all that to begin with IMO. 8 straight months of filler issues twice a month in both Avenger books and he lost my interest quickly.

He's gonna have the same issue eventually with all these NOW books and ANXM will probably suffer.

[hippie_hunter]

Age of Ultron is pretty much done so he's working on All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man. I think he should be fine. Plus his books aren't going to be plagued with bad filler like what Secret Invasion did with the Avengers books. Age of Ultron tie-ins are going to have their own issue designations while the main stories will continue uninterrupted.

[Mad Ones]

Well ANXM 1-4 were "probably" going to suck, but they didn't. I'm not going to worry about what may or may not happen in the future and just enjoy it while it continues to be good.

[runawayboulder]

Originally Posted by hippie_hunter

Age of Ultron is pretty much done so he's working on All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man. I think he should be fine. Plus his books aren't going to be plagued with bad filler like what Secret Invasion did with the Avengers books. Age of Ultron tie-ins are going to have their own issue designations while the main stories will continue uninterrupted.

I don't think that any writer at Marvel should have 4 books at a time. 2 max and that's it.

[THANOSRULES]

What's always bothered me about BMB is that when you read his Avengers, he doesnt come off like a "marvel head" a guy who values the continuity around or before him and treats it with respect (and that certainly doesnt mean I am against changes or shake ups)...he doesnt strike me as a guy who was reading Marvel comics as a youth and treasured them...I'm not saying its true, but thats how he comes off.

Unless were talking about old Power man and Iron fist comics that is..

[runawayboulder]

Originally Posted by THANOSRULES

What's always bothered me about BMB is that when you read his Avengers, he doesnt come off like a "marvel head" a guy who values the continuity around or before him and treats it with respect (and that certainly doesnt mean I am against changes or shake ups)...he doesnt strike me as a guy who was reading Marvel comics as a youth and treasured them...I'm not saying its true, but thats how he comes off.

This

[JewishHobbit]

Originally Posted by runawayboulder

The time where Bendis fell flat in my eyes was during Secret Invasion. He was doing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers plus the SI story (along with USM). When he's stretched thin like that, his quality takes a massive hit and it wasn't all that to begin with IMO. 8 straight months of filler issues twice a month in both Avenger books and he lost my interest quickly.

In Bendis' defense... he never intended Secret Invasion to be a huge event. It was supposed to just be an arc of New Avengers, around issue 25. That's what he wanted to build to and then Civil War pushed it back. Then editorial said the idea was too large to be contained in just Avengers, and by then Bendis had two Avengers books due to Civil War, and editorial made Secret Invasion an event.

So if Bendis had his way Secret Invasion likely would have been a 6 or so issue arc in New Avenger sometime after the Collective arc... and if not for Millar's Civil War, thats all it would have been, no filler or Mighty.

So blame editorial on that. They kinda sorta made him go thin on that plot.

[runawayboulder]

I'm sure he fought them kicking and screaming....

[THANOSRULES]

I think this Age of Ultron was the same deal.

[hippie_hunter]

Originally Posted by runawayboulder

I'm sure he fought them kicking and screaming....

He most likely followed orders like a loyal soldier, but I think we can blame Marvel editorial far more than Bendis for the weakness surrounding Secret Invasion. The main Secret Invasion story was actually pretty damn cool for the most part.

[THANOSRULES]

Bendis is a little too influential at Marvel to be a "loyal soldier"..He clearly has an important voice there and is a de facto editor.

That being said..really had no problem with any event since Civil War...they just didnt end up being that good. Yet despite my problems with Civil War A :TI and Cap were some of my favorites that sprung out of it..so it's all cool I guess.

Civil War was really the only one where i felt was a piece of garbage. Some of the others were not profound, but more or less were fun.

[runawayboulder]

That was Millar's baby though.