Another Marvel book has bit the dust!

[hippie_hunter]

The current victim: Marvel Team-Up

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MG: I'm colouring Marvel Team Up, this book is nothing but FUN, FUN, FUN. It's written by Robert Kirkman and has been drawn by many artists during its two year run like Scott Kollins, Paco Medina and now Roger Cruz. I've had the chance to colour many characters I like - the book ends on issue #25, and Robert is cooking an amazing ending for this series, so if you have a chance grab the book![/FONT]

http://www.newsarama.com/general/Hellion/05/Hellion05.html

Discuss

 

[Dread]

The current victim: Marvel Team-Up



http://www.newsarama.com/general/Hellion/05/Hellion05.html

Discuss

Not surprising, considering that FREEDOM RING has been Kirkman's attempt to shore up all his lingerling plot-threads of the book (the cosmic ring, the "alternate Iron Man"/Iron Maniac, and Titannus). The book also sells very poorly and has for a good long time. Plus, as fun and good as the book its, its not in its prime anymore. So its not a shock, and honestly I'm glad its lasted 25 issues and ending on a bang rather than a whimper.

Still, it is a shame to lose yet another "honest superhero book" to lack of sales. If it had destruction, rape, and mutiliation like an "event" or even MARVEL ZOMBIES had, it'd probably have sold better. Plus, its another book Marvel abandoned, although they gave it another push after #1 with #7 at least.

 

[Gambit8370]

Show me one ADVERTISEMENT FOR MARVEL TEAM-UP that Marvel made in the last 2 years.

Do they even have a friggin Advertising Department???

Nice job killing MTU a THIRD TIME!

BASTARDS.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

MTU rocked. People need better tastes in books.

 

[Ben Urich]

Yeah, when did Marvel promote MTU?
Marvel tend to throw their promotional money at books that sell themselves - New Avengers, Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.
Idiots.

 

[Darthphere]

It was a pretty mediocre book. Not surprised about this at all. Too bad. Even in its averageness it was a fun book.

 

[Darthphere]

Yeah, when did Marvel promote MTU?
Marvel tend to throw their promotional money at books that sell themselves - New Avengers, Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.
Idiots.

Lets be honest, Marvel really doesnt promote those books either. New Avengers X-Men and Spidey practically sell themselves anyway, as stated. Either way they couldve advertised the hell out of the book and if it still didnt sell you'd guys find soemthing to complain about.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

I read Invincible and the Walking Dead so ive seen the serious and fantastical side of Kirkman's writing. What i did read of MTU seemed to have the wrong balance to me. Its made the Marvel Universe feel more like his Invincible universe. Yes, it was mostly good honest story-telling but i always got hints of mocking what he was writing about and the feeling that none of the stories would take themselves seriously for the whole arc and i was uncomfortable with it. I think Kirkman would do better on another book.

If marvel want MTU to mean something then they'd have to cut down on summer crossovers and get rid of heroes moving between books. that way make people feel like they NEED MTU again. -- make them feel as if its the only way they can see spider-man and wolverine in the same comic. this is a managerial and editorial mistake and ANYTHING kirkman does desereves more attention than this got right now. Hopefully though Kirkman will get the Walking Dead TPBs or Invincible issues out on time now

 

[Darthphere]

It sucks this book got cancelled but really, its a miracle Marvel gave it this much of a chance. Its not any different than Manhunter being cancelled at DC.

 

[Gambit8370]

For all the friggin advertisement pages found in a $2.99 comic book, you'd think that Marvel could self-promote a little bit.

 

[Darthphere]

I doubt advertising would have saved the book.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

gambit, ask any comic fan: find one that didn't know this book was out there. Kirkman plugs the book in invincible and (probs - i get the TPB) walking dead. most fans are online and it has its fair share on marvel.com and the net. what could they do? put a splash page with reviews listed? i didnt think it was that loved by crtitics. as darth says (omg, cant belive im agreeing with darth), it was an ok book. but just ok. you guys really do make me sympathise with marvel sometimes. books get cancelled - meh!its the way things are.I personally cant remember ANY books past DC's Brave New World being in an advert off the top of my head so maybe they just dont work too well!

dont worry - kirkman and MTU will be back.


btw - plug - 80pages for £1 i paid. thats closer to $2 than $1, but is still dirt cheap for a comic over here.if you didn't buy Brave New World what's wrong with you???

 

[Gambit8370]

I doubt advertising would have saved the book.

Yeah well, now we'll never know.


And not to beat the dead horse, but wouldn't it make sense to take your top 10 selling books and advertise you lesser popular comics in them?

Or does that make too much sense to do when that ad space could be better utilized in advertising your Distinguished Competition's "super" summer blockbuster movie...

 

[Darthphere]

By your assesment Howling Commandos shouldve sold through the roof because that got its fair share of advertising.

 

[KAD]

MTU was one of the best books produced in the past 20 years.

Pure superhero fun.

Not to edgy not to ridiculous and totally believable.

Kirkman wasn't mocking anything, he was paying homage to what came before him.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

sorry, like i sed - im a fan of his - but i didnt really like much of what i read. there were a couple of good lines in the invincible/spider-man issue. "black-man" was funny and the "cosmic" quip shows he knows his spider-man. I enjoyed the stuff with gravity but didnt think anything past the first issue of that arc was particularly spectacular. And iron-maniac has been excruciating on first glance. its really been "meh" for me. nothing special. To say Kirkmans series was one of the best books of the last 20 years just shows you need to read more books. It's not even Kirkman's best book of the last three years so...

 

[Gambit8370]

I'll admit, MTU lost a little edge for me when they steered away from the individual hero pairings and went for the team concept character crossovers.

It needed that "this issue features Spider-Man and Hawkeye" feel to it.

The way they did it they slapped too much into one issue and left little room for character development and interaction.

And evil Iron Man(iac) was no less evil for me than the current regular Civil War a-hole Iron Man is.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

 

[KAD]

sorry, like i sed - im a fan of his - but i didnt really like much of what i read. there were a couple of good lines in the invincible/spider-man issue. "black-man" was funny and the "cosmic" quip shows he knows his spider-man. I enjoyed the stuff with gravity but didnt think anything past the first issue of that arc was particularly spectacular. And iron-maniac has been excruciating on first glance. its really been "meh" for me. nothing special. To say Kirkmans series was one of the best books of the last 20 years just shows you need to read more books. It's not even Kirkman's best book of the last three years so...

Actually Ive been reading since the 70's.

I happen to think the alternate Iron Man story has alot of potential.

Kirkman is one of the few writers today able to do relevant superhero comics that use the original concept of the genre succesfully

 

[KAD]

I'll admit, MTU lost a little edge for me when they steered away from the individual hero pairings and went for the team concept character crossovers.

It needed that "this issue features Spider-Man and Hawkeye" feel to it.

The way they did it they slapped too much into one issue and left little room for character development and interaction.

And evil Iron Man(iac) was no less evil for me than the current regular Civil War a-hole Iron Man is.

Oddly this is what I loved about the book.

unlike the original it was never stale.

It really linked heroes from the MTU in interesting ways sort of like exiles

 

[KAD]

I'll admit, MTU lost a little edge for me when they steered away from the individual hero pairings and went for the team concept character crossovers.

It needed that "this issue features Spider-Man and Hawkeye" feel to it.

The way they did it they slapped too much into one issue and left little room for character development and interaction.

And evil Iron Man(iac) was no less evil for me than the current regular Civil War a-hole Iron Man is.

What need is there for character development we all know these characters intimitly

 

[Anubis]

Well this sucks...

 

[Gambit8370]

Oddly this is what I loved about the book.

unlike the original it was never stale.

It really linked heroes from the MTU in interesting ways sort of like exiles

We already had Exiles though.

MTU felt more like Secret Defenders.

And that's a bad thing.

 

[Gambit8370]

What need is there for character development we all know these characters intimitly

The best of the last 14 issues was the Spidey / Invincible because it was two characters that had never met and getting to know a little bit more about each one through the fresh interaction.

I needed another issue with Cable and Wolverine in it like I need a team book with all of Marvel's top selling characters.

And the Cap story in Freedom Ring served no point to Team-Up anyone.

And don't get me totally wrong here, I liked "League Of Losers" but it would have served better as a mini like Beyond.

 

[Elijya]

By your assesment Howling Commandos shouldve sold through the roof because that got its fair share of advertising.

That's true

and Joe Q once pointed out at a Q&A session when someone asked him about Spider-Girl and could they have done more to save it, and he made a demonstration by turning to the audience and asking by a show of hands how many people had heard about the book, had heard it had a loyal following, had heard it was good, and had heard it could use better sales. Nearly everyone in the room raised their hands. What would more advertising have done if everyone's already heard about it?

Word spreads, but that doesn't mean everyone will take an interest