This is what I usually call an "end of the month wallet-buster", where practically everything I buy monthly comes out in one $35 week or so. A week where I have about eleven comics to read, and I stare at my favorite SHH forum and sometimes need to be reminded why I commit some 2-4 hours of time going about reviews. "Because you are a nerd, that is why," is usually my mental answer, and I get to work.
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14518.html
The Feb. 2009 comic sales numbers were in and while sales are down 2%, it likely is worse than it looks; after all, this month had the 4th and 5th Obama ASM printings topping the chart at about 150k+ sales. The troubling thing I noticed about the sales list is that while the Top 5 sellers all sold over 90k copies, no comics that month sold between 78,000 - 89,000 copies. Usually at least 1-3 comics in the Top 10 sell within the 80k range. Instead the next highest selling book at #6 was 77k sales. The #10 seller sold under 70k copies. A book that sold 32,800 copies actually managed to sell within the Top 50, and a book that sold merely about 20,100 copies sold within the Top 100, feats that were not possible even 2-3 months ago. What I think is happening is that the current economic crisis, perhaps combined with increased prices, has forced retailers to make up the increased cost of all of those high selling $4 books like NEW AVENGERS and so on by trimming the fat on the mid-table selling titles. Thus, NOVA, which was selling steady at no less than 28,000 copies a month, suddenly is down to 25,000 the last two months. Other once "stable" comics that sold within the middle or end of the Top 100 have fallen off an extra 10% or so within a month or two as well, like INCREDIBLE HERCULES. A while back I called that the increase in price of many major franchise books by Marvel (and slowly by DC) will force retailers to balance their expenses by ordering less of smaller books. So we may see big books staying big sellers while the B and C list sellers losing readers quicker than in the last half year or so. Hmm...the big boys get bigger while the middle and lower ones get screwed...and who says the comic industry isn't like the rest of the economy?
I don't think trading the sales of about 10-15 smaller books to hold steady on the bigger books that sell 100k anyway is a good idea for the long term, but ask any comic book company EIC about anything long term, and they would probably give you a deer-in-the-headlights look and then mention their plans for the next, at best, half year.
As always, full spoilers ahead.
Dread's BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 3/35/09:
UMBRELLA ACADEMY: DALLAS #5: Dark Horse's newest major franchise, which is still managing to sell within the Top 100 without being a BUFFY/ANGEL/STAR WARS/HELLBOY themed franchise work. Considering it is also a take on the superhero genre, which Marvel/DC/Image still have a stranglehold on, that is also impressive. This is the second-to-last chapter in the story of the Academy having to go on a time travel adventure with Number 5 to basically stop a past version of himself from assassinating JFK.
Thankfully, this time travel jaunt still retains the manic, quirky style of Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba, which is like VENTURE BROTHERS crossed with MONTY PYTHON. Unfortunately for Spaceboy and Seance, they traveled too far back in time and had to spent a year or two in Vietnam in the 60's waiting around to the time when they have to try to save Kennedy in Dallas. Number 5, however, still plans to kill JFK to allow the time-stream to stay as it is. Spaceboy, Seance, and Kraken, though, try to win Vietnam by resurrecting a mummy, which goes horribly wrong, before deciding to finally venture to Dallas with a transporter that Seance managed to finance by running a sleazy bar for years. As always, though, summarizing any issue of this title is fruitless. It can't capture the stylish artwork of Ba, or the fun dialogue of Way.
Overall, I am still highly entertained by this title; most of the time when I venture off to give a new title, especially a non big two title a try, I end up finding mediocre stuff like THE END LEAGUE or Wildstorm's THE INTIMATES a few years ago (a franchise so average that Jim Lee co-created it with Joe Casey and then by the end of a year didn't even bother being credited with that anymore). UMBRELLA ACADEMY was recommended to me about 2-3 issues into the last mini, and I haven't regretted it. One day I will find a good small book without needing to be recommended by other people. It always makes me feel incompetent.
There is a part of me that things this sequel is not as good as the original, but it still is very entertaining and still better than a slew of better selling Big Two superhero books. If you're not aboard for the monthly issues, this is a series worth tracking down in trade. It also is the best comic ever created/written by a rock star. It's practically worth all those tons of terrible KISS comics. If I had one quibble, it is that the cover is kind of generic this month.
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE FEATURING REPTIL #1: This is part one of what I will call, "a tale of two annuals". In the old days, an annual was called an "annual" and was numbered every year. It was a yearly one-shot for a given franchise that usually had "filler" type stories that almost always sold less than a regular issue of the said title, regardless of price (especially since the annual was more expensive anyway). During the start of the Joe Q EIC tenure when Bill Jemas was President, he canceled annuals because he theorized, correctly, that annuals don't sell as well as regular issues, so it is more cost effective to just sell an extra issue of the ongoing title a year rather than always taking a loss on the annual. It proved to work. When Jemas left or was losing interest, Joe Q brought the annual back with Ultimate, and these sold well; granted this was during the time when Ultimate comics still were Top 10 sellers, and they were written by Millar or Bendis and were hyped up the wazoo. The stories were also relevant to the main title, but some annuals actually were; that rarely effected sales.
In time, though, as annuals became less rare, the old Bill Jemas logic prevailed; they usually sell 10-50% less than an regular issue of the main title. Marvel has tried to circumvent this by calling some of them "specials" instead of "annuals" or giving them other titles, likely a ploy to fool retailers. These ploys almost never work. They certainly haven't worked for AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE. Both their last "annual" and "special" sold fewer copies than a typical issue, even without a crossover tie-in, even though the stories in the annual were usually quite important, such as giving origins or new developments for some of the major characters in A:TI. Now A:TI is trying a third annual with yet a third title to try to fool retailers into thinking it isn't an annual and to order more copies, or at least the same as an ongoing issue (especially as A:TI has slipped from holding steady around 50k without a crossover to about 46k). It will likely fail. The last "special" sold barely 25k copies (the special where Hardball turned heel). I call this "a tale of two annuals" because IMMORTAL IRON FIST basically also is shipping an annual this week, only have actually kept Jemas' logic and are selling it as an extra regular issue rather than an overpriced annual. Granted, that may be because IIM is selling half what A:TI usually is and they can't afford the loss.
As for the story itself, it is similar to Gage's first solo-written issue of the series that introduced "Butterball" for an issue. The gist of the story was a brand new novice hero coming into the Initiative with an idealized POV that of course clashes with the reality of the camp and the recruits, and the nature of being a hero. It does end with the rookie redeeming himself in some way. This newest creation, Reptil, basically has a similar story as Butterball, only he is a more competent hero and has a more straightforward adventure. While Taskmaster was the "veteran" that Butterball was involved with, Tigra is the "veteran" hero that Reptil attaches to, and it works better because Tigra is more of a straight-forward hero(ine) than Taskmaster is and she naturally tries to relate to the newbie. While Butterball's story was more about him trying and failing to fit in with the other heroes, Reptil has more of a basic adventure, being tapped to stop the threat of Stegron the Dinosaur Man.
Yes, that D-List Spider-Man enemy who is basically an evil stegosaurus. Only the Iguana ranks lower as a reptile themed Spidey villain who isn't the Lizard. He's revived another army of dinosaurs from stolen bones and is rampaging about the country raiding SHIELD bases looking for something. The issue makes sure to have a footnote telling us this takes place between A:TI #19 and #20. Basically, JUST after the Skrull war but about five minutes before Osborn took over and remade it into HAMMER. Semi-frequent fill in artist for the series Steve Uy does the art, and his art is always iffy. Humberto Ramos, who draws the interiors of the regular issues, does the cover and while Ramos' anatomy always is loose, his work is usually more kinetic and dynamic. Uy's art always seems kind of lifeless, even when he does explosions or giant dinosaurs. I must say Reptil himself looks better on the cover and more boring looking inside; Uy's Tigra also always looks a bit bland. On the other hand, Uy does draw some characters well, like Stegron, Prodigy, and to some degree Batwing. I think a lot of it is the colors; they always look a bit less vibrant when Uy does his thing. It is odd that Reptil's bold title logo has tiger-themed colors and stripes. I'm not sure if it's grrrrr-eat.
The plot of the issue is Stegron the Dinosaur Man trashing a SHIELD base in Texas. Tigra is the leader of the Rangers apparently, which is the Texan superhero team. Her squad is a bit short-handed recovering from the Skrull War, and Val Cooper (the perennial CSA agent) tasks Tigra to lead a hand-picked group of recruits and graduates to take on Stegron, especially an untapped superhuman named "Reptil" (because Reptile is too generic, so the E is silent). Humberto Lopez is your typical kid in Nevada, living with his X-BOX obsessed grandfather because his parents went missing exploring fossils in the jungle. Empowered by a mystical dinosaur artifact, Lopez can apparently gain any ability that a dinosaur had, as well as taking on part of their forms; basically like DC's Vixen or former Avenger Silverclaw, only with extinct reptiles rather than living jungle critters. It is his supposed mental rapport with dinosaurs that sparks Cooper's interest for the mission; Tigra is hesitant to involve so inexperienced a kid, but agrees along with her squad of Cloud 9, Sunstreak, Batwing, Prodigy, and Komodo. Considering that Komodo is another reptile themed hero who just lost a boyfriend, I was seriously wondering and even expecting the two to interact a lot more than they actually do. It is a minor disappointment that all Komodo basically does is teach Reptil how to fight with a tail (or, as Bendis' Spider-Man would say, "throw your butt at you"; thanks, Bendy, for ruining that sort of thing forever). At first aggressive with the oncoming heroes, Lopez finds himself eager to join the Avengers and takes to days of training vigorously.
Of course, everyone has their own perspective about the Initiative and being a post-CIVIL WAR hero in general. Prodigy is cynical and bitter, seeing the Initiative as a draft and suggesting Reptil flunk on purpose if he wants to leave early. Batwing is almost overly optimistic, seeing it all as a way to help people for the greater good and either being ignorant or ignoring the downsides. Sunstreak sees the gig as a way to legally thrash people and avoid prison; Komodo is still burned by losing Hardball and encourages not trusting anyone. Cloud 9, who has undergone perhaps the most dramatic change, acknowledges that she has learned how to kill, but doesn't see it as being bloodthirsty, just efficient. While Reptil wants to be a hero on the outside, his main motivation is getting access to enough equipment to conduct a proper search for his parents, who he is convinced are still alive. Using specimens from the Savage Land, Lopez hones his "dino-sense" and uses that to track Stegron as well as effect his pull over reanimated dinosaurs. His first battle against the D-Lister goes poorly, especially when Stegron proves able to posess Komodo, which frankly should have been rather obvious from a strategic viewpoint that a guy who controls giant lizards could also control humanoid ones. Reptil, however, is immune to that control, but is too impulsive and is TKO'd.
If this story does anything, it is that Gage sells Tigra as an experienced heroine who has had her rough past (she mentions being a rookie and practically begging the Molecule Man for mercy with the Avengers) and is aware of the pain of losing a parent. She relates to Reptil and offers more balanced and realistic insight about the profession and about her other recruits, nailing all of them to a T (that Cloud 9 is in denial about those she kills, that Prodigy is a rebel without a cause, and Batwing is making up for having an unsupportive father by being too compromising). This certainly is the first story in a while where Tigra hasn't been written as some sort of victim, perhaps years. She offers him a deal, although it means changing his perceptions about things.
The third act reveals Stegron's motivations, and to be frank I found it kind of stupid. SHIELD basically kidnapped Moon-Boy, the caveman partner of Devil Dinosaur, a unique critter that now is starving itself to death in the Savage Land in grief. While Stegron was never a high rate villain, having him search for Moon Boy to mend a dinosaur's broken heart of all things seemed a bit wacky, this close to continuity porn (or an issue of a MARVEL ADVENTURES comic). Disapproving of SHIELD keeping the Boy contained, Stegron is captured but Reptil is allowed to go AWOL with Moon Boy (Tigra dismissing him officially as a wash-out) and soon travels to the Savage Land to meet real dinosaurs and gain Ka-Zar's aid in finding his parents. Much as with Butterball, there is a part of me that wonders why Gage goes through such trouble to create a new character and give them a decent if not good introduction, then dismiss them from the regular team within that same issue. Are all of Dan Slott's creations "grandfathered" into the book, but Gage can't add any himself? I thought the Initiative had room for Reptil; he could play off of Komodo, after all. Humbert Ramos likely could handle the design well. Still, I guess being able to create a decent original character for an "annual", considering that in the past such creations were creative horrors like Bantam (the boxing vigilante chicken man, thankfully sacrificed to CW: FRONTLINE), is a feat unto itself. Lopez's costume is like a green and black variant of something Wolverine might have worn as a boy, even if his powers tend to manifest as an orange color. If Gage doesn't get a chance to insert Reptil, maybe he will pad out some future team someday.
Unlike Hardball, Reptil didn't seem to make the wrong decision at every turn, and thus this is a better "special" or "annual" or whatever you want to call it. Even if it likely won't sell as well as a regular issue would have.
Also Bought: CAPTAIN AMERICA #48, FANTASTIC FOUR #565, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #12, IMMORTAL IRON FIST #24, INCREDIBLE HERCULES #127, MIGHTY AVENGERS #23, NOVA #23, WAR OF KINGS: DARKHAWK #2 & X-MEN KINGBREAKER #4 (whew!)
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