Colossal Spoons said:
Man, wtf is everybody buying instead!?

I've been meaning to get into Nextwave but all the funny panels peopel post here that are supposed to be gut-busters don't even get a smirk out of me.
I never would have guessed that the YA/Runaways crossover was sellign better than YA. Is YA in any danger of cancellation or where you just comparing numbers?
And you're right. Any A-List writer would totally change the whole dynamic of the team and I guarantee we wouldn't like it(Except maybe Wells

). It's just weird to hear that the book is struggling since everybody on these boards seems to think it's awesome. Guess our opinions are defeinately different than most people reading comics in the world. A shame too.
I read the first 2 issues of NEXTWAVE, it had some chuckles but it was empty and soulless, like a lot of stuff that's on ADULT SWIM, and I figured it wasn't worth my money. If you don't care about characters bring written as empty archetypes, if you don't care about a lack of a plot or "randomness" being a given for "comedy", and if you enjoy the snarky attitude from the same nation that still thinks cross-dressing is always funny, then NEXTWAVE is for you. If not, then it won't. I just didn't care for it.
YA is being relaunched with a new #1 early next year. It's last series was selling at about 59,000 readers a month which is decently well. It usually landed in the 30's of the Top 100. The YA/RUNAWAYS CW mini is selling at least 20,000 readers or more over what the YA series was selling. That likely is true of two factors; the 24,000 or so readers who usually are on RUNAWAYS are also reading this in addition to the regular YA readers (using this to sustain them until the new series starts in '07), and because CW is actually boosting all of the books and mini's it ties into. Even bottom feeders like SHE-HULK and BLACK PANTHER saw dramatic sales boosts for CW issues. Granted, stores tend to overorder event books, but still. I mean, SHE-HULK #8 sold out and the reprint sold decently, too. But no, YA is in no danger of being cancelled, it's sales are solid (any book above the Top 50 is a good book in Marvel's sales eyes) and it has a lot of critical draw. They likely feel that a relaunch at #1 can be a good jumping on point, and plus it'd likely add a few readers to it in the short term.
It's easy to laugh off Marvel's "relaunch with #1, repeat" philosophy with books, but sometimes it helps. MOON KNIGHT and GHOST RIDER, two franchises who languished and skidded during the 90's, are Top 25 books.
I come down hard on Marvel for not supporting a lot of "little" books, I'm just saying at this point it would be unfair to claim they haven't tried with Runaways. They have. And hopefully their CW series can have some carryover effect. I believe SHE-HULK has actually seen a thousand or so readers continue on after the CW issue.