BrianWilly said:
When Morrison did this -- making his book sell consistently in the top 5 for basically his entire run, incidentally -- Marvel complained that the new black leather look didn't sell well on merchandise and lunchboxes and stuff.
They want it both ways, honestly.
Ironically, while Morrison was ON his run, I wasn't reading the X-books. While I liked a lot of his ideas, it was the execution that I didn't care for. His biggest problem was that he was going to the other extreme; doing TOO much in too few issues for the X-universe, and trying to "explain away" bad history. Plus, well, it's no secret that he equated Jean with his ex, and thus we had stuff like Scott and Emma making out ON HER FREAKING GRAVE, which is about the peak of being a *****ebag (as in, not even Batman has ever done that). Frankly I feel that the X-books needed writers more like Whedon, those who could placate the older fans enough while still driving foward with a clear agenda.
After Morrison left, the X-books had little agenda, and Decimation was sort of a return to a past status quo. It was back-peddling. It (along with DANGER) made me actually appreciate why people liked Morrison's run; for once, something NEW happened in an X-book. It wasn't always good, and often was vulgar. But it was NEW. I could understand how some weary fans could have appreciated that.
And naturally Marvel wants it both ways; ironically they would dream to become something like Disney, where they get the bulk of their intake via liscencing out products with their characters names (movies, books, toys, merchandise, etc) rather than solely relying on comics themselves (as their 90's crash showcased). Business wise, this has led to a stronger Marvel that doesn't rely on comic sales (or abysmal Fleer trading cards) as strongly for survival as they did in the 90's (thanks in no small part to Ari Avad, who is usually criticized, often for good reason, but call a spade a spade, he's helped launch Marvel as a Hollywood darling). Comic wise, this may lead to Marvel being stuck with maintaining an ARCHIE, "Neverland"-esque status quo with many properties. No real fan believes that any change is really "lasting", that it can't be retconned or written away, and this presents a problem when you want to sell, say, 500,000 copies of DEADLY GENESIS and the sales are underwhelming.
The comic enterprises we look at are only a microcosm of bigger society. In life, most people DO want it both ways. So seeing it acted out in Marvel policy is not so strange. The problem is, of course, in that in trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing fewer than you expected. Or maybe not. The sales, after all, still show Marvel as king of the hill. And there still is an X-book that consistantly sells in the Top 5; ASTONISHING X-MEN.
Maybe Marvel needs to consider why. Of course, the obvious answer is "Whedon", but surely that can't be it alone. Maybe there are finer details:
- a streamlined cast where no one character is "****ing"
- unlike most X-books, it is a rare title so anticipation rises; it gets hard to feel anticipation for a line that has some 20+ books a month sometimes. Granted, Marvel's been ignoring heaps upon heaps of economic evidence that they need to publish fewer X-books (because trust me, they aren't all selling anymore) for years now.
- It introduces some new ideas without alienating the fanbase, even to a fault (such as, making Emma Frost once again involved with the Hellfire Club despite her being a heroine for a good 10+ years in real-time may not be the best approach).
- maintains full support in the "hype" department
- Is in its own seperate little world, which allows more casual fans along for the ride. There are more of them than Marvel realizes. It doesn't need other titles to stand on its own. And also being seperate, it is closer to what made the X-Men great; being a TEAM BOOK, instead of a franchise.
Basically, ASTONISHING could really be a fantastic book if Whedon was as willing as Morrison to spearhead some new ideas. Nostaligia's nice, but this book could go from A to A+ if Whedon had a clear-cut, foward thinking agenda for the line, because I think he could manage to pull it off in a way that Morrison wouldn't.
