Themanofbat
Never Mind the Buttocks...
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I look at my OWN life and I see a lot of rehashes to what's already happened to me again.
imdaly - BND every two weeks...


I look at my OWN life and I see a lot of rehashes to what's already happened to me again.
Yep... people say that we've been reading "rehashed stories", but we've been getting a semblance of "rehashed stories" since the 70's... personally, I like the current tales, and yes, I cab see some semblance in some stories to older ones, but I saw the same thing ine th 80's and ESPECIALLY in the 90's, so why is it such a big deal NOW?
Just my two cents...
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Have you guys noticed that Spider-man's popularity in general has decreased in recent years? I'm not talking just comics, but in all media. It used to be you saw Spiderman as the face of all of marvel's products and now it seems like you see more Ironman and Wolverine than you do Spiderman these days. Ironman is slowly becoming Marvel's #1 mascot and spidey is becoming second-tier. I think its a culmination of the comics being rough these past few years, the 3rd movie not resonating well with the fans, the video games being crap, and of course the ill-fated Spectacular cartoon. Spider-man as a franchise hasn't been having a good 4-5 years at all.
I mean dont me wrong, Spidey is still marvel's biggest bankable commodity, but it just seems like recently his overall star power is slowly decreasing in favor for Ironman and wolverine. I dunno, has anyone else noticed this or am I imagining things?
Have you guys noticed that Spider-man's popularity in general has decreased in recent years? I'm not talking just comics, but in all media. It used to be you saw Spiderman as the face of all of marvel's products and now it seems like you see more Ironman and Wolverine than you do Spiderman these days. Ironman is slowly becoming Marvel's #1 mascot and spidey is becoming second-tier. I think its a culmination of the comics being rough these past few years, the 3rd movie not resonating well with the fans, the video games being crap, and of course the ill-fated Spectacular cartoon. Spider-man as a franchise hasn't been having a good 4-5 years at all.
I mean dont me wrong, Spidey is still marvel's biggest bankable commodity, but it just seems like recently his overall star power is slowly decreasing in favor for Ironman and wolverine. I dunno, has anyone else noticed this or am I imagining things?
The movies have everything to do with the public's perception (or even awareness) of IM, Hulk, X-Men. Most of them could care less if they are even publishing a comic based on them.
And the popularity of these characters among the general public and among comic fans are two completely separate things. Guess which ones the decision-makers care about?
It also depends upon how you define "popularity". Spidey leads in comic book and movie sales. Superman consistenly ranks as the world's most popular and/or recognizable super hero-but the re-boot sucked and his comics languish. So, part of this depends upon how you define "popular."
It has nothing to do with the movies. Neither Iron Man film has done as well as even Spidey 3. And the Hulk films have both flopped financially.
Spidey got to the top without a film. And film success is not what's lacking.
I posted an analysis on an earlier thread that demonstrated that ASM's popularity has not been dropping relative to other heroes. I looked back at the lists for each of the years stretching back to the 70's and despite what people claim, ASM has had long stretches where its been down in the dumps.
Here's just the past decade. plus three years of the 90's, by year. The first number is ASM and the second number is USM (reflecting the number of times in the stated year that ASM made it to theh top 10 in sales). I decided to include USM because for three years, USM beat or tied ASM in the top 10 rankings:
1997 0 (USM not yet launched)
1998 2 (USM not yet launched)
1999 0 (USM not yet launched)
2000 0 (no USM calculated)
2001 9 12
2002 12 12
2003 9 11
2004 0 10
2005 3 2
2006 8 1
2007 8 1
2008 9 0
2009 7 0
THus far, ASM has hit the top 10 for 3 out of the 5 months for which data are available. ASM already equals its 2005 performance, and does better than 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2004--and we still have seven months to go. Post-BND, ASM hit the top 10 just as often, if not more often, than it has for other stretches. We also know that ASM has been Marvel's most subscribed comic for at least the past three years. 2002 is the only perfect year (12/12) for ASM. The 80's and 90's were actually pretty bleak decades for ASM. The X-Men really ruled during that time period--Wolverine, in fact, was arguably Marvel's most popular hero.
Absolute numbers, of course, for ALL comics across the board have fallen dramatically. ASM's fall has been no worse than anyone else's. In fact, Wolverine & Batman have taken the largest hit in the last decade.
As for visibility, movies and video games help a great deal. Perhaps the biggest problem Marvel has now is that it does not have the big screen rights to its otherwise most visible hero--Spider-Man. Marvel's bottom line thus pushes Marvel to get out the noise for the heroes it does hold the screen and gaming rights for, especially when their movies are hitting the screen.
Okay. If we're going to talk sales figures let's be accurate. For example- Sure, in March 2010 ASM came in at #10, while in March 2004 it came in at #11. But what does it matter, if in '04 ASM sold 83,000 issues versus 66.000 in '10?
Actually there's been an increase in sales:
2004 74.14 million copies $213.24 million
2009 74.88 million copies $257.88 million
So Spidey's drop in sales has nothing to do anything in the industry and everything to do with what's going on inbetween the covers.
Actually there's been an increase in sales:
2004 74.14 million copies $213.24 million
2009 74.88 million copies $257.88 million
So Spidey's drop in sales has nothing to do anything in the industry and everything to do with what's going on inbetween the covers.