Marvel Now - Part 3

[CConn]

Tell that to Moon Knight and Spider-Woman. Neither had any solo books under his pen make it past issue 12.

You're right there.

Although it was nice to know the world is as disinterested in Spider-Woman as I am.

 

[CConn]

Even if they don't have to, they still are. They have him doing interviews all over the place.

They need to push interviews with some of the lesser-known but promising talent. Like DnA.

At least they give jobs to promising talent.

DC's done nothing but hire Bob Harras' friends from the 90s for the past three years.

 

[Scarecrow_King]

I think it might be worse to higher promising talent, then let them languish away on books that are inevitably going to be cancelled. Usually they're paired up with ****** artists, too so there's less incentive to buy their books.

And DC has hired at least a couple small-time promising writers that have flourished, Snyder being the most prominent. The New 52 gave a lot of writers chances they otherwise wouldn't have had.

 

[CConn]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize Uncanny X-Force, The Ultimates, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, Venom, etc. counted as "languishing books".

 

[Scarecrow_King]

I didn't mean that a book was languishing just because it wasn't written by Bendis, and I didn't have any specific examples to name.

I'm just referring to the trend of pulling in new or indie writers into the Big 2 and putting them on books that are almost certain to fail. It's understandable not to put them on a flagship book, but it's also unfair to give them ****** assignments that won't lead to them developing themselves as professional writers or gaining them a fan base. DC's New 52 did a better job of that, but that is largely due to them publicizing the entire slate of books, where everybody was getting some attention; even if it wasn't as much as the higher profile writers.

It's a crappy situation for new writers in a company.

 

[CConn]

Yes, but I disagree with that. I really think Marvel gave guys like Rick Remender (who was known more as an artist for most of his career), Jason Aaron, Sam Humphries, Jonathan Hickman, Kieron Gillen, etc. Pretty high profile books while DC continuously drove passed on tons of unknown talent.

Yeah, they gave Snyder and Lemire a decent shot, but they've let twice as many writers slip through their fingers.

 

[Anubis]

I've often found that those so called ****** books that they're languishing on are often waaaay better than the flagship books. Often times waaay better than if they were writing flagship books. Bendis on Daredevil? Awesome. Bendis on Avengers? Mehtastic.

 

[Scarecrow_King]

Even with the New 52? I feel like they gave lots of people chances there. The ones that failed when given that chance, they justifiably have been dropping systematically.

 

[Doc Ock]

I picked up the first issue of Hickman's Avengers and the second issue of New Avengers this weekend. I'm loving it! Black Panther is quite awesome, most of what I knew about him beforehand came from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I meant to start and catch up on All New X-Men and Thor:God of Thunder(picked up the second issue this weekend) but I got Avengers instead.

I'm curious what you peoplez think of Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Uncanny Avengers if any of you read it. I thought of picking those up particularly Fantastic Four but didn't for whatever reason.

I feel important now that I'm actually buying comics lol!

 

[CConn]

Even with the New 52? I feel like they gave lots of people chances there. The ones that failed when given that chance, they justifiably have been dropping systematically.

A lot of the people they gave chances to seemed to already be a part of Harras' preestablished list of friends; artists taking over as writers and whatnot, Liefeld writing 4 books, etc.

Plus there were apparently a lot of editorial failures that had driven other writers away - or just booytrapped their runs from the beginning. Guys like Nathan Edmondson, Paul Cornell, John Rozzum, etc. Never even had a chance to turn in strong material.

 

[Scarecrow_King]

I don't know anything about the Harras selective bias, so you might be right.

 

[THANOSRULES]

Eh. Someone said earlier that DnA were still selling in the 25 range. Which is respectable. It's Marvel's fault for not publicizing more than their two or three golden boy writers at a time.

When you also factor Nova hung on to the 40-35k range for a decent amount also the whole thing just bothers me...

when a essentially new or b list book pumps out those kind of sales I would have earmarked Nova for some mad publicity, including a big appearance in a event or a shot at avengers.

I'm not really crying about DnA getting pulled from the book (though I wouldnt have done that) just the dishonesty involved here.

 

[Scarecrow_King]

You should be crying about DnA getting pulled from the book. Especially since everything they built is being taken over by people like Bendis and Loeb.

 

[THANOSRULES]

You should be crying about DnA getting pulled from the book. Especially since everything they built is being taken over by people like Bendis and Loeb.

I've got a funny opinion on DnA...I'm not averse to creative team switches for slipping sales..in fact i usually encourage this as opposed to the cancellation option marvel seems to take far more often. However, I can't think of another book with such an air of dishonesty about what went down with DnA.

Personally, I think Giffen is more the architect of everything I liked most about the Annihilation Cosmic relaunch. DnA , however, were a huge part of this..and I am a big fan of what they did.

Giffen nailed a more battle hardened Rich Rider....DnA's (ongoing) series was solid but there take on Nova undid some of where i felt the character "Rich Rider" was following Annihilation (they even took away the scar). The "heavy mettle" aspect of the new cosmic relaunch got watered down after A1.

I believed the direction of the Nova ongoing was sputtering a bit and needed some sort of kick...maybe this would have been a creative team switch up..I wouldnt have been against that...but i was certainly interested in seeing something that built up what DnA did instead of basically tearing it down..thats not what i feel is happening. Then the topper is the obvious lies and the clear outright disrespect to the loyal fans of the series....not cool marvel.

Essentially though the sales of the last days of DnA Nova are a moot point... as the book and character should have been more of a factor in Marvel's plans from an earlier point.

We won't know what the mandates or restrictions were...i have a feeling they were heavy.

If that happened who knows where Nova would have been.

 

[hippie_hunter]

It's being reported that Dark Avengers will be cancelled in May, Winter Soldier will get cancelled by summer, and Captain Marvel will as well if the crossover with Avengers Assemble doesn't boost sales.

 

[Panthro]

It's being reported that Dark Avengers will be cancelled in May, Winter Soldier will get cancelled by summer, and Captain Marvel will as well if the crossover with Avengers Assemble doesn't boost sales.

I thought Captain Marvel was getting mostly positive feedback though?

 

[Havok83]

I thought Captain Marvel was getting mostly positive feedback though?

It didnt even crack the Top 100 or sell 20K issues for December

 

[Panthro]

It didnt even crack the Top 100 or sale 20K issues for December

Ouch

 

[Anubis]

Comic Nerds fear the almighty vagina. This is not new.

 

[THANOSRULES]

I used to really like the old Ms.Marvel ongoing and bought it...

Just to many expensive books these days and I didnt like the look of the new series..

-not a fan of the redesign
-Arcs look rather generic and irrelevant

 

[Hawkingbird]

The redesign is the best thing that has happened for women in years for Marvel

 

[JewishHobbit]

I liked her design and really liked the first issue, but like THANOSRULES said... comics are just too expensive. If it weren't for there being so many $4 comics I might have stayed on it longer.

 

[Havok83]

I think the redesign was awful. They should have went with a look more reminiscent of her classic ones.

I also think Marvel's NOW initiative is canibalizing its other titles. The double shipping a month of their bigger titles is taking a bite out of the sales of its smaller ones. Captain Marvel was doing 28K in Oct but when NOW kicked off in Nov, it dropped to ~21K and now its under 20K

 

[Scarecrow_King]

I think it has more to do with the quality of some of the NOW titles than it does the fact that NOW exists. There have been some really good books because of the "not relaunch." So if I'm spending money on good new books, yeah I'm gonna stop spending it on average old books.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I thought Captain Marvel was getting mostly positive feedback though?

Started out decent, but got weird and boring quickly.