Thanks for the links for the May Solicits. As usual, my thoughts/rants:
- The biggest story for me is no NOVA or GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY solicited for May. Some believe Nova is due to join an Avengers team, possibly the Brubaker written SECRET AVENGERS. Now, to be fair, Brubaker was the writer who, while on X-Men stuff, wrote the seeds of the story that morphed into WAR OF KINGS, so the idea of him being handed Nova to "amp up" who has just come back from the aftermath of Brubaker's UXM run isn't illogical. I don't think it would make sense to Nova as a character, as he has been involved in far bigger scale threats to the cosmos than fighting terrorists with Steve Rogers. Of course, both NOVA and GOTG are now selling at the bottom of the Top 100, and are due for a relaunch inevitably. It is possible both will be relaunched during THANOS IMPERATIVE, the next Abnett/Lanning cosmic event.
- Apparently, Hercules will be staying dead a little while in his own series, as Amadeus Cho is getting his own mini series in PRINCE OF POWER. Now, it makes sense story line wise. But sales wise, this will be a disaster. Cho proved unable to sell issues of INCREDIBLE HERCULES without Hercules at a cover price of $2.99. Expecting Cho to suddenly be able to do so with a higher cover price is literally the sort of fallacy that is so unrealistic and separate from all prior evidence, only an editor (or politician) could have approved it. I'll read it, but it is a bad idea. If anything, it may weaken the HERCULES brand. Audiences have not shown an interest in Cho alone; that was why Pak shoved him into his INCREDIBLE HULK/HERCULES run anyway. That is not about to change. The first issue, at best, will debut in the Top 60, and then tumble down to INCREDIBLE HERCULES levels (or lower) very quickly, and every outsider will have a "what was the point" glance on their face. Again, to repeat: makes sense story line wise; makes zero sense sales/business wise. I won't be wrong on this one; if anything, a Top 60 debut might be too optimistic.
- Speaking of things that make sense story wise but not much sales wise, AGENTS OF ATLAS is relaunched, as ATLAS #1, with at least 3 titles and the addition of the new 3-D Man, who sprang from AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE (and the new SKRULL KILL KREW series that was vastly ignored). Given that the original 3D Man was retconned into this group, it makes sense to include the new version. Plus, it adds some diversity to the team. To be fair, Marvel and Jeff Parker have been actively promoting the Agents in guest appearances in some better selling titles like THUNDERBOLTS or mini's, and to be fair, those all have sold better than AGENTS OF ATLAS #11 on average (which itself sold better than the mini series issue AGENTS OF ATLAS #6 from 2005). This could be a case of Marvel obviously thinking there is something here and wanting to slowly build it up, and it may be working in a slow and steady degree.
- It seems in addition to "GIRL COMICS", we have two launches of heroine titles, HUSK and RESCUE, also by "girl writers". Part of me thinks that Marvel wanting to bring more attention to female characters and creators by labeling them all as "GIRL COMICS" is a bit backward (akin to wanting to call attention to, say, homosexual characters and creators by calling something "GAY COMICS" and going from there), but I'm sure their intentions at least are noble. Pepper Potts getting a spin-off from INVINCIBLE IRON MAN under her RESCUE name isn't a bad idea, although I'm not sure how well it will sell, since INVINCIBLE IRON MAN has been hovering back down to about 40-50k sales. Most spin-offs sell, at best, half what the parent title does. Therefore, RESCUE at best may debut at about 25k, which would place it about in the Top 70 maybe. It may not last longer than SWORD. But, it does make some sense. HUSK, on the other hand, makes no sense, and will be D.O.A. Even at a 2 issue mini, no one will buy a series about a C-List X-Woman whose popularity climaxed a decade ago for $6. You have got to be kidding. Marvel seriously has to see that their price gouging allowed them to survive 2009 mostly unscratched compared to the rest of print media, it is now 2010, and they're selling less comics to less people.
- CAPTAIN AMERICA #606 continues on the objective of bringing Baron Zemo back into villainy to fight James Barnes, which makes sense. It seems "HEROIC AGE" is a tagger that ensures at least 2 covers, even though variant covers haven't worked to boost sales well for, oh, the last 16 months. Marvel has been very slow historically in the last decade to stop doing some sort of publishing technique once it stops working. Still, I'll be aboard for it.
- FANTASTIC FOUR #579 has been solicited as both Normal Marvel and Cosmic Marvel, which makes sense. Eaglesham needs a fill in this month, but I've been liking the Hickman run so far.
- To no one's surprise, Marvel makes sure there are at least 4 Iron Man books, including one spin off, for "IRON MAN 2". At any rate, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #26 continues with the Fraction/Larroca run, and it seems as if Justin Hammer may have some daughters or something, but it usually is good.
- THOR #610 looks epic. Gillen on story, Braithwaite on art, and it FINALLY brings the inevitable conflict of Thor vs. Clor to the comics page! Lord knows that has seemed inevitable since, oh, 2006, so after four years it finally happens. And after Thor vs. Dr. Doom last month, I have 100% faith in Gillen to pace this well with his artist. This may be his last issue on the book, but he seems out to go out with a bang. No problem with that.
- By now, VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #8 will be selling below the Top 100, and probably due to be canceled. It will also be Deadpool's 5th or 6th appearance, including FOUR ongoing series. Hurwitz has been doing a solid job on story, but unfortunately Opena is not doing art; here we have Tan Haut, who did a lot of the GHOST RIDER series by the end, whose art I didn't hate nor ever really enjoyed. I will be amazed if this makes it to issue #12, but it has been a solid run for the character.
- In 2008, Marvel decided that having 3 titles about Spider-Man was silly, and it would be better to merge them all with ASM and sell it three times a month. While that has created an editorial gauntlet in terms of keeping schedule, sales wise overall this has been a success. There have been dips, and the Obama Spidey issue sold over half a million copies so that will always tip statistical scales, but overall I think it hasn't been a mistake sales wise. However, now what has happened? WEB OF SPIDER-MAN is back, and PETER PARKER serves as the third Spidey title. So, we have 3 titles merged into one, now with two more titles, not including a relaunch of SPIDER-GIRL. Can Spidey carry these titles again?
- WOLVERINE is now getting the triple digit treatment, and I suppose with all his mini's and one-shots, Wolverine might have actually reached #900. But do we include all of Daken's issues? Sales wise, the move from WOLVERINE to DARK WOLVERINE while trying to set up WOLVERINE: WEAPON X as a core Logan book while Daken got DARK WOLVERINE has been a disaster. WOLVERINE's sales tanked, WEAPON X's sales never held steady, and WOLVERINE: ORIGINS should be ending soon. So, in terms of sales, Wolverine is currently selling lower than he ever has.
- I read a funny tag line about ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN from a Manhattan comic book store, Cosmic Comics - to paraphrase, that this title has so many teenage heroes in it, it should be titled ULTIMATE TEEN TITANS. It is bemusing how it has apparently become a de facto team title, except in title. ULTIMATE NEW WARRIORS? Oh, no, Joe Quesada said that would mean the Ultimate line had hit the barrel; but it has. And that is what USM clearly is.
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