Marvel Solicitations for May 2010

[TheCorpulent1]

What happened? Loeb's Hulk started selling like 100,000 copies every issue. This is a hell of our own design.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

One word of what happened to the Hulk books: Loeb.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

What happened? Loeb's Hulk started selling like 100,000 copies every issue. This is a hell of our own design.

For the life of me I can't see why. I mean he's doing nothing but ideas an 8 year old would think was cool.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Who the hell knows? S*** floats in every medium, apparently.

 

[kguillou]

I'll be honest, i bought the first few issues of Loeb's hulk because i thought the idea of a evil red Hulk sounded pretty cool. But around the time Rulk started beating on thor with ease was when i realized Jeph Loeb has no idea what he's doing in this book. So, I hereby apologize for contributing to those sales.

 

[Mr. M]

So I found out a little bit more about "Shadowland". I guess Shadowland is the actual facility that Daredevil is building in Hell's Kitchen. Here, he is keeping all of his prisoners.

From what I understand, Matt is going to Japan, (in today's issue) and is going to meet with the world leaders of the hand. Some of them are not happy with the way this American is dealing with things.

Back home Daredevil's "friends" are going to be showing up, as Whacker says, "in one way or another." to see what Matt is up to. Whatever that means.

I'm really hoping this isn't a street-level civil war. What I'm hoping is that the street-level heroes think that Matt's prison is a good idea and add to it, or some other unifying theme to get us into the heroic age.

 

[Themanofbat]

For the life of me I can't see why. I mean he's doing nothing but ideas an 8 year old would think was cool.

Makes sense... it's the only comic my little boy decided to put on his own personal pull list, and he pays for it out of his allowance money.

He loves the book...

 

[Dread]

What happened? Loeb's Hulk started selling like 100,000 copies every issue. This is a hell of our own design.

Take some heart that this "hell of our own design" is ending. As of Jan. 2010, Loeb's HULK sold at 54,266 copies; almost half what it sold, say, a year and change ago. The months of it selling 100k, or even 70k, appear to be over. HULK was steady for a while, but after about issue 12 or so has been unable to hang onto sales. Maybe retailers and readers saw Loeb was jerking them along with Red Hulk. Maybe paying $4 a month for endless splash panels bringing you maybe 16 panels of story was too much pain for both to absorb. But at any rate, Loeb's HULK has been falling.

Comic sales overall are down 7-8% from 3 years ago, as evidenced by the fact that UNCANNY X-MEN sold just over 65k and yet was still a Top 10 seller; in 2007, virtually all books in the Top 10 sold over 85k at least. While the era of $3.99 books have allowed comics to survive 2009 (a year in which many newspapers and magazines died or severely contracted), now it might be the start of a slow decline that was inevitable.

Pak's INCREDIBLE HULK sells roughly 10k less than Loeb's HULK. Given this data, expanding into a FALL OF THE HULKS saga is ironic as the Hulks ARE falling; sales wise. Now may NOT be the best time to demand more book purchases out of the readers. Now would be the time to trim fat and retrench.

But, Marvel under Joe Quesada, while it has seen many successes, one major flaw is being quite slow to realize when a strategy is either not working or back firing, and to change course mid-storm. I can think of some easy examples. The exercise in arranging Storm's marriage to Black Panther to try to lift his book in terms of rep and sales had zero effect; BLACK PANTHER continued to fade in sales without crossovers (even worse than MS. MARVEL) while Storm spent much of a two year period outside the X-Men titles as a regular character where she is popular, lowering her stock considerably. A second example actually concerns Wolverine; in spite of the fact that WOLVERINE: ORIGINS was a book that had to end eventually and that Wolverine, since even 2007, hasn't been "hot" enough that a random Wolverine one-shot or mini sells as well as it used to in, say, 2001, decided to try to shift WOLVERINE into Daken's book as "DARK WOLVERINE" and to make the Aaron/Garney WOLVERINE: WEAPON X at $3.99 a pop the lone Logan book, with WOLVERINE: ORIGINS as Logan's B-book. The exercise has backfired; DARK WOLVERINE has faded in sales every month since the end of Millar's out of continuity tale. WOLVERINE: WEAPON X after a good launch has tumbled down the Top 100 like it was a water slide, selling below WOLVERINE: ORIGINS. That is itself outside the Top 50, which is amazing since books that sold at least 36k were within the Top 50 for Jan. 2010. So the end result of the whole Daken/Logan switch is now Logan is selling at his lowest numbers in publication history. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, a book Marvel feels needs to be relaunched, outsold not one, but TWO Wolverine titles in Jan. 2010, both starring Logan. While as a fan I am pleased, that should be seen as a massive embarrassment by editorial. In a time when Wolverine's rep seems to be something Marvel relies on, Marvel is on the verge of turning him into Punisher or Ghost Rider; through bungles and overexposure, making him so toxic that he needs a rest for several years, and even then might not be cleansed. Deadpool, with 3 ongoings and at least twice as many guest appearances, it seems, is on the verge of that era as well.

Marvel won't see these examples for what they are. The Joe Q way is, "life is so hectic we can't obsess over failures, we just have to keep cranking out product". And while that is a fair point, if one never looks over failures, or is even willing to admit any, one never learns from them.

(Jan. 2010 sales numbers here - http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/16810.html )

 

[NDX]

Marvel May 2010 Cosmic Solicits: No Nova or GoTG

This disappoints me. Hope this isn't a sign of cancellation.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I doubt it since that Thanos one-shot is the beginning of another Cosmic event. I'm sure Marvel will keep those books going at least for the duration of that, if they're planning to cancel either.

 

[random_havoc]

I'm hoping it's a cleansing. That through this event they eliminate all but the original and we can keep She-Hulk. She has a lot of fans and has been around for a long time. I don't care for her myself but that's just me.

Wow, you're behind the times. Red She-Hulk killed the real She-Hulk like 2 months ago. Jen's dead. Reason number 312 why anyone putting money into Hulk comics right now is committing a sin.

 

[bryanss3]

Wow, you're behind the times. Red She-Hulk killed the real She-Hulk like 2 months ago. Jen's dead. Reason number 312 why anyone putting money into Hulk comics right now is committing a sin.

A lot of things happen in those hulk books that aren't permanent.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't think anyone expects Jen to stay dead permanently, but it's still a bit lame that some new, transparently "more badass" version of her came along and killed her. Same reason people were super-pissed when Rulk kicked the Hulk's ass earlier.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Wow, what the ****? Jen is dead? This is the first I'm hearing that.

 

[kguillou]

Yeah same here. Jen's dead? Seems like no one is talking about it. Oh well, she'll be back...

 

[Jennifer Walters]

She died in the back of Incredible Hulk 606, Red She Hulk snapped her neck. The thing is Jen has a one shot and is on the cover of future Hulk covers, so me thinks she's not dead somehow.

 

[bryanss3]

Well she's got a one-shot by Peter David coming out in March. wait isn't Jen on a few covers in the future of this Hulk event, probably not even really dead, just assumed dead

 

[Tron Bonne]

I didn't even know. I think I dropped out with that issue because the whole Fall of the Hulks stuff was starting.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Eh, whatever, I'll read about it on Wikipedia in a year or two, when Loeb's moved on and this whole unfortunate mess is behind us.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Jen should get a new ongoing when this is all over called ''The One, The Only: She Hulk."

In the first issue they can take the piss out of Ginger Hulk and She-Poochie.

 

[bryanss3]

eh Since Jen was "killed" in the back up story and Incredible Hulk it seems like by the time that back story wraps up she'll be alive. I don't buy killing any hulks by strangling them.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Never been a huge Hulk fan until recently. I guess with all these impostors (which I hate with a passion) I've grown an appreciation of the simplicity of the original Green Giant.

Hulk is strongest there is. Hulk should be only there is.

That sounds super boring. I see no reason why there should ever be just 1 of anything. If multiple Hulk characters can make for a good story, I say bring 'em.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Hulk, She-Hulk, and Skaar being the only Hulks would work for me.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I was enjoying the Skaar/Banner dynamic, but that's gone now that Bruce is Hulkified again. So I just don't read any Hulk comics anymore.

Where did you see Bruce Hulk up again?

 

[Dread]

I doubt it since that Thanos one-shot is the beginning of another Cosmic event. I'm sure Marvel will keep those books going at least for the duration of that, if they're planning to cancel either.

I'm fairly certain the books will be relaunched at some point after THANOS IMPERATIVE. Both books sell at the bottom of the Top 100 and after 2-3 years, Marvel likely figures it is time for a fresh title and a new numbering to provide a sales spike for a few months.