March 2010's Top 100 Comic Books
1. Blackest Night #8
2. Siege #3
3. Green Lantern #52
4. Batman and Robin #10
5. Green Lantern Corps #46
6. New Avengers #63
7. Dark Avengers #15
8. Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #1
9. Uncanny X-Men #522
10. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #623
11. X-Men - Second Coming #1
12. Thor #608
13. Batman #697
14. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #624
15. Ultimate Comics Avengers #5
16. Captain America #604
17. JLA #43
18. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #627
19. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #625
20. Kevin Smith - Green Hornet #1
21. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #626
The lowest-selling of the FIVE issues of ASM that came out last month was #21 on the best-sellers. I'm pretty sure Marvel is okay with that.
ASM #623 sold over 66k. ASM #624 was just over 60k. ASM actually shipped four issues last month, and the lowest selling one shipped about 55k. Now, keep in mind that ASM was basically taking 3 ongoing titles and merging them into one title that shipped three issues a month. The goal was to sell more combined than the three were selling solo.
While I think ASM has held steady with where those three were as of the end of 2007 (even though from 2005-2007 the Spidey titles relied on never ending crossovers, not unlike the X-Men line). Jason Green from THE BEAT made this chart of the long term sales of ASM since BRAND NEW DAY started, as least as of Feb. 2010.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c281/jagreen79/spidey.jpg
(Can you tell which was the Obama issue?)
Barring a few spikes, the long term trend is steadily downward. And this is without taking into account WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, which is basically filling in for what SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED or SPIDER-MAN FAMILY used to be, an anthology. WEB #6 in March sold at 21k, just barely in the Top 100.
Dread...you rock...just so you know, but sometimes your joke making gets in the way of facts:
#1) War Machine is on Secret Avengers, last time I checked, he was a man of color.
#2) Deadpool actually does have a movie on the way...some time in the next couple of years from what I understand.
#3) The Ultimate line can't be considered dead if it still sells well, you kinda answered your own comment there. I agree that for the most part, the Ultimate line is useless, but hey, it still sells quite well.
#4) From an interview it was explained that Nova wouldn't be in every issue of Secret Avengers, but mostly get called for an assist when they need high powered help. The way he explained it made sense and actually made me feel a bit better about them using him, especially when Nova has access to stargates to pretty much go whereever he wants in just a few moments. What's Wolverine and Deadpool's excuse?
Just a few thoughts on what you said, hope you don't mind.
#1 - You're right about War Machine on SECRET AVENGERS. I did completely forget about him when I typed that. I'll blame fatigue. I suppose one could also count Valkyrie as Norse.
#2 - If a DEADPOOL film is on the way, it will be after Ryan Reynolds finishes GREEN LANTERN, and that is assuming he doesn't get tied up doing sequels for it. Right now Fox is going full steam ahead on X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, which Bryan Singer is producing. I would not expect it any time soon. The fact remains, while 5-6 titles for Iron Man is excessive, off a movie I can understand. X-MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE was over a year ago. Can the market seriously support 6 Deadpool titles? Marvel has realized and capitalized on his popularity, but there is such a thing as knowing when to cut your losses, rather than waiting for a complete crash. Marvel made this error with Punisher, Ghost Rider, and Venom in the 90's. It wasn't enough for them to support one title, or two, or three. They had to be in every book at once, for years. Eventually all fell from grace to the point where all needed to be incognito for 2-5 years before they could sell again. My question is a simple one; does Marvel fail to believe history will repeat itself just because of Joe Quesada's flashing smile, or do they simply not care about the crash? After all, only retailers will be stuck with whatever DP product that cannot be sold, not Diamond or Marvel. The direct market is awesome like that.
#3 - The Ultimate line sells well, but it is all relative. The market as a whole is down from years ago. In March, ULTIMATE COMICS NEW ULTIMATES #1 was the best selling Ultimate book, and it sold under 72k. USM sells about 40k and Ultimate Comics Avengers sells in between. The Ultimate line used to sell better, and it's sales are steadily downward. No one reads these titles, and those that do have no passion for it. Ultimate books come and go, but aside for the universal outcry of hate for ULTIMATUM, they never hit the bottom of the buzz well. Yes, Ultimate still sell a few titles well enough to justify publishing them. But does that mean having utterly no creative reason to exist is justifiable?
Frankly, I believe Marvel's current sales strategy is to flood the market, selling 95-100 different titles a month, maybe half of whom are $3.99 a pop, to simply dominate DC and everyone else by sheer volume. It is easy to win a game of chess if you are allowed an extra 50 pawn pieces. I think Marvel could cut down their prices and give retailers and readers a break if they trimmed some fat from their schedule every month. Even DC ships about 20 fewer books than Marvel, and that includes Wildstorm, Vertigo, and all 14,000 Green Lantern books. There is literally no place for the direct market to go but either steady or down, and I think Marvel is at the head of a ship with DC aboard that is inviting disaster. That is, unless because Marvel gets over 60% of their revenue from non-comics sources, they don't give a spit about retailers and the direct market. Again, it comes down to Marvel seriously believing history cannot repeat itself, or whether they simply realize what they risk in their gambit, and simply don't care.
#4 - To be fair, I do mention Wolverine and Deadpool, Iron Man, and even Spider-Man, every time I harp on the Nova issue between THANOS IMPERATIVE and SECRET AVENGERS. The thing is, people don't take Wolverine, Deadpool, or Spider-Man seriously because of their insane amount of appearances. Outside of ASM, nothing seriously important can happen to Spider-Man. Outside of, say, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, nothing seriously can happen to Iron Man. It takes out right out of the story. And while that is fine and good for them, it will take some ooph out of THANOS IMPERATIVE for me if in issue #3 there is a cliffhanger where Thanos has Nova on the ropes and is about to kill him, but in SECRET AVENGERS #3, Nova's perfectly fine, punching out Roxxon robots. And while it's happened to a slew of characters, that doesn't mean it is worth ignoring. I suppose it is worth something that Nova is now so cool a character that some of his appearances, like those of Deadpool, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Wolverine, are totally irrelevant.
And before someone mentions it, yes, that means I feel that Hercules & Cho's appearances in MIGHTY AVENGERS were on the whole irrelevant. That doesn't mean Slott didn't write them well or give them good lines. But in the end, nothing that mattered to them happened there, but in INCREDIBLE HERCULES, and one sort of knows that going in. I am not outright saying it is bad, but am saying it is something that is happening. If a character is in more than one book, they are not "equal". One is always more "important" for them.
His appearance on SECRET AVENGERS won't do a thing for sales on THANOS IMPERATIVE or NOVA when it starts again, just like VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT won't gain a single reader from Moon Knight's presence these. Being on the NEW AVENGERS didn't do anything for IMMORTAL IRON FIST. But the effort for exposure is appreciated.
eadpool 3.99
