Nothing sells as well as internet reviews would lead one to believe. The more interesting ideas are usually in lower-tier titles but the masses just want more of the big stars. Same reason indie films are critical darlings but usually make peanuts at the box office.
True. It does suck, though. The shame of it is why some of those better titles can't just hang in there instead of sinking like a stone.
Except it isn't just the higher threshold. We do know that Young Allies did not have a loyal readership because the sales just kept dropping horrifically. Sales weren't dropping at 1 - 2%. It was dropping around over 5% per issue.
Yeah, Marvel wouldn't have kept a book at 13K, because I do agree with you that Marvel does have a rather high sales threshold. But if Marvel's titles that were selling at 20K and maybe even 18K, if the sales were stable and they weren't losing money on the title (the real reason why DC cancelled Unknown Soldier), maybe they'd have a similar threshold to DC's.
So the main question we should be asking is: Why are the sales stable on DC's lower selling titles while they drop horrifically on Marvel's lower selling titles? If you ask me it is because of higher quality, lower prices, and DC allowing those titles to thrive for a while as long as DC is not losing money on those titles. Marvel introducing books at a $3.99 price point, putting out books that no one wants (Young Allies, Doctor Voodoo, Franken-Castle, 5 bajillion Deadpool ongoings), and the high sales threshold is what is ruining Marvel's lower selling titles.
You're being modest about the drops for YOUNG ALLIES. It had a low debut of over 20,800 copies, which meant the huge drops took a bite out of that quick. The sales drop for issue two was 22%; for issue three was 13%. Even the sales drop from September to October, which are the last sales available, are over 10% an issue. I enjoyed the book, but, yes, it crashed out of the gate.
The problem is that Marvel's sales usually outdo DC's overall every month because many of their B and C list titles across the Top 100 or 150 tend to sell better in every particular month. The titles that are canceled are replaced with mini's or new series almost faster than they are canceled. Marvel claims they're tightening the belt next year, but winter months in a new year usually see a draw back of titles, as editorial preps for the summer deluge. All Marvel seems to care about is the month to month game, not on having more titles with sustainable sales.
I looked at JONAH HEX this week, and it was past issue 60. SIXTY. I can't for the life of me remember too many Marvel launches or relaunches that lasted over five years without a renumbering or a few relaunches, or being axed outright. It sold over 11k in October, BTW.
I liked and enjoyed YOUNG ALLIES, but even I admitted it was a bit of a daft move releasing it the same week as AVENGERS ACADEMY (whose sales from Sept. and October are actually rock solid around 31k - October even saw a gain of like 60 copies). I think in addition to the problems you cite, that Marvel simply throws out too many launches at once without any effort to promote them. Instead of one or two launches a month, we see that per week with mini's and all that. They launch titles that are lost in the shuffle with the rest of the Marvel line.
I do think with Marvel, as I said earlier, any reader with even a modest understanding of the market is aware Marvel is very trigger happy with anything, and that titles that are apart from Avengers/X-Men/Thor/Iron Man/Deadpool/Wolverine/Spider-Man are not going to last very long, so they wait for the trade and that all but ensures it doesn't last long.
To be fair, I am sure DC spits out a few of those "do we really want this" series pretty often, just perhaps not to the extent that Marvel does. Marvel has clearly been flooding the market, usually out-publishing DC by another 10-30 comics a month, and crushing them by sheer volume. When you have a 3 to 1 number advantage over an enemy, simply throwing canon fodder to wear them down works, and Marvel's business strategy seems to be that. The shame of it is that many of those smaller titles aren't actually half bad, but Marvel have created a market where importance, not quality, is why people buy. Few buy AVENGERS/NEW AVENGERS because it is exceptional. They buy it because it's important to the line.
I also agree, vastly, that making the #1 issue of an ongoing series the most expensive for short term profits is terribly short sighted. The problem is that all the big titles also being $3.99 limits spending power. Combined with the fact that everyone knows how trigger happy Marvel is, it leads to a perfect storm that kills small titles.
NOVA is the example I like to use. It's sales were rock solid steady at no less than 26k a month for TWELVE WHOLE MONTHS. These days, a calender year where sales never hit below a certain point is very solid. But then the end of 2008/2009 came along, and Marvel started jacking up prices for many of their books to $3.99. Suddenly, NOVA's sales started dropping to the point where it ended at around 20k or below. I don't believe the story suddenly got worse; I believe the retailers and readers had to adjust their budgets and trim things. The $3.99 price tag also seemed to break INCREDIBLE HERCULES' back in terms of sales. The $3.99 price tag combined with the mentality that Marvel has beaten into their fan base is to only stick on a book that is important or you are already invested in, and not to bother trying anything new. And that the best time to leave a book you were middling about is, ironically, a relaunch. I doubt DAREDEVIL REBORN will sell as well as DAREDEVIL for long, and I doubt Black Panther will be able to keep those DD fans any longer than Daken kept those original WOLVERINE fans who split and haven't returned.
Internet piracy might actually go down if the prices went down and quality went up. But nobody at the big two would dare consider that possibility.
