The Marvel Implosion

[hippie_hunter]

Well there you go. Would Marvel give that much focus to a bunch of obscure nobodies? Not a chance in hell. Not these days anyway.

To be fair to Marvel, DC is starting to get more strict on the books that don't perform well on their line. O.M.A.C., Blackhawks, Men of War, Static Shock, Mister Terrific, and Hawk & Dove have all gotten cancelled with their eighth issues. And expect Blue Beetle, Grifter, Voodoo, I, Vampire, Resurrection Man, and Captain Atom to get cancellation notices rather soon.

While I applaud DC for branching out into various genres and giving these books longer chances than they deserve, but the days where Secret Six, Booster Gold, Shadowpact, Manhunter, and other low selling books last an absurdly long time are over.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I just learned that Marvel has cancelled S.H.I.E.L.D. without bringing any conclusion to the story

 

[CConn]

To be fair to Marvel, DC is starting to get more strict on the books that don't perform well on their line. O.M.A.C., Blackhawks, Men of War, Static Shock, Mister Terrific, and Hawk & Dove have all gotten cancelled with their eighth issues. And expect Blue Beetle, Grifter, Voodoo, I, Vampire, Resurrection Man, and Captain Atom to get cancellation notices rather soon.

While I applaud DC for branching out into various genres and giving these books longer chances than they deserve, but the days where Secret Six, Booster Gold, Shadowpact, Manhunter, and other low selling books last an absurdly long time are over.

Which, honestly, I don't think is necessarily a bad thing.

The thing I like DC doing, and I wish Marvel would do more of, is purely giving those new titles a chance to survive. 8 is fine, 12 would be better, but if a title can't keep numbers up beyond that, it's not the publishers fault for having to cancel them.

We shouldn't expect a publisher to go into the red just to support titles that only 20,000 of us nation-wide buy.

At the same time, I'm discouraged by what Marvel's been doing the past couple of months by canceling so many low selling titles, but not really replacing them with anything fresh or innovative.

I have no problem with Deadpoool MAx gets cancelled, but Scarlet Spider pops up. It's just when Deadpool goes away, and we get 3 issues of Wolverine and the X-Men in one month that it gets ridiculous.

 

[Watchman]

I just learned that Marvel has cancelled S.H.I.E.L.D. without bringing any conclusion to the story

****! Where did you hear this? It was so close to being done!

Well, I hope he can wrap it up in either Fantastic Four or FF.

 

[hippie_hunter]

****! Where did you hear this? It was so close to being done!

Well, I hope he can wrap it up in either Fantastic Four or FF.

At my comic shop. Marvel is no longer soliciting issues and haven't in the past 5 months. I was told that they quietly canceled the book and was apparently confirmed by Hickman.

 

[JewishHobbit]

While I never bought the SHIELD minis I as intrigued by them and considered picking them up in trade (which I NEVER do). If it isn't complete then there's no point in even bothering.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Which, honestly, I don't think is necessarily a bad thing.

The thing I like DC doing, and I wish Marvel would do more of, is purely giving those new titles a chance to survive. 8 is fine, 12 would be better, but if a title can't keep numbers up beyond that, it's not the publishers fault for having to cancel them.

We shouldn't expect a publisher to go into the red just to support titles that only 20,000 of us nation-wide buy.

At the same time, I'm discouraged by what Marvel's been doing the past couple of months by canceling so many low selling titles, but not really replacing them with anything fresh or innovative.

I have no problem with Deadpoool MAx gets cancelled, but Scarlet Spider pops up. It's just when Deadpool goes away, and we get 3 issues of Wolverine and the X-Men in one month that it gets ridiculous.

Well again to be fair to Marvel they have given Black Panther 17 issues and a .1 issue; Herc 10 issues and a .1 issue; Heroes for Hire 12 issues, a Spider-Island follow up, and a 4 issue concluding miniseries with a .1 issue; Iron Man 2.0 12 issues and a .1 issue, and Thunderbolts is chugging along despite the fact that it is now entering cancellation territory.

Marvel is giving these books chances. You can't blame them that no one is buying them, thus scaring Marvel into not wanting to try new things.

EDIT: Scratch that. Actually you can blame Marvel simce they pretty much killes their lower tier books with the .1 Initiative, double shipping, and their stubborn clinging to the $3.99 price point, thus making readers unable to afford to try new things.

 

[Disney Man]

I don't want Avengers Academy cancelled

 

[Anubis]

Then you better start buying 50,000 copies.

 

[RockSP]

Thunderbolts is chugging along despite the fact that it is now entering cancellation territory.

That sucks.

 

[hippie_hunter]

That sucks.

By next month at the rate that it is dropping, Thunderbolts will be below 20k.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I just learned that Marvel has cancelled S.H.I.E.L.D. without bringing any conclusion to the story

And Marvel looses more of my money. And cancels yet another extremely underrated book.

 

[Will Nolte]

By next month at the rate that it is dropping, Thunderbolts will be below 20k.

That's why they are bringing back Bagley for the cover and doing that special Original (Bagley) Thunderbolts vs Present Day Thunderbolts issue...such cheap ploys Marvel uses...

 

[runawayboulder]

If they cancel Thunderbolts, it's a safe bet it will be relaunched 6 months later with an A list creative team and completely new angle to give it some juice. It's a franchise that's been around since 1996, Marvel isn't going to throw it away forever.

 

[runawayboulder]

Make that 97.

 

[chamber-music]

How does Marvel and DC find new writers?

I don't think they have a open submissions policy like 2000AD which gave breaks to guys like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Alan Grant, Neil Gaiman and so on.

 

[The Morningstar]

Poach them from smaller companies.

 

[runawayboulder]

They come from all walks of life. Movie and television writers, novelists, former interns, ect.....

 

[Tron Bonne]

Poach them from smaller companies.

Lol, there's no other companies to really poach them from. The only poaching is when they try to actively recruit writers/artists from one another. All of the other companies, like Image and Dark Horse, are all basically just publishing companies that don't have direct ties with those creators.

They come from all walks of life. Movie and television writers, novelists, former interns, ect.....

I think most comic writers nowadays are still writers who specifically went into comic book writing. There is more prominence in these writers coming in lately, but I think most of them are still people who specifically wanted to be comic writers.

 

[runawayboulder]

Lol, there's no other companies to really poach them from. The only poaching is when they try to actively recruit writers/artists from one another. All of the other companies, like Image and Dark Horse, are all basically just publishing companies that don't have direct ties with those creators.

A lot of guys start out at Vertigo as well. I've seen a lot of writers (and artists) at Marvel start out there.

I think most comic writers nowadays are still writers who specifically went into comic book writing. There is more prominence in these writers coming in lately, but I think most of them are still people who specifically wanted to be comic writers.

Yeah, that's what I meant by interns. They're the folks willing to eat s**t for years to get their dream job. The movie and tv folks are usually established and have worked on a decent show.

 

[Disney Man]

Comics are just a dying breed. Even DCs relaunch was only good for 3 months before they numbers started dwinding down again.

 

[runawayboulder]

Comics are just a dying breed. Even DCs relaunch was only good for 3 months before they numbers started dwinding down again.

They owned the top 10 in January with the top 3 selling over 100K.

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2012/2012-01.html

 

[Anubis]

Which isn't really a lot when you get down to it.

 

[runawayboulder]

Which isn't really a lot when you get down to it.

It's still better than it has been of late.

 

[Anubis]

But not good enough to make a significant profit.