The Official Marvel Team Up Thread

[b0bb33z3r]

I really like the way that Kirkman has made Darkhawk come out as a really good leader. Now it's up to Brian K. Vaughn to keep it up with Excelsior in the Runaways book.

I could see Kirkman writing a Darkhawk ongoing. It's about time he made a comeback.

amen!!

 

[Unleashed]

Unleashed... can I use that Avatar?

I'm about to make another one you can use

 

[b0bb33z3r]

I'm about to make another one you can use

its up to you.

 

[Unleashed]

 

[b0bb33z3r]

 

[euroq]

MTU sales went slightly up last month.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #13 $2.99 21,048
MARVEL TEAM-UP #14 $2.99 26,200

October sales
November sales

Sadly I don't think that will hold up, even I dropped the title (at least for the duration of this time travel silliness).

December sales

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Marvel Team-Up[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]15[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]$2.99[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Marvel[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 20,000

These numbers are not from ICV but they're accurate enough.
[/FONT]

Sales update

1 INFINITE CRISIS #4 (Of 7) 182,633
2 ALL STAR SUPERMAN #2 124,328
3 NEW AVENGERS #15 121,758
4 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #528 95,415
5 GREEN LANTERN #7 84,723
6 ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #1 (Of 5) 82,721
7 UNCANNY X-MEN #468 79,808
8 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #4 78,672
9 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #22 74,923
10 X-MEN #181 74,094
...
..
99 MARVEL TEAM-UP #16 19,955

Only a small drop last month.

 

[Anubis]

Total bulls**t. How the hell is MTU at 99 and f**king X-Men is at #10?

 

[Dread]

Easy. The core X-books have a built-in audience, even if mini-series do NOT(which is why Joe Q is throwing a fit that Deadly Genesis is being "underordered"; Marvel was so quick to pass out a lot of X-drivel with their mini's that most people don't bite as quickly anymore, and Marvel's still stuck with the theory that an X guarentees Top 10 sales, which is at least 6 years out of date), plus they get better advertising. Still, at least solicts for April + May note that MTU will continue past this arc, and considering their sales figures and Marvel's trigger-happy-ness with poor sellers since Joe took over, it is commendable. They keep printin' MTU, I'll keep buying it.

 

[Anubis]

yeah, I know about the X-zombie mentality. I'm just venting at how f**king stupid this is. X-Men sucks!

 

[euroq]

...and considering their sales figures and Marvel's trigger-happy-ness with poor sellers since Joe took over, it is commendable.

Was Marvel less inclined to cancel their poorly selling titles before Quesada took over?

 

[Dread]

Was Marvel less inclined to cancel their poorly selling titles before Quesada took over?

At times. They kept a few books going for a few issues longer than they would in later years. But yes, sales are always the equalizer.

The point is Joe Q's Marvel has become a "sell in the Top 60 or DIE!" sort of agenda for many books, some of which failed simply because of the lack of advertising. Plus, the guy in charge at the moment always gets the blame for whatever happens. It's the nature of things. If someone can't handle it, they shouldn't take the job if they can't handle the pressure. Period. But at least that trend is starting to swing in the opposite direction recently, especially if the book is being written by a writer that Marvel is currently...ahem..."arse-licking". They are hot on Kirkman, so natually MTU is his baby and that may keep it safe for a while despite sales. Slott's THE THING hasn't been breaking the bank either, but people like Slott, so that is helping it.

On the other hand, the second MTU trade sold decently (it was in the Top 35 of the Top 100 trades), so that may be why it sticks around, much like Runaways.

 

[SpideyInATree]

Total bulls**t. How the hell is MTU at 99 and f**king X-Men is at #10?

Because people are stubborn?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

People apparently will always buy X-Men comics. It doesn't matter how bad they get; the X-Men seem to have the single most rock-solid fanbase in all of comics. It's really sad.

 

[SpideyInATree]

People apparently will always buy X-Men comics. It doesn't matter how bad they get; the X-Men seem to have the single most rock-solid fanbase in all of comics. It's really sad.

I really love the X-Men...but I don't read any of the main regular universe X-titles. Too many mutants. Too many titles. Too much following around.

Even with 198 mutants now it's still too many.

Though I read Ultimate X-Men and I'm getting Deadly Genesis, but that's because of Brubaker more than anything.

But, yeah, I dropped the main X-Men titles a really long time ago because it was getting to be rather too much.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I was never a huge fan of the X-Men, but I still like them. I quit reading most of their comics because of all the convolution and crappy stories. It seems like no one really knows what to do with them anymore now that they've lost their radical status as outsiders. Every time they try to return them to the outsider paradigm, though, (like now, with the post-HoM stuff) it always seems like a contrived retread, too. The last X-Men stuff I genuinely enjoyed was AXM and Morrison's early New X-Men stuff, up to around "Murder at the X-Mansion."

 

[SpideyInATree]

I was never a huge fan of the X-Men, but I still like them. I quit reading most of their comics because of all the convolution and crappy stories. It seems like no one really knows what to do with them anymore now that they've lost their radical status as outsiders. Every time they try to return them to the outsider paradigm, though, (like now, with the post-HoM stuff) it always seems like a contrived retread, too. The last X-Men stuff I genuinely enjoyed was AXM and Morrison's early New X-Men stuff, up to around "Murder at the X-Mansion."

I was a huge X-Men fan and it was tough to give it up...but I had to do what I had to do.

I haven't read a regular universe X-title, excluding Astonishing X-Men, since 1997 or so.

I forgot to mention that I also read Astonishing X-Men, because Whedon writes an awesome X-Men and Cassaday's art is stunning. But, thats all the X-Men one needs, in my opinion.

 

[euroq]

Morrison was willing to try new things but sadly his run has been pretty much wiped under the carpet.

Whedon's stories, while well written, haven't offered anything new.

X-Factor is the only X-book that I find worth reading.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Whedon brought the strong characterization of all his other work to the X-Men, which I thought worked really well. You don't really need overcomplicated plots about long-lost brothers and Brood invasions and time-traveling sons of X-Men who's now old enough to be his parents' parents if you've got a really solid character core. The X-Men have always had some really great characters--Beast, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Wolverine (when he was still a scrappy underdog and not second only to God), angsty Archangel, etc.--and Whedon just tapped into what drew me to some of them in the first place.

I liked Morrison's run for similar reasons, only instead of revisiting characters' old personalities after years of weird mischaracterization (I'm looking at you, Beast) he introduced new elements of the characters that logically evolved from those old traits and actually pushed the X-Men forward a bit. I also liked his re-emphasizing the school aspect and his typical, crazy plots like "Riot at Xavier's."

 

[b0bb33z3r]

Easy. The core X-books have a built-in audience, even if mini-series do NOT(which is why Joe Q is throwing a fit that Deadly Genesis is being "underordered"; Marvel was so quick to pass out a lot of X-drivel with their mini's that most people don't bite as quickly anymore, and Marvel's still stuck with the theory that an X guarentees Top 10 sales, which is at least 6 years out of date), plus they get better advertising. Still, at least solicts for April + May note that MTU will continue past this arc, and considering their sales figures and Marvel's trigger-happy-ness with poor sellers since Joe took over, it is commendable. They keep printin' MTU, I'll keep buying it.

I might start buying 2 copies of the book. I mean, that money is already allocated to comics anyway, and I'd rather spend the extra $3 on a book I love, then dump it on some useless drivel I'll wind up complaining about. If everyone did that we'd double MTU sales!

 

[Dread]

I might start buying 2 copies of the book. I mean, that money is already allocated to comics anyway, and I'd rather spend the extra $3 on a book I love, then dump it on some useless drivel I'll wind up complaining about. If everyone did that we'd double MTU sales!

Sales are not really dictated by individual fans really, but by how many copies retail shops order. Which is basically why announcements that a certain book has "sold out" at Diamond are dubious because that simply means that EVERY issue that said company printed was picked up, which is little achievement unless you know details.

The fact of comic sales is that when a company prints copies, they print-to-order. That is, let's say all of the shops across the country order 25,000 copies of Title X. So basically, the Company will simply print 25,000 copies. Usually they print a few hundred or thousand extra in case of damaged copies or something, which is a rountine measure. However, with some books the company "overprints" to a certain degree (DC was notorious for this years ago), which is really the only figure that matters when it comes to "selling out". The fact of the matter is that "hot" books will usually be overordered (X-books, #1 issues, Top 10 sellers) to the point where you can stroll in some shops and STILL find reprints of IDENTITY CRISIS or ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN #1 that they can't GIVE away. And poor selling books they don't order as many, so they actually become scarce in the back issue areas because the store only orders, say, a dozen copies or so.

Basically to get a LCS to increase orders, they would need to routinely sell out of certain issues/series and then need to order more from their shippers. After a few months they increase their original order from Diamond and if enough stores at once do this, sales spike. This is usually pretty rare, even for Hot books, to spike for longer than a month or so. Marvel typically is good at maintaining spikes or audiences for Core-X books, but the reality is that most books steadily lose readers after the first issue and either continue to dip or hold steady. Books that are constantly in the Top 10, basically, simply maintain a very high number of readers (like in the 6 digits or so).

As for the X-Men, I like the X-Men but rarely read many of the core titles anymore, save for ASTONISHING (which is a rare book, so I don't count it) and Ultimate X-Men, for basically all the reasons already stated.

 

[b0bb33z3r]

I havent see a solicitation for MTU for all of May on Marvel.com ... is it the end??

 

[euroq]

I havent see a solicitation for MTU for all of May on Marvel.com ... is it the end??

Marvel.com isn't very reliable.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #20
Written by Robert Kirkman
Penciled by Cory Walker
Cover by PHIL HESTER
Freedom Ring part 1 (of 5)
Captain America is thrust into a fight for his life at the
hands of AIM. Meanwhile an all-new hero is introduced into
the Marvel Universe, but is the world ready for FREEDOM RING?
And what does all this have to do with a reality-altering ring
crafted from broken shards of the cosmic cube?

 

[iloveclones]

And be aware, Mr. Kirkman said that he has stories, and a commitment from Marvel, up through #24, which will take us through Freedom Ring. But I haven't heard anything since. So start getting people to buy the trades.

 

[b0bb33z3r]

Bleh, I really don't want to see this book go away.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I don't want to see it go either.

Best thing to do is to try and get people who aren't into it...to get into it.

Which convincing hard headed comic book fans to try something new is a lot like trying to get George Bush to help poor people.