Nine Marvel titles end in October,

[madmarva]

Nine Marvel titles end in October according to Marvel's solicitations, but at least some of them are likely to be relaunched/rebooted/started over between November and February.

Fairly prominent titles — Captain America, Fantastic Four, FF, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, New Mutants, The Mighty Thor, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men Legacy.

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Nine Marvel titles end in October,

From what I've read this isn't a starting from the ground up approach like DCnU, but more of a reorganization of talent and characters with new No. 1 issues. Wish DC had taken more of this approach, but it probably wouldn't have sold as well early if it had. Marvel following so DC's lead so quickly on its heels attests to DC sales success.

It will be interesting to see if Marvel's approach pleases longtime fans, the losers in DC's reboot, any better.

[Blue Meanie]

Marvel better have whatever reboots ready to roll as soon as the titles are ended...if they don't it will give older collectors/readers all the more reason to stop collecting/reading. From what I've heard Marvel is doing this on purpose to compete with the DC Zero issues that are coming out at the same time. It really is sad and pathetic what the BIG 2 are doing these days. It's almost as if they really don't want to be comic book companies anymore. They are more interested in making movies and crappy toys then they are in putting out quality comics at a cheaper price. $4 is ridiculous. DC's price point is the only thing that's keeping them afloat. The New 52 in my opinion is a complete train wreck and there is no way that they can ever undo what is being done right now. I've completely cut out comics....only title I get is Worlds Finest and that's because Perez is doing it. Soon as Perez is finished on the title...so am I. Bring back newsprint and bring the prices down on comics. Cancel the 50 Bazillion X-Men, Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and Avengers titles and give me ONE DECENT book a month from those titles. Just one more nail in the comic book industries coffin. RIP DC and Marvel.

[samurainoir]

Seems like business as usual. Pretty much all those titles were relaunched with new #1 issues and then returned to their "legacy numbering" in time for a double zero anniversary issue. It seems these days that they do it whenever a new creative team comes on board after a long run. Essentially my understanding is their top tier writing talent is playing musical chairs... Hickman's jumping off the FF franchise over to the Avengers. Bendis from Avengers to X-Men. Fraction is ending his long run on Iron Man and Thor, Brubaker I think is finally off of Captain America. Incredible Hulk just got relaunched less than a year ago.

[ctc]

>It will be interesting to see if Marvel's approach pleases longtime fans, the losers in DC's reboot, any better.

It was pointed out in another post that Marvel and DC have been swapping readers for the last little bit; and I suspect this'll be the thing that gets them back to Marvel for the next little while.

Don C.

[emeraldknight47]

Yeeesh! Doesn't ANYONE in the big two have ANY original ideas, anymore!!! It sounds the "House of Ideas" has turned into the "House of Let's Copy our Distinguished Competition." Enough already! And the sad this is, this nonsense WON'T stop until fans and consumers STOP buying the product they put out....

[madmarva]

I have a feeling the suits probably pushed for this at Marvel. DC came from way behind to outsell them on their top 10 or 15 books for about six months, but this is a bit more organic than DC's reboot, New No.1 s but not throwing the continuity out with the bathwater.

Berto makes a lot of good points. The price-point on comics is killing the readership as much as anything. Digital should cut out a lot of the cost of producing books, but they are priced virtually the same. If digital is going to save comics as some have theorized, the price has to come down and way down. For comics to seriously increase their readership digitally, the price is going to have to fall down to the dollar range, where a person can sample 10 titles for a relatively low amount to see what he likes. If something like that happened maybe the readership could grow because the cost would be incidental. A person might buy a comic to read at lunch or on the subway ride home for a dollar. But at $3 and $4, it's too much. Only those of us who are addicted to them for whatever reason are willing to pay that much.

[The Toyroom]

I haven't been happy with DC for awhile now, but this won't make me pick up more Marvel books as a result. The only Marvel books I've been reading regularly over the last year have been Daredevil and Captain America. I've cut my comic buying WAY back and the New 52 was the catalyst. The swapping of talent doesn't interest me enough to jump on board any of these new titles. I haven't read X-Men books in years and Bendis finally scared me off the Avengers franchise. I haven't read any Spidey titles since One More Day. And I am not a fan of the constant renumbering, as I prefer the legacy numbering. But who am I fooling, none of these titles/characters even resemble the ones I started reading about back in the early 70s...

Make Mine Reprints

[samurainoir]

I know Marvel and DC have both been experimenting with bundling the digital version in with the floppy paper comic book... has anyone here downloaded the digital after buying the print edition?

I've always followed creators over characters and for the past decade anyways, Marvel has had more writers and artists that I will read than DC. Even though I did pick up a few more DC books with the new 52 (and sample a bunch more).

Since this is just musical chairs over at Marvel, I don't really think this changes my Marvel reading habits since I assume Jonathan Hickman, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Matter Fraction, and Brian Bendis, are all just swapping books after long runs. Continuity remains the same so that we do feel the character repercussions of AVX... I can't imagine Wolverine will be too popular as the head of the Jean Grey school when all this shakes out.

AVX to me is kind of the same irritation I felt with Blackest Night... a big crossover where I only picked up the titles with the writers I like, that made assumptions around a reader buying everything. I buy two X-Men titles and two Avengers titles, and there are too many questions left over because I don't follow Legacy or New Mutants or X-Force or Avengers Academy or whatever.

[madmarva]

I know Marvel and DC have both been experimenting with bundling the digital version in with the floppy paper comic book... has anyone here downloaded the digital after buying the print edition?

If you have the paper comic that you can take anywhere, why would you want to re-read the digital? Not being a smart alec; I just don't know why you would.

But, I rarely have time to re-read comics unless it's a Marvel Masterwork or DC archive or a collection that I didn't read in serial format.

To me, Marvel Now is a marketing plan with new No. 1s. and new creative teams unless there is something coming Marvel has yet to announce. I read where one Marvel character will have a different person in the suit and something about the possible death of Mocking Bird (probably speculation).

I'm a character reader, but I do follow certain talent. If Perez were drawing the Punisher, I might read it, but maybe not. Greg Rucka's one of my favorite writers, but I don't care for the character enough to put my money down. The Punisher's a good guest, but I've never liked him as a lead. I like Dare Devil OK, but I hadn't read the book regularly since Miller's final arc until Mark Waid starting writing the book. Waid is a writer whose work I'll try most of the time.

Yeah, reading the Avengers-X-Men thing is sort of a mess. I'm reading the main book and AVX and that's it. At least DC hasn't subjected its readers to a big crossover in the New 52. The Court of Owls thing read fine to me just sticking to the Batman. But that Trinity War thing is brewing. I hope the Green Lantern Third Army story doesn't stretch into any books other than the 4 GLs.

[samurainoir]

If you have the paper comic that you can take anywhere, why would you want to re-read the digital? Not being a smart alec; I just don't know why you would.

Here's where I break down as a reader and collector... I still buy a physical floppy comic of stuff I like, but generally bag it and stick it in the collection. The digital version has really made it convenient for me to load my week's worth of comics reading on the ipad... much more portable than pulling out the bag and board, pulling the comic out without catching it on the tape. Reading comics while eating lunch without worrying about crumbs and mustard or soup getting on the comic. It's easy to read on the transit, I don't have to worry about the paper comic getting folded or crumpled in my bag. I can read comics in bed on the ipad after the wife goes to sleep without keeping her up because you need to turn the light on to read a paper comic.

The digital versions are available quickly and easily on my computer and hard drive for reference and rereading, rather than digging through the dozens of boxes piled up and scattered across closets, bookshelfs and storage lockers.

For me it's more of an easy lifestyle choice vs. the paranoia I associate with keeping your comics in relatively good condition vs the ability to read them easily. I know collectors here who are concerned with Mint condition, spine creases and other really small imperfections, which you can avoid by just reading the digital version (prior to this, it would be why you would buy the trade paperback after you bought the single issue).

here's my other dirty little secret, just between you, me, and the entire internet... I read many many more comics than I actually pay for in digital format. The upside of this is, if I truly love any title I discover through my casual digital reading habit, I will run out and buy the trades and singles to reread and lend out, and sing it's praises until the cows come home... Chew is an example of a title I discovered late and had to catch up on via download first because I couldn't wait to get to the store and didn't have the initial patience to wait for the trade or hunt down the really scarce and high priced back issues.

and something about the possible death of Mocking Bird (probably speculation).

I'm thinking this might be unlikely since they did backflips to bring her back to life within the past couple of years, only to kill her off again almost and give her super soldier powers. But then again, this is the same company that went to all the trouble of building up that Brother Voodoo was the new Sorcerer Supreme and then just killed him five minutes later.

[ctc]

>Doesn't ANYONE in the big two have ANY original ideas, anymore!!!

This is where I have some sympathy for the Big Two and a Half. (Fates help me....) I came into the superhero thing late in life. As a kid I didn’t care for them, and it wasn’t until my late 20's that I read them with any seriousness. So, over the course of two years I read over 6 decades of comics.... all at once.... and let me tell ya; it changes your perspective on things. Superhero comics have been ripping themselves off, rebooting, rebranding, going from dark and gritty to kiddified and back, recycling ideas, characters, plots.... FOREVER! Most people didn’t notice ‘cos they came into the game as kids, who have little experience and accept a LOT more than older folks. The life expectancy of a fan was pretty short too; three years on average, so people didn’t notice the recycling as much. And if they DID, they accepted it. That’s the price of doing business. (When you read them all at once it’s PAINFULLY obvious. Every 5 years or so.)

But that changed with out generation. The 80's were the era of the “educated” fan, who knew the past of the books, the present, were exposed to an ever increasing amount of hype for the future, knew all the ins and outs of production and the pros, and more importantly were in it for the long haul. And that’s the problem. Superheroes are a pretty limited genre. There are only so many permutations you can do of any character before you change them so much they’re no longer that character. So stuff swaps around a lot. It always did, but now the readers NOTICE. And they’re not happy about it. “IS Bruce Wayne REALLY dead?” No. Don’t be stupid. But they’re stuck; they HAVE to recycle the same old ideas ‘cos the nature of the industry forces it. A perpetual comic can’t change. Not really.

The fans don’t help either. A lot of them come into things with very clearly defined expectations. Anything not meeting them is poo-poo’d; which narrows the possibilities even more. Of course everyone says “they just need to make some GOOD stories!” but what does that mean? The list usually amounts to “stuff just like when I used to like them!” Too often I think that’s a nostalgic appeal to the feelings of those days, and not to the books themselves. I think this because there are tons of books out there that meet the stated criteria people put forth for “good” books; and yet, when you point them out there’s inevitably a list of excuses as to why those books are insufficient. (Hell; you can BUY the ACTUAL books of your youth, in huge compilations. For cheap! “But they’re black and white....”)

The weird “GRRR!!!!! Damn them!!!!” chest thumping adds to that feeling too.

So the companies have to bring in new readers, which they can’t ‘cos if they do anything different their core audience will scream blue murder.... and the potential new audience doesn’t care for the old style stuff because they don’t know the 30+ years of continuity necessary to understand the significance of this month’s guest star, and if they’re coming in as established comic fans they’re probably used to books where one person calls the shots, there’s a definite story progression, and events actually happen; things that CAN’T happen in a perpetual comic produced by a rotating crew.

>The price-point on comics is killing the readership as much as anything. Digital should cut out a lot of the cost of producing books, but they are priced virtually the same.

THAT’S a biggie! I don’t think they know what to do with digital though. I suspect it’s seen as a way of boosting profit by lowering production costs, which is why they don’t sell the digital at a significantly reduced price. It could also be:

>I know collectors here who are concerned with Mint condition, spine creases and other really small imperfections, which you can avoid by just reading the digital version

One of the things that took the wind out of the Big Two and a Half was the collapse of the speculator’s market. By the 90's at least 2/3rds of the people buying comics did so as an investment. That’s where the 90's collapse came from, and I kinda think the companies realize this. The new #1's, the new universes, the reboots, “a very special issue of....” all smell like attempts to make instant collectors items. Like the 90's. Given the boosts in sales for these things, I can see the execs thinking they work; which means any discussion of content is moot.

It’d also scare them away from implementing full digital, since data isn’t collectible.

>I read many many more comics than I actually pay for in digital format.

GOOD LORD! *choke!* You FIEND!

I can sympathize. I do the same, since a lot of what I like isn’t available any other way. I prefer print, so whenever possible I pick up the real deal. Luckily a lot of online comics do eventually release print copies.

Don C.

[JediJaida]

They're cancelling Thor??? AGAIN???? Didn't they already DO this, a few years back?

And then have the entire cast reincarnate anyway???

The only Marvel title I'm reading is Journey Into Mystery, which is mostly starring Kid!Loki.

To tell the truth, while the character had a boatload of flaws as an adult, he got a certain amount of sympathy from me anyway, because I used to read the original myths and hated the way he got shafted in the end.

Now that he's a kid, he's a lot easier to take.

He's cuter, smarter, less obnoxious, and is finally free of the grudge he had against his brother. That got old over a certain amount of time. Very old.

I like the chemistry between him and Leah, his partner and the dog, Thori is refreshingly blood thirsty in his attitude.

Not that he's killed anyone yet, but it's only a matter of time with that puppy's parentage (Garm and the Helwolf.)

[The Toyroom]

So when "Captain America" gets relaunched with a new #1, which it will be, what "volume" is it going to be on? Something like Vol. 7 or 8, if I'm correct. I can't stand the constant renumbering...I'll say it again....I can't stand the constant renumbering. Especially when just a few years ago they moved heaven and earth to make everything line-up to get a series like Cap to a magic "legacy" number to justify a higher-priced anniversary issue.

I'm still ticked off that DC restarted "Action" and "Detective" with new #1 issues. Blasphemy!

[Figuremod73]

I wonder who besides me folds a page while reading? Thats a real old habit I have, lol.

I think the talent pool has become saturated and there really needs to be a company to come along with a new approach (Like Marvel did in the early sixties).

[VintageMike]

Those titles being dropped is a big reflection of my reading habits as out of all of them I had only been reading Fantastic Four regularly and only picked up uncanny X-man to follow A vs. X completely. Honestly the last revamped FF with Spider-Man replacing The Human Torch has great feel to it. Going back to the status quo made no sense.
The larger issue to me is neither company seems to get what's wrong. I've largely enjoyed the A vs. X storyline and from what I've gathered it's sold well. The reason being no just that's a huge event but that it's compelling and well-done. Put that effort into more books instead on constant reboots/relaunches and sales will come.