Tweet
How about that! Hope this serves as a wake up call, give folks something they WANT and the comic community will support it.
-
How about that! Hope this serves as a wake up call, give folks something they WANT and the comic community will support it. -
WOW, now that's impressive I might have to order one myself. I hate the new stuff.
Known to occasionally brush shoulders with 8 inch goblins -
I think the result of this wake-up call is that we'll be seeing much more constant relaunches with new #1 issues every time sales dip, even when the creative teams stay the same (as we see with this, and Daredevil), coupled with and endless parade of variant covers.
I personally have enjoyed Dan Slott's long run on Spider-man, but I don't think all the constant relaunches and stunt marketing are necessary when you've got a pretty compelling story like Doc Ock/Goblin Nation. But I guess the sales figures say differently.Comment
-
That's already been happening though the numbers haven't hit this level. Even if there are new #1's I'm wondering if this will make the companies see that people want the classics and that's will really get the numbers where they want them or closer to it. Not re-imaginings and updates that folks quickly lose interest in. Just my thought.Comment
-
^Naw, it will just make them take away the classics, so they can bring them back again, and hit these numbers.
Makes one wonder if DC would potentially see this and say "Hmm...maybe it's time for another relaunch", and scrap the New 52.
ChrisComment
-
It does look like the nineties all over again... Death of Superman, Knightfall, etc. You get a spike in sales when you kill or maim the hero, then another spike in sales when you bring them back. Outside media attention on a slow news day is the bonus. Chatting with a friend of mine in their early twenties, you do kind of forget that to new generations of readers, this is all new and surprising to them. I guess this is the way it should be with the cycle of comics, repetition and new readership.
It does look like Marvel is "winning" again after the big splash DC made with the New 52. Rather than the short term of all new #1's and then the 3D cover Villains month, Marvel instead chose to not toss out their continuity (they just tend to ignore and hope readers forget whatever doesn't fit) and stagger their new #1's throughout the year in an attempt to sustain new readership on various titles.
Also interesting is that new arcs have #1's on the corners, even if the book isn't renumbering in order to denote a "jumping on point".Comment
-
It looks like it might in fact mostly about the variants... specifically custom variants for individual stores...
There’s also a good chance that a good chuck of those are Custom Variant Retailer Covers, where a retailer can order a minimum of three thousand copies with an exclusive cover for their store. They may not sell them all, at least immediately, but they can create promotion for their store, incentive for out of state customers and get extra promotion from Marvel for their efforts – and dollars. If fifty stores went for this deal, that’s 150-200,000 sales right there, which will not be expected to be sold right away.
Then there are the variants available to everyone. Such as the recently added Amazing Spider-Man #1 Opena Sketch Variant where, for every 200 copies retailers order of Amazing Spider-Man #1, retailers will get one of these, which they might then be able to sell for north of $500.
But it’s not alone.
For every fifty copies, you can order one copy of the Marcos Martin cover. For every seventy-five copies, you can order one Ed McGuinness cover and of the Alex Ross cover. Or one of the Alex Ross sketch cover version for every three hundred copies. If you exceed 150% of orders for Superior Spider-Man #24 regular covers, you can order as many of the colour Jeremy Opena cover or of the Blank Sketch cover. 200% gets you access to order the Skottie Young cover.Comment
-
I am such a purist when it comes to comic books, that I am verging on being admittedly obtuse... I can't be bothered with anything past the bronze age. I look at things like this and see it as just another minor blip on the landscape of mediocrity.Comment
-
The number of ordered copies would be significant if it were actual single buyers, but as pointed out exclusive variant covers are what is driving the sales to that height.
Those that left the book because of the Ock as Spidey storyline might venture back, but give it six months and the numbers will settle back into the norm.
As a reader, the renumbering doesn't bother me, but if I were collecting and attempting to keep the series in order, I would be annoyed.
It is a shame that the long runs of books like Action, Detective and even the early Marvel series aren't documented on a monthly basis with high issue numbers, but it doesn't affect the quality of the story. It also gives a completist collector an easy out on a series that's no longer entertaining.Comment
-
I think Slott has suggested that this was kind of his way of staying on Spider-Man and ultimately getting to keep writing Peter Parker. Every other long term writer on a series/franchise was forced to shuffle when the new #1's came down last year as a response to the New 52. I believe only Slott got to stay on his title because his upcoming plans for Ock expanded from a shorter storyline to a significant enough of a change for them to market it as a new book with a new direction (despite the same creative team intact).
Like-wise, Spider-verse is now on the horizon, originally a shorter run within Superior Spider-Man has now expanded to another marketable "Event" that will help spike sales again once things start to settle down after the new #1 and movie this summer.
My complaints about Event Driven marketing are actually very small when it comes to Spider-Man in the past couple of years. They are relatively well contained within the mainline title that ships multiple times a month (a clever move consolidating the multiple titles into one, Mephisto not withstanding). It's also been creatively driven by Slott himself who has consistently been telling very compelling, long-form storylines for the past half decade or so(?).
As clumsily as the storyline was that magically retconned out the Spider-Marriage, looking back a few years later, it has really opened up story and character possibilities that severely hobbled the character of Peter Parker in the long term decades that followed his marriage to MJ.
Now his current incarnation is a relatively age-less, single, post-college grad, and the soap opera aspects that was firmly a part of his success as a character in the first quarter century is back. Not that I'm not firmly on Team MJ, but it does allow for uncertainty and opens it up for generations of younger readers who don't relate to a married Superhero. Ultimate Spider-Man really showed that was the formula for getting new young readers on board and invested. Classic, timeless Love Triangles in the mode of Betty, Archie and Veronica.Last edited by samurainoir; Apr 3, '14, 1:14 PM.Comment
-
I've been out of the comic book game for over a decade now.
But I want to buy this one.
Excuse my ignorance...but when does it officially come out?
And aside from my local comic book shop...where is the best site to order it online?sigpicComment
Comment