X-Men sales figures for November

[cranger]

None of the X-books have a big name artist, or even a big name writer (sorry to any who might read this). Astonishing completely wasted some bigger name artists rotating like it has.

Also, Marvel readers (and retailers) are likely still hesitant with all this Legacy stuff, something which X-Men never really got a benefit from. X-Men sales are just a casualty of that. While they may look low, they are actually pretty good for a Marvel book these days (just look at how few books actually are higher, and most of them are Legacy or Spider-Man)

[Ulfhammer]

I just mean that I find the books kind of fanservice rehashes. X-Men are a huge franchise that often has over 10 books being published at the same time. There is a lot of room for producing very different xmen books.

I miss b-c-d-f list X-Men characters who arent students. Tieri's Weapon X wasn't considered great iirc, but it had characters like Aurora, Sauron, Madison Jeffries, Wild Child, Kane, Maverick, Copycat, Mesmero in the book, with the biggest character being Sabretooth. I miss seeing that kind of character, not all c-d list characters are kids who will never be allowed to grow up and join the x-men.
I liked Bunn's Uncanny. I think it could have been good if it hadnt been derailed by crossovers.

If Marvel actually knew how to do fan service these books would be selling. Ultimately fan service is good stories about character that readers want to read about, done in such a way that fans of those characters are compelled to keep buying. Marvel is definetely not doing this. They are writing the stories they want to write about they characters they want us to read. These are not at all the same concepts. Marvel has become tone deaf in regards to fan feedback.

I'm not saying fans service is exactly the right approach, but I'd argue they've been shooting for and achieving the exact opposite. Sure, resurrection Jean is definitely fan service but that's a desperation tactic. This after years of finding ways to dissasemble the franchise and it's top characters in some of the worst ways.

[lurkerforyears]

If Marvel actually knew how to do fan service these books would be selling. Ultimately fan service is good stories about character that readers want to read about, done in such a way that fans of those characters are compelled to keep buying. Marvel is definetely not doing this. They are writing the stories they want to write about they characters they want us to read. These are not at all the same concepts. Marvel has become tone deaf in regards to fan feedback.

I'm not saying fans service is exactly the right approach, but I'd argue they've been shooting for and achieving the exact opposite. Sure, resurrection Jean is definitely fan service but that's a desperation tactic. This after years of finding ways to dissasemble the franchise and it's top characters in some of the worst ways.

I think the O5 were one of the worst things to have happened to the franchise, and Bendis had too much power to get rid of them.

[Sapfiryt]

Very bad..
The X-Men deserve more. In November there were good comics and with such sales...
It is very sad

[uebersoldat]

Jeez why can't they just give us Uncanny ongoing (half the team) and self-titled with the rest of the X-Men?

I just dropped my Blue and Gold sub. Keeping Astonishing and the upcoming Rogue and Gambit mini. I'm just pissed they are going to have so many books with each having a star or two X-Man in them. Damn Ike P is probably behind this, or just as bad the editorial.

Hey let's take something people loved that worked in the 90's and milk the ever loving hell out of it as long as we can. Jean Grey back? Give her another X-Men color...Red! Yeah that'll work, throw some unknowns on it too.

[salarta]

Jeez why can't they just give us Uncanny ongoing (half the team) and self-titled with the rest of the X-Men?

I just dropped my Blue and Gold sub. Keeping Astonishing and the upcoming Rogue and Gambit mini. I'm just pissed they are going to have so many books with each having a star or two X-Man in them. Damn Ike P is probably behind this, or just as bad the editorial.

Hey let's take something people loved that worked in the 90's and milk the ever loving hell out of it as long as we can. Jean Grey back? Give her another X-Men color...Red! Yeah that'll work, throw some unknowns on it too.

"Throwing unknowns" on a book is one of the positive things I can say, when it happens. Hardcore comic book fans may demand that teams be composed of all "A-list" characters, but there's a wealth of untapped potential in severely underused characters. They can add a nice wild card into the mix of these books. Reveal sides of characters not seen previously. May even draw in potential readers that otherwise wouldn't care. As a Polaris fan, I can say if I had known she existed, I would've been reading stuff with her on it a lot sooner than when I started.

However, it's important for the composition to make sense and have plans for going places and mattering long-term. If the team comp comes off as thrown together randomly, that might make people less interested. If the team comp comes off like it won't matter a year from now, that's another case that makes people less interested.

[Xelossik]

Jeez why can't they just give us Uncanny ongoing (half the team) and self-titled with the rest of the X-Men?

I just dropped my Blue and Gold sub. Keeping Astonishing and the upcoming Rogue and Gambit mini. I'm just pissed they are going to have so many books with each having a star or two X-Man in them. Damn Ike P is probably behind this, or just as bad the editorial.

Hey let's take something people loved that worked in the 90's and milk the ever loving hell out of it as long as we can. Jean Grey back? Give her another X-Men color...Red! Yeah that'll work, throw some unknowns on it too.

Look at Astonishing X-men and You will understand why books with very popular cast won't work.
Astonishing had great start but right now?
Astonishing X-Men 5 37,135
vs
X-Men Gold 10 43,439
X-Men Blue 10 38,714

sorry but if You want big and popular cast... then book must be different than marvel format (weekly for example). There is no way that Cyclops fans will wait half a year for his arc because Rogue had her arc (or vice versa). They will simply drop this book.

[RCX]

I wish we got to see estimates for digital sales. I'd be curious how that would affect the numbers since we already know some books (RE Moon Girl) sell better digitally than via Direct Market.

X-Men usually does pretty well in digital. X-Men Blue is this week’s (Dec 13-Dec 20) top seller.

[uebersoldat]

Look at Astonishing X-men and You will understand why books with very popular cast won't work.
Astonishing had great start but right now?
Astonishing X-Men 5 37,135
vs
X-Men Gold 10 43,439
X-Men Blue 10 38,714

sorry but if You want big and popular cast... then book must be different than marvel format (weekly for example). There is no way that Cyclops fans will wait half a year for his arc because Rogue had her arc (or vice versa). They will simply drop this book.

It worked fine before, why not now? Not many people can afford that many titles so I guess Marvel will have to be happy with watered down per-book sales. The problem I see is someone's fav will underperform because of this mentality and they'll kill the book. That has happened many times. It just doesn't make logical sense to me.

[Xelossik]

It worked fine before, why not now?

We live in the world of instant gratification.
Why someone should wait few months when he can be happy right now?

Not many people can afford that many titles so I guess Marvel will have to be happy with watered down per-book sales.

If someone can't afford many books... He also (probably) won't be interested in spending money for books where his favorite characters are doing nothing because other popular heroes have their moments to shine.

manga format has some advantages. They are (mostly)weekly and there are hundreds of mangas with more than 200 chapters.

and I didn't write that It can't work. I wrote that it would need probably some changes.

[Jirrenm]

Unpopular opinion here but these aren't bad news for me. Maybe it's time to realize X-books don't sell as much as they did back in the 90s and 00s. So there is no need to flood the market with them, their number needs to be reduced. It's time re-focus and have only two books, one called Uncanny X-men focusing on the main team and another one called New X-men focusing on the school. This would increase baseline sales and become easy for old and new readers to follow. Also it's time to stop the editorial dictatorship that the franchise has suffered since the late 80s and 90s and hire one single writer that can have creative freedom to do what he wants (My pick would be Kurt Busiek but any other GOOD writer that can have the same creative freedom Claremont had back in the day would do). We need to move foward let's try to bring fresh ideas to the franchse for a change please.

[salarta]

Unpopular opinion here but these aren't bad news for me. Maybe it's time to realize X-books don't sell as much as they did back in the 90s and 00s. So there is no need to flood the market with them, their number needs to be reduced. It's time re-focus and have only two books, one called Uncanny X-men focusing on the main team and another one called New X-men focusing on the school. This would increase baseline sales and become easy for old and new readers to follow. Also it's time to stop the editorial dictatorship that the franchise has suffered since the late 80s and 90s and hire one single writer that can have creative freedom to do what he wants (My pick would be Kurt Busiek but any other GOOD writer that can have the same creative freedom Claremont had back in the day would do). We need to move foward let's try to bring fresh ideas to the franchse for a change please.

I'd say the problem isn't "too many comics." The X-Men franchise has already been severely cut down since 2014, from around 14 comics at one time to more like 6 or 7.

The problem is the wrong focus for what comics they do have. The focus has been on nostalgia instead of development.

I'll agree Marvel editorial should have less influence, but I mainly say that because of the Avengers side. My observation of the Avengers side is that they keep making mistakes that are usually based in editorial/executive demands and not what actually works for the characters or story. Someone at Marvel thinks a character isn't "good enough" or whatever and suddenly they're omitted from stories where they have a huge stake in things, while characters that have no stake at all are everywhere just cause someone at Marvel wants to push them.

[Maestroneto]

Unpopular opinion here but these aren't bad news for me. Maybe it's time to realize X-books don't sell as much as they did back in the 90s and 00s. So there is no need to flood the market with them, their number needs to be reduced. It's time re-focus and have only two books, one called Uncanny X-men focusing on the main team and another one called New X-men focusing on the school. This would increase baseline sales and become easy for old and new readers to follow. Also it's time to stop the editorial dictatorship that the franchise has suffered since the late 80s and 90s and hire one single writer that can have creative freedom to do what he wants (My pick would be Kurt Busiek but any other GOOD writer that can have the same creative freedom Claremont had back in the day would do). We need to move foward let's try to bring fresh ideas to the franchse for a change please.

Kurt Busiek's trash ideas ruined the X-Men. He can stay away.

[Xelossik]

I'd say the problem isn't "too many comics." The X-Men franchise has already been severely cut down since 2014, from around 14 comics at one time to more like 6 or 7.

The problem is the wrong focus for what comics they do have. The focus has been on nostalgia instead of development.

I'll agree Marvel editorial should have less influence, but I mainly say that because of the Avengers side. My observation of the Avengers side is that they keep making mistakes that are usually based in editorial/executive demands and not what actually works for the characters or story. Someone at Marvel thinks a character isn't "good enough" or whatever and suddenly they're omitted from stories where they have a huge stake in things, while characters that have no stake at all are everywhere just cause someone at Marvel wants to push them.

editorial of x-men books is also making similar mistakes(terrigen plot). This is not only Avengers problem.

but for me... editorial should work better
they shouldn't have less influence
i don't like when writers ignore previous runs because they don't work well for them. editorial should stop them.

[lurkerforyears]

x-men has 4 books with over 30.000 sales

Gold, Blue, Weapon X and Astonishing. Old Man Logan and Laura Wolverine also sell very well.
X-Men can have easily 4 (or 5) well selling team books. ideally no character should be in more than 1 team.
have wolverine in his solo and 1 team, not more than that