X-Book Sales For June 2018

[Maestroneto]

it was still one book.

X-Men
Uncanny X-Men
X-Factor
X-Force
Excalibur

[Osvaldoeaf]

X-Men
Uncanny X-Men
X-Factor
X-Force
Excalibur

Exactly...there were five team books at the time.

[butterflykyss]

i'm sure the reason for these sales are the fact that there is too many x-books available. there are currently 5 team books right now, as well as a bunch of wolverine books. it's just over saturation. start cutting back and see where the sales go

I understand your thoughts but a lot of people would be out of work if there was only just one book

[akiresu_]

X-Books should switch to a limited-series/digital-'exclusives' model. Seriously. Maybe one flagship ongoing, but have the rest written for trade or digital, service-sellers (like Cloak and Dagger). If a limited series does well, it doesn't get an ongoing- it gets a sequel. It kind of destroys the format, but I think it's the next logical step for comics to make in general, and X-Men needs to be the first to do it. Why? Because it's feeling the strain of outdated publishing models more so than any other major franchise.

The forthcoming relaunch will help boost sales no doubt, and there will be a host of post and pieces declaring X-Men saved, but it is a stop-measure. It won't go to solve the larger, more existentially worrisome issues. Now no doubt part of the X-Books decline is on a creative side, we need visionary creators and we need editorial cohesion. We need more accessible texts and a movement against redundancy. But, fundamentally, the X-Men aren't broken. The X-Men can have a bad run and come out of it, it happens. As far as I can tell what we're seeing are not the effects of just one bad run, but rather a general shift of the market.

Now maybe digital sales and tpb sales tell a completely different story. But every month we go through the same repeated discussions on the X-Men's decline, be it on screen, in merchandise or in the comics themselves. It is enough to make you stop and think that perhaps this is just the way things go. Perhaps, like the Fantastic Four before them, the X-Men just don't have an intergenerational appeal and all fan communities like this one are doing is holding onto the past. Holding onto the past, of course, being antithesis to the whole point of a franchise primarily concerned with mutation.

[Osvaldoeaf]

X-Men 1 even had a poster inside with all five teams in it....images.jpg

[akiresu_]

i'm sure the reason for these sales are the fact that there is too many x-books available. there are currently 5 team books right now, as well as a bunch of wolverine books. it's just over saturation. start cutting back and see where the sales go

Do you want Extraordinary X-Men? Because this is how you get Extraordinary X-Men.

[Purplevit]

Glad that Gold 30 sold well.

Sad for Madrox. All minies are dead at start.

[cc008]

Don't worry everyone, trade sales are going to save the franchise

[stormphoenix]

Hm I guess I get why Gold #30 sold well. But Geez Red.....what happened???????

[Anduinel]

Hm I guess I get why Gold #30 sold well. But Geez Red.....what happened???????

Very deliberate pacing plus once-per-month shipping. I'm enjoying it, but I can easily see how it could just be just too slow for folks looking for a superhero story.

[stormphoenix]

Very deliberate pacing plus once-per-month shipping. I'm enjoying it, but I can easily see how it could just be just too slow for folks looking for a superhero story.

I agree, but DAMN!!! is all I could say when I saw that.

[useridgoeshere]

Sales suck, even in relative terms. However, I don't know why people think you could abuse the franchise for years then all of a sudden things would just turn around because Marvel suddenly wants X-book money again.

Franky, I don't see why anyone would be particularly excited over any books in the line or think they'd draw in anyone other than diehard fans of a small set of characters. The stories still feel like retreads to me. In the past few years, we've seen too many alternate universe characters, dystopian futures, Phoenix, etc. I don't know what the precise answer is (if I did, I'd pitch it), but I think they need let someone with an original idea lead the thing. Although Gold is least original of them all and it's selling the best, so I doubt that's encouraging someone to try anything new.

[Luckystar.]

Red is following a similar path/sales trajectory as Astonishing. It will fall off the radar once the new books are announced.

[Ambaryerno]

Franky, I don't see why anyone would be particularly excited over any books in the line or think they'd draw in anyone other than diehard fans of a small set of characters. The stories still feel like retreads to me. In the past few years, we've seen too many alternate universe characters, dystopian futures, Phoenix, etc

But teh nostalgia!

[DearMachine]

Now maybe digital sales and tpb sales tell a completely different story. But every month we go through the same repeated discussions on the X-Men's decline, be it on screen, in merchandise or in the comics themselves. It is enough to make you stop and think that perhaps this is just the way things go. Perhaps, like the Fantastic Four before them, the X-Men just don't have an intergenerational appeal and all fan communities like this one are doing is holding onto the past. Holding onto the past, of course, being antithesis to the whole point of a franchise primarily concerned with mutation.

I don't think the problem is that the X-Men lack intergenerational appeal. I've seen a number of YA movies and television shows lately where the concept is basically people with powers who are hated and feared. Heck, that's the concept of YouTube Red's newest series (Impulse), and they are very clearly targeting Gen Z.

I think there are two major problems.

1) The X-Men's inaccessibility. I can give you an anecdote. I started rereading the books three weeks ago after taking around a five year break. To catch up, I had to research reading orders online, because I had no idea where to begin with the mess of books and numberings. When I started reading, I was confused until I had managed to sort out where each member of the massive cast was relative to five years ago, and who all the new people were. It also didn't help that there were duplicates of half the team running around. And this is with me having an extremely solid, encyclopedic grounding in the X-Men.

Compare that to Batman. About four or five years ago, I started rereading Batman after much, much longer break. I did not have to research reading orders, and I was caught up with the status quo in one issue.

2) Marvel has jobbed out the X-Men. Due to the Fox deal, they placed much more emphasis on the Avengers and the Inhumans. It's unsurprising that people are not getting excited about the property when the company itself has treated it as second rate. Now that they're getting it back, I am sure that will continue to change.

Also, I think having some strong movies or animated series would help the brand a lot. XTAS drove a toooon of new readers to the books in the 90s. It's why I started them.

With that said, I don't think paper sales ARE showing the whole picture, or even the majority of the picture. Many female comic fans I personally know buy in digital, because of the (largely unfair) stereotypes around LCSs. Younger fans buy in digital.