Why does Marvel even bother with "lesser" titles?

[ShadowDemon]

The notion that a publisher deliberately publishes a book with hope of failing or not competing with it's more reknown titles is just silly.

No one is suggesting that. I certainly am not.

Shops are less inclined to support it unless it's marketed as part of a franchise (Avengers, X-men, etc.). Which why there are so many spin-offs with various adjectives. Most of these books are re-iterations of franchised heavy-hitters.

That's 180 degrees opposite of what the shop owners I know say. They WANT fewer spin-offs and more title diversity.

[Iron Maiden]

The only thing a fan can to support diversity is to have a pull list with their LCS . That way he knows fans are interested, hence he will order the books. The days when the shop would just bulk order and depend on fans walking and a picking up a bunch of books is pretty much over. An LCS will generally order what they know that they can sell.

[klinton]

I would sooner see short runs of books I love than nothing at all.

At the very least, even if these fringe titles aren't lighting a fire under comic book shoppers, they offer a chance to touch base with some of the corners of the Marvel U that don't get a lot of love.

The day Marvel up and stops putting out smaller books will be the day I stop reading Marvel.

[Zeitgeist]

Why try anything ever?

[Sea Hound]

Almost all of my favourite Marvel titles in the last 10 years have been "lesser" books. Not being on a flagship title often frees up a writer to write a much tighter plot without too much interference from editorial and others.


Off the top of my head, here's some of the one's I'm most grateful they went ahead with:
X Factor Investigations
Nextwave
X-Statix
Gillen and Immonen's runs on Journey into Mystery
Spurrier's X Men Legacy
Incredible Hercules
Soule and Slott's She Hulk
Thor the Mighty Avenger

[cranger]

That's 180 degrees opposite of what the shop owners I know say. They WANT fewer spin-offs and more title diversity.

That might be true, it depends on the shop owner and the local market. Readers often say the same thing but if that was true they would not keep buying the franchise titles. Shops can really only support what has the most potential for selling. They are not going to buy 100 copies of some brand new book just to support it unless there is some indicator it will sell.

[brainwasher]

I'm glad Marvel gives lesser titles a chance, but the market is too saturated with Avengers, X-books and events being their "important" books to ever allow these "lesser" books to get any attention. I guess that's why they try to launch so many books in between or spinning off from events, but they fail to gain any traction once the next big thing is announced. I give them credit for trying, but they dig their own grave so to speak.

The idea of more/less "important" books though, it's not Marvel's fault but of the stupid mindset of many readers.

[brainwasher]

It is Marvel's fault if Marvel actually made commercials to advertise their comics, instead of just advertising when they have gimmicks like female Thor's or black Captain America more people would read them. There is no one to blame but Marvel!!!

They push what they can push. Do you really think Colbert of Goldberg are interested in presenting to their audience Moon Knight or New Warriors? Why? To have them switch channel? Captain America and Thor are iconic characters know by people that don't read comics, if they change fundamentally is news, people is at least curious.

[brainwasher]

Marvel was a business in the 90s and before and they had MUCH greater levels of support for the B- and C-listers. We had Darkhawk, we had Silver Sable, we had Cloak and Dagger, we had Power Pack, and the list went on.

Not all of them sold "X-men numbers". MOST of them didn't sell those numbers. But Marvel kept publishing under the "big tent" theory (have as many types of characters and titles as possible to bring various audiences into the store).

Nothing is allowed to build an audience anymore.

That audience doesn't exist anymore. In the 90 books like Darkhawk, Silver Sable and so on were midlist book selling like Iron Man or Captain America are currently selling. Now Captain America sells less than Cloak and Dagger in the 90s and books about minor character rarely sell enough to last. It's not Marvel's fault if videogames and movies are more dynamic and interactive than ever, we finally have high level serial art in tv shows, we can all bring computer in our pocket and so on. The world has changed, comic book are a less attractive entertainment medium that they were 20 years before, not due to the medium or the publishers but all the new option that arised.

[Iron Maiden]

They push what they can push. Do you really think Colbert of Goldberg are interested in presenting to their audience Moon Knight or New Warriors? Why? To have them switch channel? Captain America and Thor are iconic characters know by people that don't read comics, if they change fundamentally is news, people is at least curious.

You have better luck with the print media. Last weeks media blitz on the talk shows were a bit of an anomaly. USA today has carried some comic book related news over the years. I recall years back when Karl Kesel wrote a one shot issue of Fantastic Four that finally dealt with the Thing's Jewish heritage and that issue was covered in the Chicago Sun Times along quite a few other newspapers. The Chicago Trib sometimes has a comic-book related pieces in their entertainment section.

[chamber-music]

I wonder if newer comic fans are as receptive to trying books starring lesser known heroes as fans in the past might of been.

I think people might just stick to what they know with names like Wolverine, Spidey, ect and not venture to try some of the heroes they might not of heard of.

[krazijoe]

So Marvel can sell more #1's.

[skyvolt2000]

So Marvel can sell more #1's.

In the letter page of Savage Dragon 196-Erik Lawson said if you have to keep doing that-what you got isn't that special. That is nothing more than a quick sale bump and nothing more.

It is Marvel's fault if Marvel actually made commercials to advertise their comics, instead of just advertising when they have gimmicks like female Thor's or black Captain America more people would read them. There is no one to blame but Marvel!!!

I think there might be a law that prevents that now. I want to say sometime around 1994 it happened along with the new educational requirements for kids shows which is why you no longer see cartoon on broadcast tv now.

If there is no law-where are you going to promote them?

Then you have to look at costs.

A million won't do much if you try American Idol's ad slots? That might work for Fox's Sunday Animation shows.

What show or network are you going to air them?

Are you going to do ads on BET? TV One? IFC? Bravo? Lifetime? Univision?

And you can NOT assume anything. Lets say I did ads for Captain Falcon & Mighty Avengers on BET only and sale are horrible. Someone will say "hey they did ads on a black network!"

Not every black person watches BET. You just wasted money.

While DC is taking post shots at what Marvel did on the View-that was really your best option-you reached a larger and more diverse group with that versus anything else.

An LCS will generally order what they know that they can sell.

Not every store has that option. Archie Afterlife & Black Dynamite were victims of that for some reason. I know a ton of comic book stores that lost money because they couldn't reorder those issues.

Some store can't order it and others won't because the competition has it cheaper.

Shops can really only support what has the most potential for selling. They are not going to buy 100 copies of some brand new book just to support it unless there is some indicator it will sell.

But stores don't do that. They will over order the big guns and then get mad because they still have a ton of unsold copies. That's the issue with Avengers and so many others.

I can sell every issue of Ms Marvel at cover price. Yet half my stock of New Avengers gets sold at a dollar.

Common sense has to come into play. When do you stop ordering 100 copies of Spider-Man and order just enough to sell at cover price?

I bet if we really looked at sold issues of books-I bet we would be shocked at who sold how many copies.

Who would be the true success

Ms Marvel with 34K orders and actually sold 33K or Spider-Man ordered 70K and sold 60K?

[Zero Hunter]

I would much rather read a B or C list character book than I would an A lister anymore. You just get better stories since they can do more with the characters. A listers ALWAYS revert back to the same old boring status que no matter what after a while, and when you have read that happen 3 or 4 times it just gets boring since you know nothing is going to stick. With the lesser knows characters writers have more freedom to tell better stories without having to put everything back to how they got it when they are done, and changes they made can actually continue with the next writer.

[pageturner]

I would much rather read a B or C list character book than I would an A lister anymore. You just get better stories since they can do more with the characters. A listers ALWAYS revert back to the same old boring status que no matter what after a while, and when you have read that happen 3 or 4 times it just gets boring since you know nothing is going to stick. With the lesser knows characters writers have more freedom to tell better stories without having to put everything back to how they got it when they are done, and changes they made can actually continue with the next writer.

that is the thing they are not tied to as much BS backstory. A new or under used character you can do almost anything with.