Black Panther Appreciation 2019

[MindofShadow]

Just give these old heads batman, spider-man, and wolverine, and call it a day! Better yet, save all the fresh new fun cool ideas for the MCU! Burn the comic book stores down!

I don't read DC anymore but there top 10 books were...

Batman
Batman
Batman
Heroes in Crisis (isn't this an event with batman?)
Flash
Batman
Batman
Flash
Justice League (im assuming Batman is still on the team?)
Justice League

At marvel, if you throw out the #1's because thats cheating..

Venom (wtf??)
Spider-Man
Xmen
Xmen
Spider-Man
Wolverine
F4
Avengers
Avengers
GoG


If you want some good news though...

Miles Morales #3, 35K... outselling Avengers mini, Iron Man, deadpool, the other wolverine, Conan, Xforce, X23, Punisher, BP, Doctor Strange...

Without that Bendis keeping it afloat stuff!

[DigiCom]

Damn. Honestly, the whole comic book concept is flawed as is. 5 bucks for 22 pages, 25% of it being ad space, no guarantee that the art wouldn't be shitty, and you gotta come back next month to read the next incremental chapter??? No bueno. It's probably why most of Batman Spiderman and Wolverine's mainstream popularity came from the cartoons.. which came out weekly (sometimes daily) and without additional monetary expenses for that 30 minutes (20 mins minus commercials) of engagement. Not even factoring the added dimension of the video games. The comic book characters themselves are here to stay but the platforms that they're most accepted on... ooh boy!

Is the DC streaming service a "netflix" for DC comic books where they don't gotta go to the shop but just pay 9.99/month and get their choices of DC comics to read online eveyr Wednesday? Probably not, the math probably wouldn't add up to cover the cost and i'm sure comic book shops wouldn't appreciate that. Better to cannibalize the audience than the suppliers!! But since we're the audience, maybe it's better to cannibalize the supplier? Dog eat dog world Mario! Idk

"And I've got milk bone underwear."

There are three major problems with the superhero comic industry (borrowed from a Twine I read once):

1) Affordability. The books cost too much for too little benefit, compared to other forms of entertainment.
2) Accessibility. It's almost impossible for a new reader to understand what's going on with a specific character, especially if they know the character from other media. Instead of telling a linear story, we end up with a branching kudzu plot (as an editor I used to know liked to put it) with storylines branching across multiple titles.
3) Marketing. As I've said here more than once... Marvel's customer isn't the reader... it's the store. They get paid whether a book is read or not, so long as it's been ordered (particularly since so few comics are turnable these days). So their entire marketing strategy is to convince the store owners to order the book... via Variants, Incentives, and (of course) Events™. Whether the books are actually good is almost beside the point.

And that's not even getting into the broken ordering system, where an LCS has to decide months in advance how much to order, often based solely on cover art and a blurb (unless it's marked CLASSIFIED, of course). By the time an eager young geek walks into the store (assuming they know the comic exists, and where the store is), the decision has already been made for the next three issues. That's why a book can get canceled before the first issue is out on the stands. Publishers live and die on the pre-order.

Yes, there are books that do better in trade or the school market. But that's a completely different marketing stream, and doesn't actually need singles to work. Hell, the best-selling graphic novel at Amazon (according to their Top 100 list) is something called Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild. It's at #22 on the list. And it's a self-contained 224-page hardcover.

For $5.99.

Meanwhile, the best-selling Marvel trade paperback (excluding those with movies) is Ewing's Immortal Hulk: Volume 2, which came out last month... with a sales rank of #10,416 .

What does it all mean? That while superheroes are a cultural force to be reckoned with... superhero comics don't mean a damn thing.

[rpmaluki]

I don't read DC anymore but there top 10 books were...

Batman
Batman
Batman
Heroes in Crisis (isn't this an event with batman?)
Flash
Batman
Batman
Flash
Justice League (im assuming Batman is still on the team?)
Justice League

At marvel, if you throw out the #1's because thats cheating..

Venom (wtf??)
Spider-Man
Xmen
Xmen
Spider-Man
Wolverine
F4
Avengers
Avengers
GoG


If you want some good news though...

Miles Morales #3, 35K... outselling Avengers mini, Iron Man, deadpool, the other wolverine, Conan, Xforce, X23, Punisher, BP, Doctor Strange...

Without that Bendis keeping it afloat stuff!

I believe The Flash featured Batman.

[Rumble]

"And I've got milk bone underwear."

There are three major problems with the superhero comic industry (borrowed from a Twine I read once):

1) Affordability. The books cost too much for too little benefit, compared to other forms of entertainment.
2) Accessibility. It's almost impossible for a new reader to understand what's going on with a specific character, especially if they know the character from other media. Instead of telling a linear story, we end up with a branching kudzu plot (as an editor I used to know liked to put it) with storylines branching across multiple titles.
3) Marketing. As I've said here more than once... Marvel's customer isn't the reader... it's the store. They get paid whether a book is read or not, so long as it's been ordered (particularly since so few comics are turnable these days). So their entire marketing strategy is to convince the store owners to order the book... via Variants, Incentives, and (of course) Events™. Whether the books are actually good is almost beside the point.

And that's not even getting into the broken ordering system, where an LCS has to decide months in advance how much to order, often based solely on cover art and a blurb (unless it's marked CLASSIFIED, of course). By the time an eager young geek walks into the store (assuming they know the comic exists, and where the store is), the decision has already been made for the next three issues. That's why a book can get canceled before the first issue is out on the stands. Publishers live and die on the pre-order.

Yes, there are books that do better in trade or the school market. But that's a completely different marketing stream, and doesn't actually need singles to work. Hell, the best-selling graphic novel at Amazon (according to their Top 100 list) is something called Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild. It's at #22 on the list. And it's a self-contained 224-page hardcover.

For $5.99.

Meanwhile, the best-selling Marvel trade paperback (excluding those with movies) is Ewing's Immortal Hulk: Volume 2, which came out last month... with a sales rank of #10,416 .

What does it all mean? That while superheroes are a cultural force to be reckoned with... superhero comics don't mean a damn thing.

Honestly sounds like in order for actual comic books to prosper, the middle man (comic book stores) need to die or be completely reconfigured to where it would essentially be death for the current establishment. As it currently stands, a Winston Duke M'Baku book will never have a fair shot because casuals who would buy it face too many cumbersome* roadblocks, and by then the fate of the book would've already been decided anyway! <-- because those casuals didn't know they had to boss up on the store owner 3 months prior to get that store owner to order more books of a book they as casuals didn't know would exist! That's asking a damn lot if i'm a kid who just wants to read a damn M'Baku book.

*The first time i walked into a comic book store was 1990-something in Queens NY, when i was a lil panther cub and i was confused as hell with all the boxes and stacks of comics everywhere. I think i ended up grabbing a couple random issues of maximum carnage, whichever ones had venom on the cover, bc i'd been playing the genesis game nonestop and Venom was "cool". But it was sensory overload in there and i had no idea where the 0-day releases were or what that even meant, nor what to look for... so i just went with what i was familiar with. That's a problematic self-fulfilling prophecy that deterred me from whatever fresh new fun diverse book was probably begging for my attention in 1994

[MindofShadow]

I am not 100% sure about how I feel about T'challa being THAT noble towards vampires but hot damn, this issue kicked ass for Blade. Basically a blade issue.

T'challa got a few more random ass gadgets lol.

[MindofShadow]

Honestly sounds like in order for actual comic books to prosper, the middle man (comic book stores) need to die or be completely reconfigured to where it would essentially be death for the current establishment. As it currently stands, a Winston Duke M'Baku book will never have a fair shot because casuals who would buy it face too many cumbersome* roadblocks, and by then the fate of the book would've already been decided anyway! <-- because those casuals didn't know they had to boss up on the store owner 3 months prior to get that store owner to order more books of a book they as casuals didn't know would exist! That's asking a damn lot if i'm a kid who just wants to read a damn M'Baku book.

*The first time i walked into a comic book store was 1990-something in Queens NY, when i was a lil panther cub and i was confused as hell with all the boxes and stacks of comics everywhere. I think i ended up grabbing a couple random issues of maximum carnage, whichever ones had venom on the cover, bc i'd been playing the genesis game nonestop and Venom was "cool". But it was sensory overload in there and i had no idea where the 0-day releases were or what that even meant, nor what to look for... so i just went with what i was familiar with. That's a problematic self-fulfilling prophecy that deterred me from whatever fresh new fun diverse book was probably begging for my attention in 1994

Only way comics survive is likely thorugh some sort of digital netflix situation, so basically Marvel Unlimited without the 6 month waiting period. With trades in the bigger book stores.

That would 100% destroy every single comic shop though.

[Cville]

I am not 100% sure about how I feel about T'challa being THAT noble towards vampires but hot damn, this issue kicked ass for Blade. Basically a blade issue.

T'challa got a few more random ass gadgets lol.

Is it more of that wanting to save them stuff that he monologued in the Vb mound?

[MindofShadow]

Is it more of that wanting to save them stuff that he monologued in the Vb mound?

Yes, taken to little more of an extreme than I would like because

spoilers:

he was talking about the head evil vampire dudes. not random goons

end of spoilers

I think the biggest issue was that

spoilers:

shadow colonel was disabled and defensless and blade cut him in half anyway lol.

end of spoilers

Just a touch too noble for my tastes. I can get it (he isn't wolverine) but dudes were evil, shouldn't have been thta big of a deal. But avengers don't kill blah blah stuff

spoilers:

then agian tchalla mentioned consequences but Blade was right back in Avengers tower, so my head canon is T'challa was putting on a show in front of ht eothers then they got back an dlaughed about it and moved on lol

end of spoilers

[KOSLOX]

Only way comics survive is likely thorugh some sort of digital netflix situation, so basically Marvel Unlimited without the 6 month waiting period. With trades in the bigger book stores.

That would 100% destroy every single comic shop though.

I think comic shops have prevented the overall growth of comics.

[Rumble]

Only way comics survive is likely thorugh some sort of digital netflix situation, so basically Marvel Unlimited without the 6 month waiting period. With trades in the bigger book stores.

That would 100% destroy every single comic shop though.

That's exactly what I think needs to happen. As i read BoG's post, that was all that came to mind honestly. That and death. Death of the comic shops.

That way you can just search for M'Baku or Black Panther and have all the relevant content without having to deal with being boxed out by all the batman/spiderman/wolverine overloads. Just pay your 9.99/month and you get everything. Or everything Marvel?? Then DC comes out with their own 9.99. Then Image comes out with their 4.99, then Dark Horse (if that's still a thing), then

[XPac]

Yes, taken to little more of an extreme than I would like because

spoilers:

he was talking about the head evil vampire dudes. not random goons

end of spoilers

I think the biggest issue was that

spoilers:

shadow colonel was disabled and defensless and blade cut him in half anyway lol.

end of spoilers

Just a touch too noble for my tastes. I can get it (he isn't wolverine) but dudes were evil, shouldn't have been thta big of a deal. But avengers don't kill blah blah stuff

spoilers:

then agian tchalla mentioned consequences but Blade was right back in Avengers tower, so my head canon is T'challa was putting on a show in front of ht eothers then they got back an dlaughed about it and moved on lol

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Him being the main bad guy is probably a big part of the reason why T'Challa was against killing him. He may have some value as far as information goes. He might know where the rest of his crew is, or could be used as bait should they try and free him. And obviously in the end he did know more than they knew, in that he was in league with Dracula all along. For a guy like T'Challa, he was probably more valuable dead than alive. But more than anything that scene was about putting over Blade. Guys like him or Wolverine or Punisher are rebellious anti-establishment guys who follow their own rules. But you need rules in order to break them. Hence a scene with the Avenger authority figure saying Avengers don't kill, so we can see Blade kill anyways to show what a bad @$$ he is.

end of spoilers

[DigiCom]

Only way comics survive is likely thorugh some sort of digital netflix situation, so basically Marvel Unlimited without the 6 month waiting period. With trades in the bigger book stores.

That would 100% destroy every single comic shop though.

Which, as it happens, is EXACTLY what Viz is doing with their imported manga... for a nominal fee of only $1.99 a month you not only get access to day & date translations of the newest chapters of their Japanese titles, but also almost their entire back library (with the restriction that you can only read 100 chapters a day, but that's not exactly onerous).

Can you imaging if Comixology followed suit? Last 4-6 issues free, rest via membership? Diamond might die in months.

Honestly sounds like in order for actual comic books to prosper, the middle man (comic book stores) need to die or be completely reconfigured to where it would essentially be death for the current establishment. As it currently stands, a Winston Duke M'Baku book will never have a fair shot because casuals who would buy it face too many cumbersome* roadblocks, and by then the fate of the book would've already been decided anyway! <-- because those casuals didn't know they had to boss up on the store owner 3 months prior to get that store owner to order more books of a book they as casuals didn't know would exist! That's asking a damn lot if i'm a kid who just wants to read a damn M'Baku book.

Got it in one, brother Rumble. The biggest obstacle to the growth of comics as a medium is Diamond.

[MindofShadow]

That's exactly what I think needs to happen. As i read BoG's post, that was all that came to mind honestly. That and death. Death of the comic shops.

That way you can just search for M'Baku or Black Panther and have all the relevant content without having to deal with being boxed out by all the batman/spiderman/wolverine overloads. Just pay your 9.99/month and you get everything. Or everything Marvel?? Then DC comes out with their own 9.99. Then Image comes out with their 4.99, then Dark Horse (if that's still a thing), then

DC made their own streaming service... JUST DC... and didn't even relaly put comics on there.

I mean... lol

Marvel already has the system in place with Marvel Unlimited. Just have to kill the 6month wait period. I'd pay more to get rid of that... (that and make it a bit easier to use)

But they would take a large hit initially money wise that is for sure. But it's disney... im sure they can handle it with the change in their couch

[KingNomarch]

In West Coast Avengers the characters Fuse and his sister are revealed to be Wakandan and their mother was a Dora that was either exiled or she left while their father was mentioned to have something to do with water and it showed their mother looking out into the ocean.

[XPac]

In West Coast Avengers the characters Fuse and his sister are revealed to be Wakandan and their mother was a Dora that was either exiled or she left while their father was mentioned to have something to do with water and it showed their mother looking out into the ocean.

It's probably a stretch, but I wonder if Zobae hooked up with Namor after her Wakandan exile or whatever it was.

Probably not though.