I guess that having no X-Men movies in the next years will affect the sales

[GigaBalls]

Comics were a lot cheaper in the 80 and 90s too. Most went for $1.99 or $2.99, kids could convince their parents to get them one at the store and people were more likely to grab it for that cheap.

Now they are $5-7 a pop, and in today's economy where most people aren't making wages much more than what they were in the 90s, many people have to turn away from those purchases.

[Theleviathan]

Comics were a lot cheaper in the 80 and 90s too. Most went for $1.99 or $2.99, kids could convince their parents to get them one at the store and people were more likely to grab it for that cheap.

Now they are $5-7 a pop, and in today's economy where most people aren't making wages much more than what they were in the 90s, many people have to turn away from those purchases.

It also pushes people to just wait it out and buy collections instead. I think this is a very good point, comic books have become less of a casual purchase than they used to be.

[Criticalfan]

The comics being decompressed don't help. Now it's like 5 minutes of reading for $4.99. instead of hours of content from an online game or matinee of Endgame.

[WebLurker]

It also pushes people to just wait it out and buy collections instead. I think this is a very good point, comic books have become less of a casual purchase than they used to be.

Heck, the collections are a better way to read them, anyways.

[Captain Buttocks]

So - apologies as this is going to be a bit of a long post.

I did some part-time work in a couple of comic shops back around the turn of the millenium, and right as the first X-Men film was coming out. At the time, Marvel was pushing them like crazy, and there were a slew of specific movie tie-in comics being published, which both stores ordered an optimistic quantity of. Now, the store in Glasgow was a bit of an anomaly as it had a smaller shop operating out of the back, and the now sadly passed away owner of that shop, Pete, would often chat comics history with me. When I told him about the tie-ins he just shook his head and said they wouldn't sell, nor would it affect long-term sales on the monthlies.

Just as a note - at this point, both X-Men titles were easily Marvel's best-selling regular titles. X-Men was Marvel's flagship title, and Wolverine was easily a top 10 title also. It's hard for newer readers to imagine right now, but X-Men was essential to Marvel's well-being.

Pete's points were well made, the tie-in books were in bargain bins within a few months, and any attendees to the film who came in and picked up an X-book, (if they could even *find* the relevant ones in a bloated, poor line at the time) were mostly completely baffled by how dense and incomprehensible the two flagship books were. (My own efforts to push Generation X on every customer were equally unsuccessful!). All in all, the film doesn't attract new readers, due to problems which Marvel especialy has refused to ever acknowledge.

Fast forward a year and New X-Men becomes the premier x-book, with a look more closely resembling the film and a futuristic sci-fi feel. Ultimate X-Men is launched with a similar look (sadly with awful, awful writing) but as a more "accessible" (i.e - everybody is a nihilistic douchebag) feel. But there is no film to promote.

By the time 2003 rolls around and the far superior X2 film is released, there are no additional tie-in comics, Morrison is no longer speaking to Jemas or Quesada, Ultimate X-men is a disaster but still some token efforts at a tie-in are made. Stryker returns in X-Treme X-Men, and Uncanny has a 25 cents promotional comic so bad it'd drive anyone away from the medium for life.

After that and the departures of both Morrison and Bill Jemas, Marvel realise they can make more money off intellectual properties they own the rights to, like Avengers, but they just cant claim them to be Marvel's premier team when any old crap with an X on it will reliably trounce most Avengers fare in the sales charts. One thing people forget - from about 2001 onwards there was a *lot* of quality coming out the X-offices. New X-Men, X-Statix/X-Force, District X, Simone on Deadpool, Nicieza's C&D, early Astonishing, Madrox, Mystique, Exles and Emma Frost all had good points, which helped counter-balance Chuck Austen's continued presence. Not all of these were great sellers, but they each had merits.

Solution - get someone with no X-Book to write a terrible crossover that sinks the expanding creativity in the X-line to go back to the same old, same old. A sort of crossover equivalent of Bob Harras, if you will. Brian Michael Bendis (by a strange coincidence the Avengers writer, the same book Marvel wanted to pass off as their number 1 property) obliges, leaves the X-line marooned, and Marvel immediately get to work making billions in Avengers dollars, while the x-books flounder for years. (In fairness Avi Arad had long believed in the Avengers characters, but who wants the second-rate team?)

Even things that could have been minimum effort to publicise some of the "better" movies (reprint Mystique for First Class, reprint the Claremont/Miller Wolverine in 2013, a Quicksilver film cover to ANXF in 2014) didn't happen because the will wasn't there. Too busy making Inhumans replace X-men, right? (Funny how *that* went, isn't it?)

So - in answer to the original poster's question. I don't think a lack of films will affect the X-books. They just need to be good, and well-promoted again. I used to buy *everything* X-Men related. After House of M I started being more selective, and after Bendis took over in 2014 I quietly dropped all of them altogether. I've nipped back in here-and-there (I bought Mojo worldwide and hadnt a clue who half these nitwit characters were. All bloody clones of wolverine (bloodstone or something?) and whatnnot. And no, I dont care to find out either. Also bought til our hearts stop as i hadnt seen Havok since Rick remender requested we all give him a gammy, and it was good but immediately cancelled. Suffered from traced art too.)

Marvel appear to now be taking more of an interest in the X-line, promoting Hickman's upcoming run in comics and on Youtube, and hopefully paring the line back. The downside of Hickman's upcoming run is that everything now, from this crossover to current Uncanny etc feels inconsequential, despite whatever quality levels exist - I wouldnt know as I have zero interest currently in the line, and Rosenberg's Multiple Man made me wary of anything associated with him, although til our hearts stop was good set up for something that immediately went nowhere and got cancelled. Typical of the X-books.

Immortal Hulk has proven that books, if well-written and correctly promoted *can* attract readers (hell, even I am reading it). Hawkeye by Fraction did the same. But rebuilding the X-line after years of mismanagement and treating it like a bloated, messy Greg Land-afflicted afterthought is something that's going to take time, consistency, good stories with actual consequences and commitment from management. I hope it happens, as X-Men are my first comic love, but given their abominable treatment by Maarvel, I'm not holding my breath!

tl:dr - write some good books and people might buy them.


Oh - and on the subject of waiting for the trades - I tend to do that nowadays as I am bloody sick of the advert pages ruining the story. In fairness to Marvel, they are not the only guilty party. I tore up my copy of Sandman overture #1 because it was borderline unreadable, and just decided to wait (ages) for the trade which I never actually bought....