More Disney Variants coming for ASM!

[Yvonmukluk]

And they're making it a monthly thing.

OK, I'm just going to say it. Why are they giving all the variants to ASM when they're not even parodying Spider-Man? It's not like there aren't Avengers and X-Men comics that aren't also coming out. And since ASM's apparently the best seller, why does it need the bump?

[Coop]

Need something to make someone buy this book.

[Moxxi517]

Dan Slott suggested in another thread that ASM is getting all the variants compared to other books because it is a smashing commercial success. So like these variants are a suggestion that ASM Gang War is supposed to be a super mega hit in the eyes of retailers according to that claim. I really don't know enough about comics production to say whether that is right or wrong. But it does seem weird that ASM in particular is getting a bunch of Disney Avengers or X-Men themed variants. Those seem like a better fit for Avengers or X-Men, which also are plenty successful. Also does seem weird that for a book which is constantly topping the charts / succeeding hand over fist, that the actual direction of the book seems to be in a state of constant flux.

[Ursalink]

I have nothing against these covers. In fact, I enjoy them, but I would prefer for the covers not to be limited to The Sensational Six. I mean, why not using other Disney Characters?

- Disney's Hercules with Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer.
- Disney's Beast enhanced with gamma power.
- Disney Villains and Marvel Villains teaming up.

[skyvolt2000]

Dan Slott suggested in another thread that ASM is getting all the variants compared to other books because it is a smashing commercial success. So like these variants are a suggestion that ASM Gang War is supposed to be a super mega hit in the eyes of retailers according to that claim. I really don't know enough about comics production to say whether that is right or wrong. But it does seem weird that ASM in particular is getting a bunch of Disney Avengers or X-Men themed variants. Those seem like a better fit for Avengers or X-Men, which also are plenty successful. Also does seem weird that for a book which is constantly topping the charts / succeeding hand over fist, that the actual direction of the book seems to be in a state of constant flux.

While some of these variants do sell like Dan Slott says and even Dynamite confesses they do it because those variants do help move product.

All in reality is this stuff tends to make store OVER ORDER books. That end up either sold out or being tossed in bin and clearance sales as Midtown Comics tend to do.

The real question is why are they ONLY doing this with ASM.

Unless they are REALLY trying to sell ASM to folks despite the complaints.

[CaptainUniverse]

Oh great, more clutter for the back issue bins.

[Celgress]

Need something to make someone buy this book.

My thoughts exactly, but it won't be me. I'm tired of cheap gimmicks. I want good storytelling and on-point characterization things the current ASM run is sorely lacking.

[Konnik92]

Dan Slott suggested in another thread that ASM is getting all the variants compared to other books because it is a smashing commercial success. So like these variants are a suggestion that ASM Gang War is supposed to be a super mega hit in the eyes of retailers according to that claim. I really don't know enough about comics production to say whether that is right or wrong. But it does seem weird that ASM in particular is getting a bunch of Disney Avengers or X-Men themed variants. Those seem like a better fit for Avengers or X-Men, which also are plenty successful. Also does seem weird that for a book which is constantly topping the charts / succeeding hand over fist, that the actual direction of the book seems to be in a state of constant flux.

You said a mouthful. The fact that those variant covers are more logically suited for X-Men and Avengers issues instead of ASM issues, suggests that the current run doesn't sell that well in LCSs and they focus even more on collectors now. I mean, Wells's has more variant covers by issue #32 than Spencer's total run of #74 issues. It's sad that in order to increase sales, the editorial decided to make as many variant covers as possible for each issue instead of, oh i don't know, make more compelling stories, that dosen't make the readers lose and turn their attention elsewhere, dropping the book. "Oh, but the current ASM run's sales are doing great. The haters are just complaining and are just a minority". Yeah right, give me a break. Spencer's run didn't had that many variants and yet sales then were much better because while his stories weren't "outstanding", at least he wrote the characters staying true to their source material.

[fjmac]

It's so transparent

Even the comicsgate numbnuts could have top selling books if they could make Disney variants.

[Moxxi517]

You said a mouthful. The fact that those variant covers are more logically suited for X-Men and Avengers issues instead of ASM issues, suggests that the current run doesn't sell that well in LCSs and they focus even more on collectors now. I mean, Wells's has more variant covers by issue #32 than Spencer's total run of #74 issues. It's sad that in order to increase sales, the editorial decided to make as many variant covers as possible for each issue instead of, oh i don't know, make more compelling stories, that dosen't make the readers lose and turn their attention elsewhere, dropping the book. "Oh, but the current ASM run's sales are doing great. The haters are just complaining and are just a minority". Yeah right, give me a break. Spencer's run didn't had that many variants and yet sales then were much better because while his stories weren't "outstanding", at least he wrote the characters staying true to their source material.

My response was a bit wordier because I wanted to make it clear that I was describing what I felt were Dan's argument's rather than my own. I'm skeptical about it, but I thought the argument should be presented here to mitigate the idea that the conversation is too biased against the books.

Some things I will say about Spencer and variant counts is that ASM has been a leader at Marvel in variants since BND. Spencer and the post superior Slott stuff had a similar number of variants. So some amount of variants can be explained away due to industry trends. Those numbers you're referencing take in account second printings before making the claim about variants, but I've never seen the numbers that consider retailer variants which Dan highlighted in particular as being bets by retailers that the books are going to be good / high sellers. (These might exist though) We also have to consider that Spider-Man is unique at marvel in terms of popularity / prominence, so a more accurate comparison for variants would arguably be Superman/Batman variants rather than other marvel comics. I saw some people arguing that Batman/Superman have had comparable amounts of variants at different points in time. But again I haven't seen the numbers.
(This is just me trying to be as good faith as possible to some arguments I didn't think were going to be represented here, so make of that what you will)

Like at the end of the day, ASM does not act like a book that is swimming in success. And the actual quality of the book is pretty far in the pits right now. And the actual sales data is pretty obscured by all the ICV2 nonsense. I thought it was a really smart idea from skyvolt to consider that even if the argument Dan presented about retailers is true, that that could just be an instance of retailers overvaluing the brand name of ASM to move units. Feel like that is something that would eventually cause retailer variants to taper off, but idk, food for thought. And in general, it's always good to be skeptical of corporate PR.