Reminder/refresher:
Comics and minis that are scheduled to take advantage of different movies, TV shows, and video games are harder to schedule when studios and game companies move around the release dates.
This isn't rocket science. Comics take (on average) three months to produce. That's the bare minimum of wiggle room when physically putting the book together-- and also the bare minimum time you can put a book on the schedule because the catalog dates retailers place orders on are three months into the future.
So, in a best case scenario-- in a world where you could snap your fingers and a book goes into production-- that three month window is how fast you could move once a movie, TV show, or video game cements their release dates. Three months
once you've now put the train on the tracks.
But the thing is, we don't live in a best case scenario world. There are other factors that have to be taken into account
before a new project (ongoing, mini-series, one-shot, etc) can be created. The editorial team needs to put together a creative team for that project. Maybe it's something they assign to creators, maybe it's something they accept multiple pitches for (with the other creators
knowing that that's the case). Either way, editorial is going to have to read through pitches and work back and forth with potential creative teams.
The project also has to get priced out/budgeted. Different creators cost different amounts. Different creators might be bigger draws for the project-- some projects/characters/premises might have a history of only selling so much. The numbers need to be crunched so that this new project is something that Marvel knows will be profitable for them in the end. This
also has to be weighed against different creators' availabilities to work on that project AND how long each creator usually takes to complete a project like that. It's a very big and daunting process-- and this all needs to take place while an editorial office is getting out their full slate of regular monthly books AND factoring in that initial three months or so it will take to get the first issue done.
It's easy to armchair quarterback this stuff and say, "Hey, that movie and/or video game is coming out. Why
doesn't Marvel have a book ready at the time of its release?"
But in the real world, it's not such an easy thing to pull off.
That said, one of the ways I broke into the super hero side of the industry was me-- as a freelancer-- taking a step back, looking at this kind of situation, and making a rock solid/common sense pitch to an editorial office. Back when I was writing licensed books for DC (Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, etc.), I noticed that they were pretty late to the game launching their DC Adventures books. Both the BATMAN ADVENTURES and SUPERMAN ADVENTURES comics went into production many months after the shows had launched. When JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES was announced, I wrote up a pitch that DC should develop the book far ahead of schedule so that they could have close to a simultaneous launch with the TV show. (I
know this sounds incredibly simple, but no one was moving on it. There's an expression by designer Scott Love that goes like this, "Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat's ear. But only the wisest of cats would think to look there.")
The office liked my pitch, moved ahead on the JL ADVENTURES book, and since I was the only freelancer who knew that job was available, I had half a dozen springboards/story pitches in with absolutely
no competition in sight. I sold four of those stories. After I turned in a couple, the Justice League editor said that they were good concepts and when he imagined them w/o the Adventures Style art, he thought they would have also made great regular DCU Justice League stories. He asked me if I wanted to pitch some DCU projects... and that first round of pitches is where my ARKHAM ASYLUM LIVING HELL mini-series came from. That was my kick off point for all the rest of my super hero work at DC and Marvel.
So I do get it. I get that when you take a step back it
feels obvious that a company should have those kinds of tie-ins ready to go at the proper time. But having worked
in the industry, where I've gotten a good look at how the sausage is actually made, I also understand how and why it's not always that easy a feat to pull off.