Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) Appreciation - "Higher, Further, Faster, More!"

[Koj☆]

Sales figures July:

Life of Captain Marvel #1- 74,298

Good start no?

[Mike_Murdock]

Yeah, that's very encouraging. There were a lot of variants, though, so I wonder if that was a factor.

[Wiccan]

For comparison, Mighty Captain Marvel #1 sold 48,519.

[rpmaluki]

This is an encouraging start. Hopefully the drop off won't be massive and she stabilises quickly.

[The BaRoN]

3 reasons for this

Pacheco is a great artist, she's not being written like a complete nasty moron and her hairs back the way it should be.

No more trying to make her look like Steve Rogers to tempt in male readers.

Enjoyed it and might even grab the trade as well, hope they launch her next solo with a top artist like Marquez unless he's on X-men.

[The BaRoN]

3 reasons for this

Pacheco is a great artist, she's not being written like a complete nasty moron and her hairs back the way it should be.

No more trying to make her look like Steve Rogers to tempt in male readers.

Enjoyed it and might even grab the trade as well, hope they launch her next solo with a top artist like Marquez unless he's on X-men.

[Wiccan]

3 reasons for this

Pacheco is a great artist, she's not being written like a complete nasty moron and her hairs back the way it should be.

No more trying to make her look like Steve Rogers to tempt in male readers.

Enjoyed it and might even grab the trade as well, hope they launch her next solo with a top artist like Marquez unless he's on X-men.

Err... Besides Pacheco's art, I don't think it's any of that. On the cover she still has short hair, and the writer is the same from her previous run, so there was no reason to think her personality would be written differently. More like with the post-credits scene on IW and more news about her movie coming(filming, concept art, etc), there's a growing interest on her, and that paired with the way Marvel has pushed this story as a good starting point, visit back to her origins, etc, caused a lot more people to give it a chance.

[MadFacedKid]

Err... Besides Pacheco's art, I don't think it's any of that. On the cover she still has short hair, and the writer is the same from her previous run, so there was no reason to think her personality would be written differently. More like with the post-credits scene on IW and more news about her movie coming(filming, concept art, etc), there's a growing interest on her, and that paired with the way Marvel has pushed this story as a good starting point, visit back to her origins, etc, caused a lot more people to give it a chance.

Reviews might of helped too

[kcekada]

1. I really don't like that cover for the omnibus, it's horrible. Should have her in her originally Ms. Marvel costume, not Captain Marvel in the center.
But I don't have the Ms. Marvel series from 1977, so I probably will get it anyway. They are also releasing this in paperback, with more volumes.

Odd choices being made there -- especially using an artist known primarily as a humor illustrator. That doesn't suit Carol and neither does that cover. I have her MMWs from that era - and don't need the omnibus with an unfortunate cover.

[Ascended]

It's just marketing. Carol has a movie coming out soon. So they released the trade to capitalize on that.

Cover is probably supposed to grab the attention of grade school kids, with an eye towards girls already broken in on stuff like DC Super Hero Girls.

Just guessing of course. But that's the kind of marketing approach I'd use.

[AndersonHoran]

So I read the issue and they retconned her father into being abusive...lovely,and why she let her brother drive home drunk-even admitting that alcohol issues is a family problem?

I think they should stop focusing on family drama on her stories,it's already getting repetitive.

[MarvelMaster616]

Sales figures July:

Life of Captain Marvel #1- 74,298

Good start no?

Yes, I'd say that's a very good start. And very well-deserved because it was an amazing issue. Definitely one of the best Captain Marvel comics since the Kelly Sue run.

[VirusChan]

Does anyone one here think that the sales numbers for the “Life of Captain Marvel” seem a bit too high? Like I want Carol to succeed and all but the numbers here don’t add up when it comes to recent book performances. Look at the numbers of this issue compared to other major #1 issues for the character.

Life of Captain Marvel by Margaret Stohl (2018)
14 Life of Captain Marvel #1 $4.99 Marvel 74,298
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...8/2018-07.html

Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue Deconnick (2012)
42 Captain Marvel #1 $2.99 Marvel 41,582
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...2/2012-07.html

Ms Marvel by Brian Reed (2006)
17 Ms Marvel #1 $2.99 Marvel 73,398
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...6/2006-03.html

If the sales figure on comichron is to be believed, then “Life of Captain Marvel” has almost doubled the start of KSD run with the debut of Carol under her new codename and costume, as well equate in sales to the reintroduction of the character after over a 25 year hiatus while being double the cost. Effectively making it the most successful single issue of Carol’s modern solo series.

Even if I take into the consideration of hype from her movie pushing some sales, a generally weaker industry and poor reception of Stohl’s past run would perceivably counteracted that sale boost. These are sales of books sold to stores, and if I was a store owner I wouldn’t invest ordering a book on mass with a writer and a character with poor reception as of late. If the book did sell, well I could see ordering another batch for subsequent months just not all at once.

So what actually happened here then? Sadly, I believe Marvel probably over shipped the book. This isn’t a stretch Marvel has over shipped books before (such as Secret Empire) and in this same month I observed both X-23 and Cosmic Ghost Rider possibly being over shipped as the both breached over 90,000 estimated units, yet neither of them are A-list character nor are getting a movie in the near future.

I find this sad, I want Carol to succeed but I am at a loss in how misrepresenting her solo book’s sale data is supposed to help in any way. Where is the arc that give Carol a diffentive arch villain? What about establishing a stable love interest? Stable set of supporting characters? Rogues gallery? Heroic motivation? There are things, simple things, that could be done which would help out the character immensely but Marvel would rather try to hide how well Carol is doing with new #1’s then understand and fix the issues present with the character.

Sorry for the rant, had a lot to say.

[responsarbre]

It's too early to judge, we won't really even be able to tell that much about TLOCM's sales until we see reorder figures or sales for issue 3, since retailers always order the first couple issues blind. (This is the big irony behind those huge drops between the first and second issue sales, because they're actually based on speculation from months prior.)

But I wouldn't be so cynical, either. Marvel did really try to promote this, and there really is an interest in the character with her movie coming up and with that teaser scene from Infinity War. Retailers were making order for the first issue shortly after that movie came out, and they probably were getting questions from customers about Carol. A streamlined origin story is an easy sell for interested customers.

And I'm not sure if Marvel overshipped X-23; Laura was coming how off of All-New Wolverine which was a pretty big seller (if only because of the Wolverine legacy title). And Donny Cates seems to be having this weird scary effect where his name actually manages to boost sales; in any case, Cosmic Ghost Rider was getting a lot of buzz online before release, as were the issues of Thanos he debuted in.

Edit: The Life of Captain Marvel #2 has gone to second print. Which seems like a good sign.

[Mike_Murdock]

I think the boost is a combination of people being interested in the story, the promotion from Joe Quesada, and the large number of variant covers. No reason to assume the story was overshipped without more info.