Wonder Woman #37 Preview

[Blacksun]

Do you have a link? I only see the top 10 and market share numbers at the Diamond site.

here http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/...ticleID=157668

[Outside_85]

I have to wonder what those who defended Azzarello's run when questioned why, if it was such a great run, why it wasn't selling better, will still point out that sales don't always equate to the quality of a book now that the Finchs have taken over if the Finchs sales become similar to or less than Azzarello's?

Since I am one of those:
-The numbers we have to go one are the US domestic physical sales only, we have no idea what it would look like if the rest of the world and the web was added.
-I (and those like me) defended it in that manner because people used the low (for them) numbers to attack it.
-Regardless of Azzarello/Chiang's run being the consistently best written and drawn book of the New 52, I was well aware it wasn't a book for everyone. A politically tinted book like Wonder Woman never willl because it's an automatic turn off for most people.
-Despite Diana's age and importance to DC it is still a female helmed book in a still mostly male orientated market. (You still have dads that will go: "My son isn't going to read about a lady!" and so on)

Finally:
-As have been said many times before, sales are not an indicator of actual quality, stuff like Michael Bay's movies (or Johns writing) are living proof of garbage selling like gold bricks. As reviews seem to show overall, the Finch's first issue was not well recieved, therefore it doesn't have the quality to lean on once the sales start to dip.

[brettc1]

This issue will get an extra boost from Superman fans buying it, I suppose.

[Dr. Poison]

here http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/...ticleID=157668

Wow........it came in at #18? That's almost as good as Azzarello's #1 relaunch which came in at #13. Congrats to the Finchs!

[Blacksun]

This issue will get an extra boost from Superman fans buying it, I suppose.

this issue has 3 covers, the standart, one variant with superman and another from darwin cooke. For sure it will help orders

I wouldn't be worried with low sales for the next creative team, Snyder is campaigning hard to write WW, he can deal with it

Wow........it came in at #18? That's almost as good as Azzarello's #1 relaunch which came in at #13. Congrats to the Finchs!

7.9 #1 Brian Azzarello
5.9 #36 Meredith Finch

do not forget that Azz WW had a 2nd printing

[Dr. Poison]

Since I am one of those:
-The numbers we have to go one are the US domestic physical sales only, we have no idea what it would look like if the rest of the world and the web was added.
-I (and those like me) defended it in that manner because people used the low (for them) numbers to attack it.
-Regardless of Azzarello/Chiang's run being the consistently best written and drawn book of the New 52, I was well aware it wasn't a book for everyone. A politically tinted book like Wonder Woman never willl because it's an automatic turn off for most people.
-Despite Diana's age and importance to DC it is still a female helmed book in a still mostly male orientated market. (You still have dads that will go: "My son isn't going to read about a lady!" and so on)

Finally:
-As have been said many times before, sales are not an indicator of actual quality, stuff like Michael Bay's movies (or Johns writing) are living proof of garbage selling like gold bricks. As reviews seem to show overall, the Finch's first issue was not well recieved, therefore it doesn't have the quality to lean on once the sales start to dip.

How do you figure that Meredith's first issue "was not well received" when it got an overall rating of 5.9 on Comic Book Roundup:


http://comicbookroundup.com/comic-bo...oman-(2011)/36


A 5.9 is above average. Granted, that's not as high as Azzarello got but there are few things that could factor into this equation:


1.) Azzarello had written many comic stories before taking on Wonder Woman therefore he(and Chiang) had quite a fan-following on the book. David Finch has a fan-following due to his history as well but Meredith - this is only her 3rd published comic story. I'd say a 5.9 for such a story is pretty darn good.

2.) Several of the reviewers that rated Azz's run positively flat-out said they had never read any or much Wonder Woman before(and then later even went so far as to say it was the BEST Wonder Woman run ever). Given the drastic differences in tone, pacing, and art between the Azz/Chiang run and the Finchs' run, I think it's easy to understand why one run wouldn't appeal to some people who liked the Azz/Chiang run. The Azz/Chiang run was straight-up mythology/horror where as the Finchs' run is more of a balance between mythology and super-heroics. The Finchs' run most likely won't appeal to the Vertigo crowd like Azz's run did.


There's also some room to argue that the Finchs' initial sales would have a very hard time beating Azz's as I believe DC offered the ability to return early issues of the New 52 which gave retailers a huge incentive to over-order with no risk of losing money.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the Finchs' first issue was the best thing since sliced bread but it was a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction IMO.

[Silvanus]

Wow........it came in at #18? That's almost as good as Azzarello's #1 relaunch which came in at #13. Congrats to the Finchs!

Congrats indeed! According to this, it sold better than Detective Comics, Batman and Robin, Action, Superman, all the Green Lantern books, Flash, Aquaman....

I realize it's a bump for the beginning of a run, but I'm surprised--not even because I didn't think it was very good, but because I just didn't think they could get such a bump in ranking without starting at issue #1. Even though I didn't love the issue, I'm happy for Meredith Finch, in particular; it must feel amazing for a creator to have one of her first published projects do so well commercially.

And thanks, Blacksun, for posting this.

There's also some room to argue that the Finchs' initial sales would have a very hard time beating Azz's as I believe DC offered the ability to return early issues of the New 52 which gave retailers a huge incentive to over-order with no risk of losing money.

I don't think Wonder Woman was one of the returnable books in the New 52 launch (though it was one of the books on which retailers got a "deep discount," if I remember right.) Also, almost all (if not all) of the twelve books that beat Wonder Woman #1 were #1 issues or special issues that were also getting very heavily promoted.

[Dr. Poison]

Congrats indeed! According to this, it sold better than Detective Comics, Batman and Robin, Action, Superman, all the Green Lantern books, Flash, Aquaman....

I realize it's a bump for the beginning of a run, but I'm surprised--not even because I didn't think it was very good, but because I just didn't think they could get such a bump in ranking without starting at issue #1. Even though I didn't love the issue, I'm happy for Meredith Finch, in particular; it must feel amazing for a creator to have one of her first published projects do so well commercially.

And thanks, Blacksun, for posting this.



I don't think Wonder Woman was one of the returnable books in the New 52 launch (though it was one of the books on which retailers got a "deep discount," if I remember right.) Also, almost all (if not all) of the twelve books that beat Wonder Woman #1 were #1 issues or special issues that were also getting very heavily promoted.

I think you're right in that Azzarello's early issues were offered with deep-discounts, but perhaps not returnable.

[Outside_85]

How do you figure that Meredith's first issue "was not well received" when it got an overall rating of 5.9 on Comic Book Roundup:


http://comicbookroundup.com/comic-bo...oman-(2011)/36


A 5.9 is above average. Granted, that's not as high as Azzarello got but there are few things that could factor into this equation:


1.) Azzarello had written many comic stories before taking on Wonder Woman therefore he(and Chiang) had quite a fan-following on the book. David Finch has a fan-following due to his history as well but Meredith - this is only her 3rd published comic story. I'd say a 5.9 for such a story is pretty darn good.

2.) Several of the reviewers that rated Azz's run positively flat-out said they had never read any or much Wonder Woman before(and then later even went so far as to say it was the BEST Wonder Woman run ever).

3) Given the drastic differences in tone, pacing, and art between the Azz/Chiang run and the Finchs' run, I think it's easy to understand why one run wouldn't appeal to some people who liked the Azz/Chiang run. The Azz/Chiang run was straight-up mythology/horror where as the Finchs' run is more of a balance between mythology and super-heroics. The Finchs' run most likely won't appeal to the Vertigo crowd like Azz's run did.


There's also some room to argue that the Finchs' initial sales would have a very hard time beating Azz's as I believe DC offered the ability to return early issues of the New 52 which gave retailers a huge incentive to over-order with no risk of losing money.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the Finchs' first issue was the best thing since sliced bread but it was a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction IMO.

1) I am going to put it bluntly, I think quite a few reviewers might be letting some things slide because of David being the artist, he's supposedly a superstar artist (according to DC). Besides a score is composed of how the book looks and how it's written, so it's entirely possible it would have higher score had the writing been better.

2) While admit it is a bit of nonsense to claim its the best run ever if they never read any part of it before. Claiming it's the best the reviewer has ever read from WW's long history is perfectly valid, since it's blend of personal experience with the book and preference to how stories are told. Like some of us here are already wondering if WW #37 is actually worth the money based purely on #36.

3) It's too early to say what the Finch's run will actually be, since they haven't given us a flat out statement the same way Azzarello did pre-launch. That aside, I dont think the 'Vertigo-crowd' is that large of a segment, since from what I gather is your idea of them; wouldn't touch WW even if Neil Gaiman was writing her. You might be correct that Azzarello brough his own fans along, but I doubt any of them were expecting '100 Arrows' or other repeats of his previous work.


And I would counter that statement with looking at #2's sales, they dropped ovbiously, but not any more than most other of the New 52 books.

I suppose so if you disliked the Azzarello run. To me on the other hand #36 was like seing a friend take a headfirst tumble down a flight of stairs

[Blacksun]

A 5.9 is above average. Granted, that's not as high as Azzarello got but there are few things that could factor into this equation:

no, it's not. It's really low.

To me on the other hand #36 was like seing a friend take a headfirst tumble down a flight of stairs

close enough. I know the feel

[Silvanus]

A 5.9 is above average.

no, it's not.

Yeah--it's above the midpoint between 1 and 10, but, at my school, a 50 out of 100 was not considered an average (or passing) grade!

Just glancing at their page of over a hundred reviews of comics that came out during the week of December 10, it looks like about one out of ten of them are 5.9 or below. It was a quick glance, and I could be a little off, but it's clear that 5.9 would have been well below average among their reviews for this week.

[Dr. Poison]

1) I am going to put it bluntly, I think quite a few reviewers might be letting some things slide because of David being the artist, he's supposedly a superstar artist (according to DC). Besides a score is composed of how the book looks and how it's written, so it's entirely possible it would have higher score had the writing been better.

2) While admit it is a bit of nonsense to claim its the best run ever if they never read any part of it before. Claiming it's the best the reviewer has ever read from WW's long history is perfectly valid, since it's blend of personal experience with the book and preference to how stories are told. Like some of us here are already wondering if WW #37 is actually worth the money based purely on #36.

3) It's too early to say what the Finch's run will actually be, since they haven't given us a flat out statement the same way Azzarello did pre-launch. That aside, I dont think the 'Vertigo-crowd' is that large of a segment, since from what I gather is your idea of them; wouldn't touch WW even if Neil Gaiman was writing her. You might be correct that Azzarello brough his own fans along, but I doubt any of them were expecting '100 Arrows' or other repeats of his previous work.


And I would counter that statement with looking at #2's sales, they dropped ovbiously, but not any more than most other of the New 52 books.

I suppose so if you disliked the Azzarello run. To me on the other hand #36 was like seing a friend take a headfirst tumble down a flight of stairs

1.) So how many reviewers do you figure let Azz's writing slide because of Chiang being a superstar artist?

[Outside_85]

1.) So how many reviewers do you figure let Azz's writing slide because of Chiang being a superstar artist?

He isn't, as far as I am aware, he's actually better known for being a Vertigo editor.

[Silvanus]

1.) So how many reviewers do you figure let Azz's writing slide because of Chiang being a superstar artist?

I don't know about the "superstar artist" effect, but when you actually look at the reviews, it does seem like the reviewers who liked 36 liked it more because of the art than because of the writing. DC Comics News, which gave the issue its only "10," has fairly nice things to say about the writing, but says "the art all the way has to be what you pick up this issue for." Weekly Comic Review, while giving the comic an 8, says "unless the writing achieves parity with the art, this iteration of Wonder Woman's adventures will never really rise to the standards of the previous version, much less the ultimate possibilities of the themes and characters." And I guess it's to be expected; he's an experienced artist, she's a less experienced writer, and I hope she improves.

[Dr. Poison]

He isn't, as far as I am aware, he's actually better known for being a Vertigo editor.

While he was on Wonder Woman, he was also doing variant covers for books like Batman, Batgirl, and Superman/Wonder Woman. He also did the promo poster for last year's WonderCon.