SPIDER-MANDATE: Lowe Talks Spidey & Friends on the Edge of "Secret Wars"

[boots]

Well no. But Marvel lost a lot of readers during BND as sales were in the 50-60k range all the way until Superior hit. That brought in a lot of new readers who could care less about Peter/MJ as they've been given no reason to. Also MJs popularity is the lowest ever with the general public and new readers due to TASM franchise making Gwen superior to MJ in the movies.

that's cool. i was just making sure marvel/mephisto hadn't somehow managed to change the economy.

[Tuck]

i'd say that ryv is a even worse indicator, since it's happening during an event. events tend to boost sales.

Granted.

which may or may not be "pr talk". and if it is purely spin and readership declined sharply because of the removal of the marriage, then marvel would know it. for all intents and purposes, the wallet votes still count.

It's not really knowable how much the decline was caused by A, B, or C without doing significant research on it at the time . . . and I doubt that happened.

Yeah, I quoted you out of order.

[Vortex85]

which may or may not be "pr talk". and if it is purely spin and readership declined sharply because of the removal of the marriage, then marvel would know it. for all intents and purposes, the wallet votes still count.

i'd say that ryv is a even worse indicator, since it's happening during an event. events tend to boost sales.

This is true. If sales are mediocre Marvel can blame the marriage. If sales are high Marvel can say its because its an event.

[Confuzzled]

i'd say that ryv is a even worse indicator, since it's happening during an event. events tend to boost sales.

Well, if RYV is among the highest selling SW titles, if not THE highest selling SW title, then I see no reason why Marvel cannot test waters by releasing an ongoing. If it tanks, cancel it after 12 issues and call it a "planned mini". That's been Marvel's strategy of late anyway.

[Anubhavkumarc]

I don't even know why people like gwen so much, having two techies in one family is not a good thing for a guy who's supposed to be commoner, MJ shined as a wife during the JMS era.

[Confuzzled]

This is true. If sales are mediocre Marvel can blame the marriage. If sales are high Marvel can say its because its an event.

Maybe, but let's not pretend that Marvel's marriage hate transcends their $$$$ love.

[boots]

It's not really knowable how much the decline was caused by A, B, or C without doing significant research on it at the time . . . and I doubt that happened.

i don't know how marvel conduct their business, but if they don't monitor and number crunch that stuff accurately then that's extremely poor form. surely a simple contrast of sales at the time between spidey and other titles would have given some insight.

Yeah, I quoted you out of order.

stop messing with my mind, man.

[Confuzzled]

I don't even know why people like gwen so much, having two techies in one family is not a good thing for a guy who's supposed to be commoner, MJ shined as a wife during the JMS era.

Emma Stone and her chemistry with Andrew Garfield in the Amazing films. Her version of Gwen wasn't even close to the original Gwen Stacy from 616 comics. It was more like Mary Jane from the Ultimate comics. Kirsten Dunst's MJ was more like Comics Gwen, especially in SM2 and SM3.

[boots]

Well, if RYV is among the highest selling SW titles, if not THE highest selling SW title, then I see no reason why Marvel cannot test waters by releasing an ongoing. If it tanks, cancel it after 12 issues and call it a "planned mini". That's been Marvel's strategy of late anyway.

well, spiderman is always going to be top tier seller amongst the titles in any company wide cross-over event.

and if what tuck is saying is on the money, that marvel couldn't isolate "spider-man's" sales drop against the rest of their titles (and the industry) at the time of "one more day", i don't hold out much hope for them being able to do it in reverse.

[Confuzzled]

well, spiderman is always going to be top tier seller amongst the titles in any company wide cross-over event.

and if what tuck is saying is on the money, that marvel couldn't isolate "spider-man's" sales drop against the rest of their titles (and the industry) at the time of "one more day", i don't hold out much hope for them being able to do it in reverse.

But as they've shown with Spider-Gwen, they aren't completely averse to releasing ongoings based on fan demand alone. If it brings in money, I don't see why a Spider-Marriage, Spider-Verse or any other title won't be continued as an alternate universe ongoing if it sells according to the highest of expectations. Spider-Girl managed to survive for long despite waning sales.

[Vortex85]

that's cool. i was just making sure marvel/mephisto hadn't somehow managed to change the economy.

Its odd how the economy magically fixed itself when superior hit. And just for Spidey too. Youd think Spideys sales would have gone back up gradually with the economic shift. Did other books all stay down in numbers until 2013, or was it just Spidey before the death and Superior hype wave?

[Tuck]

i don't know how marvel conduct their business, but if they don't monitor and number crunch that stuff accurately then that's extremely poor form.

Yeah, well, maybe I'm too harsh, but after watching years of books not shipping on time, and hearing stories about how Ned Leeds became Hobgoblin or however Sins Past happened, I have a hard time viewing the industry as being tightly run.

surely a simple contrast of sales at the time between spidey and other titles would have given some insight.

Not necessarily. That's the issue. They would have needed to survey people who dropped the book . . . which is a pain in the but . . . and probably not worth it. Single Peter was a longview move, so any fallout from dissolving the marriage at the time wouldn't be reason enough to go back on it.

Plus, Spider-Man is one of the top selling comic books most of the time, often number one. There are conceivably readers who read several books, but without a Spider-Man or Batman or X title to motivate them to get to their LCS, they just don't bother with other books. Too much guesswork without hard data.

[boots]

But as they've shown with Spider-Gwen, they aren't completely averse to releasing ongoings based on fan demand alone. If it brings in money, I don't see why a Spider-Marriage, Spider-Verse or any other title won't be continued as an alternate universe ongoing if it sells according to the highest of expectations. Spider-Girl managed to survive for long despite waning sales.

i'm not saying that fan demand doesn't produce results, i'm saying that ryv's impact is muddied because it is part of what is (supposedly) the marvel event to end all events. spider-gwen was part of a spidey-verse event, but as an edge title, it was easy to isolate and contrast with other edge titles. it seems that was one of the aims of edge: to provide pitches for potential new series.

spider-girl is also a specific case with entirely different factors to spider-gwen and ryv respectively. and you're kinda muddying your own point by bringing it up.

[cyberhubbs]

It's not like a recession hit around that same time. The industry as a whole worked it's way back up, same as any other industry that survived the recession.

Add in them testing the waters with a three times a month shipping schedule.

But no, it's solely about the marriage.

[Tuck]

It's not like a recession hit around that same time. The industry as a whole worked it's way back up, same as any other industry that survived the recession.

Add in them testing the waters with a three times a month shipping schedule.

But no, it's solely about the marriage.

It's absolutely the recession. And the price increases. And just the continuation of a general decline in comic sales since the late 60s.

But we can't know what percentage of the problem that was. Myself, for instance: with books at $3.99 per issue, I don't drop books because I've stopped enjoying them, I drop books because I no longer enjoy them enough to pay $3.99 per issue. So, that's a combination of factors.