Al Ewing To Write Rocket(All New All Different Rocket Raccoon Ongoing Series)

[DDM]

Is there a functional difference besides the title?

Maybe it could sell enough to last more than a year?

[Inversed]

Is there a functional difference besides the title?

Based on the description, sounds to me like it's gonna be a prequel series and not just a continuation, so makes for sense for them to retitle and restart.

[Shinglepants]

So Al Ewing's now writing

1.USAvengers
2.Royals
3.Ultimates
4.Rocket

Overload much?

Ha. Marvel should give Ewing as much work as he can handle, he's one of their very best.

[Nisus]

Ha. Marvel should give Ewing as much work as he can handle, he's one of their very best.

I'm surprised that Marvel didn't put him under exclusive contract.

[itspopularnowitsucks]

I'm surprised that Marvel didn't put him under exclusive contract.

He signed exclusivity with Marvel two years back (2015).

Source: http://geeksyndicate.co.uk/podcasts/...with-al-ewing/

Actually I would love to see him trying something like Wildstorm or Valiant. I am not sure if he can be as good writing for something new since his strength is that he read a lot of Marvel.

[Nisus]

He signed exclusivity with Marvel two years back (2015).

Source: http://geeksyndicate.co.uk/podcasts/...with-al-ewing/

That makes more sense. Thanks, I didn't know.

[Valamist]

Never been that keen on the Rocket/Groot solos in the past, but Al is one of, if not, my favorite writers at Marvel so I may give this a go.

[redrunner97]

I just wanted Ewing on an X-book (actual New Mutants anyone?) to complement what will no doubt be fantastic writing on Royals (and before anyone jumps down my throat, I'm not implying any crossover, just saying I would like some consistently well-written stories from both of my beloved superspecies teams).

But I won't complain about this announcement since pretty much anything he touches turns to gold in most cases. I might pick this one up just because his name is attached, though I'm admittedly not a hardcore Rocket fan.

[Mike_Murdock]

I just wanted Ewing on an X-book (actual New Mutants anyone?) to complement what will no doubt be fantastic writing on Royals (and before anyone jumps down my throat, I'm not implying any crossover, just saying I would like some consistently well-written stories from both of my beloved superspecies teams).

I still think Excalibur would be the best fit given his multiverse ideas, the tone of New Avengers, and the fact that he's British.

[Username taken]

Rocket Raccoon series pre-Secret Wars was selling well.

I'm not sure why folks are saying there isn't a market for the character. There clearly is. One only needs to check Comichron and see the estimates. All this talk about "Marvel making X character happen" doesn't make any sense. We heard the same arguments with Deadpool and Black Panther but now those books are top sellers (BP especially is always among Marvels top books on the digital charts).

Honestly, I'm not that big a fan of Ewing's writing, I would have preferred someone with a more comedic bent like Gerry Duggan on the book. Anyway, it is what it is.

[Mike_Murdock]

Have you read his New Avengers? He's perfectly fine with comedy.

[Inversed]

Rocket Raccoon series pre-Secret Wars was selling well.

I'm not sure why folks are saying there isn't a market for the character. There clearly is. One only needs to check Comichron and see the estimates. All this talk about "Marvel making X character happen" doesn't make any sense. We heard the same arguments with Deadpool and Black Panther but now those books are top sellers (BP especially is always among Marvels top books on the digital charts).

Honestly, I'm not that big a fan of Ewing's writing, I would have preferred someone with a more comedic bent like Gerry Duggan on the book. Anyway, it is what it is.

Do you know how well the Groot solo mini did? That's one of my favourite comics ever and I'm wondering if it did good enough that another Groot solo is still possible in the future.

[Mister Ferro]

Rocket Raccoon series pre-Secret Wars was selling well.

I'm not sure why folks are saying there isn't a market for the character. There clearly is. One only needs to check Comichron and see the estimates.

That was pre-secret wars, even then the sells wasn't that great for the book either(if you take into account that the character is a c-list then you could say the sells were good enough). When it was first launched in July 2014 it had 293k units, it ended @ #11 with 30.9k units. The book bleed orders faster than the Grayson series that launched the very same month. Grayson would overtake Rocket by #8 (#9 for Rocket) and would go on until #20.

Marvel would relaunch Rocket in January as the post-secret wars Rocket & Groot to only 59k units. Grayson #16 had 30.4k units in the same month. Rocket & Groot #2 went on to have a 50% drop in February which put it @ 29,180 units, lower than Grayson #17 @ 30.2k units. When Grayson finally ended @ #20 in May (23.7k units under a new creative team for the last 3 issues) Rocket & Groot #5 barely held onto 21k units. Rocket & Groot would end @ #10 with 16.5k units.

Comparing Rocket & Groot to Rocket Raccoon shows that there wasn't any market for the relaunched book. The relaunched book ended 1 issue earlier and over 46% (14,400 units) lower than the pre-secret wars book.

This brings us to Rocket raccoon #1 in December. The (re)relaunched mini sold 59.3k units to retailers. That is slighter higher than Rocket & Groot #1 but there is a tiny detail in the fact that Rocket #1 was over-shipped by Marvel. The book would end up making less money than All New Wolverine #15 which sold (to retailers) 31.7k units.

Is there a market for a Rocket ongoing? I would say no but there is a market for a limited series every now and then.

[Inversed]

The reason they're going to keep Rocket around is because of how popular he is in the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies. Even if the actual books aren't selling as well as others, there's still interest in that character, so they're going to make sure they continue to tell stories with him. Although considering just how different this new Rocket series is going to be, I don't know if the release of Vol. 2 will impact the sales of it really.

[Mike_Murdock]

Is there a market for a Rocket ongoing? I would say no but there is a market for a limited series every now and then.

Yeah, I think the evidence supports the idea that a limited series is better (not that there's necessarily a functional difference; the focus on writing for trade means most stories can end after the first arc as a limited series or keep going if sales support it). However, that evidence also suggests that relaunching the book continuously was the better idea since it allowed for some sales boosts. Each relaunch obviously had diminishing returns, but I don't see any reason to believe those returns would have diminished faster without relaunches. Plus, new relaunches allow fans of the writer to jump onboard. I'm not going to care about a Rocket Racoon book, but I might care about an Al Ewing book.