Heads to roll at Marvel

[nnelg]

As long as Marvel keep shipping each X-title twice monthly the titles like Luke Cage will hurt in sales. I will choose the X-men title every time. I'm sure that scenario applies to most people.


Falcon is a title that I will pick up. I'm not sure about the creative team though.

[penthotal]

About time, Alonso has been a mess.

Under him and his cronies we've had to put up with

Killed wolverine, replaced with x23
killed hulk, replaced with cho
Killed Stark, replaced with bendis daughter
Replaced cap with falcon then turned him into a nazi
Replaced Thor with a female
Pushed the inhumans above the Xmen
Killed the FF comic
Pushed Moon girl and cap Marvel down our throats despite poor books and sales
Replaced spiderman with Ock
Became obsessed with diversity and PR over decent stories and new characters
Killed Cyclops
Killed Xavier
Insulted long time readers
Insulted artists
Chucked everything at the wall like slapstick, solo, foolkiller, mosaic and Kingpin to try and make a quick buck posted by the baron

the Baron, thank you !!! Marvel summed up in a post!! lol thank you.

It's because of people like you and the one you are commenting that a lost of people think comics are a childish hobby for manchild nerds without social skills.

[Panfoot]

It's because of people like you and the one you are commenting that a lost of people think comics are a childish hobby for manchild nerds without social skills.

Said without an ounce of irony.

[Ceebiro]

So what is really the problem with Marvel? Their performance has been lagging a bit, but no moves have been made to reshuffle the creative chain of command or the print publishing arm. Are TPTB mostly content with the sales wave that Marvel tends to undergo with the frequent peaks and valleys?

[Nick Miller]

I think Gabriel is more likely then Alonso, especially because he got a lot of (justified) flack for his comments on Marvel's use of diversity and how it's responsible for Marvel's sales woes.

He was only repeating what retailers told him

[spirit2011]

He was only repeating what retailers told him

that wasn't how people received it. Anyway he souldn't double down retailers said

It's because of people like you and the one you are commenting that a lost of people think comics are a childish hobby for manchild nerds without social skills.

makes me think...

[spirit2011]

Some people often confuse the fact that people can love the characters but have a very different idea of what's good for the characters. And that what's good for the books often means making things bad, or difficult, for the characters.

I expect I would not want to read the Marvel line if it looked the way that some fans seem to want it to. It would be safe, tepid, and achingly devoid of conflict or complexity.

Not every Marvel book works for me or is even intended for me but I always get from Marvel a deep love of not just the characters but of the comic medium itself.

When I read a book like The Defenders or Guardians of the Galaxy or Hawkeye or The Mighty Thor, or any number of other current titles, I feel that everybody involved is in love with not just the characters but with comics themselves.

DC, on the other hand, feels more often than not like a step above coloring books, in my opinion. At best, they're just innocuous. That works for some people. It doesn't work for me and I'm glad that Marvel aims higher with their books.

Also, saying "Marvel needs to bring in people who...know how to sell books" is a funny suggestion when they're the #1 publisher.

s.

people are really doing their best to push the idea that Marvel is failing

[oasis1313]

Prof X is back already. I YEARN for him to stay dead.

[JKtheMac]

So what is really the problem with Marvel? Their performance has been lagging a bit, but no moves have been made to reshuffle the creative chain of command or the print publishing arm. Are TPTB mostly content with the sales wave that Marvel tends to undergo with the frequent peaks and valleys?

As I always say, we don't know. We don't know what they consider success, we don't know how well they are doing outside of the Direct Market, we have no idea what their bottom line is. Nearly everything in this thread is received wisdom. It is all speculation based on incomplete information, or stuff taken out of context.

For all we know Marvel are making more money now than they ever have in the past. Nothing that we know can dispute that possibility, and some things we know may support that. They are certainly not doing anywhere near as poorly in the Direct Market as people seem to think.

I doubt Disney are particularly concerned with Marvel's publishing strategy. I doubt Marvel consider anything they have done in the last few years a mistake let alone a disaster. This certainly didn't look like a time when they might start sacking people, and low and behold they haven't!

[JKtheMac]

Prof X is back already. I YEARN for him to stay dead.

He really isn't, but this isn't the place for spoilers.

[Nick Miller]

Marvel needs this guy!!!

[nnelg]

It's because of people like you and the one you are commenting that a lost of people think comics are a childish hobby for manchild nerds without social skills.

No. That is because people that aren't interested in comics say nonsense like that. It's almost always people that haven't read any comics. It also doesn't help that Hollywood has used the nerdy plot in movies and tv shows.

[whiterabbit]

In general the consumers of most products don't treat the people that produce that product as idiots, call them out as not understanding the product, think they know how to do it better, and generally create an adversarial climate where everything those producers say is twisted and reinterpreted to change the meaning of their words.

And with respect, most developers don't sweep their biggest audience market under the rug to try a new innovation in the name of trying to increase sells. Consumers will always complain no matter what profession you're in. Yelling back at them is just childish and stupid. Thinking there isn't a problem and you're always right when people are leaving is the opposite of being progressive as a business.

[gwangung]

As I always say, we don't know. We don't know what they consider success, we don't know how well they are doing outside of the Direct Market, we have no idea what their bottom line is. Nearly everything in this thread is received wisdom. It is all speculation based on incomplete information, or stuff taken out of context.

For all we know Marvel are making more money now than they ever have in the past. Nothing that we know can dispute that possibility, and some things we know may support that. They are certainly not doing anywhere near as poorly in the Direct Market as people seem to think.

I doubt Disney are particularly concerned with Marvel's publishing strategy. I doubt Marvel consider anything they have done in the last few years a mistake let alone a disaster. This certainly didn't look like a time when they might start sacking people, and low and behold they haven't!

Pretty much, yes.

And with respect, most developers don't sweep their biggest audience market under the rug to try a new innovation in the name of trying to increase sells.

I think most people on this thread are over-focussing on current market and not enough on potential fans and casual readers.

I think there is some discussion to be had on the proper market mix. I happen to think that focussing on events and variants is OVER-focussing on the biggest audience segment, and neglects audience development. True, the inital bang for buck favor audience retention over audience expansion, but at some point, you're going to get to the point of diminishing returns. I think we've hit that point. Time to think of new distribution methods and new formats for books, and that's going to provoke howls of protests from current buyers.

[Carabas]

And with respect, most developers don't sweep their biggest audience market under the rug to try a new innovation in the name of trying to increase sells. Consumers will always complain no matter what profession you're in. Yelling back at them is just childish and stupid. Thinking there isn't a problem and you're always right when people are leaving is the opposite of being progressive as a business.

Catering to the traditional audience for superhero comic books is not a winning game, because that audience is not as big as it thinks it is, and in fact it is shrinking through natural attrition (they're not the youngest of audiences anymore), and not being replenished fast enough from within that demographic.