Axel-In-Charge: The '$#@%ing Hilarious' "Howard the Duck," 2 Million in "Star Wars" Sales

[CBR News]

Axel Alonso shares his enthusiasm for Chip Zdarsky & Joe Quinones' "Howard the Duck," talks the latest "Star Wars" sales success and plenty more.


Full article here.

[responsarbre]

A Scarlet Witch series is long overdue, and now she has maybe twice as much baggage as she's ever had over the last decade (which is a lot), so here's hoping it's a good book, whenever it comes out.

[SickAlice]

Um.."duck"ing? Come on Alex, Bendis swears all the time in interviews. Your allowed to as well.

[AlexG.]

Is it just me, or is Marvel getting pettier and pettier in their comments towards DC? I mean, they must be pretty annoyed at the very positive response the June relaunch is getting that they have to either take credit for it (as Brevoort did) or they have to use the "our diversity is real" card.

[Harpoon]

Those Ant-Man pages are awesome. Especially that second one.

[CZor]

I love that Rob Guillory is doing more art for Marvel, I love Chew and I'm glad he is being used on another funny book like Howard the Duck!

[Derek Metaltron]

But remember: Each of these series provides a building block for the new Marvel Universe. Everything counts.

Another suggestion that Battleworld is sticking around, perhaps? I think most of these concepts starting then have the weight to last longer than just a handful of months.

I'd be down with a Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver series, since separating them would feel off to me.

[Derek Metaltron]

Is it just me, or is Marvel getting pettier and pettier in their comments towards DC? I mean, they must be pretty annoyed at the very positive response the June relaunch is getting that they have to either take credit for it (as Brevoort did) or they have to use the "our diversity is real" card.

Speaking as a person who is clearly a Marvel more than a DC fan I just think their June content seems very hap hazard and all over the place, plus Convergence seems completely irrelevant to what comes next. Marvel feels like they've planned Secret Wars far better and will let the numerous concepts commencing from it form their new universe, and all without rebooting.

[Disco_Magic]

So, are the writers going to address what happens to all the regular people left alive in the umpteen different realms of Secret Wars Earth? I mean, you've got accountants, shopkeepers, lawyers, insurance claims adjustors, tax collectors, etc. that don't have jobs anymore. Basically, money is off the table because there are no financial systems left to support it. Bureaucracy is a thing of the past because when reality has been broken into shards, who cares about forms & regulations? Governments will have all failed because their is no structure to support it. So what you have left, if we're using our thinking caps and realize that no system exists inside a bubble, are post-apocalyptic societies.

What does this mean for characters with secret identities? What does Matt Murdock do all day? Are there enough raw resources for the Daily Bugle to print papers? Which realm has energy to power electrical devices and how are cell networks maintained? Does TV or internet media even exist anymore?

I guess my biggest concern is that the Marvel Universe will no longer be relatable under its new paradigm. Ideas or thoughts?

[TehJofus]

Speaking as a person who is clearly a Marvel more than a DC fan I just think their June content seems very hap hazard and all over the place, plus Convergence seems completely irrelevant to what comes next. Marvel feels like they've planned Secret Wars far better and will let the numerous concepts commencing from it form their new universe, and all without rebooting.

I disagree. I buy about the same amount of Marvel and DC books, and I think they're both a mess. Convergence is looking like a sloppy fill-in, and Secret Wars is a ploy for sales. Doesn't help that they're both pretty much the same story.

"Let's revisit our past storylines, mash them together a bit, and sell them for the second time."

Yes, I am absolutely over-simplifying

[Derek Metaltron]

I disagree. I buy about the same amount of Marvel and DC books, and I think they're both a mess. Convergence is looking like a sloppy fill-in, and Secret Wars is a ploy for sales. Doesn't help that they're both pretty much the same story.

"Let's revisit our past storylines, mash them together a bit, and sell them for the second time."

Yes, I am absolutely over-simplifying

Hmmm, well granted that the core issue with Marvel right now is that we don't know what comes afterwards (Thanos and Deadpool aside) but everything Alex and the rest say seems to imply that Battleworld matters, and the concepts it's creating will likely in part be sticking around, whether or not Battleworld survives or we have some sort of new merged Earth. Convergence as you say though feels like filler. In some cases very awesome filler granted, but nostalgia all the same, swiftly following by all your fav past versions of DC characters being killed, presumably. SW seems like it's going to keep a fair number of the originals around, but also have new domains and ideas which can be as dynamic as Spider Gwen or Ms Marvel but don't mess up the 616 characters in the process. We can possibly have a single Peter and a married to MJ Peter and a Ultimate Peter and Miles all at the same time, in different places and tailoring to numerous tastes.

[omegafix]

Axel is a horrible EIC, i miss Quesada

[Panfoot]

We'll wrap with a couple questions from the CBR Community: Lady Warp Spasm asks, "Are there any plans for Moon Knight after Cullen Bunn's run?"

Alonso: There are.


Are they actually gonna get another new writer for that series? I love it but I really thought the writing was on the wall for that one. Or maybe that just means moon knight will get a bit part in some secret wars book...

[SkyMason21]

Speaking as a person who is clearly a Marvel more than a DC fan I just think their June content seems very hap hazard and all over the place, plus Convergence seems completely irrelevant to what comes next. Marvel feels like they've planned Secret Wars far better and will let the numerous concepts commencing from it form their new universe, and all without rebooting.

Congvergence isn't related to the launch in June, only 2 titles (Batman Beyond and Earth 2: Society) are related to it. The launch seems to be mostly a timing thing and any books that actually resulted from it wouldn't come until the fall at the earliest (since from what they have said they will look at sales from the classic titles and go from there, could never happen though).

With Secret Wars I feel like either I'll be interest in the new direction Battleworld leads to (Stuff like Wierdworld, 1872, and Master of Kung Fu), or be pissed that they lied to me and I spent so much time worrying about Spider-Gwen getting to be in her own universe for a while (most of the newly launched books are continuing and it just seems off). I know that can't give any clues to what will actually happen at the end of SW, so I'm probably just being paranoid.

P.S. Thanks for doing the SW checklist thread, I'd be lost without it.

[CagedLeo730]

Speaking as a person who is clearly a Marvel more than a DC fan I just think their June content seems very hap hazard and all over the place, plus Convergence seems completely irrelevant to what comes next. Marvel feels like they've planned Secret Wars far better and will let the numerous concepts commencing from it form their new universe, and all without rebooting.

DC's launch in June is similar to Marvel Now!'s launch after AvX. Most of the new books had nothing to do with AvX.