Marvel so completely dropped the ball on this it’s not funny. They had a succesful new franchise that handled right could still be selling big numbers now, and what do they do? They wait, and wait (and wait and wait) on a “super star” writer who clearly has no ineterest or respect for what he was writing, and now the Young Avengers are nothing different from any of the Initiative stuff that has been put out.

A cautionary tale indeed.

Biff

I agree with you about the 3 times a month publishing schedule.

I can’t help but see the three-times-a-month publishing schedule as generating temporary gains in the short-term at the direct cost of regular readers in the long term. By switching to thrice-monthly issues, they’ve literally made themselves three times more dependent upon each of their remaining customers, so if they lose THOSE readers, the impact to their sales is MUCH bigger.

Except that, if we were going by this logic, both Harry and Norman would be dead (again), and Peter and Mary Jane would be engaged, with Mary Jane fully aware of Peter’s secret identity. On that point, several Spider-movie fans of my acquaintance bestowed particular praise on Spider-Man II for NOT doing what Superman II did, by reverting the relationship and the secret identity knowledge back into their start-up status quo. Indeed, any time I’ve recommended a superhero comic book I like to those who don’t read superhero comic books, Lois Lane’s long-time blindness to Superman’s secret identity has been the single most-cited reason why those people choose not to read superhero comic books, so I would assert that, if Quesada is serious about attracting readers who are genuinely new to the titles and the genre alike, then he’s going about it in exactly the wrong direction.

I have long theorized that the reason why Quesada does the things he does is because (a) he wants to make the comics as close as possible to their TV and movie versions and (b) he wants to give the higher ups the impression that storylines he has approved are actually increasing the sales of the books (which is why ASM comes out 3 times a month). Notice how whenever Marvel either relaunches a book or revamps a book with a new (and MOST LIKELY) more expensive popular/critically acclaimed/celebrity writer, that they always saddle said book with sales gimmick like variant covers,being part of a crossover,being involved in a high profile controversial storyline,or get a very popular artist to draw the early issues of said book.

I would partly agree, in that I think the AMZx3 publishing schedule would inevitably result in lower sales per issue than the title had previously. I doubt that the drops would be as large as we’ve seen under BND, though.

However, this brings up an interesting point, because while we seem to disagree on BND, you and I both agree that the AMZx3 publishing schedule is at least partly responsible for driving away customers, which makes me wonder why in the hell Joe Quesada thought it was a good idea, especially since even he has admitted that BND was bound to drive away at least SOME readers. I mean, why do that to yourself, when you’re ALREADY trying to recruit NEW readers, to make up for the ones that you KNOW you’ll lose?

1. The book is being published 3 times a month and many fans either don’t have or want to spend the extra money on buying 2 EXTRA copies of ASM a month. The reason why ASM always sold much better then the other 2 Spidey titles is because MANY fans only want to buy/spend money on ONE Spidey comic a month. And if they had to spend money on one Spidey title a month, it is going to be the main/original/flagship Spidey title.

2. The book is NOT currently part of a major event/gimmick crossover and/or controversial storyline.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again, sales on ASM would be EXACTLY where they are at and still falling if Peter and MJ were still married.

WTF?! 35k?! This was written by the guy who directed the movie! And drawn by the guy who designed the movie’s Iron Man armor and was the artist on Ellis’ run. This is pretty bad…

They never came in bad shape from what I recall.

Of course, I only subscribed back then because I wasn’t allowed to buy comics at the local stationary story when I brought home back report cards – so in order to get my fix sneaked in the house, the postal service had to smuggle them in for me.

~

Coat

If I bought those issues off the stands, the total would be $215.28 for those 4 titles for the year. I am saving over $105.00 by ordering my books directly from Marvel. Of course, those sales won’t count on the Diamond charts, but that’s ok. I know what titles I am enjoying, and I am also enjoying the big discount. And I get it delivered right to my door. Yeah, sometimes I have to wait an extra few days, but with those savings I really can’t complain.