This post is missing the Sales Charts tag so people could have a hard time finding it (I did)

Me too. I was wondering if they had stopped doing the sales charts and went onto the main page of the PW site looking for clues when I found a notice that The Beat had been moved. You might want to insure it’s labeled as a “sales chart” story.

Anyway I’m stoked I found it. Looks like I got a lot of reading to do this afternoon! I’m surprised by how many people are saying they dropped Ultimate Spider-Man due to its $3.99 price tag. I did the exact same thing (but I buy it when it becomes a discounted back issue). The $3.99 price doesn’t seem to be negatively affecting too many other comics though, does it?

I think it (or at least Reed) did have a focus on exploring identity, which came from Carol’s alien foes, from the Skrull identity theives, and from the Karla Sofen imitation (which was probably the best run of issues in the whole series).

If anything, she suffered from problems similar to those that plague the Wonder Woman title (the book that stole her artist, Lopresti); in that way, she succeeded in becoming the Marvel equivalent of Diana, a strong woman nobody knows how to write.

Doctor Strange mini-series appear so sporadically that I have to notify my shop when I want them, compared to back in the day when the shop would auto-pull them for me.

I’ve lost enough interest in comics that I haven’t looked at an issue of Previews in probably years, so I don’t notice a new Doc Strange mini is out until it is on the shelves. And for various reasons, I don’t visit the shop on a weekly basis, so I might catch a mini on its first week or sometimes as late as its second issue.

Ultimately, I picked up Strange #1 from the shop. However, adding it to my pull list must have somehow gotten lost in the shuffle, as the shop didn’t pull #2 or #3, and I wasn’t back in the shop until #3 was on the shelf. So I just decided to not mention it and just grab a trade of it if I ever see one. Of course, odds aren’t too high that I’ll see a trade for similar reasons.

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The exact same thing that Marvel needs, a complete editorial and creator overhaul.

Just because I criticized Marvel in a thread ABOUT MARVEL SALES, DOES NOT mean that I don’t feel the same way about DC. I’m an equal opportunity hater and I think that most (not all) of the Big 2’s current crop of books are (IMO) garbage.

The sales for the market (which yes, they still dominate) are down overall suggesting that not all of the trouble is there own doing. I agree, the renumbering and variant covers seem to be losing their effectiveness, but when you look at in terms of income, as long as its bringing in ANY additional sales, its working.
I will agree with you on the expansion of character families though. What has been done with both Wolverine and the Hulk seems to be a mistake. I don’t believe in the “over-exposure” theory though. (Also, I’d get that cough looked at if I were you)

It seemed a shame to cast aside the old numbering, considering what came before.

The big kicker, however, was the $3.99 price increase for no extra content. I’m sorry, but there are other comics out there giving me more bang for my buck at the $4 price range. That’s where I draw the line. If you don’t give me anything extra, whey do I gotta pay an additional 33%?

The fact that it was a new number one issue made it really painless to drop, whereas I may have hemmed and hawed about dropping it at issue #134.

She and Black Panther. Perhaps they should team-up.

In that case what does DC, whose arse Marvel kicks every month need?

1. Popular and/or creatively acclaimed writers (Bendis, Hickman,Ellis,and Aaron) are not (or at least, no longer) able to sale huge number of comics based SOLELY on their name alone.

2. Over exposing (and making them less unique by introducing several similar characters with similar powers and personalities) popular heroes (“cough”Wolverine”cough”) can and will eventually kill said characters popularity and result in said character’s books rapidly loosing sales.

3. Constantly relying on and/or over using Gimmicks/stunts (like variant covers,crossovers, relaunching with a new #1,or returning to the original numbering) will eventually loose their effectiveness to sell books.

4. Marvel needs a major editorial and creator over haul.

You’re right… I forgot about our Canadian neighbors. Should have said “North American” stores.

Joey, you’re doing a heakuva job!