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10-05-2017, 12:08 PM | #1 | |
Overlord
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Britain, DINO THUNDER...POWER UP!
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Retailers Sound Off At Marvel NYCC Retailer Panel
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10-05-2017, 12:15 PM | #2 |
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 8,450
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This is frustrating to read. Only because I think Marvel Comics has a TON of problems, but the new characters are not the problem. Focus on less events, more accomplished creators, and consistent artists.
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10-05-2017, 12:27 PM | #3 |
Emperor
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 5,915
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good for them.
gender switching, race switching and orientation switching is nothing but a cowards way out to make it seem like they are addressing the problem that their current audience is not being 'represented'. but, if the people they are trying to represent HATE the changes as much as the 'old' audience....you'd think they'd learn their lesson and not mess with things as much. but no, gotta appear 'progressive'.. |
10-05-2017, 12:32 PM | #4 | ||
PerfectlyTunedFightEngine
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: The Upsidedown
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He's got a point, only so far as it pertains to Marvel not just having two universes to choose from.
The usual ongoing title, and then something that appeals to the movie line. But...people walked out because they didn't recognize Thor on the cover of the Thor ongoing? How bad is this guy at his job? Has he no back issues to offer? No trades of previous stories? Was he just sitting on his hands watching? I mean seriously, how terrible at retail do you have to be to NOT sell something to someone looking specifically to buy that thing?
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10-05-2017, 02:20 PM | #5 | |
Stone Warrior
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 699
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I like that this has been a thing, most of them replaced, literally for a couple years now and they're bringing it up now, when Marvel is in the process of switching them back to the originals. Most of these characters have been in the roles for three years now, or more depending on which one. Things were fine until this last year. Yeah, I think the problem lies elsewhere.
Such as, the constant relaunches and constant events finally screwing them over, like most people predicted. Constant relaunches breaks the collector habit and just makes things confusing if there are too many in a short span. New number ones mean nothing if you're in a sea of new number ones. Same for fresh starts. Captain Marvel had three relaunches under the same writer. It's not fair, and a friend of mine swears up and down those books are great, but I've looked at that and figured "why bother". If you use the same trick too much in a short period of time, it's going to stop working. As for events, they had five in the span of the last year. Two large scale in Civil War II and Secret Empire, three small in Avengers Standoff, X-Men vs Inhumans and Monsters Unleashed. Civil War II ended and Monsters Unleashed started, like, the next month. They've had FIVE big linewide events in the last three years; Original Sin, AXIS, Secret Wars, Civil War II and Secret Empire. Marvels shift to a constant event cycle just caught up with them and people got sick of the whole song and dance. All that said, I do think the replacement eras don't do the characters replacing the originals the favors Marvel thinks it does. If you define a new character by replacing another, what do they do when the old one comes back? Most don't have a niche or prior role to fit into. Riri Williams isn't going to have much to do other than be a part of the "family" when Tony Stark returns. What is Amadeus Cho going to do when Bruce Banner inevitably returns with his bland ass personality and returns as the one true Hulk? I'd keep Amadeus as the main Hulk, by the way. I think Banner's kind of played out and I don't like the characters he's become in recent years. It only works out or really gives much of a rub when the character already existed and has a popular role to go back to. Otherwise, you're left with "well, we created this character to be _____ for a couple years, now they're not... what now?" The problem is not thinking it through, not the skin color or gender of the temporary mantle holder. I know it's meant to get around the problem of "readers rarely try the books of new heroes", but it just creates new problems that are even harder to fix. Quote:
I've been heavy into the hobby for over ten years and read scattered comics before that. Despite that, I don't do the whole "singles" thing regularly and stuck mainly with trade paperbacks near from the start. There are reasons. There are good comic shops, some great even, and I've seen stories of ones that go above and beyond, but they sadly do not seem to be the norm.
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10-05-2017, 09:48 PM | #6 | ||
Foot Elite
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Many of the new diversity characters have been commercial hits digitally and/or in trade format which not only nets Marvel a lot more money but also since this seems to be future of comics then it's important for Marvel to gain even stronger foot holds in these outlets. Not all of the new diversity characters have been hits mind you, a few have have very obviously flopped and some have achieved pretty middling results. Also these new mediums carry their own unique hurdles that Marvel has yet to work out; for example how to get fans that eating up Ms Marvel digitally or Squirrel Girl in trade format to buy other Marvel books? Traditional lines of thinking is to put them on teams but that doesn't seem to work quite as well for these kinds of characters. It shouldn't be a surprise that demographics that buy their comics via direct market skew much more to the "classic" characters but direct market retailers are going to have to accept that they are not the only game in town anymore. It's not like there are no legitimate grievances that they can bring to Marvel about their business practices but when a retailer instantly jumps to complaining about "homos" and "****ing females" they've betrayed what their real problem is. Quote:
Of course this could (and should) have been brought up to Marvel but they missed that opportunity to complain loudly about too many minorities. Shows where their priorities are. Last edited by Galactus; 10-05-2017 at 10:08 PM. |
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10-05-2017, 09:59 PM | #7 | ||
PerfectlyTunedFightEngine
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: The Upsidedown
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And I'd be willing to bet that they're hits digitally because people don't want to go into stores like the one that guy owns to buy them from him.
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10-05-2017, 10:45 PM | #8 |
Megan Fox = April
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Tokio, Italy
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Those misogynist cisgendered white retailers are obviously at FAULT, how dare they be upset at the REAL world out there, thank god for Marvel who knows what's up. The lower sales are obviously because of other reasons as the NEW readers who are much better than those DEPLORABLE ones they had before can't compare to the AMAZING digital sales that Marvel clearly has on digital. Any woes that Marvel comics has is clearly NOT because of this, and if all the titles get cancelled and comics are gone forever it's because those NASTY comic book nerds of the old guard didn't let the AWESOME diversity heroes succeed.
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10-05-2017, 10:47 PM | #9 | ||||
Stone Warrior
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 699
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Anyway, eventually there's a point where the bottom falls out and it feels like they hit it. I think they know it, too. They've said they're putting a moratorium on events for at least a year and a half. We'll see if they stick to it. Quote:
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10-05-2017, 11:10 PM | #10 | |||
PerfectlyTunedFightEngine
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10-06-2017, 07:43 AM | #11 | |
Emperor
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Posts: 5,915
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what the comic industry needs right now is people who can tell good stories, and leave their personal virtue signaling at the door. We need more static shocks and less Riri's. Digital sales actually make it EASIER to check out new books, I think. Makes it feel like less of a wasted purchase if you didn't wind up liking it. I check out an issue of the Superwoman comic with lois lane, just to see how they'd handle it(because I like the idea of lois getting powers), and i probably never would have bought that in the store. |
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