Industry Death

[JKCarrier]

Catering to fans of a particular hot name writer when it should be obvious that the increase in sales will only be short term because fans of that writer are reading and will leave when he or she does and ignoring fans of the actual comic who are more than likely going to stick around is a big mistake.

Is there any reason why they can't do both? Last time I checked, Marvel was publishing approximately umpty-zillion X-Titles, most of which (correct me if I'm wrong) are rolling off the assembly line right on time. So what's so evil about having ONE X-Title that appeals to people like me? The notion that you should have to swear some oath of eternal loyalty in order to be allowed to read a flippin' X-Men comic strikes me as much more destructive to the industry than a book shipping late once in a while.

[lugaru]

Is there any reason why they can't do both? Last time I checked, Marvel was publishing approximately umpty-zillion X-Titles, most of which (correct me if I'm wrong) are rolling off the assembly line right on time. So what's so evil about having ONE X-Title that appeals to people like me? The notion that you should have to swear some oath of eternal loyalty in order to be allowed to read a flippin' X-Men comic strikes me as much more destructive to the industry than a book shipping late once in a while.

Actually yeah, Whedon is unapologetically geeky enough to write X-Men with enough lots of comic references and doing a great job of keeping each individual in character. As for the comics being "assembly line" that's not really the case since "new x-men" in 2001, so your pretty well off picking up just about anything, particularly new x-men. Oh, and if you never read X-Statix I highly recommend it, it was a real trip although very anti-oldschool comics.

[JKCarrier]

As for the comics being "assembly line" that's not really the case since "new x-men" in 2001, so your pretty well off picking up just about anything, particularly new x-men.

Well, that's kind of my point. I'm not looking to buy into an entire franchise. I got burned out on the X-Men back in the '80s, and never expected to pick them up again. The novelty of Whedon writing them got me curious enough to pick up an issue, and I enjoyed it enough to continue reading it. The same goes for X-Statix (which I enjoyed greatly) -- I picked it up because of Milligan and Allred. "Stunt casting" like this means that Marvel is getting money from me that they otherwise wouldn't... I don't see how that can be a bad thing.

[bredon7777]

Talavar and JKCarrier have just provided perfect examples of one of the things I am talking about:

Catering to fans of a particular hot name writer when it should be obvious that the increase in sales will only be short term because fans of that writer are reading and will leave when he or she does and ignoring fans of the actual comic who are more than likely going to stick around is a big mistake. In the case of Astonishing X-Men, Marvel should be trying to attract new longterm readers who are fans of the characters, not Whedonites who are only reading because Joss Whedon is writing the book.

Marvel has repeatedly said that when Joss leaves, Astonishing is over, so in this particular case- not so much of an issue.

And while I see your point, you leave out the benefical aspects of following a writer-

From my own experience: I don't like the X-men (braces for inevtiable flames).  However, I am a Grant Morrison completeist, so when he started writing the Xmen I bought every issue.

Now, don't get me wrong- I thought the run was exellent! However, no one could've made me care enough about the characters to stick around (and from what I hear of the storylines that followed Morrison, I made a wise choice to jump off when I did)

So, if I hadn't followeed a creator - Marvel would've been out whatever profit they made on my issues. 

Now multiply that by however many hundreds of thousands there are just like me.

Still think its a bad thing to put popular creators on books to try and draw audiences with them?

[Mr. Hamrick]

just to pipe on this a little bit . . .

the biggest reason why I think Marvel and DC do the whole "female character in male character's costume" thing that was mention is that most writers have trouble consistently writing female characters.  A bigger problem than that is that (and this is sad to say) titles with a female character in the lead (Supergirl, Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, Batgirl, etc.) have not sold as well.  Wonder Woman is selling right now but to remains to be seen if that will hold up.  If it does then it's a rare exception.  I think the primary exception of a title with female leads in it that sells is "Birds of Prey" and it is really an exception when you look at the industry overall.

(I'm not including "Betty and Veronica" because they are not "superhero comics")

[Dweomer Knight]

just to pipe on this a little bit . . .

the biggest reason why I think Marvel and DC do the whole "female character in male character's costume" thing that was mention is that most writers have trouble consistently writing female characters.  A bigger problem than that is that (and this is sad to say) titles with a female character in the lead (Supergirl, Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, Batgirl, etc.) have not sold as well.  Wonder Woman is selling right now but to remains to be seen if that will hold up.  If it does then it's a rare exception.  I think the primary exception of a title with female leads in it that sells is "Birds of Prey" and it is really an exception when you look at the industry overall.

(I'm not including "Betty and Veronica" because they are not "superhero comics")

You're probably right.  However, taking Spider-Mans outfit and throwing it on a female does nothing to draw my interest; in fact it does the opposite.  I'd rather have them not writing a female at all than writing one poorly or just rehashing what the "male" version has already done.

I don't read comics enough to be aware of this or that writer.  One thing that will turn me off real fast though is bad art (regardless of the name behind).  New Avengers #28 would be an example.  I hate that grainy washed out color look.  Dr. Strange has never looked more monochromatic and Wanda looks more like Mary Jane than any version of the Scarlet Witch I'm familiar with.

Zappy: speaking of cons, are you going to be at Gen Con this year?

DK

[Zapow]

Zappy: speaking of cons, are you going to be at Gen Con this year?

Unfortunately not. I'll be at Cape 3 in Dallas come May and Wizard World Chicago in August.