Marvel NOW! Brings Massive Relaunch, New Titles, Creator Shake-Ups in October

Here's some sales info I took from Diamond Publishers. As you can see, Marvel has a slight edge in retail market sales while DC has the edge in unit market share. This is June's statistics, and it indicates that DC and Marvel are in pretty much a dead heat when it comes to top publisher. DC dropped off some the last few months as some of its New 52 floundered and Marvel came out with AvX (the run of Marvel movies didn't hurt either). Marvel will probably gain a bigger lead over DC once the relaunch starts, unless DC can dig deep into the Geoff Johns bowl of miracles and pull out another 'Darkest Night.'

RETAIL MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 33.77%
DC ENTERTAINMENT 33.03%

UNIT MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
DC ENTERTAINMENT 38.23%
MARVEL COMICS 37.82%

FACT DC's reboot brought DC tied with Marvel. Imagine if Marvel actually did a full reboot, made Peter Parker 16, started with an Avengers group that closely resembled the movie line up, retooled the X-Men so the most popular characters were the Original team - remember it was called the Ultimate Universe, it was EXTREMELY popular and had really strong sales. Then books started coming out late and they started doing crossovers and kept going back to number on on Ultimates.

You want NEW READERS? Do what the movies do. Reset every couple of years for a new audience. Toby Maguire's long underwear wasn't even dry cleaned when they started the Spider-Man reboot. It seems we have a three or four year memory, so every three or four years you can start over. Write a new origin, beef up the old one, redesign a costume, shake up the rosters. And most importantly stop using the same tired writers and directors, um artists. Grab the hot new guys, milk them for fresh ideas, and then bring in new guys (or women).

I'm sure these new books will be very entertaining for an arc. Then like DC, the cream will rise to the top, and low selling books should be culled and replaced with fresh ideas.

And stop diluting your brands. ONE Avengers team book, and ONE X-Men team book, and ONE Fantastic Four Team book, a space team, a young Avengers/Mutants/Runaways team(s), and solo character books.

If someone walks into the store and say's I just saw Spider-Man and I want to read a comic book, I shouldn't have to go back more than three issues to get them started.

Yeah, not a reboot at all. Not close to what DC did either. They are going to push and market this more though, especially digitally. New costumes for EVERYONE does seem odd unless it is explained. We have seen tweaks just in general when a new book launches and maybe it is just to bring some freshness.

Why do people think this sounds like a reboot? It sounds like continuity is remaining intact. We're going to see some costume changes (odds are many won't last), some creative team shakeups (given that Bendis has obviously ran out of steam on avengers this is a good thing), and a few new characters (like the new Nova). I don't see where this a reboot or even a half-assed pseudo reboot like the new 52.

How to make Marvel and D.C. interesting again:

Have the characters do things, rather than what happens in 99% of today's comics: Sitting around and talking about events through horribly-written dialogue.
Give us the color and imagination of pre-Liefeld comics, rather than the tedium and repetition of almost every comic during and after the '90s.
Create a single continuous storyline with a clear sense of time for the universes, and stop rebooting everything when you realize today's comics are shitty.
Stop putting Wolverine in everything.
Create interesting new characters, not bullshit like Cable, Pixie, Birdman, Jack-O-Lantern, Red Hood, mob lord Riddler, Cyborg, Jubilee, the living brain in a jar, Sabra, Hush, Prime Superboy, Darkseed, and all those other '90s and 2000s characters that everyone will have forgotten by 2020 unless you continue to run them into the ground.
Have Rob Liefeld killed.

Unfortunately, these are only things good writers do, so today's comic writers will never bother.

I am really exited by the news that Jonathan Hickman is writing the Avengers in his own epic style. Not sure about Bendis on X-men, and I am unfamiliar with Remender's writing, but CAssadyshould definetly kick ass. I just hope that they give Scarlet Witch a great role that fufills her as a hero, and not some contrived plot device.

I wonder if they'll be rebooting Daredevil for the third time?

"These ain't no reboot. It's a new beginning!" said Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso..."

Fire this ******* and bring back Jim Shooter.

So, THAT'S what they meant with Jean Grey returning!

Downsize. Cheaper, more disposable product (physically), along the lines of manga-type paper.
Hire creators who will stick, and not view comics as a stepping stone.
Reestablish some sort of continuity.
Don't constantly shake up your continuity and trash story lines to serve event publishing.
Realize that comics can't really compete with other media.
Cater to existing fans. Forget about new readers.
Most current fans don't buy comics because of the constant, desperate hunger for new readers,
and lack of quality.
The existing fan base would be enough to support the industry, if the quality is there.
Quality, continuity, and a cheaper price means I buy more comics.
Yearly reboots, confusing ret-conning, and expensive books means I buy less comics.
Make comics a quality-driven niche market.
If the comics are good, word of mouth will bring new readers. And old readers back.
The thought balloon and the caption box are unique and important parts of comics. Use them.
As series of computer-colored poses with some words is not a comic book.
Don't forget the 'book', in the term 'comic book'.

When I was young, I was buying Uncanny X-men every month at the local drugstore. In issue 168, I noticed that wolverine was not in the book. Do you know where he was? He was in Japan, having his first limited series, the one Frank Miller drew. Wolverine didn't return to Uncanny until his limited series was done. That's continuity. It made me feel that I was looking in on an actual place, reading about lives, fantastic lives, but lives based in some kind of reality. It was good.
Now, when I read a comic with wolverine in it (which is rare), I'm not reading a character, I'm reading the marvel committee idea of what wolverine's character should be, the logo on the can of marvel pop, the pretty advertisement for the company franchise property that is wolverine.
They can do anything to or with wolverine, because the character is gone, and there is no connection with the reader. We're watching wolverine do things. We're not with him. We're watching a commercial, drawn with a computer, and written by fan fiction authors.

You should stop buying marvel or dc comics. All of you. All true fans should boycott them. Buy back issues. Buy independents.