The Weekly Crisis - Comic Book Review Blog

Cover of the Week - Destroyer and Green Lantern Corps

2009-07-05T20:00:00.001-03:00

This week's Cover of the Week has Matt and I spotlighting our two choices for top honours. Matt went with Destroyer #4 while I chose Green Lantern Corps #38. Hit the jump for a look see at each and find out why we chose the covers we did.

Matt's Cover of the Week - Destroyer #4

Matt: Jason Pearson is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists, and this Destroyer cover reinforces that. This cover is incredibly dynamic, and the facial expressions are great.

Kirk's Cover of the Week - Green Lantern Corps #38

Kirk: Powerful and striking cover. Really grabs your attention when you look at it. You just know something huge happened in this issue just by looking at the cover and that's always the sign of a good cover to me. I'm also a sucker for old school word balloons being used on the cover.

Runners-up: Greek Street #1, Secret Six #11 & Marvel Divas #1

Action is His Reward - Spider-Man Subscriptions Over the Years

2009-07-05T15:38:00.002-03:00

Last month I wrote a piece where I number crunched the sales of the Spider-Man titles through the years. I used all of the available data that we had from the direct market, which means all the comics sold through specialty shops, but I sadly did not have information regarding the subscription numbers. These numbers were rumored to be higher during the Brand New Day era of the Spider-Man titles and could have theoretically skewed my final conclusion that the Spider-Man titles were losing readers in the past year, despite the higher total sales.

Thankfully, two articles have popped up on the net, one at Publisher Weekly and another at Indignant Online regarding Marvel's subscription numbers. The most interesting part, however, is this second piece from Indignant Online, where they take a closer look at the subscription numbers over the years. Hit the jump to see my thoughts on this brand new data.

Methodology

As with the previous article, this one is mainly concerned with the sales of the regular "616" Spider-Man ongoing titles. The original article provides information regarding other titles as well, notably Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. On a special side note, the latter sells an incredible amount of issues through the subscription market, easily beating the popular Amazing Spider-Man on a 2-to-1 scale, and selling almost three times as much as it does on the direct market level.

Additionally, on the sales chart, there seems to be no information regarding Marvel Knight Spider-Man. I am not completely sure, but it is possible that Marvel decided to not put this title in the subscription market because it was (as the name indicates) part of the a Marvel Knights imprint, aimed at more adult readers. This theory is supported by the fact that there is sales data for it once the title switched to Sensational Spider-Man and was dropped from the imprint.

Subscription Sales

(Click the graph for a larger version, or click here for the complete sales chart)

Analysis

This new information regarding subscriptions is almost a microcosm of the previous information that we had. Towards the beginning, between 2002 and 2004, sales remained roughly the same and fluctuated very little for Amazing Spider-Man.

Something to note is that while in the direct market, the number one issue for a series is usually the highest seller with following months showing sharp drop offs. However, it seems to work differently in the subscription market. The subscription numbers for both Peter Parker: Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man increased over time while it was doing just the opposite in the direct market.

There is a noticeable dip near the middle in the total sales, around 2004 and 2005, because of the aforementioned fact that Marvel Knights Spider-Man does not register in the subscription market. To make matters worse, Amazing Spider-Man did not ship out the month of November in 2004.

Sales started picking up for Amazing Spider-Man in 2006 and 2007, which we know is the time when Spidey was involved in Civil War and Back in Black. The events, however, did not seem to be helping the other two Spider-Man titles, as they were both doing extremely low numbers.

And, finally, we reach 2008, with now only one title shipping three times a month. The numbers included in the above graph and chart are the total of subscribers, so to get the total number of sales, you would have to multiply it by three. Roughly 35 thousand copies in May and 27 thousand in November.

Conclusion

I am really glad that we have gotten a hold of the subscription data as it was a missing piece of the puzzle I was trying to put together. Sadly, the big picture remains the same.

The number of individual subscriptions actually went down once Amazing Spider-Man went into a thrice-monthly schedule and the other two titles were cancelled. The total sales, however, increased sharply, as more readers are buying the title more often. In those terms, the decision on Marvel's part was a resounding success.

But I am concerned at the apparent downward spiral that the number of individual readers for the Spider-Man titles is taking. The chart shows that, while there are some fluctuations throughout the years, once Amazing Spider-Man went into a thrice monthly, it took a clear down fall. When you consider the tough economic times and the rising prices of comics, an almost-weekly comic is a big commitment for readers and it seems more people are dropping it as time passes.

I still hold on to the belief that a diminished reader base buying more copies is not good for the long term health of any title or for the industry in general. But it looks as though Spidey's involvement in Dark Reign and the upcoming 600th anniversary issue may boost sales, just like how Civil War and The Other boosted sales in the past. I guess time will tell just how sustainable the Spider-Man titles are in their current format.

Comic Book Moments of the Week for 07/01/09

2009-07-05T15:00:00.000-03:00

Secret Six and Batman and Robin both racked up quite a few moments for this week's Moments of the Week. Two great issues that really define the term Must Read. On the Marvel side of things, War of Kings and Marvel Divas both had some moments on hand. Check out these and the rest, after the jump.

Agents of Atlas #7

This recap page rivals the Dr Doom Shaft homage from the Dr Doom and Master of Evil miniseries.

Batman and Robin #2

Just a great splashpage. Love the perspective used.

This is the bulk of the Alfred/Dick talk from this issue. Some great stuff here. Love the 'show must go on' ending.

Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #1
I believe this is the first time someone has finally made fun of the AIM beekeeper uniforms.

Fantastic Four #568

Unless it's revealed as some kind of mind game or misdirection, the Marquis of Death is revealed as Clyde Wyncham from Millar's 1985. If you didn't read 1985, I assume this comes out of left field.

Justice League: Cry for Justice #1

Hey Ray, remember you wife. You know, the crazy one that went running around inside someone's brain and killed them. You kind of lost yourself over how insane she was and took a trip through the Multiverse over it. Ya, that one. Thought you might have learned something from that. Guess justice has no limits. JUSTICE!

Marvel Divas #1

First panel shows off the kind of cliched dialogue I disliked. Bottom panel I really enjoyed. Weird how they were pretty much back to back like this.

The bartender's reaction is priceless.

This is the cancer reveal. Still not sold on it. If you want to do 'divas' trash talking other super heroes or doing the whole sex talk and female empowerment stuff, do that. If you want to have a serious topic like someone getting cancer, do the character work for that. I'll save final judgement for the next issue though. If they try to continue with the diva talk or do a copout on the cancer, I'll probably end up dropping the miniseries.

Secret Six #11

Really liked this sequence. It has a lot of depth to the story and can relate to just about any military/authority figure abusing their powers. Yes, not everyone is a nazi or racist or evil man, but the good ones believing the evil or standing by while the atrocities go on doesn't absolve them of their crimes either.

Ragdoll is the best character ever.

Case in point.

This came out of nowhere. Artemis, while drugged, didn't seem like she was on the brink of death and Wonder Woman hadn't even shown up or cameoed up until now. She just appears at the most convenient time, just as Artemis is dying. Will have to see where they go with this.

Uncanny X-Men #513

Well, they didn't waste time telling us who the fake Xavier is. Mystique's been sort of jumping all over the place since Get Mystique! ended. She was all hot and bothered with Iceman in Manifest Destiny and now she's working with Norman Osborn. Character seems to have regressed a bit over the past year or so.

Adam X is XTREME! He wears a backwards baseball cap and curses and has a sword and shoulder spikes, too! XTREMEEEEEE!!! I love it when they poke fun at 90's stuff like this.

War of Kings #5

You have great rage within you. Welcome to the Red Lantern Corps, Gladiator.

It's about time we got to this fight. Can't wait.