>1. Justice League Suicide Squad #5 >2. Batman #15 >3. Justice League #13 >4. Superman #15 >5. Nightwing #13 >6. Star Wars Dr Aphra #3 >7. Trinity #5 >8. Amazing Spider-Man #23 >9. Clone Conspiracy #4 >10. Monsters Unleashed 1
>DC sweeps all ten position in our store’s Top Ten–and once again, Marvel is losing readers who have decided to sit out the current wave of lackluster titles in hopes that Marvel will eventually launch its own back-to-the-basics Rebirth. Marvel’s big event, Monsters Unleashed, was dead on arrival, coming in at #23 in our store this week. It’s obvious that Marvel editorial has no idea what customers want to read; instead, Marvel keeps trotting out the same tired gimmicks to sell more books to stores (variants, deep discounts, match-to incentives) without worrying about appealing to the readers themselves.
>Wow. We received a measly 16 copies on MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1, including the free overship. We have 5 left as Saturday at noon. Very few people care about the new “event.” Invincible Iron Man is in freefall, Mighty Captain Marvel and Star-Lord have failed to register with readers… these are all indicators of fans’ waning interest in Marvel. Which sucks– we WANT to sell Marvel, to be excited about their product, but there’s only so much we can fake enthusiasm for mediocre comics. Especially when DC and Image are putting out consistently high quality work. Can Marvel open up their coffers and throw enough money at a Remender or a Hickman-level talent to come back and fix this? Jason Aaron can’t hold it together on his own, and although Al Ewing’s books are some of the best coming out, they languish from proximity to the rest of the line.
>I feel like a broken record, but here’s another top 10 list without a Marvel book. Actually, Marvel only had 3 spots in our top 20, and none were even in the top 15 so far this week! Marvel finally shows up at spot 16 with Star Wars Dr Aphra 3, Amazing Spider-Man at 17 and Clone Conspiracy at 19. None of the Marvel books I’ve mentioned in this paragraph have hit double digit sales in my store yet in the first few days of sales. Ouch. Over the rest of the week and month, we will sell about 25 to 30 copies of these Marvel books, but most Marvel fans aren’t your “Wednesday Warriors” at this point.
So far, we’re selling more Motor Girl and Night’s Dominion than Monsters Unleashed 1, Mighty Captain Marvel 1, Starlord 1, Avengers 3.1, Invincible Iron Man 3, Venom 3, Gamora 2, Ultimates 2 # 3, or World of Wakanda 3. I know every store is different, but we’ve been done for a long time with playing the variant chasing game, and we’re ordering lower than we have in almost 20 years on these new Marvel first issues and still not selling out of anything, even before the Marvel overships kick in. We gave Champions, Jessica Jones, Great Lakes Avengers and a few other new Marvel books a solid push, and it just fell on deaf ears, since people are just not interested in what Marvel’s putting out right now, or they don’t want to drop a book they already know they enjoy, to budget for what will be a quickly cancelled six issue series. Steve McNiven on a new series should be a strong seller, but I ordered REALLY LOW on Monsters Unleashed but it wasn’t low enough. I’m just scared of how poorly received the MU one shots will be for $4.99 each. I feel like I’m going to eat my fair share on those when subs reject them, since they aren’t interested in the main title that no one is buying so far.
James Fisher
>Marvel announcing a third ongoing for Black Panther just seems like they couldn’t be more out of touch with their audience. The main book is falling in sales, the second book didn’t really catch and there’s no market for a THIRD book for a character that could stay a strong seller with one really focused title, but short term thinking is going to make the character “radioactive” where he will be forced to go away for a while before they bring him back with a new number one six months after all his titles are cancelled. Just like every new Deadpool mini sells less than the last one, Marvel is about one more $9.99 issue of Deadpool away from dropping that down to one of my lower selling books from that publisher, when I used to sell almost 100 every month less than a year ago. Spider-Man/Deadpool has been my bestselling ongoing for a while now, but it’s been sliding quite a bit these last few issues because of the oversaturation of DP titles right now.
>I wish I had a better answer than asking for “less books, cheaper and better books” but they don’t seem to want to hear it with their short term thinking. While our store is doing better than ever (best January so far in our 24 year history, selling tons of comics, TPBs, toys, Pops and more, just not much Marvel), our Marvel sales are approaching their worst numbers ever, hitting late nineties levels, where Amazing and Uncanny were barely selling to even the most hardcore Marvel Zombie. We’ve been cutting Marvel much closer to one or two copies over our exact sales by the end of the month, and allocating that budget to more Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Boom, DC and other indy books. I try NOT to sell out on most titles, because if I have a copy or two left at the end of a two month period, it means I covered my market and didn’t strand 5 people that also wanted it, but didn’t see it here.
Austin Brown
I feel ya I went in Monster Unleashed with medium-low expectations and was still disappointed by it
Julian Lopez
god damn, didn't think it would do that bad.It'll probably still be #1 on Diamond though
Xavier Ross
He's getting another book? Will this one actually be about him instead of OCs?
Xavier Johnson
I feel like it got swallowed up by CW2, IVX, and Secret empire getting all the press. Damn I was hoping Ultimates would sustain at a livable level
Grayson Lee
...
Isaiah Adams
>mashing up a title that has low popularity with one from years ago that got cancelled before the first issue It's like Marvel want to throw money away.
Anthony Murphy
Has monsters unleashed already been released? Was it storytimed?
Elijah Miller
not only that. there was a thread about the monsters unleashed book that will spin out of the event, and guess how many posts that thread had? less than 50. that's how much Sup Forums cared, let alone readers
Ethan King
>2 afro-americans, 3 africans from different countries and an aborigine >for some reson it makes sense to pair them together just because they're black even though their lives experiences couldn't be more different
Cameron Gray
yes barely anybody noticed, it got less replies than Ironheart and the other things Sup Forums complains about. desuarchive.org/co/thread/89227778
Austin Phillips
Damn, so it doesn't even get any rage buys.
Ian Morales
Was it good? It seemed like it was going to be fun
Is it even an event? Cause it was so underpromoted that it seems more like a miniseries.
Brody Stewart
It was pretty good and seems to be a fun style even rather than serious.
> it seems more like a miniseries. It kinda is. It is bi-weekly only 5 chapters, and the tie ins are one shots that are separate from the books they are from. It was the best event format used in some time and Marvel will never use it again because shit sales.
Asher Collins
I love monsters and horror, but Marvel needs to learn that stuff doesn't sell as well as they use to.
The new MU ongoing will be cancelled quickly as that other monster team book they had during ANAD.
Gavin Wright
Was this his endgame?
Austin Bell
>Hurricane Ike is pro-Trump >purposely lets SJWs write his comics to show the world just how stupid they are Brilliant.
Nathan Rogers
It's cancelled already First #1 sold less than expected, even being the new event with a better artist, well known characters in the cover, a bunch of tie-ins and marketing all around. Expect an "(of 5)" by june's solicits
Aiden Kelly
>kike perlmutter ever giving up a dime on purpose you must be new
Angel Cooper
The event and the solo are two different things user. The solo doesn't start until april
Lucas Sanchez
How fucking small is this store? My store got 20 copies of Monsters Unleashed #1 (including the free copies) and has 5 left too, but my LCS sells maximum 30-35 copies of the top books.
Dominic Hernandez
That's what i'm saying. If the event undersold, the ongoing will sell even worse as it features unknown OC
Nathan Hall
The fact that monsters unleashed will be another inhuman-centric event is not going to help either
Nolan White
Black Panther and Storm have history. Luke Cage and Misty Knight have history. Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Misty Knight all have deep connections to Harlem. The odd man out is Manifold who, ironically, is the only one in the team that isn't black.
Kevin Wright
. Justice League Suicide Squad #5 . Batman #15 . Justice League #13 . Superman #15 . Nightwing #13 . Trinity #5 Yet another week at DC.
Brody Wood
>4 out of 10
Marvel's catching up fast.
Blake Harris
Hey guys, I hope you don't mind if I post a little bit of music
So is Monsters Unleashed a company wide event or something? Because it seems like there are currently 6 different important company wide events all happening at the same damn time at Marvel.
Julian Russell
>Ray in the top 12
I'm honestly impressed.
Jaxon Ward
>Spider-Man Yeah, that too.
Matthew Thompson
OK, lets count the current big events happening at Marvel
There's >Monsters Unleashed >Dead No More >IvX >I think Civil War may or may not be going on
And they are already teasing Secret Empire.
Easton Martin
Civil War 2 already ended. But wasn't there like an aftermath issue or something?
Gabriel Morris
>Green Lanterns in the Top 10. Humphries Rebirth continues.
Zachary Scott
>Green Lantern outselling Star Wars
I think I'm lost, what timeline is this?
Samuel Thomas
Mine.
Christian Scott
I like that Lanterns is doing so well.
Jessica is love.
Nolan Nelson
Getting him out of Star-Lord and Marvel and into GL was the best thing that ever happened to him.
Seriously I fucking hated his Star-Lord comic but Green Lanterns has been fun so far.
Chip's Star-Lord has also been kind of boring, not as bad as Humphries' Star-Lord abomination but the only thing that got my attention from his run so far is Diamondhead making an appearance in the last page.Yeah Diamondhead is a c-list nobody but he's Richard Rider's old nemesis so I don't know if Chip is planning to do something with that.
Noah Smith
The Rebirth title and Ray getting a CW Seed mini plus he's Gay now so people were curious.
Evan White
>CW Seed What's this?
Isaiah Flores
Fujoshis love them some twink.
Liam Cooper
Streaming shows by The CW. They're the ones who did the Arrowverse Vixen series.
Is that good for Nightwinrg? People like Bludhaven that much?
Jeremiah Johnson
Nice.
Everyone loves Dick.
Landon Cruz
Black Panther is selling poorly in comic stores but is doing really well in other markets thanks to the writer's name recognition. So it's hardly "low popularity."
BUT, the title's popularity has much more to do with the writer than the character. So I don't see the point of trying to turn Panther into a franchise.
Leo Torres
>Marvel's big new event can't even beat a D-lister like The Ray
HA HA OH WOW.
Anthony Rodriguez
Hey, was the Priest run good?
Kevin Perez
The ray is getting a tv show and becoming part of a team featuring batman and lobo so I don't think he's anything less than c list now.
Cooper Evans
If only Marvel gave their own Dick this much love.
>he's Gay now Didn't he fug Black Canary?
Sebastian Sullivan
BP used to be a school teacher in Harlem during his early Avengers days also Storm ran into both Luke Cage and Misty Knight when she was trying to find her parents old house and Manifold knows BP from Hickman's Avengers.
Benjamin Clark
DC >7/10 >only one event book >only two not in double digits Marvel >3/10 >two event books/even tie-ins >only one in double digits and it's only there because it's an event book tie-in
Parker Flores
>So is Monsters Unleashed a company wide event or something? 5 issue double-shipping mini with a small handful of one-shot tie-ins.
Juan Peterson
Nah m8, Spider-Man always sells because it's Spider-Man. It used to sell better tho, but it would be still among the top sellers if it wasn't involved in any event.
Evan Thompson
Spider-Man has been selling like shit recently though. Around 50k for Marvel's biggest character is abysmal.
Juan Gomez
I think pic related is for you user and the thread as a whole.
John Diaz
I feel like Marvel is trying to match the JL and Power Ranger crossover with their own slant to the toku audience But as usual, they went for the style over substance, which doesn't work in comic book media
Carson Adams
I pirated it, deleted it after reading 5 pages and i want my money back somehow. I'll download the Leinil Yu issue to check the cheescake but man, Marvel should have put more effort in the first event since Infinity that isn't hero vs hero. Tie ins are done by d-list writers and no one has shit to do with their respective book or the main event, so that should be fun but totally skippable.
Alexander Diaz
I dont think its doing good overall. Prob, switch to a monthly sometime this year
Gavin Phillips
>Monsters Unleashed is on fucking page 2 >#31 OF THE WEEK DAMN. That's pretty bad.
Luke Lopez
>Ray nice
Charles Scott
It's doing the same numbers as Harley Quinn. Sells better then aquaman and green arrow and deathstroke. So you expect all them to go monthly?
Isaac Brooks
Is there a PLOT behind Monsters Unleased? Is it Pacific Rim monsters running muckiity muck so the heros recruit the old goofy silver age monsters to help? Or just big monsters jobbing?
Charles Morris
Big monsters show up everywhere, crashing from space. Some little fucker has a notebook and he's drawing these monsters. So either he can sense them coming and draws them, or it's a fucking Death Note that wills these monsters into existence. Oh, and Fin Fang Foom calls him a faggot on the last page.
Joseph King
...
Jordan Hill
Oh so its another hyper powerful mutant/inhuman who'll be asked to join a team at the end.
Kevin Myers
How has the Power Rangers/JL crossover been?
Caleb Peterson
Wonder if that kid is Rob from the Marvel Godzilla series?
Julian Nelson
It's one issue in and it's still early. Last page ended really great.
Brayden Robinson
This is the culmination of what Bendis started back in 2004.
Cooper Cook
I don't think I fully get how this overshipping thing works. Do they send lcs more comics than what they asked for and make them pay for it? Do they just send more than what was requested in order to sell more to audiences? in either case, isn't it somewhat shady and probably ilegal?
Angel Russell
>Ship the same numbers as they ordered for the previous issue (Number 1 had 20 issues for order, get 20 free issues for number 2) >LCS has to pay shipping fees for those free books. >Can't see neither free or bought issues >LCS has to close since they can't afford shipping for FREE ISSUES.
Brody Watson
>Can't sell* neither free or bought issues
Jose Phillips
Nightwing selling better than Spiderman? We are all in the Twilight Zone.
William Foster
I don't think anyone was expecting Monsters Unleashed to do well.
Lucas Brown
>Do they just send more than what was requested in order to sell more to audiences? Yes. It's less to sell more to audiences and more to inflate sales. They can send 34 copies of Mosiac to a LCS (which the LCS has to pay for) and it counts as 34 copies of Mosiac sold and is added to the sales chart. >isn't it somewhat shady and probably ilegal? Shady? Yes. Illegal? No. It's done through Diamond's distribution. It's not a new practice. It's just usually never done to such a gigantic scale like this. Which is hurting LCS owners and making them angry.
Henry Howard
Yeah, the Oath. I think that's supposed to come out in March or whatever
Tyler Myers
>March Please tell me you're joking. That is ssssooooooo late. Why?
Levi Lewis
You think that's crazy, another retailer said this:
>"Slow week. Lots of Marvel titles out this week with only three Marvel titles managing to get into the top ten. Aquaman outsold Amazing Spider-man and Clone Conspiracy 4. Granted some people buy both covers of Aquaman though some buy the multiple covers of Clone Conspiracy 4 also. From Marvel Amazing Spider-man, Clone Conspiracy 4, Doctor Aphra, and Venom were the only real money makers for us this week. Thought I ordered low enough on Monsters Unleashed. Right now it looks like I was wrong. Another Captain Marvel series was not what the fans wanted. The Inhumans are not what the fans want to read about either. All New X Men did not see one extra person pick it up because of the Inhumans vs X Men crossover. I still order to high on Marvel because I am still amazed at how poorly they are doing. Marvel is stuck in their version of “DC You” funk right now. Marvel is tone deaf right now to what fans want. I need them to get back to exciting the fans."
Camden Thompson
> Maybe everything but Harley Quinn. I mean Nightwing aint that big, so that makes those other books look worse.
Nathan Carter
>5. Nightwing
Still mad that Helena is stuck in a crappy low selling BoP book instead of this as a support character.
Leo Martin
It comes out tomorrow
Dylan Smith
Ok. A epilogue book coming out like three months after an event ended would have been freakin weird.