Marvel cancels a bunch of titles

[The Overlord]

Looks like Marvel has cancelled a bunch of titles:

http://comicsworthreading.com/2011/11/17/marvel-cancels-more-titles/

 

[Friday]

They're calling it the Cancelpocalypse over at iFanboy. I'm not really supprised at the canceling of the low tier ongoings, but the shortening and outright canceling of minis seems pretty unprecedented to me. When was the last time we saw a mini not get completed for anything other than creator issues?

 

[Zombipanda]

I wonder why, especially in the instance of, say, the monster team-up miniseries, where the art for two issues is already in, they don't try marketing these lower tier titles as digital exclusives.

 

[Captain Canuck]

So what's been cancelled?

Ghost Rider
Alpha Flight
Iron Man 2.0
X-23
Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive
All-Winner's Squad
Daken: Dark Wolverine

what else?

 

[Friday]

So what's been cancelled?

Ghost Rider
Alpha Flight
Iron Man 2.0
X-23
Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive
All-Winner's Squad
Daken: Dark Wolverine

what else?

That Doom mini by Nick Spencer.

 

[E]

I'm assuming these were low-selling titles. If so - good. They spread themselves too thin and publish a lot of crap.

 

[Captain Canuck]

The biggest issues are that
- they cancelled an eight-issue mini series (All- Winner's Squad) after the fifth issue on a cliffhanger
- they cancelled Marvel's only two female-fronted solo books (Ghost Rider & X-23).

Granted, no one was reading the AWS mini, and a female ghost rider is just a bad idea.

 

[Jaggyd]

I'm sad, because X-23 was a really good book.

 

[Jaggyd]

I'm starting to wonder if this is the writing on the wall of Disney starting to clean house to make Marvel more efficient.

 

[thee great one]

I loved X-23...sad

 

[Zombipanda]

I'm assuming these were low-selling titles. If so - good. They spread themselves too thin and publish a lot of crap.

The problem is, all the boutique books are being lost, the books that might be gold star quality but only have a small devoted fanbase. Instead we get over-saturation of franchises that sell on brand name rather than artistic quality.

Yeah, they sell a lot of crap. But a big percentage of that crap is glossy garbage that sells well. Capitalism is not a barometer for artistic worth, despite our compulsion to apply a capitalist model to everything.

 

[Bass]

So they cancelled both their Female solo ongoings, and their one LGBT solo ongoing. AND, if i'm not mistaken, there are no female writers still working as of February.

Oh... Marvel.

That's a rather unfair criticism. If Marvel puts out solo books starring women, and if Marvel hires women to write comics, and those comics are not being bought in profitable numbers, they will cancel them. If anything, this only proves they're being unsexist and fair, not giving women positive-discrimination by steadfastly holding on to some arbitrary tokenship quota of women even if no one is interested.

X-23 got cancelled because it was selling less than 25,000 copies. If people felt it was so important to have these titles, they should've been buying them.

Now, whether or not your only women solo books should be a female version of Wolverine or Ghost Rider is a completely different discussion, but the sexism implied is simply absent.

The problem is, all the boutique books are being lost, the books that might be gold star quality but only have a small devoted fanbase. Instead we get over-saturation of franchises that sell on brand name rather than artistic quality.

Yeah, they sell a lot of crap. But a big percentage of that crap is glossy garbage that sells well. Capitalism is not a barometer for artistic worth, despite our compulsion to apply a capitalist model to everything.

While this is true, there is hardly another barometer to use. The best way to discover if the art is successful, is if the artists can make a living off their work. Another avenue is to consider the audience size and see how it does in that regard (for example, a niche product like a minimalist love story will simply have a smaller audience than a SUPERMAN title, which is fine, in which case you have to judge its success by its sales in proportion to the audience's interest), which they do.

But more importantly, I sincerely doubt that these cancellations are unjustified in terms of artistic worth. Which is a shame.

 

[Void.M]

I'm starting to wonder if this is the writing on the wall of Disney starting to clean house to make Marvel more efficient.

I dunno, this seems to be Alonso's idea, but who knows?

 

[E]

The problem is, all the boutique books are being lost, the books that might be gold star quality but only have a small devoted fanbase. Instead we get over-saturation of franchises that sell on brand name rather than artistic quality.

If that is the case, the market will straighten them out eventually just like it did when Jemas came aboard.

It's a vicious cycle and they learn nothing from it.

 

[Void.M]

AND, if i'm not mistaken, there are no female writers still working as of February.

Oh... Marvel.

Actually, you are greatly mistaken there.

Granted, no one was reading the AWS mini, and a female ghost rider is just a bad idea.

Did you actually read it? It wasn't a bad idea at all and she isn't the first female Ghost Rider. Heck, Jason Aaron's run established that there are more than one Spirit of Vengeance.

 

[Gemini]

People really don't give X-23 enough credit, Liu has been doing a wonderful job on that title, that is a damn shame

the rest of these titles the writings been pretty much on the wall for awhile, Black Panther MWoF was a mistake from the get go, Daken was actually very interesting til Liu and to a lesser extent Way left, Williams GR was so hacky and a complete detour from Aarons (amazing) run then tack on the forced new GR wich has failed to resonate ENTIRELY with audiences from what I've seen, Alpha Flight should have never been upgraded to an ongoing from the get go I'm Canadian and I know they're an occcasional mini-series at best property (ahem *runaways* ahem). It's not surprising they finally manned up and dropped these titles

besides it's not like any of these aside from X-23 were critical darlings like Captain Britain & MI13 or anything, these were all pretty much middle of the road titles that marvel keeps in circulation due to perceived fan obligation that never transfer to the sales required to keep them afloat

also Iron Man 2.0 was boring

 

[James Kennedy]

They should wise up and come up with their own 52....

1-Amazing Spider-Man
2-Captain America
3-Iron Man
4-Incredible Hulk
5-Sub Mariner
6-Mighty Thor (not the guy they have today)
7-Mighty Avengers (no New Avengers)
8-Fantastic Four
9-Doctor Strange
10-The Defenders (that seems to be working out)
11-Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze, please)
12-The Punisher
13-Nick Fury & SHIELD
14-Black Panther
15-Daredevil
16-Elektra (the only Marvel female with her own movie)
17-Blade (Vampires...still hot, not?)
18-Avengers Academy
19-Thunderbolts
20-Luke Cage/Iron Fist (this COULD work)
21-Moon Knight
22-Deadpool
23-Uncanny X-Men
24-Wolverine & the X-Men
25-New Mutants
26-X-Factor
27-Wolverine
28-X-Force
29-Ultimate X-Men
30-Ultimate Spider-Man
31-Ultimate Avengers
32-Ultimate Fantastic Four

If anyone can come up with 20 more titles worth reading, please speak up now!!! (Shang-Chi? Venom? Man-Thing? She-Hulk? Alias? Ka-Zar? Cable? The Thing? Dazzler? Millie the Model? Devil Dinasour? It, the Living Colossus?)

I really think Marvel (Disney) is doing tje right thing by trimming down its humongeous number of monthly comics, focus on landmark characters, go for volume, and work out the smart stuff through ICON (Kick Ass, Nemesis, Superior, Criminal)...by making Icon their own and REAL vertigo for adults and keeping the quality high for fewer and better flagship titles, Marvel MAY have a chance to catch up in this race where DC is clearly kicking butt...

 

[ProjectX2]

A bunch of us posted our ideas for a potential Marvel relaunch in this thread here.

 

[Zombipanda]

A bunch of us posted our ideas for a potential Marvel relaunch in this thread here.

As ever, mine were the bomb.

I should post up some summaries sometime.