Ultimate Secret #3 delayed over 3 months to 9/21

My gut says this has to due with to things. One is the movie Millars Fantastic Four. I'm guessing the Fantastic Four will be actually getting called the Fantastic Four by the end of Millars run. The second i'm guessing is the house of M. I don't know if marvel has a certain number of books that they could possibly maximum produce and release per a month but it is possible. They seem to keep a fairly consisten number of books being released every month. When a book is canned there is usually another to replace it. The House of M is putting at least 4 extra titles on to the shelves for 3-4 months. That would get us into September when Secret is scheduled to return. The cross over event will be over and several more books will disappear leaving room for the printing and publication of the rest of Secret.
 
PhoenixFactor said:
My gut says this has to due with to things. One is the movie Millars Fantastic Four. I'm guessing the Fantastic Four will be actually getting called the Fantastic Four by the end of Millars run. The second i'm guessing is the house of M. I don't know if marvel has a certain number of books that they could possibly maximum produce and release per a month but it is possible. They seem to keep a fairly consisten number of books being released every month. When a book is canned there is usually another to replace it. The House of M is putting at least 4 extra titles on to the shelves for 3-4 months. That would get us into September when Secret is scheduled to return. The cross over event will be over and several more books will disappear leaving room for the printing and publication of the rest of Secret.
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Thanks for that. It kind of makes me less upset about it all. Good thoughts.
 
nigma said:
im with ya on this one Dr.Strangefate, from a market standpoint i would have done the same as marvel. piss off 1/2 the marvel readers in hopes more then double that will join. (if the movies is good)
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well, I don't know. does that method of getting new readers really work. for example, as much as I have enjoyed the X-Men, and Spidey Films. and to a lesser extent Daredevil and Punisher. I have not started reading any of those comics. and this from a guy with 16 titles on his pull list.

and for non-comic readers will that even have an impact. many of my friends do not read comics. I try(really I do) to get them interested in various titles but they could care less. however, they will ask my opinion about comic book movies and go see them.

as for the delay of this series. okay, stuff happens, but these delays really kill the narrative energy. also it seems to me when they want something to come out on time(House of M) it does. I mean really does any one think House of M(which I won't be reading) will have a 2 or 3 month delay between issues? :wink:
 
for the love of all that is holy...
i love the speculating thats going on but no matter what anyone says marvel really should release something official on this, which i unfortuneatly doubt...

needless to say i dont think that nightmare and secret so far were phenominal and are def. not worth the (now its a 5 month) wait
 
Dr.Strangefate said:
Oh god... I bet i know what it is....

The Movie Deal....

I bet marvel contractually cannot have a really confusing portrayal of the Fantastic Four around the Movie.... Thats why in UFF they're starting a new arc the month of the movie....

It probably wasn't a big deal when Ultimate Secret was originally plotted out.... because it would be done before the summer, and wouldnt be touching June/July.... Now with the delays they have the Fantastic Four right in the middle of a complex second part of a storyarc that builds off a five issue miniseries that's over and done with.

The Movie people dont want to lose viewers to those who consider the F4 to be a part of a really confusing universe....

And Marvel doesnt want to lose potential readers who filter into a comic store for the first time since Spiderman 2, and pick up the shiniest title with the four on it, and can't figure out whats going on....

It makes sense in an evil evil corporate sort of way...
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I think you absolutely nailed it. A budget-busting box office blockbuster is the only thing that would freeze a terrific story in its tracks.

If Secret sold 80,000 copies, that would be about $239,000. That would barely cover the cost of Jessica Alba's thongs. There's hundreds of millions riding on the movie's success.

Putting a bullet right in the head of "Secret" and getting the FF comics in sync with the flick is a no-brainer. All other explanations are irrelevant. Excellent diagnosis, Doctor.
 
Interesting note - C.B. Cebulski is the former Marvel editor who posted at Millarworld that the problem was not with Ellis or McNiven. But then he posted this last night:

Yeah, we had plenty of meetings about this when I was still up there. We did consider getting someone to fill in and finish issues three and four. Tom Raney's name even came up. However, in the end, Steve made it clear he wanted to do all four issues and we respected his decision.
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Sure sounds like a problem with McNiven to me. Baffling.
 
UltimateE said:
Interesting note - C.B. Cebulski is the former Marvel editor who posted at Millarworld that the problem was not with Ellis or McNiven. But then he posted this last night:



Sure sounds like a problem with McNiven to me. Baffling.
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Wrong thread dude
 
Beyond unbelievable..... I seem to recall complaining about the huge delays with Nightmare and thinking " Oh well , at least they have a ton of time to complete the other parts and we should have no further delays." :shock:

So now this "House of M" is a "big event"...... sort of like a year ago when this whole ultimate trilogy was a "big stinkin' secret event" :?

I don't care what bussiness your in, not keeping your commitments to your customers will cause you to lose them.

We as readers have invested our time and money in to this, and now Marvel is saying "that doesn't matter to us, we are so concerned with making the next sale we can't be bothered to fufill our commitments from previous sales".

Thanks for making me hate comics again you greedy bastards, I hope this blows up in their face.
 
UltimateE said:
Interesting note - C.B. Cebulski is the former Marvel editor who posted at Millarworld that the problem was not with Ellis or McNiven. But then he posted this last night:
Sure sounds like a problem with McNiven to me. Baffling.
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Actually, he never said the problem wasn't McNiven's schedule. He said:

No blame falls on either Warren or Steve. Warren's scripts are in and Steve is one of the most hardworking and reliable artists in comics today. From what I understand, certain circumstances have arisen that have neccessitated Marvel making the call to delay the title.

I take this to mean that Marvel decided that they wanted McNiven on both titles and that keeping New Avengers on schedule was more important than keeping Ultimate Secret on schedule and that McNiven couldn't be in two places at once. (Finch has been late -- sometimes several weeks late -- on NA and McNiven was doing the Sentry arc to hopefully allow Finch more breathing room and cut down on the delays on NA, Marvel's #1 selling book) I like McNiven's work very much and I'm glad that he'll be finishing Ultimate Secret.

I await the next Bad Signal (Warren Ellis' mailing list) from Uncle Warren with a great deal of interest...
 
ngnot said:
Beyond unbelievable..... I seem to recall complaining about the huge delays with Nightmare and thinking " Oh well , at least they have a ton of time to complete the other parts and we should have no further delays." :shock:

So now this "House of M" is a "big event"...... sort of like a year ago when this whole ultimate trilogy was a "big stinkin' secret event" :?

I don't care what bussiness your in, not keeping your commitments to your customers will cause you to lose them.

We as readers have invested our time and money in to this, and now Marvel is saying "that doesn't matter to us, we are so concerned with making the next sale we can't be bothered to fufill our commitments from previous sales".

Thanks for making me hate comics again you greedy bastards, I hope this blows up in their face.
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Yeah.......us fanboys have never been the most reliable on following through with those sorta threats.....
 
just buy trades

well at this point. I am looking at two options. ignore the series all together. or just get it next spring or summer as a trade. or maybe longer, I am sure the trade will be delayed too. by then they will probably be on their next summer blockbuster multi-part crossover that changes the Marvel Universe As We Know It!

I usually don't like trades unless I am trying to catch up with a series. but given the delays in this and other series I collect(I am looking at you Supreme Power) maybe trades is the way to go.
 
What I would do is just be patient... You'll get to read the issues in due time, right? You'd be waiting way too long to read those stories, you know, if you waited...
 
Goodwill said:
What I would do is just be patient... You'll get to read the issues in due time, right? You'd be waiting way too long to read those stories, you know, if you waited...
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I never understood the concept of dropping a series and waiting for the trade because of delays. Like Goody said, you're waiting even longer then; what's the point?
 
UltimateE said:
I never understood the concept of dropping a series and waiting for the trade because of delays. Like Goody said, you're waiting even longer then; what's the point?
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There are some books (like Planetary) that come out on a very long schedule -- Planetary is quarterly -- that are worth reading "real-time" despite the delays, because the book is so multi-level that the fact that you can't remember what happened last issue in anything other than the most general terms doesn't matter. Each issue is a good read on its own, as well as contributing the longer plot line. Then, once a year or so, you have to go back and read the collected issues to get the full impact of the issues.

But if you are reading a title that has a single complicated plot line, long delays just kill the plot. I like Ellis' Iron Man, but I had to go back and re-read issues #1 and #2 to remember some of the finer details of the plot before I read #3. The more issues a series has, the less likely I am to go back and read the back issues of the arc to remember what was happening, and the more likely I am to wait for trade.

I think it's interesting, what happened with Ultimate Secret -- it was all started long enough ago that I think the whole thing was supposed to conclude before V2 of Ultimates began, so Ellis used Thor (and whoever the traitor is, probably) because they were still available at that time. Now the issues have a statement that the whole series (or at least the first 2 parts, anyway) occur before V2 of Ultimates. Somehiow that seems... anticlimactic to me. I KNOW what is going to happen anyway, in general terms. Galactus, Herald, devourer of worlds, gets defeated, yada yada, but the fact that it has already happened by the time the Ultimates issues occur make it less compelling to me, somehow. I know the "landscape" of the title I am reading isn't really changed by the events. Whatever happens to them doesn't get referenced in Ultimates and it might as well never have happened.

That isn't saying that I don't think it will be an interesting story -- I do think it will be. It's just that it loses the time immediacy that would have made me HAVE to have each issue as it comes out.
 
Rhyo said:
But if you are reading a title that has a single complicated plot line, long delays just kill the plot. I like Ellis' Iron Man, but I had to go back and re-read issues #1 and #2 to remember some of the finer details of the plot before I read #3. The more issues a series has, the less likely I am to go back and read the back issues of the arc to remember what was happening, and the more likely I am to wait for trade.
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I don't disagree at all - there are a couple series I only get in trades too. But what I'm saying is that there are people saying they are going to drop the book now and wait for the trade, even though they have the first 2 issues. And I say what's the point? Not only are you waiting even longer, but you're wasting money too.
 
UltimateE said:
I don't disagree at all - there are a couple series I only get in trades too. But what I'm saying is that there are people saying they are going to drop the book now and wait for the trade, even though they have the first 2 issues. And I say what's the point? Not only are you waiting even longer, but you're wasting money too.
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UltimateE and Goodwill you both have a valid point about having patience. I have not dropped an on-going series due to delays. However, I find it much more annoying for mini-series.

Why doesn't Marvel (or others for that matter) wait until say more than half a series is completed? than you hype it and release it. It seems to me the accepted business model is to hype first and worry about meeting deadlines later. Again, I realize stuff happens: overbooked artist, writer's block, family stuff, etc. I mean, why don't they wait? After all, it's not has though they are going to cancel a mini, right? [Has that ever happened?]

So to sum up. With an ongoing monthly, delays won't cause me to drop it. But for future mini-series, I think I will wait for the trade. After all, if the mini turns out to get a lot of negative reviews, I will have saved some cash. Unless of course, spend it all on dames and horses. :)
 
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