Nick Furious

It would certainly cause people to ask what you've seen that leads you to think that.

I think both a full story and a verification that the story had passed some kind of filter test by being deemed worthy of reprint in a TPB. It minimizes the risk of disappointment and poorly spent money.

I had forgotten about that.

If we are being completely honest about all the reasons for the decline in ticket sales, is there any way to account for the negative effect of the streaming platforms? Disney Plus didn't exist until after Avengers Endgame. The need to see MCU movies in the theater diminished greatly when it became evident that they would be available on the streaming platforms with a couple months of patience. This is not me giving a pass to the bad writing, convoluted stories and C-list characters...but I think it must play a significant role in the decline of ticket sales, no? Maybe not for Spider-man, but at least for the movies that already had a few negatives working against them?

I get this for newspapers, but for comic books I wonder if the new sales volume decline might have more to do with the abundance of TBP's than with digital media. When I was a kid, if I didn't buy a comic book off the shelf, there was a risk that I would never get to read it other than buying it as a more expensive back issue. Now pretty much everything worth reading (and more) gets reprinted as a TPB. I can be a free-rider of sorts...let other people spend the weekly money sorting out the drek, while I spend my money more strategically, choosing from the stories that made the cut by being reprinted as TBP's. I suspect there are many middle-aged-to-elderly collectors who only read new comics this way now.

If you want to learn comics, learn to use Mycomicshop.com as one of your reference tools for comparison shopping. Here is a link to multiple copies at different grades and price points. I think there are images available for each copy. Consider also that buying a $60 raw copy is approximately equal to a buying a $120 graded copy (since you were planning to get it graded anyway). Also consider that these are the books that have not sold yet at the current asking price: Giant size spider-man comic books issue 4 (mycomicshop.com)

There's a wide spectrum of possible answers to that question. I think they all stem from the Internet's ability to amplify marginal voices that previously would have been irrelevant to those seeking to maximize profit. But also, as someone said to me some 20 years before ESG scores, no one at the party is anxious to say, "I work for Phillip Morris". This could just be the natural evolution and extension of that notion, in certain circles.

This ESG score that @VintageComics mentions...I don't know much about it, but it could serve as a shield or inoculation against being fired for an executive that doesn't hit their numbers. Perhaps they come up short on the numbers, but the ESG score has increased nicely during their tenure. That could make it difficult to get rid of them and create negative PR. The ESG score could be used as positive PR...a "promising sign of the future, proof that the company's heart is in the right place...putting people ahead of profits".

This thread. It must be what a seriously dysfunctional family feels like at Thanksgiving dinner. Very impressed that it hasn't been locked. No need for that, just let everyone punch themselves out.

My work here is done.

I once heard someone speaking on the difference between pre-conceptions and prejudices. He said that pre-conceptions are common to everyone but are surface level and are easily knocked down with a minute or two of conversation. Prejudices, on the other hand, are deeply ingrained and much harder to root out. I thought that was fair. There's probably a lot of room for discussion on the differences between the two.

It's a good movie. Better than good, it's an instant classic. Watch it for yourself and decide. Sure, it throws jabs, but it doesn't swing haymakers and sledgehammers. And it's done the right way, using humor...satire in particular. Someone realized that the Barbie toy line history is really a great vehicle for quality satire. We're too polarized as a society. Too tribal. Rather than judge for themselves, people often decide they don't like something purely based on the other tribe liking it. I don't think you are that way; I think you will enjoy it.

Paid the 20 bucks last night to own it digitally. Definitely worth it, it's a movie that will get watched more than once. Was second viewing for my 13-year-old daughter, first for me and wife. I imagine everyone involved had a great time writing and reworking the script, they nailed it over and over again.

The Barbie movie does a convincing job of conveying that we really do live in a world that has been molded and shaped primarily by men. Women have primarily played a background or non-executive participation role. Part of this is displayed by juxtaposing it against Barbieland, a world that has been molded and shaped by women where men are just the background. But Barbieland is like the Truman Show, every day they get up, wave and say hello, and go to the beach (where they may or may not silently judge each other). It's a really good movie and incorporates a lot of small historical details from the history of the toy line. Has a great opening scene with homage to 2001 A Space Odyssey. It was helpful to watch it with a 13-year-old daughter who had educated herself on every little background detail and could explain it to me.

If I learned anything from streaming Barbie last night with my wife and daughter, it's that the Patriarchy is real. And thank goodness for that because, if the movie is to be believed, it's a whole lot more fun and exciting than the stale boring sameness of the Matriarchy. Another thing I learned is don't be resistant to letting old ideas get re-imagined. Because sometimes you get something really great in the re-imagining.

Iron Man Underoos were available for purchase in 1978. That's my bar for determining A-list...if the characters Underoos were available before the MCU.

I don't think we can overlook the overt desire to expand the audience, specifically to bring in younger females. It became obvious to me around 2020-2021 when my daughter, 11 at the time, suddenly knew more about the MCU than I did. It was a lot of promotion through social media. It also seems to me that a decision was made to increase the humor/silliness level in the MCU as well as the complexity of the interconnection between movies/shows. Humor in a non-comedy movie is like seasoning in a recipe. It works in the right quantities, not so much in large quantities. I think the same is true of interconnection and required viewing of previous shows in order to appreciate the one you are currently watching. It only works in appropriate quantities.

That's because you're a pirate. Traditional women love a pirate, Fabio.

That's a great point, and add in that Stark/Iron Man was already an A-list character in the Marvel Universe. Maybe not a Spider-man or X-men, but certainly an A minus at minimum. Strangely, I'm one of the few people here who actually really enjoyed the first Captain Marvel movie. I thought it was well-written, well-acted and a lot of fun to watch. It was a fairly complex movie with a lot of development of Skrulls, Nick Fury, CM memory holes, etc. I really liked the way it navigated the Skrulls from antagonists to sympathetic characters in the MCU while transitioning the Kree from good guys to antagonists.

I think it could have something to do with the MCU writer's arbitrary decision to just insert Captain Marvel at the top of the totem pole in the MCU. Towards the end of the MCU this C-list character shows up and is immediately crowned the "Superman" of the MCU. More powerful than all the other characters, both A and B list. The seeming predictability of the "socially conscious" decision to have the most powerful character be a woman may play into the allergic reaction, but I don't think it's the over-arching cause that some would like to believe it is. Even if CM were a man, I think many longtime MCU fans would be disgruntled at this longtime back-bench character being appointed top-of-the-heap upon arrival.

Apparently you've never made the mistake of asking if you can buy just the arm of an action figure.

Agreed. Right now we've been watching industry demand shift from "Superhero First Appearances" to older, less common books with above average cover art. Because of that shift, I feel better than ever about the longevity of comic books as a valuable collectible. A superhero first appearance is something I can show to other comic nerds and get a "wow" response. Above average cover art in a golden age comic is something I can show to anyone I know and get a "wow". Don't feel great about the short-term, but I feel good about the long-term.

It's pretty common that standard MCS stock won't have images in the lower price ranges. Seems that imaging is for consignments and higher dollar MCS stock items. Also for auctions of course, but I think all auction books are consignment items.

Curious if you are still able to access the purchase information and images from the purchases back as far as 2013?