This sucks about spiderman

[CR]

Is it wrong that I didn't hate 700?

 

No.

 

I thought it was better than what I expected.

[ComicConnoisseur]

He'll be back.

but people might not want him back,and want the Doc Ock version instead.

[grider67]

The 700th issue of a flagship title. An icon. The 50th anniversary.

 

And you publish this stuff?

[Smokinghawk]

Apparently, only Mack/Bendis/Sinekiewicz/Janson can kill a character properly. End of Days is superb, but gets no mainstream press. Crappy gimmicks like this are all over the news though.

[ChiSoxFan]

In the end, it's not going to matter to Marvel (nor frankly, should it) how many people like or dislike the product -- they're only going to look at sales numbers to judge successes over failures.

 

Of course, there's two types of sales, short-term and long-term, that need to be considered. While I'm of the opinion that the latter should be looked upon as far more important than the former, comic companies today seem to ignore it entirely for the sake of chasing the quick buck. The wisdom of doing that in a dwindling industry seems suspect, but it's what it is.

 

With that in mind, what's to look for here with ASM 700 both now and in the Superior title? Sales of ASM spiked with #698 (just released figures), with sales of 81,342, up from the 59,872 the title sold with #697 last month earlier the same month (thanks again for the continued double-shipping, Marvel). Early reports on the sales of ASM 700 have it in the neighborhood of 250,000 copies, which should make it the top-seller this month, and at first glance, a huge success (particularly with the stomach-churning $7.99 price tag), at least for Marvel. What that means for store owners, however, remains to be seen -- having owned a store during the Heroes Reborn era, I can fully remember the stacks of unsold books I was left with from disgusted and disinterested customers who abandoned the titles quickly once they actually got a chance to sample the new direction Marvel had gone with, so initial orders are only half the story. Having the title maintain higher numbers will be what matters.

 

If ASM is at the 250,000 mark, then it still pales in comparison to the last sales gimmick of this magnitude they did with the title -- the Obama cover variant issue, which sold over 352,000 copies in its first month (a total that does counts 2nd and 3rd prints, which we'll have to see what ASM 700 does on that level, though the idea that they'll be another 100,000 copies of is sold is highly unlikely). Of course, ASM 582 topped the next month's chart as well with another 140,000 copies to end up with sales of half-a-million+, so this gimmick isn't going to be in the ballpark of that. (For another starting point reference, the issue prior to the Obama gimmick sold 59,914, nearly identical to ASM 697).

 

ASM is looking at a 3X multiplier (give or take) for their death issue increase from 698 to 700 -- for comparison, we can look at the recent Johnny Storm "death" issue. FF sold 115,448 for that issue, while the issue two prior to that one sold at 37,440 -- so the multiplier was about the same. Going back a little further, the "death" of Captain America sold better than ASM 700 has so far (290,497, with nearly a 4X multiplier from sales of Cap 23 at 81,286, which itself had inflated sales from being a Civil War crossover). In addition, ASM 700 had a slew of 6 variant covers requiring large orders (including a 1 in 100, 1 in 150, and 1 in 200), while FF 587 looks to have had one (1 in 50) variant and Cap 25 looks to have had only one as well, suggesting both were boosted far less in their numbers by retailers ordering to get variants than ASM 700 was. Since neither Johnny Storm nor Steve Rogers is Marvel's flagship character, I'd say this particular gimmick is doing just "ok" by comparison (and maybe not even that), and it isn't (so far) the unequivocal smash success Marvel's spin department will claim it is.

 

Well, the December numbers are here. Previously, I'd said that initial reports were that ASM 700 had sold in the 250,000 neighborhood -- judging by the December marks, Marvel can wish they'd been that high (apparently those numbers included the UK projections as well).

 

That said, ASM 700 finished #1 on the December charts at 200,966. That total is barely a 2.5X multiplier from 698 (though it's closer to the 3X multiplier from 699, which itself saw a drop from the previous issue). The "death" of Marvel's flagship character sold (so far) nearly 100,000 copies less than that of Captain America did for "his" death, and as a percentage, had a much lower boost than either the Cap title or FF did when Johnny Storm "died". And that's with a number of extra variants boosting sales that those other two issues didn't have.

 

The glass half full take? That still made ASM 700 the top issue and, with a $7.99 price tag, a huge windfall for Marvel. The glass half-empty take? Compared to the Cap and FF issues, it looks like the ASM numbers weren't what they could or should have been.

 

The reason? The 7.99 price tag keeping retailers from ordering heavier? Backlash from the leaked plot points causing less fan interest? Both? That will be hard to tell until we see how Superior #1 fared.

 

If I were someone at Marvel, what I would be worried about would be the drops from 698 to 699 and then another drop to 699.1 (and again, Marvel's ridiculous triple-shipping of the title, requiring a regular ASM reader to have to drop $15 on the title in a month just to keep up). I'd also be worried that DC titles that are well beyond a year since their relaunch are still outselling ASM (Aquaman and Batgirl outsold ASM 699). I'd also be concerned that their relaunched X-Men title, only on issue 3, is already barely ahead of both the DC titles I just mentioned (and behind another 4 other DC titles) and others are quickly receding towards their pre-relaunch levels -- some of these numbers suggest that the Marvel reboot just hasn't be as successful so far as DC's was (or as Marvel would presumably have hoped it would be, though again, in a half-full view, they're still outselling the previous title's numbers so far).

[DiceX]

Well, they can't blame it on Wizard this time.