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Failed Marvel superheroes

Started by TheSurgeon,

75 posts in this topic

kav

kav

Posted
Posted
The Hulk

 

Cancelled after 6 issues - but Lee obviously didn't give up on him.

Did he guest star in FF and Thor and Avengers after he was cancelled? Maybe sales revived him?

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Mister O

Mister O

Posted
Posted

Other posters can correct me if I am wrong....Back in 1958 Marvel had to go through the direct market newsstand distribution company that DC owned. This limited the growth of Marvel comics and the company was only able to have a certain number of books distributed at the newsstands during the period of 1958 to 1970.

 

As such, Marvel had to print books like Tales of Suspense where instead of giving characters their own title they had to share the book with another character. At that time it was difficult to just throw out random characters to see which would be great because Marvel had limited comic book titles to put on the newsstands due to the distribution deal in place with the DC owned company.

 

Titles like Hulk were tried out for six issues with Marvel eventually placing Hulk into cameo roles in the Fantastic Four batting Thing or Journey into Mystery battling Thor. Eventually, Hulk was placed into Tales to Astonish to develop more readership following. Once the Hulk caught on, he finally was given his own title when Tales to Astonish stopped at 101 and Marvel re-titled the series from issue 102 onward as the Incredible Hulk.

 

So the characters Marvel introduced had to be really good due to the limited comic titles they had at the time to introduce characters. Luckily, the characters they introduced were winners with readers, while some characters needed longer time to gain readership following. I do not recall how well Ant-Man did in the early years but there were many different uses for the Hank Pym character which never really got his own title but was placed in a supporting role with the Avengers.

 

Once 1970 rolled around Marvel were able to print more titles and remove themselves from the restrictions on DC owned distribution. More characters like Conan were able to be introduced and the rest is history.

 

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Lonzilla

Lonzilla

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I love Marvel's Scarecrow, but it was done a year too late as they were phasing out the horror b-list.

 

Omega The Unknown, failed because the kids didn't understand it, now known as a cult classic.

Warlock was cancelled twice and Starlin's run is as epic as you can get.

GOTG fell into the failed category a few times.

 

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bb8

bb8

Posted
Posted
Would Sleepwalker be considered a failed hero?

 

[font:Book Antiqua]I will say Yes...[/font]

 

I was 11 when Sleepwalker and Darkhawk came out. I thought they were 'the next big thing'.

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THB

THB

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Posted
Would Sleepwalker be considered a failed hero?

 

[font:Book Antiqua]I will say Yes...[/font]

 

I was 11 when Sleepwalker and Darkhawk came out. I thought they were 'the next big thing'.

 

Wait???? Their not......I should stop buying them.........

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