It used to be easy following a Comic Superhero.... 0

[Will96]

Now it's how many different books/stories of a hero can we make.... 

It's fascinating, but so confusing....

[oldbsturgeon]

It’s not a new thing really. Popular characters appear in multiple books. For instance Batman was already regularly in 4 titles I know of by the 60s.

and in the 90s Wolverine seemed part of every marvel book being released 

[mec3437]

At one point, Spidey had: Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, Spider-Man Unlimited, etc, plus his guest appearances in various other titles.  

Punisher, Punisher War Zone, Punisher War Journal, Punisher Armory, Punisher Back to School/Summer/Holiday specials, plus the glut of one shots and minis that came out throughout the 1990s.  

As an X-Men kid in the 1990s, it could be rough, especially around crossover time.  Then I had to start buying Avengers, Excalibur, and some of the lesser X books that I didn't read regularly.  I gave up during Onslaught.  I wasn't about to go out and spend my grass cutting money on 1-2 issues of every title in the Marvel universe to follow that story.  

I do feel that a scaling back would be nice.  Less titles but higher quality.  Do a guest shot for a character in a series.  If there is enough positive feedback, try a four issue mini series to see what happens.  The films and animated stuff may dictate some of what is published by Marvel and DC now, while Hasbro pushes their toy ideas to IDW for some of those series.  

[Will96]

3 hours ago, oldbsturgeon said:

It’s not a new thing really. Popular characters appear in multiple books. For instance Batman was already regularly in 4 titles I know of by the 60s.

and in the 90s Wolverine seemed part of every marvel book being released 

I hear and I don't disagree with that. What I'm referring to is the number of books and storylines for a character of their own.... I feel like they start all these stories and comics to have low issue numbers thus giving people the belief they are more "collectible" than issue 1500 of a comic....

"Hey I got the new Spiderman #4...."

"I thought Amazing Spiderman was on issue XXX?...."

"It is, this is Spiderman is Technically Amazing.... in this one Spiderman loses his powers and has to use mechanical devices like the Batman.... Mary Jane flies now...."

"Oh, so the old Amazing Spiderman comic is gone?...."

"No dude.... This is just a different storyline...."

[Will96]

3 hours ago, mec3437 said:

At one point, Spidey had: Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, Spider-Man Unlimited, etc, plus his guest appearances in various other titles.  

Punisher, Punisher War Zone, Punisher War Journal, Punisher Armory, Punisher Back to School/Summer/Holiday specials, plus the glut of one shots and minis that came out throughout the 1990s.  

As an X-Men kid in the 1990s, it could be rough, especially around crossover time.  Then I had to start buying Avengers, Excalibur, and some of the lesser X books that I didn't read regularly.  I gave up during Onslaught.  I wasn't about to go out and spend my grass cutting money on 1-2 issues of every title in the Marvel universe to follow that story.  

I do feel that a scaling back would be nice.  Less titles but higher quality.  Do a guest shot for a character in a series.  If there is enough positive feedback, try a four issue mini series to see what happens.  The films and animated stuff may dictate some of what is published by Marvel and DC now, while Hasbro pushes their toy ideas to IDW for some of those series.  

Great points. Wonder Woman too. There's links where people have created reading order guides.... I think I just read heros that weren't really that popular so didn't create a bunch of comics....

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

4 hours ago, mec3437 said:

At one point, Spidey had: Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, Spider-Man Unlimited, etc, plus his guest appearances in various other titles.  

Punisher, Punisher War Zone, Punisher War Journal, Punisher Armory, Punisher Back to School/Summer/Holiday specials, plus the glut of one shots and minis that came out throughout the 1990s.  

As an X-Men kid in the 1990s, it could be rough, especially around crossover time.  Then I had to start buying Avengers, Excalibur, and some of the lesser X books that I didn't read regularly.  I gave up during Onslaught.  I wasn't about to go out and spend my grass cutting money on 1-2 issues of every title in the Marvel universe to follow that story.  

I do feel that a scaling back would be nice.  Less titles but higher quality.  Do a guest shot for a character in a series.  If there is enough positive feedback, try a four issue mini series to see what happens.  The films and animated stuff may dictate some of what is published by Marvel and DC now, while Hasbro pushes their toy ideas to IDW for some of those series.  

I think Sensational Spider-man was a replacement title after Web and Spectacular ended. But Marvel Tales was being published at the same time as those. I remember when I first started collecting being really confused as to why the numbering of my Spider-man comics was all over the place, before realizing that they were different series.

[500Club]

21 hours ago, Will96 said:

Now it's how many different books/stories of a hero can we make.... 

It's fascinating, but so confusing....

Companies ought to take that under advisement, if they have any hope of attracting and keeping fans of the movies/TV shows as comic readers.