Marvel listens to fans?

[Velorath]

I was just sitting around reading comics the other day thinking about how underexposed Wolverine is.  Sure he's in 3 X-men books a month usually and the occasional story in X-men Unlimited.  And yeah, he's in New Avengers which also sometimes spills into Spider-man these days.  And of course he was the main character in House of M, and appears in countless minis, one-shots, and guest appearances.  And I guess he does have one measly solo book.

Fortunatly though Marvel has recognized the dangerously low amount of books they have that feature Wolverine, and have answered fans prayers by promising a second Wolverine ongoing series.

With his memory restored, a new chapter has clearly begun in the life of Marvel’s Wolverine, and in April, the new chapter leads to a new book.

Literally.

As Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada hinted at in last Friday’s Joe Fridays, something new in the air for Wolverine in early 2006 – specifically, a new series, Wolverine: Origins, which will run alongside the regular Wolverine series

I don't fucking believe it.

[Llava]

"There are far more powerful mutants in the world, why is Erik so interested in this one?" -Prof. X from the first X-Men movie

[HaemishM]

God-fucking-damnit. The most overexposed, badly-written, cliche-laden piece of shit character in comics gets yet another fucking book. I think he must be the most powerful mutant on the planet, because he's somehow found more than 24 hours in each goddamn day to have all his adventures.

I seriously think that is why DC has such a problem selling Superman books these days, not only because the character is too powerful, but because he's already been so overexposed.

Is it really possible that Bill Jemas was a positive stabilizing factor on Joe Quesada? Because since he's left, I've seen Marvel become nothing but a whorehouse for shitty ideas.

[Velorath]

God-fucking-damnit. The most overexposed, badly-written, cliche-laden piece of shit character in comics gets yet another fucking book. I think he must be the most powerful mutant on the planet, because he's somehow found more than 24 hours in each goddamn day to have all his adventures.

I seriously think that is why DC has such a problem selling Superman books these days, not only because the character is too powerful, but because he's already been so overexposed.

Is it really possible that Bill Jemas was a positive stabilizing factor on Joe Quesada? Because since he's left, I've seen Marvel become nothing but a whorehouse for shitty ideas.

Over-exposure is one thing neither Marvel nor DC ever seems to learn about.  It's good for shortterm sales, but how much does it hurt properties in the long run.  The Punisher had three ongoings at one point and then could barely support one.  Ghost Rider was popular in the 90's but then they tried to grow the line too big and too quickly with the Midnight Sons spin-off titles.  All the Spider-man titles out there seem to have problems maintaining continuity between the books.  Batman and Superman... how many books do each of these guys appear in regularly each month?  We've even got multiple Fantastic Four books these days.

The sad thing is though, I understand things from a business point of view.  Sadly these days, comics from Marvel and DC featuring new characters sell about as well as Corey Haim's teeth on ebay.  Sell 40-50k copies per month maybe of a Wolverine spin-off regardless of how well it's written, or launch a well written comic like Runaways featuring new characters struggle to maintain even the 20k range.  I've said it before, but in a lot of ways comic fans seem to deserve the crap that gets shoveled their way because they'd rather keep buying the same old shit books that can hardly even stand to read anymore (X-men) then support well written books.  I can't blame Marvel for pissing in the customer's face when the customer drinks it down like ambrosia.  But then I won't feel sorry for Marvel either when their short-term moneygrab ends with another market implosion like what happened after the 90's glut.

[HaemishM]

I laugh at comics fans who still have to buy variant covers (which Marvel and DC are both happy to shove in our faces) and stupid ass shit like "DIRECTOR'S CUTS!" of comics. Director's cuts. No, Bendis you are not fucking Quentin Tarantino. Stop it, bitch. Director's cuts amount to ashcan editions, sketchbooks and a reprint of the fucking script. We don't need this as comics fans. Spend more time thinking about your fucking story, or reading some back issues to actually get someone's character right. FUCKING TOOLS.

At some point, SOMEONE in the office has to tell these guys that it's just physically impossible for Wolverine to be in all these different places. At least Superman can fly super-fast and shit. Is Wolvie just jogging between buildings, standing there quipping for five minutes before taking off for a 50-mile jog into New York to growl at Captain America before flapping his hairy-ass arms and flying across the goddamn ocean to Japan?

It might be different if there really was something of depth to the character, but I've never seen anything really worth exploring beyond the "Who juiced me with metal bones" thing.

[Margalis]

Haven't there already been like 4 or 5 different series about Wolverine's origins? There was "The Wolverine Saga" and the Weapon X stuff, and that was 10+ years ago, I'm sure there have been more since then. How much origin story could he possibly have?

But I suppose "Wolverine: Give us your money" wasn't going to fly.

[HaemishM]

Wolverine is over a hundred years old, and didn't remember much of his life before the Weapon X adamantium-grafting stuff. Suddenly in House of M, he remembers his whole life. AND HE'S PISSED OFF!

Or some shit. Seriously. That's about all the setup they have now for what they can do with the character. And he can have 5 billion origin stories.

[Velorath]

Well, at least Quesada is now saying that Wolverine won't be appearing in X-men or Uncanny, which just leaves Astonishing as the only X-book he'll be starring in (and for that matter Astonishing will only have a new issue every other month).  Of course I'm sure they'll still find ways to feature him heavily in Civil War and guest appearances, not to mention a lot of the Decimation stories he's will still be running when the second Wolverine book launches.

[Azazel]

This kind of stupid shit is why I eventually stopped buying superhero comics altogether. Admittedly, endless crossovers, guest-appearances, one-shots, mini-series and the like worked on me when I was a teenager (and even got me to buy other lines for a storyline or two) until one day I looked at just how much I was spending on the same shit all of a sudden, and lost interest bloody fast.

And this was several years before chrome-foil covers, issue ZERO~!, multiple covers and all the rest of the bullshit from that era.

[Zetleft]

God I'm glad I got out when I did.... I do miss me some Deadpool though. 

[Velorath]

God I'm glad I got out when I did.... I do miss me some Deadpool though. 

That's like getting out of movies though just because the majority of them suck.

[Zetleft]

God I'm glad I got out when I did.... I do miss me some Deadpool though. 

That's like getting out of movies though just because the majority of them suck.

I saw 3 movies last year in a threatre.... so yeah I typically wait to see those for free now too.  Fewer and fewer things are worth my money nowadays.

[Azazel]

God I'm glad I got out when I did.... I do miss me some Deadpool though. 

That's like getting out of movies though just because the majority of them suck.

The last time I went to the cinema was Star Wars Episode 3. The time before that was RoTK. Wife wants to go see Narnia or King Kong, but I just don't have any interest in going ot the cinema anymore. Video libraries' DVD rentals are cheap and even then I really can't be bothered watching them most times. I find I'd rather watch a large block of quality TV now and then or watch a good doco than a fiction film nowadays.

The last comic I read before that 160-whatever, was a re-read of Sin City just after watching the movie. Rodriquez did a good job with that one, at least.