CBR: Axel-In-Charge - Dec 23, 2011

[CBR News]

Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso takes one last go 'round at your questions before the holiday break, including the future of the Avengers franchise, digital pricing and some Iron Fist news.


Full article here.

[Seguun]

I see no logical reason for Danny or K'un-Lun to be important in this upcoming event. Seriously I hope some X-men actually get to do stuff besides Scott and Wolverine. Still Merry Christmas.

[IronMagnus]

That Frank Cho Scarlet Witch art matches up to the Ms Marvel art that Cho has had on his website for awhile now.



Wanda and Carol vs MODOK sounds sweet.

[Seguun]

That Frank Cho Scarlet Witch art matches up to the Ms Marvel art that Cho has had on his website for awhile now.



Wanda and Carol vs MODOK sounds sweet.

Does sound nice i must admit.

[theXfactor]

Now it's even more likely that Hickman will take over one of the Avengers books.

[West]

I see no logical reason for Danny or K'un-Lun to be important in this upcoming event. Seriously I hope some X-men actually get to do stuff besides Scott and Wolverine. Still Merry Christmas.

Why not, he's an Avenger

[Seguun]

Why not, he's an Avenger

That is hardly the standard being used to determine who gets panel time. Unless u think 30+ so Avengers are all going to get equivalent panel time. I am just saying characters who are leaders and have connections with both franchises should get more focus. Not to mention I here talk about plenty of Avengers getting face time but not much on x-men besides Wolverine, Scott and Hope.

[Seguun]

Now it's even more likely that Hickman will take over one of the Avengers books.

Interesting I suppose he is more likely to get an Avengers Book but u got wonder about his work load,

[Rheged]

Coolness! Got one of my four questions answered -- though I was hoping for the Namor question, of course.

I see no logical reason for Danny or K'un-Lun to be important in this upcoming event. Seriously I hope some X-men actually get to do stuff besides Scott and Wolverine. Still Merry Christmas.

That was part of my ignored Namor question -- what about the X-Men? But I'm happy to see Iron Fist get some love. I'm much more interested in reading about him than the same 'big guns.'

Now it's even more likely that Hickman will take over one of the Avengers books.

I'm still wondering about that. I took his answer to mean that something Hickman has been working on will play a major part. But of course, as you said, it could mean he's going to get an Avengers book. I'm also curious what has Alonso so excited about Bendis next project. That worries me.

Also, where's Monty? Are those new cover art for Ant-Man? Is he really getting an ongoing???

[Prince Of Orphans]

I see no logical reason for Danny or K'un-Lun to be important in this upcoming event.

K'un L'un is the perfect HQ. It's pretty much unreachable by any of the X-Men as very few of them possess the mystical prowess to able to access it. The event is 12 issues, plenty of room for many characters to be featured in an important role.

[motteditor]

Why not, he's an Avenger

D-Man and Living Lightning are Avengers too. Absolutely no one's thinking about them or has any interest in reading about them facing the X-Men. You don't sell Avengers vs. X-Men by promising Gilgamesh and Sue Storm are going to take on Thunderbird III and Trance.

You sell it by promising the core characters of the franchise -- Scott, Wolverine, Storm, Kitty, Colossus, Rogue, Beast, Emma vs. Cap, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Vision, Hank Pym, Wanda (back before Bendis destroyed her), Jan (back before Bendis killed her), Simon (back before Bendis ruined him)...

If you're going to promise the Avengers, they should be the core franchise characters, not johnny-come-latelies who are far more associated with other franchises.

[Barry Convex]

On a more businessy topic of discussion, ghostplanet asked, "Why are books that were released same-day digital still priced at full in the apps as much as a year later (such as X-Men: Serve & Protect, Marvel U vs. Punisher), while much more recent issues (of say, Amazing Spider-Man) have been released as "back issues" at the normal $1.99 price? Is there any plan to establish a price-drop window on digital comics as more and more are released same-day digital?"

Alonso: We believe our digital comics provide as much value as our print comics, hence our general parallel pricing structure. That said, we periodically offer promotions and sales on certain titles as an incentive for our readers. And concepts such as a "price drop window" are always being evaluated.

Alonso gets confronted with incontrovertible proof that Marvel's digital pricing structure makes no sense whatsoever, and that's his response? The question wasn't even about day-and-date price parity! I already knew that Marvel (and to only a slightly lesser extent, DC) doesn't actually want digital to become more than just a small ancillary revenue stream for print anytime soon, but this is discouraging nonetheless.

[Sabrewulf]

Whats the Antman art from. I don't get what he was doing there. Is there an new Ant-Man book coming.

I hope so.

My guess is Bendis will be taking over Wolverine, Thunderbolts or maybe Red Hulk. I hope he stays away from the X-Men teams though.

[MikeRBoarts]

Does anyone else think that Colossus' hand in the Children's Crusade splash page look "put on" backwards?

[maniacmatt]

Alonso gets confronted with incontrovertible proof that Marvel's digital pricing structure makes no sense whatsoever, and that's his response? The question wasn't even about day-and-date price parity! I already knew that Marvel (and to only a slightly lesser extent, DC) doesn't actually want digital to become more than just a small ancillary revenue stream for print anytime soon, but this is discouraging nonetheless.

Part of the reason that it was kind of a non-answer is that it's not his job to determine pricing. Fans always attack him and other higher ups when they can't sufficiently answer questions about things that are outside their job description. Axel's job is primarily determining the creative directions of the comics. While he's probably aware of their business plans to some extent, the pricing of things is neither under his control or is it probably directly reported to him. Fans need to figure out what editors do before getting pissed about things that they have no control over.