Matt Fraction, Mark Bagley & Mike Allred Team For "Fantastic Four," "FF"

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

I'm definitely more excited for FF than Fantastic Four though. Allred puts it over for me, but I think Marvel would be damaging its chances extensively if they even think of raising the price there to $3.99.

If Venom and Hawkeye can sell for $2.99, FF better sell for $2.99.

[Blade X]

That isn't a whole hell of a lot.

And its still well above Marvel's cancellation levels.

I'm more worried about the future of Avengers Academy than FF.

All Marvel needs to do is place Spider Man as the mentor of the Foundation Kids and FF might very well end up outselling F4.

Isn't Spidey still in FF? That book still isn't outselling F4 even when Spidey is in the book.

And just because FF is currently way above Marvel's cancellation levels, doesn't mean that the book will stay above that level in the next several months.

[Blade X]

Facts are facts. At only 6000 copies less, FF sells well as an ancillary book focusing on the Richards children and their motley crew. Sales are sustainable. The market IS supporting two Fantastic Four books.

That's really the only point anyone is arguing. Nobody's saying FF is a raging success. Nobody's saying it's even a top 10 book, but sales are solid. The book is selling well enough to deserve to be published, and you haven't done anything to actually disprove that.

And all I'm saying is that history has shown us that the market can't support 2 ongoing FF books for very long.

[YouthofToday]

never been a big F4 fan, but I'll give the first issue a shot. Curious if this means Defenders could be gone soon. We these 2 being announced, that give Fraction 4 titles, plus his creator-owned projects. That's a heavy duty workload. I guess a new writer could come on, but it doesn't seem to be burning up sales charts. I know Fraction can be hit or miss, but I've been enjoying Defenders a lot.

[Dog]

And all I'm saying is that history has shown us that the market can't support 2 ongoing FF books for very long.

1) Define "long."

2) Isn't any amount of time you can turn a profit "long enough?"

[Blade X]

EDIT: Nevermind.

And if you look at those numbers I quoted issues #16 and 17 were stable at 37,000 copies and then dropped 3,000 copies to 34,000 for issues #18 and 19.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

never been a big F4 fan, but I'll give the first issue a shot. Curious if this means Defenders could be gone soon. We these 2 being announced, that give Fraction 4 titles, plus his creator-owned projects. That's a heavy duty workload. I guess a new writer could come on, but it doesn't seem to be burning up sales charts. I know Fraction can be hit or miss, but I've been enjoying Defenders a lot.

Defenders may have to give especially since he his Hawkeye run just started. Then again, adding these two isn't much different than when he was writing Thor and Iron Man, and this will arguably easier especially if he uses FF to tell another side to the adventures of the Fantastic Four.

[CSPDX]

This would be the same X-FORCE run that took up the numbering of an existing series and used a combination of a "controversial" stunt (taking the Comics Code of of the book) and Marvel's then "No Over Print" policy to temporarily boost sales on that book. As for X-STATIX, that book didn't sit the sales chart on fire and was cancelled, IIRC, around issue 18.

X-Force ran 14 issues before switching to X-Statix, then ran an aditional 26 issues plus a Giant Sized and a Dead Girl special. A total of 42 issues. Not a bad run.

[Wellman]

Lol. Looks like a "male enhancement" advert...

But maybe that's just my sick sense of humor.

No, I kind of feel the same, to the point that I wonder if that is a FF ad at all and not some weird Iron Man spin off.

What mess did JMS leave on Thor? The title was great when he was on it, and writers leave threads for other writers to pick up all of the time.

He dropped the book in the middle of story and Gillen had to rush to wrap it and other plot lines he left open up. This isn't like leaving a mysterious ally identity still a secret or Bendis DD run ending with the imprisonment of Murdock at the end. Gillen had to literally come in and finish a storyline for JMS because he hopped ship to work on DC's Wonder Woman.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

And if you look at those numbers I quoted issues #16 and 17 were stable at 37,000 copies and then dropped 3,000 copies to 34,000 for issues #18 and 19.

Looking into it, the reason why 17 had an increase over 16 is because that issue featured Spider-man.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

No, I kind of feel the same, to the point that I wonder if that is a FF ad at all and not some weird Iron Man spin off.




He dropped the book in the middle of story and Gillen had to rush to wrap it and other plot lines he left open up. This isn't like leaving a mysterious ally identity still a secret or Bendis DD run ending with the imprisonment of Murdock at the end. Gillen had to literally come in and finish a storyline for JMS because he hopped ship to work on DC's Wonder Woman.

Which he also jumped ship on along with Superman.

[CSPDX]

Actually I said that VENOM would be cancelled by issue #12 and then later said it would be canceled by issue #18. I also said that I was wrong about VENOM being cancelled and that I was surprised the book has lasted this long. Ditto for SCARLET SPIDER.

And yet the cynicism continues unchecked. I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day, but how often do you need to be wrong to finally step back and admit you don't know everything about comic sales?

[Leocomix]

Odd that Marvel considers Bagley a big enough name to make an announcement. Though popular because of generations of comic buyers who came through Spider-Man, he's a mediocre artist, something he's aware of himself. I hope they give him a good inker like Karl Kesel to tighten his pencils and especially his faces plus a good colorist, like Jeromy Cox.
Not sure why Allred got on FF. Sure he has that Marvel Pop Art look but he needs a book with young hip characters rather than children as well as the possibility to design lots of new costumes

[CSPDX]

Odd that Marvel considers Bagley a big enough name to make an announcement. Though popular because of generations of comic buyers who came through Spider-Man, he's a mediocre artist, something he's aware of himself. I hope they give him a good inker like Karl Kesel to tighten his pencils and especially his faces plus a good colorist, like Jeromy Cox.
Not sure why Allred got on FF. Sure he has that Marvel Pop Art look but he needs a book with young hip characters rather than children as well as the possibility to design lots of new costumes

We don't neccesarily know what the mission statement is going to be for a relaunched FF. It's possible they could take the book in a different direction.

[YouthofToday]

Defenders may have to give especially since he his Hawkeye run just started. Then again, adding these two isn't much different than when he was writing Thor and Iron Man, and this will arguably easier especially if he uses FF to tell another side to the adventures of the Fantastic Four.

Ya, he always seems to be juggling at least 3 Marvel projects at a time, but 4 has to be tough. Even if we assume F4 and FF will be tied together, that's still 4 scripts a month. I'm guessing Defenders is done.