Oh, Marvel...

WHY???

WHYYYY???!!??!



















(I appreciate Cho and admire Adams. Now I'm afraid Loeb's name and reputation will soil their careers. Ugh...)

Yeeeeahhh... At least it looks pretty.

Ultimate X may worth getting if only for some of that sweet, sweet Art Adams.

And just when I was starting to enjoy Ultimate Marvel books again.

Well, love him or hate him, Loeb sells books and at the end of the day Marvel is a business.

Joshua wrote:Well, love him or hate him, Loeb sells books and at the end of the day Marvel is a business.

Yeah, I don't get that part. Really, I don't. Actually, I take that back. put Loeb on Power Pack and no one would give half a rat's ass. The "problem" is that they keep giving him high-profile books that people want/need to read regardless of who's writing them. Ultimatum would have sold just as good if any other writer was doing it because it was an event integral to the overall plot of the ongoing Ultimate U. These titles will suffer the same fate.

I disagree. I think there are other, less high-profile writers that could have been put on Hulk and would not have achieves the same numbers as Loeb. Now I'm not much of a Jeph Loeb fan and I can count the number of books of his I enjoyed on one hand after some of my fingers have been cut off, but for whatever reason there are a lot of people out there that feel compelled to buy stuff with his name on it.

Yeah, sadly Loeb has his fans. Rob Liefeld and Greg Land too. There are people who still care for Chris Claremont's books. The Jonas Brothers and Hanna Montana are huge hits. We may not like it or get it, but everything has a crowd.

I will concede Hulk to a degree, but I still think a prominent relaunch after a line-wide event would have sold pretty well, regardless. I will admit to buying 5 issues of Hulk literally to see how bad it could get, which indeed makes me part of the problem. But these big event books are bait and switch, I think. What Ultimate fan ISN'T going to read these?

Amazons Attack was a big event and it went over like a lead balloon. Events don't sell solely on the basis of being an event. Exiles was re-launched with a solid writer who isn't a big name and it was canceled after four issues. Relaunches don't necessarily mean big numbers. We may not understand it, but Loeb is a high-profile writer who will continue to get work because his name alone sells books.

The problem with the Ultimate line at the time was that one of its biggest architects, Mark Millar, left with a big void in his place. Marvel wanted a big name to replace him and Loeb was at the right place, at the right time (just finishing his exclusive contract at DC and signing with Marvel). Aside from Bendis' stable Spider-Man book, the rest of the line seemed to go nowhere. FF and X-Men sold poorly and Ultimates just lost its big creative team. Even with big events attracting readers, I doubt many people still cared for the Ultimate universe enough to read such a book, and Loeb was the big name Marvel decided to attach to the project. Events may sell big, but see how many non-star quality creators have been working on them in the last decade. I think the only exceptional creator is Greg Pak with 'World War Hulk', and even then he got John Romita Jr. on art duties.

Joshua wrote:Amazons Attack was a big event and it went over like a lead balloon. Events don't sell solely on the basis of being an event. Exiles was re-launched with a solid writer who isn't a big name and it was canceled after four issues. Relaunches don't necessarily mean big numbers. We may not understand it, but Loeb is a high-profile writer who will continue to get work because his name alone sells books.

I don't know what Marvel expected from Exiles, but it was never a best seller. It was more of a cult hit and even when Claremont was writing it and fans outraged, it sold the same mediocre numbers. Jeff Parker is a fan favorite but not a big seller for now, so it was quite pleasant when his first issue on Exiles had good numbers. I think Marvel was more scared by the drastic decline after that issue, because I don't believe the numbers were that different from previous runs. It's just that people love to buy #1s and not always many of them will stay around.

Also see the case of Blue Beetle.

I respectfully disagree. I wish they'd put Loeb on a second or third-tier book and see what happens. Up to now, it's been the project putting asses in the seat, in my opinion.

When you say third-tier book, do you mean by title or by numbers? Because Batman, an A-list character, used to have terrible numbers in his ongoing because they'd put crap creative teams on it. It's numbers jumped significantly when Loeb was on it. Batman/Superman was a bestseller when Loeb was on it, but that hasn't been the case since he left the title.

Looking forward to see Loeb and Campbell's Spider-Man Story.

Spider-Man wrote:Looking forward to see Loeb and Campbell's Spider-Man Story.

See!

Anyway, it's been "in the making" for so long I doubt we'll ever see it.

Whatever happened to Captain America White? Is that still planned for a release? The 0 issue was pretty good.

Tomer Soiker wrote:

Anyway, it's been "in the making" for so long I doubt we'll ever see it.

Campbell told Kerouac and me to our faces it was coming out (or don't you watch our videos)

Regardless, Cap White has a track record of goodness. those color books are great. I'm cautiously hopeful for that one.

I'll buy anything that Tim Sale does.

Lee wrote:

Tomer Soiker wrote:

Anyway, it's been "in the making" for so long I doubt we'll ever see it.

Campbell told Kerouac and me to our faces it was coming out (or don't you watch our videos)

Regardless, Cap White has a track record of goodness. those color books are great. I'm cautiously hopeful for that one.

SideNote, JSC did a UStream Vid and showed us some of his Spidey Interior Work. Looked pretty awesome!

Tim Sale

Lee wrote:Yeeeeahhh... At least it looks pretty.

What he said.

Joshua wrote:Amazons Attack was a big event and it went over like a lead balloon. Events don't sell solely on the basis of being an event. Exiles was re-launched with a solid writer who isn't a big name and it was canceled after four issues. Relaunches don't necessarily mean big numbers. We may not understand it, but Loeb is a high-profile writer who will continue to get work because his name alone sells books.

I wouldn't consider Amazons Attack much of an event, more like a Wonder Woman mini-series with a Teen Titans tie-in.

Joshua wrote:I'll buy anything that Tim Sale does.

Heroes?

alucardbarnivous wrote:
I wouldn't consider Amazons Attack much of an event, more like a Wonder Woman mini-series with a Teen Titans tie-in.

It didn't perform like an event, but DC certainly planned for it to be one.

Heroes?

Touche'.