Marvel Solicits for June 2017

[Jeff]

I was looking through the Marvel solicits for June 2017 and honestly.  There was nothing there I really cared about.

Am I the only one?

[Perry]

Am I the only one?

Here? I doubt it. 

But I have a few -

- Still very much interested in the Secret Empire stuff
- Of course with that, both Cap titles are still cool. Sam a little less than, but ...
- Uncanny Avengers has been surprisingly good. Even with Deadpool 
- Dr Strange new artist is a lot easier for me to see. Sure Aaron is gone and ow Hopeless is the writer, but .. eh
- Zdarsky's Spectacular Spider-Man is going to be the first comic I read the week it hits, so I am psyched for that!!
(from the Bendis corner)
- Defenders by Bendis should be good, he does so well with small groups. Especially semi-street level stuff
- Infamous Iron Man is GREAT!!!! Just F'n great !!!
- Spider-Man (Miles) is still bordering on perfection for me
(back to others)
- Iron Fist is pretty darn cool (not Fraction/Aja cool, but better than the tv show cool) 
- Duggan's Guardians is very good. Very very good.
- X-Men Blue is the best X book in years.

So yeah ... I guess I care about it.
 

[Jeff]

Maybe I'm just burned out with this Civil War II thing.  Reading too many tie-ins that mean nothing and are honestly, bad.

I did go in and remove all of the remaining tie-ins from my reading list.

I forgot about Aaron's stuff - Doc Strange and Thor - because I do like reading those books.  Maybe once I get back to the stuff I was enjoying my enjoyment will come back.

Honestly, after reading things like Lazarus and Locke & Key it was hard to get excited about Marvel! (or DC for that matter)

[Perry]

Maybe I'm just burned out with this Civil War II thing.

Oh I can guarantee you are 

  Reading too many tie-ins that mean nothing and are honestly, bad.

Yep. That'll do it and yep, they are. The whole thing is bad.

I did go in and remove all of the remaining tie-ins from my reading list.

Smart man 

  Maybe once I get back to the stuff I was enjoying my enjoyment will come back.

Oh we all have out lulls with the big two. I remember DC's 52 outing after the first year and was swearing I was done with caped books.
 
I would honestly be all over Marvel for their shit more if I still paid full or even half price for their books. But I can sit and read a few issues from a select group of titles while still hating they are charging $5 for issue #1 of the new Zdarsky Spider-Man. Mainly because I am not the one that is going to pay $5 for the book. In fact, the guy letting me read it is not paying that either so ...

Honestly, after reading things like Lazarus and Locke & Key it was hard to get excited about Marvel! (or DC for that matter)

And another great point. Yep.
I am storing up, piling up, collecting to read later more Image titles (28) than I read from Marvel (26). I am doing the same with Dark Horse, Valiant, Boom, Aftershock, etc ... as I am getting/saving more of that groups titles (11) than I am reading from DC (10). So yeah, I am set to make a huge ... HUGE I SAY ... exodus of my reading time soon, as I am "squirreling away" more non-big two books than big two books.
YAY!!!

I want to just say goodbye to both big2 companies for awhile and catch up on stuff like Rai that is still staring at me EVERY DAMN NIGHT I GO TO BED!!!

 

[Jimmy T]

Actually Jeff, I'm in the exact same boat as you are. I have a hard time imagining enjoying Marvel Comics, especially with seeing all of the tie ins at the beginning of the solicits board. However, then I read about stuff like Mighty Thor Miles Morales Spider-Man Captain America Spider-Woman and some others. So yes, I too think that a lot of the books " aren't worth reading, " but I know that's not the truth.

[Perry]

I think Marvel, pushing 104 books (about) a month, also has a lot of books that just don't work because of the amount they try and push. There is only so much talent out there available to the big two. Certainly not enough to make half your books, around 50 something titles, good or worth a damn.

But honestly, I think Marvel and DC have about the same amount of good books. At least for me. But again, there are so many bad ones that Marvel has that, along with all their other practices (price, art, value, etc...) that makes them seem so much worse on the whole and ... well ... rightfully so.

[Jeff]

And trying to dig through all of those to find the good ones is a daunting task.  I wonder how many people give up before they find the gems.

[Perry]

 

I think most people, like most stores, buy who they know and leave the rest for fodder.

I read for writer 1st, character and art tied for 2nd. If I am not familiar with (or more precise, like) at least 2 of those 3, I usually skip it when it comes to the big two. With Marvel throwing comics out by people I have never heard of and/or starring characters I couldn't care less about, it is easy for me to just scan right over them
 

[Perry]

Take this, from Marvel's July Solicits -

SECRET WARRIORS #4
MATTHEW ROSENBERG (W) • JAVIER GARRON (A)
Cover by TRADD MOORE & MATTHEW WILSON
SECRET EMPIRE TIE-IN!

So wait, you are trying to sell me on a comic starring a couple characters I couldn't care less about (Ms. Marvel, Inferno, Moon Girl, Devil Dinosaur and the comic version of the television version of the old comic version of Quake), by a writer I have never read and an artist I don't recall ever seeing, all the while making it a tie-in to an event and charging me $4 for it as well?

No.

Hey, I may end up liking Rosenberg as a writer, but put him on a couple issues of a character I know and enjoy or pair him with a stellar artist and I would try and find out. Or at the very least, offer me this #1 at an INTRODUCTORY price of $2 so I don't feel like I need to drop one of my beloved titles to try this title that, again, I don't really want anything from. This is how you NOT sell new comics.

You get that, right? Marvel?
 

Edit - the pricing suggestion was for the first couple of issues. I understand not for issue #4, but issue #1 of this was essentially the same thing.
 

[Jimmy T]

EXACTLY, Perry.

Now, one shots and minis is how that up and coming team gets the 'major notice.' They did something, either as a fill in, or as a writer elsewhere that the Big Company is going to give them some major shelf profile to see if they hit it off.

However, one mini amongst 7, along with the actual major limited series running; who is going to care?

Now, take Annihilation, take Infinite Crisis.

Both had leads up through several ongoings, then it spread to 4 mini series, and then the LS came out-awesome hit!! And they did twice with Annihilation, and I would say leading up to Final Crisis as well, I couldn't wait to buy what was coming out-but that was also due to the writers/artists on those books too.

Maybe Rosenberg has written something I've read. Maybe. but with what I also know about Marvel now not caring about the art team, and more about just getting pencils on a page to meet things monthly, how good is this Garron?

(I feel so mean writing that; I mean, if it were me, I'd be begging people to buy my first major comic book, just to see my first comic published!)

But I refuse to even buy, let alone buy into, this 'throw the spaghetti to the wall and see what sticks' approach. I haven't read any CWII tie ins or minis, and I won't read any of these Secret Empire tie ins either.

God help Marvel with whatever this Venom shtick is that is coming out.

[Perry]

I can could deal, and hell, understand, if Marvel was throwing 2 or 3 issues a month at the wall with unknown creators or d-list characters to see what would stick (Vision by Tom King for example) but to have over half of your output be like that? And for that total output to be around 100 issues a month?
No. There is no excuse for that when we are not in the old days of rack space, and trying to control it, being the issue