More Marvel relaunches

[JohnMayo]

Looks like Daredevil is relaunching:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/27305.html

as well as Wolverine and the X-Men:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/27351.html

Neither seems to have a particularly well justified reason to relaunch.

[drew]

the only reason i can see is the inevitable sales bump from a #1; but i think it's ridiculous

it's a great excuse/jumping OFF point for readers, too

that's what i did with wolverine and the xmen...thinking: well its ending anyway, why bother reading

[ctowner1]

I enjoy DD - the new numbering is annoying, but not enough to make me quit the book.

e
L nny

[JohnMayo]

I enjoy DD - the new numbering is annoying, but not enough to make me quit the book.

e
L nny

Did the question of quitting or continuing with the title come up for you at all? In other words, if it had been Daredevil #37, would you have automatically continued with it whereas since it was a new #1 you at least paused to decide to continue with the new volume?

[ctowner1]

I enjoy DD - the new numbering is annoying, but not enough to make me quit the book.

e
L nny

Did the question of quitting or continuing with the title come up for you at all? In other words, if it had been Daredevil #37, would you have automatically continued with it whereas since it was a new #1 you at least paused to decide to continue with the new volume?

made no difference whatsoever in terms of my decision to buy it. The only difference was in my level of annoyance.

e
L nny

[JohnMayo]

made no difference whatsoever in terms of my decision to buy it. The only difference was in my level of annoyance.

Fair enough. It seem like it is possible that level of annoyance could build up to the point that it might eventually impact the purchasing decision.

[ComicTrekker]

I have to admit I have considered dropping some Marvel titles during the renumbering. It's mostly a budgetary consideration for me, but I agree having this kind of "jumping off" point is not always in the publisher's best interest.

I have been happy with Marvel's quality overall this year, though, so I probably won't drop much.

[fudd71]

If people are enjoying the books I don’t know how many people will drop because of something like this. However, I think it looks bad from the outside. Let me relate my personal story. I read Daredevil for years, gave up with Shadowland. Heard good things about what Mark Waid was doing and said if that book makes it two-years and still has positive buzz I will pick it up. That was the case so I ordered issue #34 on my October Previews order form. Then came all the announcements, its cancelled, it is going to some digital version, it is being relaunched. This was the type of thing that made me drop the book in the first place, so I cancelled my order of issue #34 and I’ll check back in another few years to consider if I want back into Daredevil.

[JohnMayo]

If people are enjoying the books I don’t know how many people will drop because of something like this. However, I think it looks bad from the outside. Let me relate my personal story. I read Daredevil for years, gave up with Shadowland. Heard good things about what Mark Waid was doing and said if that book makes it two-years and still has positive buzz I will pick it up. That was the case so I ordered issue #34 on my October Previews order form. Then came all the announcements, its cancelled, it is going to some digital version, it is being relaunched. This was the type of thing that made me drop the book in the first place, so I cancelled my order of issue #34 and I’ll check back in another few years to consider if I want back into Daredevil.

I don't think someone will drop a title just because of a relaunch.

I do think people looking for a jumping off point might jump off with a relaunch. Further more, the relaunch itself might cause some people to stop and think about how much they are enjoying the title. Neither of these things are good.

Sure, the sales pike on the new #1 is advantageous. At least until that sales bump wears off. Sometimes that takes half a dozen issues or so, sometimes it happens within an issue or two.

Frequent relaunching of a title diminishes the importance of #1 issues which is part of why we seeing titles both launching lower and dropping faster than we used to see. Again, not a good thing.

From a long term perspective, frequent relaunches are a bad thing. The overuse of cover gimmicks has diminished the sales power of them and the same thing could happen with relaunching titles.

[spid]

Has there any book in the last few years that has gained readers without relaunching or cover gimmicks besides the Walking Dead?

[JohnMayo]

Has there any book in the last few years that has gained readers without relaunching or cover gimmicks besides the Walking Dead?

None to the extent of the Walking Dead. I'll have to do some research to see if there are any other titles that have shown any sort of consistent upward trend. Last time I checked, which was a while ago, I didn't find any such titles.

[drew]

I was thinking Lemire taking over Green Arrow at #17 has had a sustained sales increase

[JohnMayo]

I was thinking Lemire taking over Green Arrow at #17 has had a sustained sales increase

You very well might be thinking that but my sales data indicates otherwise. Lemire's first issue jumped around 15,000 in sales dropped on his second issue, bounced up a little on his third to settle into the usual sales attrition after that.