July is clicking along. The M15 Magic prerelease is done. It went pretty good. Come Friday we will have singles for sale from the newest set. I have also been stocking more singles of Modern Masters cards along with a full set of Theros in our binders currently.
I found out what some of the convention exclusives will cost me for the “A Con In Your Store” program by Wizkids for Heroclix. And they are not cheap. Let me just say that the suggested retail price of the Shuma Gorath Heroclix is $50. The price I am suppose to charge you. Yeah, I jumped head first into the shallow end of the pool. That said we will stick to what I have already posted for the August schuduel of Heroclix. But look for updates as I learn more. August 2nd will indeed be the official Con In Your Store day here at Rodman Comics. Feel free to see if you can win the Amazing Spiderman and his friends team base along with other prizes. If you don’t win you may still buy various convention exclusives. Why did I say “other” prizes in the previous sentence? Because in true Wizkid fashion I will not know what all I will be receiving till July 30th. Then why have August be the month that am I holding the Con In Your Store program? Because Wizkids dictates August as the month to have it. August 2nd is the first Saturday we can hold it so we will. War of Light the second wave (also known as month three) will still be on August 9th. The comic version of Galactic Guardians regular boosters are also due out next month. August will be a very busy month for heroclixs. Thankfully there are five Saturdays in August for all the heroclix events.
Marvel has announced Thor will no longer be worthy of his mighty hammer. He will be replaced by a woman who will be Thor. This was announced on ABC’s show the View. If I may be so bold. The View is watched mostly by women. So was the theory of announcing it on the show was that more women would be interested in Thor with the change? Really women are going to be like oh wow! Thor was a hot guy and now a woman takes his place. Um, okay. Why not talk about Storm’s upcoming series? I am all for strong female characters. If Thor’s sudden long lost sister Angela is the new Thor it will just feel like Marvel is trying to hard to get Angela shoe horned into the Marvel Universe.
Just why the heck did Marvel purchase the rights to Angela from Neil Gaiman anyway? What was their thought process behind that? A character from Image would help their sales? A character from the 1990s? The Age of Ultron crossover introduced her into the Marvel Universe. She is featured in Marvel’s popular Guardians of the Galaxy series. And now she is revealed to be Thor’s sister. All the marketing and work into trying to make Angela popular should have went to another character.
Jenny McCarthy during the View announcement stated that the new Thor is a character who once was saved by her predecessor, the male Thor, at one point and has somehow remade herself, taking over his heroic role. Yeah, that really makes women want to read the new adventures of Thor. It doesn’t sound sexist or anything. A woman being saved by a man whose name she will later take on. At least it isn’t Angela.
Marvel has since revealed that the new “Thor” #1 will debut in October, from the creative team of Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman. Groan, another first issue? Rodman Comics has only been open nearly four years and I have multiple first issues of various Thor runs. I still have the first issues of the past runs in the back issue bin. Meaning I over ordered on them. Not this time.
And after the “death” of Spiderman where Dan Slott claimed Peter Parker was really gone but it was revealed that Dan knew the whole time Parker would come back will anyone believe that a female Thor isn’t a short term sales gimmick? With the second Avengers movie due out next year who doesn’t believe Thor will be back to his old shelf before the movie releases in the summer?
Marvel has Wolverine “dying” in September. Another stunt. Marvel was tired of losing to DC in September so Wolverine has to “die” in September to beat DC sales wise.
Heck, even Archie “died” this week. The comic market is all about stunts.
Marvel to me is to much about hype and a quick buck currently. Crossovers sell still but when was the last Marvel crossover that was well received by fans? Marvel needs a shot in the arm for creativity. They need to be all they can be. The leaders of the comic industry. The house of ideas. The company that brings excitement to comics. Not just movies.
DC has announced Deathstroke is returning to his own solo title. And he will still be a man.
After DC’s sales spike with their bombshell variants. The next few months will see more variants from DC done the same way. Meaning retailers can order as many as they think they can sell without having to meet any conditions. Such as order 100 copies of this and you may order one variant. Which if variants are going to be done I prefer the easier way of just ordering what I want. This month is Batman variant covers. DCU Selfie variants are in August. While in October is monster themed variants.
The DCU Selfie variants I will go out on a limb and say they will not be that popular.
But again variants got DC a sales spike. Not what was in the actual comic book but the cover.
The comic industry needs to get people fired up about actually reading comics. Getting them to want to pick up the next chapter of their favorite comic to read it.
Marvel is the leader of the comic industry. For better or for worse. DC will for the most part follow Marvel’s lead. Though DC has shown some unique thoughts. Such as having weekly series.
Surprisingly the lessons of the 90s comic bust seem to be largely forgotten. The 1990s were a lot of flash and dazzle. Not comics where people really enjoyed reading them. This is the time that Image thrived in. Their comics were all about the art. Writing was an after thought. Gimmick covers were common. Characters “died”. Some would say the 90s were so bad that the comic industry lost the next generation of comic fans.
The newest X Men movie had millions go see it. The various X Men comics saw no new readers even though millions enjoyed the last X Men movie. That is pretty sad.
I do not want to see the collapse of the comic market such as was seen in the 90s by any means. I just don’t see how it will be much different. Marvel is already hyping their next crossover even though their current is not done. Wolverine is going to “die”. Then after a year if that long he will come back such as Captain America, Human Torch, and Spiderman did.
Variants are done by a vast majority of the comic companies.
First issues sell but the following issues usually have a steap drop off. The comic companies are teaching people to just buy first issues and gimmicks.
That isn’t healthy for the long term market.
The best paper writing services
Valiant surprised me with the announcement that Archer & Armstrong will be getting made into a movie. Get those back issues now.
Speaking of movies. The news about the upcoming Fantastic Four movie is leaving more and more put off.
Such as this interview with actress Kate Mara who plays Sue Storm the Invisible Woman in the upcoming movie:
“I’ve never been a fan of comics, I’ve never actually read one,” Mara told Esquire Mexico in an interview presented by ComicBookMovie using Google Translate. “I was going to for this movie but the director said it wasn’t necessary. Well, actually he told us that we shouldn’t do it because the plot won’t be based on any history of anything already published. So I chose to follow his instructions. The one fact is I am a fan of comic book movies, so it’s very exciting to be part of a movie like this.”
She also said she understands the character has a lot of fans, but that doesn’t make the role more intimidating than any other.
“I don’t feel more responsibility with this role that I’ve felt with others,” said the House of Cards star. “I understand that there are many fans of Fantastic Four, and I guess they expect a lot from me, but I prefer not to be pressured by that. We are also trying to create a new way of seeing these superheroes, I’m focusing on making her [Susan Storm] as real as possible.”
Wow, the director tells her she shouldn’t read any Fantastic Four comics. That just seems wrong. If you don’t believe in the source material then why do it? It would be like me telling a person to open a comic store with out ever having read comics. It just doesn’t make sense.
The Fantastic Four gets no love by Marvel or Fox Studios which is the studio producing the next Fantastic Four movie. Very odd since Fox was responsible for the most recent X Men movie. Which was a hit and did work with the source material from the comics while still being its own story.
Whew, lots of gloom and doom in this Projections newsletter this week.
As always we are on Facebook. “Like” us to see all our witty Facebook posts and to be in on various Rodman Comics news.
Believe it or not I am in a good mood. And I will be even in a better mood if I see you at Rodman Comics!
