I was looking over IcV2's sales figure for September, and was a bit disappointed by what I saw. There in first place, was what has generally been agreed upon (in the blogosphere at least) as an unmitigated disaster, Civil War #4, at 272,573 issues sold.
By contrast, Annihilation #2 sat in 44th place, with 44,537 issues. So yeah, I'm a little sad more people aren't buying Annihilation, but what's with the sales for Civil War? I mean, this is over two and a half times what Infinite Crisis was pulling in. I suppose Civil War, with it's general disregard for previously established characterization, is more accessible to casual fans, while Infinite Crisis felt like something where you really need to know DC history to get the importance of what's happening. Probably wouldn't have gone that way if they hadn't made it revolve around the Pocket Dimension Four (well, three really. Old Lois was mostly a plot device to make Earth-2 Superman grumpy, desperate and stupid).
But back on topic. The sales of Civil War, which I suppose constitute a success in this day and age, lead me to three possible conclusions. 1) The opinion of the majority (certainly not all) of the comics' blogowhatchamafloogle does not jibe with the rest of the comics buying populace. 2) The bloggers' opinions do synch with the other readers', but everyone's still buying it, even though they hate it. 3) The sales are driven by casual readers, who want big explosions, action movie cliches, and death. I'm leaning towards 3 myself, which leads me to 4) - people are dumbasses.
That was mean. I apologize, and Lord, be with the starving children across the world.
After all, there's nothing wrong with enjoying dumb entertainment, is there? Heck, I'm watching Home Alone as I type this, because sometimes I just want to see Joe Pesci hit with paint cans. Still, it's depressing to think these sales are going to encourage Marvel to do more stuff like this, the thought of which does not bring a smile to my face.
Yet the question remains: Does enjoying Annihilation give me the neccessary cred to be one of the snooty, art-house types that sneers at the public for swallowing popular tripe?
Uh, not that I would, of course. I was just curious.
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3 comments:
For every 10 people who complain about Marvel, there's 100 who love every word and picture the company publishes.
Especially when it comes to the blogosphere where, let's face it, participants aren't exactly king-makers.
That said, be snooty all you want. I like Beyond! better than Civil War, so I'll be snooty along with you.
And I desire the complete and utter destruction of Marvel, its editors, and all it stands for.
Let us *all* be snooty!
I'm sorry to say that I started buying Civil War, and was growing more and more disgruntled. When I got to the issue where Clor murders Goliath, that was it. No more. Same thing for Fantastic Four, and Ms. Marvel...all books that I used to enjoy. How can I justify buying something where the hero/heroine is so completely abhorent? I'm scampering off to DC and not looking back.
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