Tuesday, July 28, 2009

That Solves That Pull List Question

Thanks be to all the responses to the corn question (and Sally, I was actually going to describe the across method as being like a typewriter, so you weren't the only one dating yourself).

I read that Exiles is ending at issue #6, which is kind of a bummer*. Granted, #6 was going to be the issue where I decided whether to keep buying the book or not, but I don't think it's ever much fun when the choice gets taken out of my hands***. Plus, I think once we had some answers to what was up with Morph, or why things weren't happening as Blink expected, the book might have settled into a groove, and that would have helped. At least they're giving him a chance to wrap things up a bit.

I wonder, and Mr. Parker mentions it as well, whether this relates to a point I raised two months ago. I was talking about how they canceled Moon Knight, but it looked as though they'd be starting again within a few months****, and I wondered if they shouldn't let Moonie sit a while longer. I wonder if that was the case with Exiles, considering it started two months after New Exiles ended because it was selling poorly?

Would setting the Exiles aside for a couple years have helped? I don't know. If direct market sales are any indication, most fans are drawn towards the books they think "matter", and it seems like Exiles would be a hard sell on those terms these days. The only reality most fans seem to care about these days is the 616, and I don't know if I can see the chart-topping books selling the seriousness of the situation the Exiles would be preventing*****. Besides, it would kind of go against the purpose of the book if every issue involved the 616-universe, so they'd eventually have to go elsewhere, and maybe the fans would stick, and maybe they wouldn't.

Then again, the book doesn't have to be in the Top 10, slugging it out with the Adventures of Norman Osborn's 357th Dark Team. It would just need some way to hold on at roughly where Nova is, though maybe Nova isn't the best example, since it does get periodic sales boosts from event tie-ins.

* Though I'm pleased to see Agents of Atlas is safe for the time being**.

** Between the two, I'd rather have Agents of Atlas.

*** Even if there are times it would really have been for the best. Like if they'd canceled Uncanny X-Men a year into Chuck Austen's run, so I wouldn't have been able to stupidly keep buying the title until a couple of issues into Claremont's return.

**** Turns out they are.

***** More likely, the Exiles would be unfortunate enough to land in Hulk, and be treated as Red Hulk's latest set of tomato cans. Red Hulk: Quite possibly the only character I could do without more than the Sentry.

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