I personally have found myself pretty connected to stories in Aquaman. They frequently deal with family issues and Arthur wrestles with his commitments to both Atlantis and Maine (which feels like job vs home struggles). Plus, there’s definitely an undercurrent of Arthur having imposter syndrome running throughout the series which is relatable to me because in my world (academia) those feelings are not foreign to either faculty or students.
But but…
I’ve given Aquaman a go as well. They do go into more personal dealings but I just couldn’t commit to that title either.
To each his own… but you’re wrong >:3
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Definitely easier to relate to Marvel characters in my opinion. Marvel uses real life places too. Matt Murdock is from Hells Kitchen, Luke Cage is from Harlem, Peter Parker from Queens. Marvels street level heroes are amazing. If you are from NY you know all these places, they may have gone to your college or high school and so on. It’s pretty neat in that sense
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Where marvel does better is the tier 2 characters.
Marvel tier 1 characters are very flat right now. When is the last time ASM, Iron Man, Captain America, etc…were relevant? Even XMen isn’t the book it used to be.
It’s the 2 tier characters Venom, Thor, Miles, Immortal Hulk etc… that are thriving right now.
DC Id argue Batman is still the biggest character of all the publishers. It continues to sell copies and pump out spec.
After that though, DC tier 1 is mostly as flat as Marvel tier 1. Superman, WW, etc… Flash has been a good read but gets little heat.
DC has struggled to get that next tier going.
It’s a good attempt for them to see if they can build that second tier with future state with a new Batman and WW to see if they can create that next new hero ala Miles. And with some of the FS creative teams staying on going forward, plus tv show for WW and rumors of movie plans for next Batman, it seems as though they are planning on pushing these new characters going forward.
How successful it will be, is yet to be seen.
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I’d actually have to say Thor (and Immortal Hulk, come on, it’s the same Hulk with a new name) is/are a tier one characters in the Marvel Universe. So, good stories with new characters along the way brings the demand back…
But yes, the not so prominent heroes in Marvel are all the rave right now, perhaps since people are banking on them becoming more mainstay characters in future Marvel Movies…
And I hate to say it but Venom. Love it or hate it DC does not have anything even close to the coolness of Venom. DC also doesn’t have a Deadpool, sure some may argue Harley Quinn, but I think that is disrespectful to Harley as a character in her own right). Marvel just seems to have characters people want.
Not that I am cheering for a DC downfall.
From talking to a couple of LCS owners that pay attention this weekend, it may end up that Death Metal 7 is deemed the 1st appearance of a lot of the Future State characters. I am curious to see how this plays out.
I’ll be picking up most of the future state stuff just because it’s all short runs, and fairly contained. I also want to see something new being done. I don’t expect ANY of them to have long term spec value (especially with how many people are already ordering wonder woman and next batman) but if there’s some random new character in one of the lesser ordered books that pops off I wouldnt be surprised.
The other thing to keep in mind is that all the future state stuff is fully returnable. I don’t expect that to mean every retailer will order super heavy because space and slow January sales are still a thing, but even lesser popular books will have higher order numbers than we’d usually expect.
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Print run isn’t everything though. UF4 was a pretty high print run and that didn’t stop Miles. Also historical cases like Deadpool and Venom being huge runs.
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I’d consider them second tier. They aren’t Spidey, X-men, Cap, Iron Man, FF, etc…
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That’s a concern as well. As one is supposed to lead into the other.
But they do come out the same day. So may be a cameo vs full situation.
Maybe not now but long ago they were way more popular amongst the kiddos… I would say Fantastic Four has dropped if we’re measuring them via tiers…
That’s my point. FF is a tier 1 major marvel book throughout history and its most irrelevant right now.
I’d say they’ve been irrelevant for quite some time now… probably since the early 2000s, maybe earlier.
Early Marvel Silver Age had small print runs. Back then DC sold all the supe books and Marvel was trying to get a piece of the pie. Would be like Boom taking on Marvel these days in comparison. That’s why F4 #1 will also be tier 1
“Most pre hero Marvels were around 140,000 to 180,000.The early superhero titles were in the 250,000 range until about 1965 / 1966 when several titles spiked upwards to the 330,000 range.” - Source
And I believe those are the paid subscriptions and not the full print run numbers (if you scroll down to the next comment, which I believe is fairly accurate). Not a definite source but I’d say most of the print runs were still bigger than the print runs we’re seeing nowadays for most of the main and popular titles.
But should also imagine the amount of copies that went to the local dump sites as a majority of moms and people didn’t think of these as something that would end up being valuable or collectible later on down the beaten path…
That’s fair. But betting on ANY character being the next Miles is going to make you broke quick haha.
I just meant I know some people will order books they think will be low print run as a safer gamble, and while WW and TNB will be the biggest from this as of now, I don’t think any will be as low as some of DCs more recent lower print titles because of the fact they’re fully returnable.
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I agree on all points. They will be the two highest print runs for sure of all the future state books and probably both in the top 5-10 in copies for the month.
Definitely will be high print runs.
My comment was only in reply to saying there isn’t any spec value because of huge print run…which isn’t necessarily true.
But otherwise we are on the same page.
It is funny how what you would consider Marvel tier one stuff kind of sucks right now. FF is mediocre if not bad, Spider-man sucks (although I did like the recent Kraven arc), Captain America seems to just not matter, I love Jason Aaron but I don’t like Avengers.