Comments on: Marvel Plays With Numbers: Backs Off Price Decrease, Confuses New Readers With Point One

By: Marvel: Wolverine 5.1, X-Factor 215, Spider-Girl 4, Captain America: Man Out of Time #3 » Comics Worth Reading

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 21:12:25 +0000

[...] think the Marvel point one idea is dumb, but darned if this entry didn’t work for me as a jumping-on point. That’s [...]

By: hardtravelinghero

hardtravelinghero — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:26:24 +0000

Why not go with what Superman started doing again with New Krypton and have each issue’s cover feature some sort of symbol with what part of the story it is?

I think it was an article you pointed out about decompressing stories and how one issue of Batman had 1 of 1, which was funny.

I am also rereading some Superman comics from 2000/2001 when there were a lot of good stories sequencing through all four Superman titles at the time.

This would be especially good since Marvel stopped using cover dates when, a decade ago? I wish they’d bring those back.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:19:12 +0000

I suspect they picked 1 because it suggests a starting point, but putting the decimal point in front changes the context. If I was doing it, I’d ignore the number games and just use text: a big “Start Here” banner or something.

By: Grant

Grant — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 04:09:09 +0000

I wish marvel would take these really good comics like Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Atlas, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc, that are all getting or have already gotten canceled and go back to the old double story format like they had in Tales of Suspense or Tales to Astonish back in the day. Better than losing them all together. Isn’t Action Comics doing somthing like that? Or doing a rotation type of thing?

H&M is the only Marvel title that I’ve been buying on a regular basis lately. I hope it lasts long enough to make it to the planned crossover with Black Widow.

Also, Dynamite just launched the first issue of a John Carter of Mars reboot for a dollar. A dollar. I don’t see why these Point One issues cant sell for the same price. And shouldn’t they be called Point 5, as in what ever the previous comics number was “and a half”?

By: James Schee

James Schee — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:58:23 +0000

Here’s the thing for me on the decimal point thing. Wouldn’t most people think its just an updated version of the issue, like computer programs do?

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 19:34:17 +0000

The big change from the original announcement is the increased number of limitations they’ve put on the news. Now it’s not just “only new titles”, it’s “only new titles of limited length that aren’t licensed and aren’t Ultimates and aren’t already in progress in any form”. That’s a pretty significant change in terms of reducing how many books qualify.

From what I’ve heard, there may be a 12 and 12.1 and 13. I’m not sure. I would like to see stories told in their natural length, too, but most writers these days start with the planned length and then plot around it.

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:18:57 +0000

The original Marvel announcement said that only new title would be getting the new price point. This was pretty clear when it was originally reported so I do not really see where the confusion comes from. This just expands on that and lays out more detail.

Hercules wasn’t exactly canceled either… The writer was kinda telling a story (which is still going on) that killed the character. I guess you could argue that the limited series that have been released to continue that story could have been in the on-going, but does that really matter? I completely agree though that Marvel doesn’t give new books very much time. It seems like they make a judgement based on sales of the first issue whether or not the book will make them money. If it won’t, they nix it.

The decimal thing just seems silly. Is there going to be an Avengers #12 along side #12.1? I am assuming no. It is silly to restrict a book to a 1 issue self contained story, just as it would be silly to force every story arc to be 6 issues long. I’m not against stories of either length, I just prefer stories to come naturally and take the number of issues the writer feels is important.