NEWS EDITION #16 - MARVEL'S LATEST CASUALTIES, DC'S DOMINATION & AVATAR'S WORMWOOD STRIKES BACK!

This week's news.


MARVEL AXES VON DOOM MINI, ALPHA FLIGHT & MORE!

By Frankie Rodriguez

    Marvel seems to be going through a lot of changes of lately. Whether it is because of Disney wanting to have a bigger hand in the company or their recent falling to become the #2 comic book company for 2 months in a row with the success of DC Comic's Relaunch (more on that later), Marvel is starting to look alike revolving door. One of the most significant cancellations is the axe being brought down on the 4 issue miniseries Victor Von Doom, which was supposed to be written by scribe Nick Spencer (of Morning Glories) and Demo artist Becky Cloonan. The 4 issue mini was to tell of a teenage doom and his trip to Hell to reclaim his mother's soul and was to be released in two weeks. Yet, Marvel had cancelled the project.

Nick Spencer's tweet on it Friday Morning:

Trust me, no one is more bummed about this than I am.


  And Victor Von Doom are not the only casualties. All Winners Squad and Iron Man 2.0 (which is also written by Nick Spencer) are also getting cancelled. Yet, the other big surprise was our recent story on Alpha Flight's status. Originally, it had go from a miniseries into an ongoing series a few months ago. Yet, due to sales on the book dropping significantly, Alpha Flight is returning to its miniseries status, ending in issue #8 as it originally intended.

  And just announced Monday morning by Alpha Flight co-writer Fred Van Lente on his Twitter, his upcoming 5 issue miniseries, Destroyers, has been cancelled by Marvel as well. Destroyers was to feature a story with She-Hulk, Beast, A-Bomb, Devil Dinosaur and more with art by Kyle Holtz.

Van Lente replied on his Twitter to one of his followers with this:

There was no announcement. The book hadn’t been solicited yet, and just wouldn’t have. … The biggest bummer about Destroyers was Kyle Hotz had #1-2 pencilled, and it looked grrrrreat. Ah, well. That’s showbiz for you.

All these in top of a recent lay off of 15 people being stated as a cost-cutting, not performance measure.

CBC will be keeping an eye on any other developments with the changes with Marvel.


DC TOPS SALES FOR 2ND MONTH IN A ROW

by Frankie Rodriguez

   When DC first broke news of the relaunch, there were many fans who immediately jumped at the company. And creators from other company's were either curious or down right criticized  DC on the decision to relaunch the books. It is now November. According to Comichron, orders for October were up by 2.67% on DC books from September. Yes. You read that correctly. Orders went UP for books from September to October. And while early reports that sales have gone down for DC, overall comics unit sales were positive this year, unlike the last several years where decline was more than evident. In September, DC Comics had 19 out of the Top 25 Selling titles. DC once again continues that feat but it's a bit different.

In September, Batman #1 lead DC as the champion of Sales that month. Yet, last month, Justice League #2 had sales, according to Diamond Distribution.

September 2011 DC's 19 top books:
 1- Batman #1
2 - Action Comics #1 
3- Green Lantern #1
4 - Flash # 1
5 - Superman #1
6- Detective Comics #1
7- Batman:The Dark Knight #1
10-Batman & Robin #1
11 - Green Lantern: New Guardian #1 
12 -Batgirl # 1
13 - Wonder Woman #1
14- Green Lantern Corps # 1
15- Teen Titans # 1 
16 - Aquaman # 1 
17 - Batwoman # 1
19- Red Lanterns # 1
20 - Justice League Dark # 1
21 - Nightwing # 1 
24 - Justice League International # 1 


October 2011 DC's 19 Top Books:


1 - Justice League # 2
2 - Batman # 2 
3 - Action Comics # 2 
4 - Green Lantern # 2
5 - Flash # 2
6 - Detective Comics # 2
10- Superman # 2
11 - Batman The Dark Knight # 2
12 - Batman & Robin # 2 
13 - Wonder Woman # 2 
14 - Batgirl # 2 
15 - Batwoman # 2 
16 - Teen Titans # 2 
17 - Green Lanterns: New Guardians # 2 
18 - Aquaman # 2 
19 - Green Lantern Corps # 2 
20 - Red Lanterns # 2 
21- Nightwing # 2
23 - Justice League International # 2 

Notice that while there has been shuffling, Justice League Dark was the only book to drop down; only to be replaced by the flagship title Justice League with its second issue. And Don't worry too much about Justice League Dark as it dropped to 30. If you expanded  this to the Top 50 books of each month, DC still dominates with more titles in the Top 50 than Marvel.

 With the increased visibility of comics, better access to them with digital same day capability, it seems that DC has succeed in their relaunch and working hard to keep their sales up. Let's see how Marvel, Image and other companies respond to this while DC continues their climb upward.



CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD:THE LAST BATTLE 2ND COLLECTION HITS SLEEVES

Writer Garth Ennis returns to the chronicles of Danny Wormwood, a shifty yet sympathetic television executive who also happens to be the Antichrist. Having averted his devilish father’s plans for an all-out apocalypse by eliminating God and the Devil, Danny has started to get his life back together – reuniting with his girlfriend Maggie and drinking beers with humbled messiah Jay and Jimmy the Talking Rabbit. But having rid Hell of its rightful lord, he now must face an even worse successor – the fallen, corrupt Pope Jacko! Ennis, the critically acclaimed creator of PREACHER and CROSSED, drags the whole world into the gutter with his trademark razor-sharp dialogue and biting wit, alongside the stunning artwork by collaborator Oscar Jimenez. Available in softcover and hardcover formats, with illustrated covers by Oscar Jimenez.
 Both will be released on November 08, 2011 from Avatar Press.  





VIDEO OF THE WEEK

  Little known fact. Kamen Rider was created by the same man who did the Skull Man manga decades ago. And this video of Kamen Rider Skull is the closest tribute to a live action skull man that we will get . ..  for now.

And that's it for this week. More news next week! Ja ne!