52, Countdown, Trinity, Brightest Day, Amazing Spider-Man - over the past 5 years these titles have have all come out more than once a month.
The thing is do we want them so often? Sure, 52 was an 'exercise in seeing if it could be done', so they said. It would explain why Countdown (To Final Crisis) was so bad. They wanted to capitalise on the fact 52 was successful, by making another weekly story, but they didn't have a thorough idea of what it should entail. Trinity was better, but that's probably because they knew they had done such a poor job with Countdown.
Brightest Day is bi-weekly, probably thanks to the previous three years being drowned by weekly stories. I just remembered that I forgot to include Wednesday Comics in this - a newspaper-like comic that I didn't actually bother reading.
I'm certain that the fact DC had so much commercial success with their weekly comics, Marvel decided to try it out. Thankfully it's been limited to one title - Amazing Spider-Man. It ran at three issues per month until this past October, and is currently at 2 issues per month. It's had a longer run (101 issues) than the weekly comics had (they ran for 52 issues each), but it was more hit-or-miss as it had a rotating band of creators.
But do we want comics sooner? Is weekly too much? I used to always be chomping at the bit for a new issue of whatever was great (X-Factor), but now I wonder if I'd grow sick of it. Part of the fun of comics is wondering what will happen after the cliffhanger. Will the hero be injured? Will someone rescue them? Time portal? Dimensional rift? Alien cyborg? Einstein's brain in a chimp's body?
If it's a weekly fix, it removes some of the suspense. Unless you follow the solicits, each minor hero could be killed in their next appearance. Heck, Ms Marvel was appearing in New Avengers even though she'd been dead for three issues of her own title, so even that isn't set in stone.
So - do you prefer it all in one hit like a graphic novel? Or do you like the slow torment of a monthly/bi-monthly/yearly (Spawn) title?
1 comment:
From a monetary standpoint, I don't know how many people can afford to keep up with more than a monthly. Even a monthly can be a bit much at times.
Of course, with the new Dark Key launch, I'd love to see them aim for a weekly, so I could get new books monthly!
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