Likes and Dislikes for the Week of June 17th, 2020

It’s that time again, where I tell you what’s really grinding my gears for the week of June 17th, 2020. It’s been a few months since the last one.

Some weeks it’s mostly likes, other weeks it’s dislikes.

So what’s grinding my gears this week?

For Sale and Trading Category

What does everyone think about the new For Sale and Trading category on the forums? I hope people like the idea and take advantage, either by selling directly or simply linking to your online sales at eBay or other sites.

I kicked it off with my own auction blowout sale (almost everything is starting off at $1 bid) where I’ve been adding new auctions daily. I just listed a Return of Wolverine #1 Campbell Glow In The Dark NYCC limited to 2000 today, starting it off at $1. It’s a super low #40 of 2000 as well.

I hope this new category leads to something people think is a nice perk and to help spice up the forums with some more activity, since I think the forums has been great where CHU members can start or contribute to many discussions, where you can have your own voice on comics and the latest news.

Sure we have some policies in place but they’re pretty simple I think. Over time if it becomes a popular place to list your items for sale, we’ll let it improve and evolve over time.

Marvel Relaunches (Reboots) Iron Man

Okay, I’m normally not a fan of rebooting a series so soon after the last reboot. We all know Marvel loves it due to the fact that #1 titles get a boost in increased orders but this time is different for me. Iron Man needs a reboot that does him justice.

Why? Well, Dan Slott won’t be writing the new series. Iron Man was pretty much the center piece and forefront character in the MCU and I think being such an important character in the Marvel Universe, needs a writer that will do the character some justice and sustain more readers and fans.

Let’s look at the numbers when Dan Slott kicked off Tony Stark: Iron Man in June of 2018. Issue #1 saw a huge 135,727 sales/print run to kick things off. We all know the second issues always see a dip in sales/print run but this series dropped by a staggering amount if you ask me. Issue #2 saw a sales/print run hit only the 43,557 total. That’s just shy of 100k less sold/printed for a new series.

That series last issue was #19 back in December of 2019 and it had a reported sales/print at just 25,211. Then they kicked off Iron Man 2020 series (with only an initial 54,624 print/sales for issue #1) where Stark’s brother took over. With some ridiculous looking armor, this series didn’t seem to take off either.

So how do you revive this original Silver Age Avenger? You drop the current writer and creative team and get some new ones. They’ve tapped Christopher Cantwell (Halt and Catch Fire, She Could Fly) to write and Cafu to do the interiors. With a new suit design by Alex Ross.

I don’t normally support reboots so quickly but Iron Man needs one cause he’s pretty much been irrelevant since 2018 in my opinion when Slott took over. The poor sales are a clear warning sign. Perhaps we can just pretend Stark was on vacation.

Chicken or Egg, Which Came First? 

So there’s been a lot of buzz about the new Virus character coming out of the Venom series title in Issue #25 that gave us a very brief cameo on a full page spread.

The world was suppose to get a glimpse of him in the FCBD Amazing Spider-Man / Venom book back in May but due to COVID19, it all got delayed.

Now, both the FCBD and Venom #26 are slated to be released in the same week, Venom #26 on the 15th and the FCBD on the 22nd. We had the cameo already that’s been established but now we got the first appearances showing up on the same day, in two different books. Well, we’ll have to find out if the FCBD is a first full or another cameo type appearance.

This is going to be interesting how it all plays out since Venom #25 is also getting two 2nd print covers. The first one is the wrap around cover that is from the interior artwork within the book while the second one is a redo of the Rapoza cover.

So not counting the Greg Horn Store Variant that already had Virus on the cover for Issue #25 which has already made it into people’s hands, we now have 2 books slated to arrive on July 15th that all include likely first full appearance and first cover appearance (albeit the 2nd print shows him on the back while Venom #26 has him on the front).

It’s going to be fun to see how the market reacts to all these books hitting store shelves on the same day or around the same time. Will this ultimately make his cameo that more appealing? We’ve seen brief cameo’s becomes huge success when it comes to value, just take a look at Captain Marvel #14 with Kamala Khan (raws sell for $100+ while a recent 9.8 sold for $326). Most I bet can’t even pick her out in the book it’s so brief.

Edit: I misread the FCBD page and was under the impression that the Spider-Man Venom book was coming out the 15th like the X-Men FCBD is. Corrections have been made above to reflect the correct release date for FCBD Spider-Man/Venom.

Store Variants

Store variants seem to be getting a little more coverage and buzz recently as well. With the few Peach Momoko variants making waves with the TMNT: Ronin #1 selling out as fast along with the Vampirella #11 as well. The Venom #25 Horn variant along with some of the other Venom Exclusives surrounded by this new Virus character seem to be doing pretty good as well.

Some may deem store variants as poor spec books and while history tells us this is mostly true, I do like the fact that some stores are seeing success with their store exclusives.

Why? Well, since most shops took a brutal beating during the shutdown as being non-essential, store exclusives can lift shops back up. What better way to support shops by buying one of their store exclusives. Let the stores take advantage of hot comic artists to make exclusives, it only boosts their revenue in our current times of slow releases of new books and a slowdown of shipments from online orders.

So even if you don’t like store exclusives, if you see a cool cover, buy it cause you like it and to support the shop. Not everything has to become a spec play or become valuable to enjoy.

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That’s all I got this week. Tell us what’s grinding your gears, good or bad in the comments or shit, we got forums where you can start any discussion you want.