Saturday, May 31, 2014
Rumors surround FANTASTIC FOUR comic fate
There are rumors out there, put out by terrible reporters Bleeding Cool (whatever, all I do is espouse opinions anyway), that Marvel may be canceling (or at least "putting on hold") comic series FANTASTIC FOUR and ULTIMATE FF to try to draw potential movie ticket sales away from Fox Studios and their upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. Look, I'm not in the business and I don't know the real story but we can pretty much all agree this is the stupidest rumor, right? Bleeding Cool pretty exclusively promotes rumor as near-fact and speculation as journalism. On top of that, I can't imagine anyone believes that these comic series, these new volumes, will draw heaping crowds to Fox or that Marvel believes Fox won't already have crowds. Usually they build on this sort of movie hype (even if it's not from their own studio) to sell more comics. They're not going to take comic characters created over fifty years ago out of circulation because they're about to get more popular. That'd be the dumbest business strategy ever and, while I've been skeptical and critical about Marvel's business the last few months, I certainly don't think they're stupid or petty. On the flip side, I wouldn't be all that surprised if either book was shelved because ULTIMATE FF seems like a risky title as is and FANTASTIC FOUR is, in this reviewer's opinion, simply not very good. More alarming (though Marvel never releases their own numbers so this is only a little more than speculation) is the news midway down the page of the above-linked article (from CBR, I'm going to try to never link to Bleeding Cool, even when this sort of story nearly requires it) that projects CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRON MAN, X-FORCE, AVENGERS WORLD, and ALL-NEW GHOST RIDER as selling worse. Three of those books are gold and two are pretty new but still pretty good, it seems. Look, whatever. There are a lot of things happening that I have an opinion about right now.
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i agree: if they're cancelling Ultimate FF and Fantastic Four, it's because those books aren't very good and they don't sell very good. i feel like there's something else at play, which is why Marvel is being shady about this whole thing. we know Miles Morales is crossing over to All-New X-Men, so maybe they're doing something involving ending the Ultimate Universe?
ReplyDeletethen again, they are killing Wolverine off, so there might just be some bit of truth to this whole thing... we'll have to wait and see! it's a great time to be a comics fan!
It is a little weird that they're still kind of playing things close to the vest on the Ultimate Universe. I figured if any universe ending stuff happened, it would be during CATACLYSM. I'd be very confused if they waited a couple months after that big event to then quietly end the universe, but somehow I wouldn't doubt it. But yeah, the idea of Marvel comics trying to shoot down a movie that would only promote Marvel comics is so insane to me, but that doesn't mean I don't think those books could be cancelled. Just different reasons. For all of my worries about some of the business of Marvel, that sort of pettiness and shooting themselves in the foot isn't among it. Also for all my worries, I feel like there are so many amazing books out there so it is definitely an exciting time right now.
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