Skip to main content

ICv2 - 'AVX' Marketing Biggest Ever--Comics and the Crossroad of Commerce

ICv2 - 'AVX' Marketing Biggest Ever



Is Avengers vs. X-Men "the" summer event for Marvel? Is this the response to the New 52 everyone is expecting? In truth, I don't think Marvel needs to respond to the New 52. They benefit through the pop cultural associative ether. Moreover, DC's efforts have not had the broad sales impact they hoped. While lapse fans have returned, long term growth comes from new (hopefully young) fans. Recent reports suggest the New 52 is not attracting fresh eyes. So, what exactly would Marvel be doing if it rushed to react?

There is not a clear answer, so the question become what to do, if anything in response. To me, the answer is to do exactly what the are doing. Marvel is continuing down the path to develop stories and characters across multiple platforms and bring them to audiences utilizing Disney's distribution channels. This was the pattern they had before the New 52 and it has not changed. We wonder if digital publication will change comics, but the truth is that the larger media market has already changed comics. Comics sit at the intersection of cross cultural dialogue. While we complain about continuity, diversity, and creativity within superhero comics, we cannot deny those characters have a deep recognition.

Marvel exists (as does DC) as a source for potential exploitable properties. Media companies have always benefited from licensing properties. In the new mercantile media market, controlling a vast character library affords Warner Bros and Disney the opportunity to find a new franchise.  Publishing, regardless of its form, is not the profit center for the media giant controlling either publisher. This doesn't mean the publisher don't need to be profitable, which explain why digital publication is something the publisher are moving to adopt.  The slow pace of adoption reflects the evolution of the business model. Print is still the bulk of revenue, but eventually that distribution model must give way to greater efficiency represented by digital distribution. Still, if comic properties can be translated and generate the excitement, loyalty, and devotion linked to comics and comic culture on other media platforms, they can make millions (or billions) in television, films, or games.  With this as an overriding truth, publishing is neither as meaningless as the sale numbers might imply or as meaningful as fans ardent engagement suggests.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
2 comments
Read more

The 1950s are often portrayed as a period of social cohesion. Why is this misleading?

When we think of the 1950's, most people think of similar things such as "Leave it to Beaver", very conservative and cliched pop music, and high patriotism. Our view of that time is one of social conformity to conservative values, with a traditional nuclear family where the father worked and the mother stayed home, where a majority of people attended church, where crime was relatively low, where a majority of American citizens were extremely patriotic, and where entertainment media emphasized these same conservative values and were subjected to censorship if they did not conform. This is misleading because while these things were all true to a certain extent, the world was obviously not perfect and not everyone was conforming or upholding traditional values, even if it seemed like they were. The 1950's were actually a very tumultuous time period, with the end of World War II leaving Europe war torn and in debt, the outbreak of the Korean War and the clashes of opinion...
1 comment
Read more

Were comics at the forefront of social transformation or lagging behind in the 1960’s?

Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...
Post a Comment
Read more