DAMNIT TPB COMMENT SYSTEM!

Marvel, like DC and Image, needs the money and they want their piece of the sales pie. Yes, comics have had a banner year for sales-- I'd bet good money that if prices were somewhat lower than $3.99 USD for an issue with only about 22-25 pages of material (excluding ads), then they would have a large uptick in sales. With what they charge for digital issues of the same comics, they're proooobably making money hand over fist, but like me, lots of people still enjoy collecting the hard copy. Adjusted for inflation, $3.99 isn't a terrible price-- of course incomes haven't gone up worldwide to compensate for inflation. So we're stuck paying money we can ill afford for comics that don't really seem worth 4bux because to us, 4bux is a lot, even though 4bux shouldn't be that much of an investment. And the comics publishers are just trying to make a buck so they can keep the lights on.

Basically blame politics and the super rich and shitty corporate policies and income inequality for the shitty state of comics.

And read Valiant Comics, because they've been killing it for the last two years, along with Image, and BOOM! and Dark Horse and IDW, while having a writing model similar to DC/Marvel.

Thoughts? I would have said something on last week's torrent, but I wasn't around last week and there's no way to notify anybody of replies to comments on this site.

Oh yeah, here in NYC tonight, it's COLDER THAN BARROW, ALASKA. WHERE 30 DAYS OF NIGHT TOOK PLACE. WHAT THE HELL.

Yes, Origin II issue 2 is out this week!

It's not that we're afraid of Marvel doing something new in regards to Spider-Man. It's just that well Doc Oc is um what do they call it on my planet..oh yeah..an asshole! It was tiresome reading page after page of how great, ahh superior he thinks he is. If you read spider-man regularly, that's not going to make you happy. If you're a new reader and you pick up this book for the first time you're probably thinking "who is this tool?" Go home spidy/doc oc, nobody likes you.

Finally, finally the other writers (of other Marvel books) are starting to have the other heroes voice this. In the last Avengers book Captain America was like um "I'm benching Spiderman, nobody wants to be on a team with him". oops. I won't go into it here but he was not the only one. Every time he appears in another book somebody says "get that jerk out of here". So Marvel be different. Be awesome. But don’t expect us to be happy to cheer for the ex-villian who's currently insufferable
People cheer for Magneto all the time. Emma Frost etc. Villain turns hero can be done. Hey Marvel; you’re doing it wrong.

Well, that's the thing-- the entire Superior Spider-Man story arc is meant to show that SpOck is an asshole. He may be more technically efficient and better able to prioritize his time, but he's NOT Peter Parker. It's not that Slott doesn't know this-- this is what the story's been set up to show. Otto's slowly going out of control, and in fact he's never BEEN fully on top of things. I used to read Spider-Man regularly, and came back after years of being tired of the same old Peter Parker drama, and I highly enjoyed this look at what a villain trying to be a hero looks like.

Magneto and Emma Frost were always the cool kids of the villain club-- Otto never was that. In that sense, he's a What If...? of Peter's own history. Peter could have gone down that path, if he hadn't had a Ben Parker there to motivate him into doing good rather than looking out for himself the way he did in the beginning of his career. Magneto wasn't really aiming to better his own lot in life, he was "simply" a more militant mutant rights advocate.

Hahha there's honestly nothing wrong with soapboxing-- it's interesting to hear the viewpoints of others, and we all love comics anyway, or else we wouldn't be grousing the way we are.

BTW my own experience in India, regarding comics, was that when I was little and would go visit my grandmother, I'd pick up stacks of The Phantom comics (because it's totally the most popular English comic in India) and tons of old back issues of Batman and Spider-Man there, back in the day. The last few years, on my visits there I've seen TONS of graphic novels and TPBs and such being sold at many bookshops. There are so many shelves devoted to comics, in the stacks-- and they keep having to be restocked. It's not like Marvel and DC (who are the more prominent publishers I've seen on the shelves in Calcutta and New Delhi) are at ALL hurting for money, especially on the international market. It'd be cool to see more books from Image and the rest (hey, Valiant's owned by a bunch of Indian VCs! publish moar!) on the shelves there, too.

Interesting discussion guys! (and thanks for the upload as always)

I've been weirdly getting into digital comics the past few months, I don't collect single issues, but I do like to have a trade, and with being able to buy digital versions cheap on eBay, it gives me a chance to see if I like the story before buying.

I've been a Marvel fanboy for a LONG time, and I used to buy every comic that they released, but that was twenty years ago and I just don't have the time to read all of the comics I want to read now... which sucks, but I just have to stick to about 10 or so core comics and maybe look at the occasional different book if it crosses over into a storyline.

Either way, these packs make things much easier for me!

Hi yarrrjun!! I see you have been uploading the Marvel Now! releases from week 49 onwards. Are the first 48 weeks collected on the tracker? I can't seem to find them, and I was wondering if there was a pack contaning all the issues or maybe someone that has all of them can make a mega-pack with them, I'd be happy to keep seeding for a long time.

Thanks for your uploads as always!

@yarrrjun - yeah that's true, last time I went there I found a ton of great stores with nearly every major Marvel/DC there and even some special editions of Batman that I couldn't find over here, for example. One reason I send my cousins Saga and the like (Chew is another) is because the availability is somewhat scarce mostly due to the draconian censorship that is still in place. At least they can read the real good shit that way, heh! ;-)

yarrrrrrrrrrrr you be the bestest pirate compiler of 'em all, yarrrjun

oh and i don't mind if you don't agree with me. i just wish it was like it was when i grew up, my first few comics were marvels, and they had numbers like #21, #87, #305 ... i never felt like i was jumping into an incomprehensible mess... and it made me want to (eventually) find flea markets and comic shops where i could fill in back issues that enhanced my collection.

The eBay route for buying digital comics is reasonable cheap (depending on what you call cheap) I would say you can get most comics for 99c each, or if you want a brand new comic that just came out that week, about $2, which is half the price of Comixology. (wait a week or so and the price will drop)

Since I am new to digital comics (I just love the panel view mode from Comixology) I can buy the bundles of digital comics cheap too, usually 3 comics for a buck. The best deal is when Marvel also give out a free digital code for a TPB with the latest issue, so you buy the latest Savage Wolverine comic, and you get issues 1-5 (from the trade) for free.

Of course if you want a physical copy of the comic, then you are better off going to your local comic shop, but if you just want a digital read, eBay is not a bad way to go (surprisingly)

@yarrrjun that would be really awesome!! I'll wait for it and would try to get the individual weeks with the link you provided in case you finally prefer not to make that huge torrent.

Thanks!!