Do you realize that after the promo sneak peek in X-MEN 94, Marvel made virtually no mention of XHY again until something like the ninth issue? Unbelievable!

While there were editorial mistakes aplenty, I felt the subscription ad was a big and effective promotion.

When the book began, I was only buying George Perez drawn issues of the Avengers. While I was not reading any fanzines, CSN, or internet sites, I was aware of the book as well as Claremont's return to the X-Men through the subscription ads. The ad art from the first cover was enough to catch my notice, and I started picking up the book when the Fantastic Four guest-starred for the first time with Joe Sinnot inking. In contrast when DC launched Orion by Walt Simonson, I was not aware of it until the third issue was out.

Based on what I'm reading here with two series set in the past with different goals and one book being chronically late, I can see where people who were half-reading what little promotional material existed would be confused.

I like the "stranger in a strange land" thing. It seemed logical to me that a guy like Superman is, at his core, an outsider who can't home again. A little bit exagagrated, considering he spent his whole life on Earth? Perhaps. But then nothing about Superman is normal.

Of course, Clark Kent was originally just there so Superman could work at the Daily Star where he could get information where someone needs help. With the explosion of his powers this became quite redundant.

I also never liked that Clark Kent was turned into a "hunk", because it always made it seem like: "Already quite awesome as Clark Kent but even more as Superman". And then his parents were alive. He seemed a little bit too lucky the whole post-crisis era.

Edited by Friedrich Thorben on 26 August 2011 at 12:12pm

JB cleaned up Superman's history...Morrison's creating a new character.

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Is he? I haven't read a lot about his plans, but what I have read seems to indicate that he's using the earliest take on the character as his inspiration. Low power levels. Social crusader. Which is an odd tact to take if one is trying to divorce the chararacter from what Siegel and Shuster came up with. Haven't the courts more or less said they own that stuff?

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Marry me!!

Not really. It's much like comics. Domestically, there are fewer people going to the movies but paying more money for those tickets, so the overall box office looks good. Add in 3D ticket prices and that number grows even more. The reality is that films are selling to a smaller and smaller audience. CARS 2 has outgrossed the original CARS, for example, but actually more people saw the original than the sequel. The only thing the industry has figured out is that a certain segment of the population will pay higher ticket prices to see movies in the theatre and of that segment a smaller portion will pony up for 3D tickets.

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While there were editorial mistakes aplenty, I felt the subscription ad was a big and effective promotion.

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I'd be interested to see the sales figures you apparently have access to, that allows you to declare that use "effective".

The subscription ad use of the cover of the first issue, in any case, did not begin until the publication of the SECOND issue, so in that age when First Issue sales were the Be All and End All of a comic's success, this bit of "promotion" did not turn up until AFTER the first issue had been shipped and sold. Plus, subscriptions did not begin until MONTHS after the coupons were clipped (yeah, right!) and sent in. By running that cover as a subscription ad, Marketing was effectively saying "Here's the new X-MEN book -- oh, too bad! You missed it!"