Why do you assume they don't?  Do you really think Byrnerobotics, or any message board, is representative of the audience?

If sales drop, whatever the cause, they'll reverse whatever happened.  or whatever. 

People act as if Marvel is stubbornly clinging to things that are causing it to lose readers-the readers were lost awhile ago.  However, Marvel still remains competive and usually beats DC-at least pre-Infinite Crisis.

"If sales drop, whatever the cause, they'll reverse whatever happened.  or whatever." 

Not necessarily.  The available figures show a substantial drop in sales of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in the aftermath of the "Sins of the Past" storyline.  I believe it's something over 15 thousand readers.

Now, some have attibuted that to JRjr no longer doing the art, and there may be some truth to that.  But, JRjr left before "Sins of the Past" and the drop in sales didn't occur until after that storyline.  Which means readers stuck around and didn't like what they got, not that they were just JRjr fans.

But even though JMS' last big idea for Spider-Man resulted in a huge loss of audience, M****l decided to do a huge 12 part crossover based on another JMS big idea.

Mike

And just to bring up the same point I thought of with IDENTITY CRISIS, now that you've had a villain rip out Spider-Man's eye...what do you do the next time you want to "get people talking"?

After raping and murdering Sue Dibney, we found out what DC thought they had to do...blow Blue Beetle's head off in panel.

I wonder what M****l will come up with.

I also wonder if the people doing M****l comics today really think these comics won't be published 10 years from now, so what does it matter?

Mike

Just out of curiosity, how many months after?  As I'm sure all of us here know, there's a gap between store orders and book publication.  Could the time lag account for at least some of it...the adjustment in orders for sell-through following JRJr's departure catching up with publication?

Why do you assume they don't?  Do you really think Byrnerobotics, or any message board, is representative of the audience?

If sales drop, whatever the cause, they'll reverse whatever happened.  or whatever.

****************************

Generally, I believe the same segment of the population that reads comics is also  one that is surfing the net and communicating on  message boards. (but not necessarily the reverse)  I see similar complaints on other boards as well.

Reversing what happened (yes, they WILL do that)  is exactly what I think is so "lame ass".  If the writers do reverse it, it becomes just another meaningless marketing exercise to sell more comics.  It just doesn't respect the audience (whether the audience realises it or not) because its just a meaningless shock tactic rather than an enjoyable story.  Too many of these and the audience will just feel cheated and look for the exit. 

Generally, I believe the same segment of the population that reads comics is also the one that surfs the net and communicates on  message boards. (but not necessarily the reverse) 

***

Ok. I don't believe that though.  I think you generally have a minority of the comic reading public, often the same names, who are not necessarily representative of the overall audience, although more representatibve than if the audience was much larger.

Just like if you read Star Wars message boardm you'd think Star Wars was the most unpopular thing in the world.  and yet............

 Mig Da Silva: "So the current small sales of Amazing Spider-Man are gotten by these people 1), JMS fans 2), and completists (3, who'll buy it no matter how bad it is, even if they don't read it."

I fall in catagory 3 for Amazing Spidey and Hulk because I've been collecting these titles for YEARS and I have all the issues.  But I DO read the new issues, great or sucky as they may be, because I LIKE the characters.  Of course the creators make a world of difference.

QUOTE: If JMS came up with a brilliant idea of how to reverse SINS PAST, I'd be the first person to salute him for it. (Oh, if only this would happen...)

The other day I came up with a means of reverseing Sins Past without wiping it from continuity. Here it is. 

Norman hooked up Mary Jane to the old Winkler brainwashing device. Made her think that Gwen told her that she had Goblin sex with Norman.

He had the chance to do it during the Revelations story arc. If he had the nurse on his payroll, who is to say the whole staff wasnt answering to him.

The reason he did it, was to tarnish Gwen's memory.

About the twins.

Scenerio A: Norman's old buddy Miles Warren whipped them up in his lab.

Scenerio B: The twins didn't belong to Gwen at all. Norman found them during his exile in Europe and genetically modified them.