The X-Axis – 8 April 2026
UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #1. (Annotations here.) We effectively have two issues of Uncanny X-Men this week, as a result of this Annual slipping from its scheduled release date. Although there’s a present day segment with Wolverine and Jubilee, the main point of this story is to show us more of the group who were guarding Haven House in the 1920s (in the flashbacks to Henrietta’s arrival, in issues #15-16). The focus is Slaughter Freedman, the four-armed gunman who was pretty much a background figure in that story – though he seems to have been redesigned somewhat since then, as he’s now rather more heavily built and looks about 20 years older. Even if it doesn’t really fit with traditional continuity, I rather like the idea that there’s always been an underground community of mutants, and Slaughter himself is an engaging fellow. To the extent the design has been tweaked by Francesco Mortarino, I think it’s for the better; it does make the Regulators into a rather middle aged group, but I don’t particularly want them to feel lke proto-superheroes. Working Wolverine into the story feels like a gesture towards commercial reality more than something the story really needed, though – particularly when the story has to explain why we didn’t see him in issues #15-16 – but overall, I quite like this as an addition to the mythos. And hey, now we’ve got things in New Orleans to play with that aren’t the Guilds.
UNCANNY X-MEN #26. (Annotations here.) This is the first part of “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed”, which takes us back to the Mutina storyline and also puts the focus back on the Outliers. Uncanny often feels like an Outliers title that happens to have some X-Men in the supporting cast, and this is one of those arcs – though that’s not something I have a problem with, as there’s far more territory to explore with the kids. We do have a subplot with Gambit talking about starting a family – and of course the whole premise of the two X-Men titles is that this one inherited the family aspect while Scott gets the militarism – and some progress with Kurt and Mackenzie’s romance, but the main point of this episode is to establish that the Outliers are trapped in some sort of dream where they’ve been cast as the New Mutants. Luciano Vecchio does a pretty solid job of echoing some of the scenes from Marvel Graphic Novel #4 but it does feel like Gail Simone is making some quite ambitious assumptions about how familiar people are with the original story. With Giant-Size X-Men #1 you can probably assume that a large chunk of the audience know that Peter saves Illyana from a runaway tractor and so forth. But Marvel Graphic Novel #4 never had the same iconic status, and I do wonder how many readers over 40 years down the line actually recognise references to Moira rescuing Wolfsbane, or Sunspot playing soccer. (It’s not even easy to find on Marvel Unlimited – for some reason it seems to be unavailable on the app, though you can find it on the desktop version filed under The New Mutants Graphic Novel.) Maybe it still works as long as you get the general idea that they’re being plugged into the New Mutants’ role, and it’ll probably become clearer as it goes on, but I can see a lot of readers being kind of baffled by this one.
WOLVERINE #18. (Annotations here.) Well, uh, that’s a fight with Hercules. The Adamantine plot doesn’t directly connect with the New Morlocks storyline, but since that’s what Wolverine happens to be doing right now, that’s where the Adamantine turns up. It does make sense for the Adamantine to turn to Hercules, as about the only character in the Marvel Universe of any profile who actually carries some adamantine around. And Romulus is casually killed off panel, which I’m 100% in favour of. Crushing your established unstoppable villains in order to sell a newcomer is often a cheap move, but in Romulus’ case, it’s pretty much all he’s good for, so we might as well cash in whatever value he’s accrued.
But the story is mostly just Wolverine and Hercules fighting until Athena shows up, to mixed results. Saladin Ahmed kind of manages to sell it as an epic conflict, and Martin Cóccolo’s fight scene has a pretty good flow to it for the most part. It’s still just a fight scene, though, and feels a bit slight for the majority of an issue. And there are some niggling glitches – Wolverine dramatically extending his claws at the bottom of one page only for them to be retracted again at the start of the next page so that he can extend them again later on that page, or Wolverine somehow being able to hold his own in a test of strength with Hercules even though the dialogue has expressly reminded us that he can’t. Plus, the script and art don’t agree about whether the New Morlocks are human-passing mutants or not, which seems like the sort of thing they ought to have figured out by now. It’s not quite clicking, even if the individual elements are mostly solid.
MOONSTAR #2. By Ashley Allen, Edoardo Audino, Arthur Hesli & Clayton Cowles. So the story here is that Dani is teaming up with Kian, the last surviving Exemplar of the Society of the Eternal Dawn (from Magik), to stop an ancient Norse warrior who wants to trap everyone’s souls in his sword. There’s a fairly obvious romantic tension angle here, and I quite like Allen’s approach of writing Dani Moonstar as a default-mode team leader stuck dealing with characters who won’t listen to her. Audino’s art is the star of the issue, combining some fluid action sequences with some good cartooning on the romantic elements. And I kind of like the fact that Kyron’s motivation to steal everyone’s souls is that he’s trying to do them a favour – life is miserable, an eternity in the afterlife even more so, so an eternity of non-conscious storage in a sword is a great step up. Straightforward but well done.
PSYLOCKE: NINJA #4. By Tim Seeley, Nico Leon, Dono Sánchez-Almara & Ariana Maher. Four issues into this five-issue flashback miniseries, I’m left in two minds about the whole thing. On the one hand, Tim Seeley has persuaded me that there are worthwhile stories you can do in the period where Psylocke is adjusting to her new body and coming to terms with her new identity. On the other hand, he hasn’t persuaded me that those stories involve Elektra. Sure, Leon draws them both well, and I get the idea that there are parallels between the characters… but those parallels don’t seem to have much to do with what’s interesting about Psylocke at this point in time. If anything, they risk lampshading the fact that the ninja retooling of Psylocke existed in Elektra’s shadow. Maybe it’ll come together in the final issue, but Elektra feels like a plot element dragging this series away from the parts that actually interest me.
The sales figures for March are out. (It includes last week.) X-Men United 1 came in 11th, X-Men 26 came in 32nd, X-Men 28 came in 37th, Cyclops 2 came in 40th, X-Men Annual 1 came in 44th, X-Men 27 came in 50th, Wolverine 17 came in 51st, Wade Wilson: Deadpool 2 came in 52nd, Uncanny X-Men 25 came in 54th, Magik & Colossus 2 came in 60th, Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon 2 came in 67th, Moonstar 1 came in 72nd, Rogue 3 came in 80th, X-Men of Apocalypse 3 came in 81st, Storm Earth’s Mightiest Mutant 2 came in 84th, Psylocke Ninja 3 came in 92nd, Generation X-23 came in 103rd, and inglorious X-Force 3 came in 125th.
This is horrible. Yes, it was a tough month but Age of Revelation seems to have permanently damaged the sales of the X-books. it says something that Paul Rabin’s death in Venom 256 came in 34th, outselling almost all of the X-Books.
X-Men United came in 11tth- still good but not as good as it could have been. It will probably drop a lot this week. (Deadpool 1 came in 13th and Deadpool 2 didn’t even make the top 50.)
Cyclops 2 came in 40th- not bad for a limited series.
Wolverine didn’t even make the top 50- I don’t know how much longer Brevoort can keep Ahmed on Wolverine.
As mentioned, Deadpool fell a lot from issue 1. People don’t seem to like getting rid of Ellie. Then again, Deadpool’s series often drop quickly and a lot of people don’t like Percy’s writing in general.
Uncanny X-Men 25 didn’t even make the top 50. A lot of this was because it was an overpriced issue. But selling this low is still inexcusable. A lot of people really didn’t like Simone’s Legion of Monsters storyline.
Magik & Colossus is not selling well at all. The problem was Brevoort cancelling the book for Age of Revelation, killing off momentum, and then relaunching it as a limited series. Brevoort has a truly uncanny ability to snatch defeat out of the. jaws of victory.
Wolveinre: Weapons of Armageddon is selling very low. Again, part of this is the $5.99 price tag but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for Armageddon.
Moonstar did not get off to a good start. Unfortunately, Dani is not a very popular character. I realize Claremont wanted her to be the Cyclops or Storm of the next generation of mutants but by the end of Simonson’s overlong Asgardian storyline she had been derailed as a character and never really recovered.
X-Men of Apocalypse is not selling well. What a surprise- who knew that books coming out very late sometimes hurts sales.
Storm’s series continues to decline. People seem to have finally tired of Ayodele’s interpretation of Storm.
Generation X-23 and Inglorious X-Force will be lucky to make it to 10 issues. Generation X-23 seems to be suffering from the slow start, although I wonder if part of the problem is that the name confused casual readers about whether it was supposed to be a Laura book or a Generation X book. Overall Brevoort seems unable to create successful X-books aside from X-Men, Uncanny and Wolverine- which are the three X-books that usually sell.
Turning to this week ,Bleeding Cool’s Bestselling List is out. Uncanny X-Men 26 came in 6th. Uncanny X-Men 1 came in 9th. Wolverine 18, Moonstar 2 and Psylocke: Ninja 4 didn’t make the list. Again, not a good look for Wolverine.
The new X-Men event is called DNX. It comes out in September. It features the X-Men vs. 3K and presumably involves 3K trying to spread their version of the X-Virus.
In DNX the X-Men gonna give it to ya.
So, a Jedi MacKay’s X-Men plotline is being stretched into an event.
I’m glad the lessons of Age of Revelation were learned.
@Kryzsiek- In fairness, the Chairman actually DOES have connections to the characters in Uncanny and United, so an event might make sense in this case.
Given the state of the line, they need all the events they can get. Maybe even reboot the two main books.
I’m sure it is going to lead into another relaunch. It’s not going to help though. Age of Revelation did horrible. Armageddon looks to face more apathy than OWUD. Marvel fans seem to have finally hit crossover fatigue. The relaunch will see a bump in sales for the first issue than it will settle back to the mediocre or disappointing sales levels again.
Marvel needs a lot more than events or relaunches. They need an editor with some better ideas than constant crossovers and relaunches, and one who seems like he wants to do this job. “Throw out fifteen X-books at once and see what sticks. Well, almost nothing. OK. Let’s throw out a bunch of X-books at once again and see if anything has changed. It hasn’t? Well then…”
They also need to replace the person in charge, as it goes beyond a certain editor or simply the X-books.
Is it pronounced Dinks? Or Dennis?
Dentin. The X is the Roman numeral ten. Their version of the X-virus causes Homo Sapiens to develop poor teeth health. 3K are dastardly.
Re: Chris V:
“They need an editor with some better ideas than constant crossovers and relaunches, and one who seems like he wants to do this job.”
The latter bit of this, especially: yes.
Or at least, an editor that is sensible enough to not speak of readers in general with a sense of spite about readers, and of books in particularl with a purely mechanic appreciation of the general logistics behind their success and/or failure.
I understand that Breevort has been hired as a transitional manager of sorts, and not a decisive actor in the general architecture of X-Men comics and the stories they tell. I understand the tacit agreement to this not being designed, pushed forth, and worked out as some great turning point or defining era.
But I cannot for one second believe he is not well-compensated and socially aware enough to have the good sense to at least disguise his general contempt for his own work and responsibilities.
How and why Marvel continues to act like successful sales and stories are transitory phenomena that nearly inevitably cycle back to some iteration of “back to basics” is just completely beyond me – even as a business model.
To they expect folls to run to Unlimited to buy X-Men Gold? Or Brian Wood’s X-Men? Or that one weird interrim phase with Alan Davis as writer on Uncanny and Adjectiveless?
The lack of care for any kind of internal consistency really breaks my brain into little bits.
In the meantime, you have to wonder if it isn’t just a brilliant act of radical honestly to so blatantly name every event as if it were an AI-generated pastiche of pre-existing titles and plainly terrible, lazy puns.
Age of… Revelation!
Generation X… -23!
DN… X?1?1
X-MANHUNT!!!
What’s Professor X’s status after the failed cosmic line? Because I think the only hope Brevort probably has is to bring him back to Earth, turn Graymalkin back into the X-mansion and hard reset to the school before Doomsday is released in the hopes of movie synergy with that. I don’t think it’ll work but everything else they’ve done hasn’t worked either.
I still think there’s an issue that goes beyond Brevoort here. The line was already foundering during Fall of X, the sheer number of limited series of varying quality was already a a factor then, and that was the last editorial team.
The issue here lies with the publisher and how Marvel Comics is being run. My theory is there more being asked from the editorial offices (in terms of units sold) versus the amount of budget assigned. Look at how bloated the Spidey line is. Or the sheer number of giant sized issues we get of ASM. Or the classic story being turned into an event to sell more (cheaper to produce) B-titles. Compare the Talent in DC’s Next Level to the latest Spidey mini or the Age of Revelation new tie-ins.
There’s also no budget for advertising. Look at recent good hires and there’s no large push for them. (Zdarsky on Cap, Williamson on Iron Man). In years past they’d get a push from the publisher. It could also be they were burned during the Marvel Now! times. Instead we get the odd blind bag instead.
Direction is also interesting. The snake is eating the tail more with the comics aligning with a sadly dying film and TV output. Let’s see what Armageddon brings, but look at Ms Marvel to see how she’s in limbo waiting to see what the MCU does with her next.
So yeah. More product with less budget. Unsure directions. Frustratingly there’s some good comics being made. (Pick up the new Iron Man, Spidey when Larraz is on, X-Men and Uncanny are actually good solid and occasionally great comics, FF is the best it’s been in a long while, I enjoyed DD#1 and Cap at least is setting a direction for the line , even if it isn’t my cuppa). It’s just lost within everything else and a general malaise.
I feel mostly sad for Ashley Allen. Her Magik book was probably the best of the From-the-Ashes line in terms of quality, and certainly the surprise hit in terms of sales numbers. Now she has got two mini-series, both of whom seem to be keeping up the quality, but the sales numbers have collapsed.
@Domixt- Ms. Marvel ISN’T in limbo. She was in NYX and when that series collapsed, she was moved over to Inglorious X-Force, which is in the process of collapsing. Kamala isn’t in limbo- it’s just that all the team books except Uncanny and Adjectiveless keep getting cancelled.
I hope DNX tells the story of the X-Men fighting Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
I just don’t see how Marvel can possibly sustain the current intended level of events and hype. Much of the line seems to be falling under its own weight, and for the X-books specifically much of that weight is inherited from the Krakoa era – which is a main reason why I hesitate to blame Brevoort much.
The whole line gives me a sensation of lack of direction, as way too many ambitious storylines and events compete for limited and already over-taxed resources of promotion, attention and space for having lasting consequences.
I think that is telling and worrisome that it has become hard to even notice some of those events. “Venom War” was much less ambitious and, frankly, more pedestrian than any X-event in recent memory, but it still had lots of tie-ins and effectively co-opted the Venom tie-ins to “Blood Hunt” (a much better event) into its own prelude.
It all comes down to editorial support, and I fear that editorial goodwill towards the X-books may be on the wane after Krakoa. Bloated as the Avengers franchise currently is, the X-books are even worse offenders, as well as more difficult to follow. Tom Brevoort takes a lot of flak here and is blamed for the “risk” of downsizing the franchise, but I think that downsizing is actually what the line requires.
Wolverine and X-Force, in particular, have become tired legacy books IMO. They consume precious editorial and talent attention at a time when both could probably be put to better use elsewhere – and the IP itself could probably use a period of rest and recovery.
Yes, it _has_ been difficult for the X-Books to attract and keep quality talent. But I think that it is more than a little bit disingenuous to blame Brevoort for that while also apparently also demanding that he keeps pushing the line in (what appears to be) all directions at the same time.
I suspect that the X-books fandom is considerably more divided than many realize.
How has Brevoort been downsizing the line? His big idea is to push as many X-books on the market as possible and see how many fans are willing to buy. A major complaint about the current X-line is that the market can only sustain about four titles. Yes, Brevoort has been greenlighting a lot of mini-series with “Shadows of Tomorrow”, which will be ending, but that’s just in time for the next “big event”, which will surely lead to another relaunch of the X-line.
That’s not all Brevoort’s fault, no. I’m sure there are higher-ups at Marvel who have been telling Brevoort they need to publish as many X-books as possible to keep their market share.
Which leads to the other issue. No, Marvel did not lose “editorial goodwill” with the X-books after Krakoa. In fact, just the opposite. Hickman’s Krakoa sold so well that it convinced Marvel that the X-Men were hotter than they had been in decades. “Fall of X” tepid sales convinced Marvel editorial that they needed a “back to basics” approach for the X-books to make them into Marvel’s flagship title again. Hence, “From the Ashes” with 18 new titles was supposed to be the salvation of Marvel Comics. Instead, Marvel found themselves cancelling one comic after another. “Age of Revelation” saw sales fall even further. For the first time in a very long time, DC overtook Marvel as the top comic company. Marvel currently seems to be in panic mode, realizing that the X-Men weren’t as hot as they thought, and now pushing as many crossovers as possible in the hope that this will somehow turn things around (showing that Marvel’s top brass are not paying attention to DC and why comic fans are turning to DC over Marvel currently).
@Luis Dantas: while I think there are many factors that have contributed to the downturn of the X-books, Brevoort’s leadership has been a big part of it. The line has felt directionless since he took over, riddled with bad decisions (e.g. X-Manhunt, Age…), lackluster comics, poor storytelling and pacing, nonsensical edicts (e.g. put Magneto in your book and have him be in a wheelchair), and an inability or unwillingness to let series run as they should (e.g. Storm and Magik getting canceled and relaunched just so they can kind-of, sort-of participate in a crossover). The end of the Krakoa era and the transition to FtA were handled poorly, but that doesn’t account for the many problem the X-books have had since Brevoort took over.
Oversaturating the market with bloated “families” of titles is current Marvel strategy, so I don’t lay that entirely at Brevoort’s feet. I also agree with what posters wrote above regarding a strained talent pool. I remember reading that Marvel had a hard time finding people willing to work on the X-books, so I don’t know how much of that is on Brevoort. I’m certain he’s not part of any solution to Marvel’s current woes, however.
I don’t understand why the X-books would have a hard time finding writers. Working on one of the few lines that Marvel does hype seems like a good way to get noticed (even if the creator only has ten issues). I have heard that DC pays a lot more for creators than Marvel. Marvel is willing to spend money for Hickman, Al Ewing, and Zdarsky, but not other writers. That could be the explanation. Simply that Marvel insists on putting out a bloated line of X-titles, and based on Marvel’s pay scale, they simply can’t get the talent pool for such a stretched line. DC is willing to pay more money and doesn’t force creators to compete with each other, so Marvel doesn’t look as inviting in comparison.
“this is following a great deal of speculation when Brevoort recently noted on his newsletter that he had been approached by President of Marvel Entertainment, Dan Buckley, about making a change in his career at Marvel. Brevoort notes that the changeover will not occur in the near future, and he still has major plans for the Avengers titles heading into 2024, and longtime X-Men head, Jordan D. White (who had been the X-Men Group Editor since 2018), will be finishing out the plans that his team have for the X-Men before Brevoort takes over.” -Tom Brevoort by Brian Cronin CBR https://www.cbr.com/tom-brevoort-marvel-x-men-line-avengers/
After Hickman left, all heads turned to Jordan D. White. Let Gillen and Ewing continue to cook while their sales were still hot. Where were they moving the line to next? Jordan was told they would be letting the next creative team decide. Who was over his head who made that decision? All of the X-line writers not named Ewing were left spinning their wheels with isolated stories that didn’t go anywhere for months while the replacement Head of X (wisely) took his time to set the next stage. Those final several months of pablum and fill in writing that was in the Fall of X were largely because the replacement wasn’t ready. He had months of being in charge of the transition. Jordan D. White wasn’t given that leeway or direction. The train wreck wasn’t mostly — let alone solely because of the “previous creative teams.” He wasn’t “handed a train wreck” the train wreck was already his. In his Substack he claims that the memo of directions to his employee, the group editor Jordan D. White, under him is the evidence of why Brevoort was given the promotion in the first place.
If someone is blaming Buckley, or the general corporate for setting this up than I am all ears.
“And as for corporate interference, “to be clear, nobody at Disney has said word one to me about wanting or needing the X-Men to be presented in any particular way. As I related at the top, most of those people were utterly unaware of what our plans were until this past week, when I walked them through everything. I know that people love to pin the blame on gigantic faceless corporations, but if you wind up hating everything that we do, that’s going to come down the the choices that I and my team and my creators made and will make, not some evil edict from secret, shadowy bad guys. It will be this way because we made it this way, no other reason.” – Tom Brevoort by Johnson Bleeding Cool https://bleedingcool.com/comics/tom-brevoort-on-big-plans-wokeness-and-disneys-input-into-x-men/
“…hesitate to blame Brevoort much.”
Okay.
Feels like I am at the exact vocal center of this Venn diagram.
Just like in sports, if is easy to blame the refs. You don’t complain about the small stuff when the going is good. I am just bellyaching from the bleachers. The boorishness of fandom is mine to claim. Give me more of Ashley Allen’s Magic, or more Outliers and you won’t be able to hear it over the cheering. Brevoort may ultimately be not to blame. If you didn’t like Hickman’s story arcs to begin with, or if you thought he should have finished his original… those are fair takes. These structural problems may well be beyond one person. The line needs a purpose and direction to build enthusiasm. If Brevoort wasn’t given that authority, perhaps he should be given it now.
@Domixt – Other than the “Fall of X” being the last creative team as though V.P. Brevoort wasn’t the one de-facto in charge then, I agree with your whole post.
@Chris V – Yes!
@Mike Loughlin- As I understand it, Brevoort’s original idea was that the X-Men would be operating out of Magneto’s base in the Antarctic, so presumably Magneto’s role would have to do with the base. Brevoort allowed MacKay to change the team’s base to the Factory instead, but didn’t realize that that left nothing for Magneto to do.
Part of the problem with the Brevoort’s handling of the line is that Brevoort has admitted that he’s better at coming up with ideas for solo books than team books. The problem is the X-line has usually been centered around team books. So he tried to launch 6 new solo books- Storm, Phoenix, Magik, Kwannon, Laura and Akihiro- as well as Wolverine. If he’d just tried to launch Magik, it likely would have succeeded. But instead, the solos wound up failing. Meanwhile, the team books were poorly thought out and wound up failing. Of course, if Brevoort was better at coming up with ideas for solo books than team books, he shouldn’t have agreed to be X-editor in the first place.
@Michael: thanks for the clarification! It highlights one of my points about Brevoort’s decision making: he or another writer could have found a better role for Magneto. If McKay doesn’t have a strong connection with/ idea for the character, put him elsewhere.
@Chris V: my memory isn’t great, so I can’t cite the source for the quote about having a hard time finding writers for the X-books. I’m sure you’re right that pay had a lot to do with it. I’m also sure there are other factors at play. DC doesn’t suffer from the same line bloat, unless we’re talking about Batman. Their publishing strategy is yet another reason they’re doing better than Marvel at the moment.
In the reading world, DNF = do not finish. Naming your next event DNX may not be the best idea.
@Woodswalked- Jordan White didn’t know he was fired until between July and August. Duggan was originally supposed to stay on the X-Men after Krakoa ended. The first few months of Fall of X- with multiple limited series- were all Jordan White’s idea. But when Brevoort took over, everything had to be ended earlier than anticipated. That’s why a couple of subplots that Duggan had been setting up- Firestar’s PTSD and the new Flag Smasher- had to be resolved in West Coast Avengers.
Nor was Brevoort “defacto in charge” during Fall of X. As several writers involved in From the Ashes have discussed, Brevoort didn’t KNOW a lot of what was going on during Fall of X and that caused problems because the writers initially didn’t know what had happened before them.
Jordan D. White was never fired.
Jordan D. White was never promoted to Head of X either.
You have pointed out where I am wrong before, with my gratitude, and are welcome to again.
Brevoort not knowing what was going on isn’t the exculpation you seem to be giving in his defense.
Head of X went from Hickman to Brevoort. I would have loved for it to have gone to Jordan D White, but when was he ever given that title? He was only a group editor under Hickman, then without Hickman, then group editor over Hulk/Venom/Thor.
Brevoort’s claims can be read on his own Substack. I am not linking to it because it is Substack, but you can find the link within the previous Bleeding Cool link.
If Brevoort was telling JBW what to do, while not knowing what was going on, how is that any better?
*JDW not JBW
typo, typo, typo -typewriter carriage return sound
@Chris V: The X-Office has a reputation for heavy editorial interference, esp. with events. That probably turns off prospective writers.
Re: Domixt: The issue here lies with the publisher and how Marvel Comics is being run. My theory is there more being asked from the editorial offices (in terms of units sold) versus the amount of budget assigned.
I’ve been thinking much the same lately, and agree with everything else you went on to say. It ultimately comes down to a problem of resources. Marvel’s publishing arm by all indications seems to be run on a shoestring budget. And by that metric, well, what more than they expect? You get what you pay for. Releasing ongoing monthly issues in perpetuity has been a strategy of diminishing returns for some time now, as mainstream superhero comics have demanded more and more dollars for a product of vastly reduced value from an aging fanbase, whilst failing to attract a substantial new readership. Still, the comics eke out a modest profit (although I’m not so sure that’s true anymore), and while that registers as barely more than a blip on Disney’s annual income statement, they’ve benefited from being regarded as something of an IP farm (or perhaps at this point, a loss leader) to be exploited for higher margin other media.
While it’s near impossible to get at reliable sales figures these days, all available data indicates that Marvel’s current comics sales across the entire line are abysmal. Not just down year-over-year; but shockingly dreadful over a consistent trend in ways that should give pause. It feels like we’ve reached a point where the C-suite has got to be questioning the wisdom of maintaining a publishing division even at its currently over-stretched, resource-bereft scale. Surely the question of IP sourcing can be answered by the company’s enormous backlog of stories still untapped for adaptation, rather than looking to ongoing monthly periodicals for the next big thing.
And it’s not like they’d have to hang up the shop completely. Rather than choking the market with a million books (and wading through a sea of their shitty gratuitous variant covers) that no one is buying, why not pivot to actual quality over quantity? It’s conceivable Disney could achieve more in cost savings by eliminating the operating expenses of maintaining a publishing division dedicated to monthly comics output than the meager earnings they bring in. They could commit comparatively less money towards producing OGNs featuring the most marketable characters (with some experimentation in the margins) by top talents as the primary vehicle for new stories. Two or three a year for the big brands – Spidey, Avengers, X-Men, FF, Daredevil – to keep the money flowing. Seems like it would allow them to enjoy the benefits of an ultra-lean publishing unit behind a prestige product with higher quality control and broader appeal.
Just a thought. Obviously ignoring the implications of a massive corporate bloodletting and seismic shift for the industry overall (i.e. woe the comic shops). In theory though, is that a move you would be on board with? I just wonder how much longer Disney turns a blind eye to the utter embarrassment of their publishing sales. After all, plenty of eager executives make a lot of noise about a lot less by finding the equivalent of loose change under the couch cushions during bonus season and to justify their promotions.
@Cyke68 — As an addition to your thought, Disney appointed a new CEO at the start of February, Josh A’Maro. He took over for Bob Iger, who became CEO for the second time in 2022. He’s been with Disney 28 years and specializes in the theme park division.
The Wall Street Journal just announced he is laying off 1,000 workers (mostly in the marketing division) because their jobs became “redundant” amid Disney’s merger with Hulu.
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/62109/disney-plans-lay-off-up-1-000-x-men-movie-reboot-kevin-bacon-southern-bastards-the-punisher-mortal-kombat-ii-trailers-lego-one-piece-animated-special-announced
I am not making any predictions. Lord knows everyone predicted WB/DC would be stone dead by now a decade ago. And people have been predicting Disney would shut down the publishing wing of Marvel since 2010. But it does look like the setting of an event you describe are falling into place. A new CEO who isn’t afraid to axe hordes of people barely two and a half months in who has no love for a particular division.
Crazy to think that it would only take one decision by one CEO to effectively kill the comics medium in the U.S.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that Marvel Comics costs so little that no one at Disney really minds if it’s not turning a profit. Honestly, that’s probably where we are now.
Another possibility: Disney licenses the characters to another publishing company. Ongoing Batman & Wolverine series, anyone?
I guess it largely depends on if someone in the board room thinks the DC/Marvel IP ffarms need new material being published for them to adapt to movies/tv shows or if the 100 years of stories are enough for the moment,
Re: Mark cole
That’s exactly the thought that enters my mind whenever people talk about the comics being IP farms for the movies/shows. There’s more than enough in the back catalogue to keep them going for decades to come, and if you’re looking for a story to adapt that’d get the fans excited you do that a lot better using, for example, Age of Apocalypse over X-Manhunt.
I have been having similar thoughts, @Domixt and everyone commenting since. Fascinating to me that a comics company with the likes of Hickman, Ewing, and Zdarsky writing for them in their prime is struggling the way Marvel is. And it’s not because there are no good books at all. But there is a persistent feeling of flailing that even the good books don’t quite rise above. And it’s especially jarring when you see DC practically buzzing with creative energy which is reflected on the charts – not everything is a home run but the FEEL is so completely different than the defeated vibe I get from Marvel’s general output and approach.
I do wonder about the broader corporate and economic factors, but for my part I’m also wondering why no one is looking to Cebulski as part of the problem. As EIC, he hasn’t exactly shepherded Marvel in the direction of consistent leadership in the industry, creative or financial. Quite the opposite – this ship is going down on his watch when everyone before him managed to keep them on top of the comics sales charts through some astronomically hard times for the company and the industry.
It feels truly weird to me that no one (in the press, fandom, anywhere) is naming this. Am I missing something?
Does the comics press still exist? Almost all the sites I used to go to shut down or became click bait garbage.
I don’t seek any of them anymore. If I see something on social media or one of the boards I still go to (like here), I may investigate. I haven’t even been to the local shop in months, and that was just to chat to the owner and buy some random western/romance/archie back issues. I think Waid’s History of the DCU, Batman/Deadpool and Rucka’s Cheetah/Chesire book are the only new books I’ve read this past year.
We finally found out what DNX Is about. It’s a five-issue limited series starting in September featuring the Fantastic Four and the X-Men teaming up to stop 3K from spreading the X-Virus.
Bringing the Fantastic Four in at this late date in the 3K story is odd. They haven’t been foreshadowed at all and they’re not really close friends with the Chairman. (Although Reed might feel some responsibility for what Hank has become because of the whole Illuminati mess. ) I could see bringing in Jean, Booby and Warren since they used to be friends with the Chairman. Alternately, I could see bringing in the Avengers, since the Chairman was one of their own. Maybe MacKay was planning on using the Avengers originally but his run got cut short.
Jody Hauser gave an interview with AIPT today about how Generation X-23 came to be. Mark Basso approached her telling her the title and that Laura would be in it and that she should figure out the rest herself. This almost sounds like parody.
@Stuart- this isn’t the first time DC has outsold Marvel for at least 6 months. DC also outsold Marvel in 1999-2000 and after the New 52.
That being said, there is reason to believe that is different than both those occasions. In 1999-2000, Marvel’s top books outsold DC’s top books- the problem was that Marvel was unable to produce as many books as DC due to the bankruptcy, so DC outsold Marvel in total. This was a temporary problem.
The New 52 was originally successful in terms of sales but it created a backlash and DC wound up having to walk back some of the changes made.
Neither of those situations is really analogous to today. Marvel is producing more books than DC today and DC is still beatingt them. And there doesn’t seem to be a backlash on the horizon for DC’s products.
Oddly, speaking of news in odd places, discussing film twiter just announced an upcoming FF/X-Men mini written by McKay.
Totally had the same thought, and it goes back to the point made about Marvel’s utter lack of meaningful promoting of what should be high-profile books on the rare occasion when they do land a “name” creator. Remember that Hickman/Capullo Wolverine mini? I remember it EXISTING, but it’s pretty telling that I’m completely blanking on the name. There was a time that would’ve been pushed as a much bigger deal. Hell, even something like Tony Daniel doing pencils for Jed McKay’s X-Men should register a lot louder. Has he truly fallen off so hard in recent years that his name isn’t worth even trying to generate a little excitement for?
I mean, I’m not sure I long for the days of CBR’s Cup o’ Joe column, essentially a weekly house ad for Marvel’s upcoming events. But at least it was an example of the company taking advantage of a PR channel that commanded a lot of views to get the word out to their core audience. It could be looked to as a successful transition away from print media in the declining days of Wizard and other print media. In terms of getting the official scoop – with some judicious reading between the lines – in sure beat relying on Tom Brevoort’s substack or whatever.
Remember the year (2006?) when Civil War dominated the majority of the line as that summer’s big event crossover? Well, you also had Annihilation running simultaneous to that. Plus Planet Hulk, in anticipation of World War Hulk. Imagine those all happening in concert today. They’d clash and cannibalize each other with little to no coordination or context in terms of what each event meant or their relative importance in the grand scheme of things. Yet they all benefited from having no less an authority than the EiC getting out in front of them to acknowledge, “Hey we know this is a lot. In terms of a road map, Civil War consumes our immediate focus and will dictate our direction and status quo for some time to come. Planet Hulk is the set-up for NEXT year’s big event, so this is where you can get in on the ground floor for that. Annihilation is our cosmic reset, and we’re really proud of those efforts so check it out if you’re interested in that corner of the Marvel Universe.”
In so many words, repeated ad nauseam.
And obviously, it was very company-first. But it was also genuinely helpful in terms of prioritizing one’s spending. From all of that, I could glean:
-Civil War was required reading
-Annihilation would probably be worth a look if I cared about the cosmic characters
-Planet Hulk was an easy “wait for the trade” for non-regular readers
The absence a meaningful, non-algorithmically compromised comics press makes this type of marketing dubious today. DC manages to do it well enough, understanding the importance of generating buzz for upcoming events and jumping-on points. That also speaks to the importance of having a long-term plan in the first place, something Marvel had in the early 2000s and that DC has a semblance of today. And I mean a plan beyond, “We’re committed to giving every new series at least ten issues (except when we don’t)!” which they’re stupid enough to actually publicize.
So yeah. I know these observations are nothing knew, and if anything speaks to how remarkable it is that Marvel and DC’s corporate overlords haven’t pulled the plug on traditional monthly periodicals already. You may be asking, “What’s changed?” and I just think we’re finally at a tipping point where the current publishing model it too broken to be fixed, or not worth the effort even if it can be. From just a value standpoint, I really don’t see how single issue sales can survive even one more price hike, for example (maybe in a landscape that wasn’t already subject to massive global inflation at every turn).
@Stuart: not everything is a home run but the FEEL is so completely different than the defeated vibe I get from Marvel’s general output and approach
This is another big difference-maker to me. DC’s fortunes are a bit better since even their misfires still tend to garner critical praise when warranted and have positive word-of-mouth. At Marvel, just… nothing… is clicking. They’ve experienced downturns before, certainly – look no further than the post-speculator/early bankruptcy days. It might create a false sense of security because, holy shit. If they could survive that, they should be able to weather anything, right? Back then, however, even though the mainstream may have turned its back on Marvel Comics, “comics people” still cared about Marvel Comics. We still talked about them, supported what we liked, and (pretty crucially) continued to buy a lot of books out of habit because we COULD AFFORD TO DO SO. Sales absolutely plummeted, but there was a diehard loyalist and loudly passionate fanbase with enough “fuck it” money keep the publication of physical comics afloat in an industry of popular creators getting paid to do good work. These fundamentals didn’t change despite the tide receding.
Now? Most books either flat out suck or simply aren’t good enough to justify spending our reduced disposable incomes on. What we do buy is down to maybe a handful of books at most, far from the majority of the line. And no one is talking. Perception is reality, but, well… reality is also reality. And the reality is, the enthusiasm for Marvel’s product also matches their performance, which is a VERY bad look indeed. If putting the publishing division out of its misery is or ever was a consideration, now is the time it would be met with the least resistance, probably ever.
@Michael — From what I see, DNX exists because Ryan North has successfully kept Fantastic Four a top 40 seller for about 3 years across two volumes, so that success is something the X-Books want to glom onto.
I mean, the entire criteria for running a crossover event now is “keep a B or C-List franchise in the top 50 for over a year.”
Don’t believe me? MacKay did that for Black Cat and Moon Knight, and he got to do Blood Hunt and other X-crossovers. North did that for FF and he just did OWUD. That’s seriously the bar now.
Ironically, North’s FF became a hit in part because most of the stories are only 1-2 issues. So of course, Tom Brevoort decided to deliberately mess with that with longer arcs post-relaunch. What could go wrong?
Popverse has a story about Marvel looking for a talent relations coordinator:
“And now, Marvel’s comic creator talent recruiters are recruiting for their team, as the company is hiring a new talent relations coordinator.
Whoever gets this new position of Marvel Comics’ talent relations coordinator would be working directly under longtime DC/Marvel vet Rickey Purdin, who has been running the department since 2015. What the department excels at is providing a hands-on role to foster better relationships between Marvel’s editorial and talent payment group departments and creators, with dedicated workflows around creator schedules, production timelines, and creator pay.” (https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-marvel-comics-talent-relations-coordinator-hiring-april-2026)
Purdin is still there? He was one of the worst editors during New 52 and a former Wizard staffer to boot.
And now Bleeding Cool is reporting that David Gabriel, SVP of Marvel, has been laid off and there are more to come.
Specifically SVP Print, Sales & Marketing. Heidi MacDonald at The Beat says there are layoffs in other areas besides marketing, including editorial but she hasn’t confirmed names.
And now Darren Shan has been laid off- he’s editing multiple books right now.
Lay offs don’t seem to be limited to the comic book scene. Hard times are here, folks.