by Paul O’Brien

For the second month running, DC dominated the top 10 in November, with only REBORN preventing another clean sweep of the top 5. However, taking a broader view, it’s something of a return to normal. In October, Marvel’s lead over DC was whittled down to only 2% in market share, and 2.5% in dollar terms. But with November, the margin is wider: Marvel led DC by 42% to 35% in unit share, and 38% to 32% in dollars.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that November was a quiet month in terms of new product. This is fairly standard for Marvel; they’re gearing up for a major crossover in January with SIEGE, and as we’ve seen before, they tend to hold back new Marvel Universe titles to launch out of the big event. Consequently, the months immediately before a crossover tend to be comparatively quiet. That’s compounded this month by a relative dearth of variant covers. DC, in contrast, are in the middle of their BLACKEST NIGHT crossover.

November did see the launch of a third ongoing Deadpool title, DEADPOOL TEAM-UP (depending on whether you count October’s DEADPOOL #900 as the first issue); a new S.W.O.R.D. series; the relaunch of PUNISHER MAX; the return of POWERS; a second WIZARD OF OZ miniseries; and the beginning of another cosmic crossover, REALM OF KINGS.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

3.  CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN
11/04  Captain America #1   -  67,225
11/05  Captain America #12  -  45,038
11/06  Captain America #24  -  79,885
11/07  Captain America #32  -  73,310
=====
11/08  Captain America #44  -  75,493  (  +4.3%)
12/08  Captain America #45  -  71,186  (  -5.7%)
01/09  Captain America #46  -  73,184  (  +2.8%)
02/09  Captain America #47  -  62,850  ( -14.1%)
03/09  Captain America #48  -  62,108  (  -1.2%)
04/09  Captain America #49  -  63,874  (  +2.8%)
05/09  Captain America #50  -  72,708  ( +13.8%)
06/09  Captain America #600 - 123,152  ( +69.4%)
07/09  Captain America #601 -  87,844  ( -28.7%)
07/09  Reborn #1 of 5       - 197,565  (+124.9%)
08/09  Reborn #2 of 5       - 125,366  ( -36.5%)
09/09  Reborn #3 of 5       - 108,331  ( -13.6%)
10/09  ---
11/09  Reborn #4 of 5       -  96,571  ( -10.9%)
                               6 mnth  ( +32.8%)
                               1 year  ( +27.9%)
                               2 year  ( +31.7%)
                               3 year  ( +20.9%)
                               4 year  (+114.4%)
                               5 year  ( +43.7%)

REBORN has slipped off schedule, which has led to the ending being given away in other titles. Mind you, some would say the ending was pretty clearly signalled when they called the book REBORN. Presumably Marvel couldn’t delay the other books involved, because that would have screwed up the SIEGE crossover.

This issue has three covers, which is fairly standard for REBORN – although Marvel have been scaling back the ordering incentives slightly over the course of the series. Needless to say, these remain very good numbers even by the standards of recent CAPTAIN AMERICA issues, which themselves have seen big increases over the last couple of years thanks to the “death of Captain America” storyline.
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§ Cornered on the AVATAR red carpet, director Bryan Singer announced he’s “signed on” for X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, the teen-mutants-figure-it-all-out version of the X-Men. You can see the video here for yourself. Or read it here.
Singer hasn’t exactly been the mot in-demand guy since he proved to be kryptonite behind the camera for the Superman franchise. So getting back to Mutant High would be a good move for him AND the franchise.

While budgetary concerns will probably prevent another X-MEN movie from ever being made (the cast is just too expensive), there are surely some cheap TWILIGHT/SCOTT PILGRIM bit players who can be recruited to play young Jean and Scott and so on.

§ In other superhero franchise news, super-cougar Rene Russo has been cast as Thor’s mum, Frigga. Variety reports. She’ll play opposite Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as Dean and Hank Venture — oops, we mean THOR AND LOKI.

BTW, Variety’s description of the movie’s plot sounds ghastly:

Mark Protosevich and Zack Stentz penned the script, which has the powerful but arrogant warrior Thor reigniting an ancient war. As punishment, Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans. Once here, he learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends dark forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

WILL there be soaring music as Thor learns to be a true hero after overcoming his arrogance to realize that humans are people too? And WILL he wear a white wifebeater at some point? We’re in total suspense.

While DC reps remained mum about the price and format of the Earth One OGNs, they announced last week — such elements being important clues to the intended audience of said projects — Amazon was not as tightlipped, and the listing for EARTH ONE: SUPERMAN by JMS and Shane Davis reveals that it will be 128 pages for $19.99. JOKER-sized, as Robot 6 points out.

Collected Editions also runs the numbers and with a discount, an OGN would run you less than six issues of a $3.99 comic. THE JOKER is selling for $13.50 on Amazon right now.

Evidently, DC sees real growth potential in OGNs, as IGN learned that several licensed comics would be moving to that format, namely the WARCRAFT series, which started out gangbusters but fell prey to standard attrition as time went on.

Blizzard’s fantasy and futuristic universes are about to get shaken up, courtesy of a comic book revamp by DC’s Wildstorm Comics. Today the publisher announced it intends to refocus its efforts on a series of original graphic novels, cancelling its current ongoing series endeavors for both franchises.

“While WildStorm and Blizzard loved the stories being told in the regular monthly comic-book series, we decided that the graphic novel would be a more suitable medium for the tales we wanted to tell next,” said Hank Kanalz, VP & General Manager of Wildstorm. “The larger format will give our artists and storytellers more room to explore Blizzard’s rich, varied worlds and flesh out the characters that inhabit these places.”

WELL NOW. The plot thickens. The WARCRAFT issue currently on sale will be the last pamphlet; details of the book relaunch are forthcoming.

A couple of things strike us about all of this. Licensed, manga-sized books have sold pretty well at other publishers so this is surely a viable format. However those were in B&W and manga-sized, a proven formula. A $20 hardcover is another matter. The net effect of all these moves is to spotlight an implied doubt over the continued viability of the floppy at DC — we’ve heard a few rumblings that more and more Vertigo projects will be going straight to the trade, as well, and looking at the numbers that Vertigo and Wildstorm periodicals are selling, it makes sense to try another format.

In a larger sense, DC has been in a tiring holding pattern ever since 10 Days That Shook The World™. Until the new publisher or publisher/president lineup is announced, everything is on hold. That’s one-third of the whole year without forward motion, which can’t be pleasant for a lot of people. BUT jungle drums are saying there will be a publisher announcement early in 2010–which could be in the nick of time.

Related: Marc-Oliver has a summary of Joe Q’s continued resistance to the OGN:

[F]rom the financial standpoint of a commercial artist, if I’m looking for a way to maximize my time versus how much money I make versus how much exposure I get—an OGN doesn’t make sense. […] I could do a year’s worth of work and put it out as one graphic novel, and I’ll be on the stands in perpetuity (if it’s good) but promoted for really only one month. […] And that’ll boost my career for that month. The book will come out and sell to fewer people because I’ve had to put something like a $40 price point on it. […] And let’s not forget, what if the OGN isn’t all that good?

Again, we can certainly understand how the numbers run this way at Marvel but…are there NO STORIES IN THE WORLD OF MARVEL that could best be told in one shot? Is that idea completely alien to everything about the way Marvel works?

Developing.

Larger HD version here.

Wow, this movie is going to make so much money. PLUS the reality of the RDJ/Rourke face-off — two survivors of the drug-addled ’80s in a scenery chewing contest? WITH LIGHT UP WHIPS.

T Campbell and John Waltrip for the Disney-Marvel mishmash of your dreams. And posters ARE available. Get ‘em while you can!

A few months ago Marvel announced that 2010 would see a big push for some events built around women — as characters, as creators, and as readers. Here’s one of the first projects out of the box, GIRL COMICS, a three-issue anthology miniseries much in the spirit of STRANGE TALES, featuring comics created exclusively BY women. And that means writing, lettering, drawing — everything. Contributors include Kathryn Immonen, Marjorie Liu, Devin Grayson, Ann Nocenti, Trina Robbins, G. Willow Wilson, Stephanie Buscema, Amanda Conner, Jill Thompson, Louise Simonson, Valerie D’Orazio, Colleen Coover, Molly Crabapple, Nikki Cook, Ming Doyle, Abby Denson, and Carla Speed McNeil. The book is edited by Jeanine Schaefer, and we’re happy to debut the cover of the first issue, by Amanda Conner, colored by Laura Martin.

The first issue is planned for March to tie in with Women’s History Month — 2010 is both the 30th anniversary of the founding of the National Women’s History Project AND the first appearance of She-Hulk. With all the talk all the time about what women want to read or write or smash, we couldn’t wait to talk to Schaefer and find out where this anthology fits in the scheme of things:

THE BEAT: GIRL COMICS — comics starring girls or comics FOR girls? Given all the hoohah about comics from the Big Two reaching female readers, what kind of content are we looking at?
 
SCHAEFER: It’s actually comics BY women—and I mean, top to bottom: written, penciled, inked, colored, lettered. The logo is by a woman, all the interior design, production, proof-reading and editing is all by women.

Although some creators have gravitated towards their favorite female super hero, it’s not specifically focused on our female characters, and I’m not trying to generate content that I think will appeal to more women. I don’t want to give away all the stories, but we’re really running the gamut of Marvel characters, from Punisher to the FF to Mary Jane. We’re making great comics by great women, period—when given the opportunity to create a story about whatever they wanted, the pitches I got back from everyone have been hugely diverse in tone and characters. 
 
That said, I definitely think women and girls will pick this up but not because we’ve hit upon the combination that will make all women like comics. I’m hoping it’ll be encouraging to see so many women who are making their livings in comics, that the idea will be reinforced that comics can be (and already are) as much for them as they are for men.
 
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Marvel Studios Chairman David Maisel plans to step down after the Disney deal goes through, the trades report. President Kevin Feige will remain and report directly to Disney Studios boss Rich Ross.

Maisel will retain an exec producer credit on movies developed while he was on board — IRON MAN 2, THOR, and THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA.

According to Variety, Maisel , who once worked for Disney in Business Development, was instrumental in getting Marvel their $525 million revolving credit line which enabled them to start their own studio, and supposedly it was he who initiated the entire Disney-Marvel deal.

Although it may look like Maisel is getting the short end of the stick, don’t shed a tear — he’s walking away with $20.4 million after the Disney acquisition.

Concept art by Chimera Design from the long-planned Dubai World Marvel Super Heroes Theme Park is making the rounds, and its pretty jaw-dropping. While Dubai’s role as the crazy and wasteful oasis of surreal excess may have been scaled back a bit by the Great Recession, this is still in the planning stages. At a cost of over $1 billion, the park is currently planned to open in 2012 (pushed back from 2011). You can see all the pics in the link, and a few more in the jump. From the above, it isn’t clear whether the theme park experience includes actually being plucked up and shaken about by a giant squid, but it would be cool if it did.

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While the aftereffects of 10 Days That Shook The World™ have been rather muted of late while Warner figures out what to do with DC and folks were waiting for Marvel’s shareholders to approve the Disney purchase, at least one of those things is set to take place. Marvel has announced that the merger will be completed by December 31st. A special shareholders meeting has been set up, at 9:00 AM.

At the special meeting, stockholders will consider and vote on the adoption of the Agreement and Plan of Merger entered into by Marvel and The Walt Disney Company (“Disney”), which provides for a merger in which Marvel will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney. Stockholders who owned Marvel common stock at the close of business on November 23, 2009 are entitled to vote at the special meeting.

And then it’s DAZZLER: THE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL all the way!

Just on the off chance you haven’t seen it yet, the first teaser for IRON MAN 2, featuring Iron Man and War Machine, is out there. Springtime can’t come soon enough.

By Paul O’Brien

Usually, Marvel are the largest publisher in the North American direct market by a comfortable margin. But October was close. Marvel still held on to first place, beating DC by 40% to 38% in unit share, and 36.5% to 34% in dollars. That’s an unusually narrow gap.

What’s more, DC took the top six places on the chart, leaving Marvel’s top book – NEW AVENGERS – to tail in at number 7. Now, normally I’d expect something like this to happen in a month when Marvel’s major titles failed to ship. But there’s really only one book in that category, namely REBORN. In fact, the explanation seems to be simply that DC’s BLACKEST NIGHT crossover is doing very well, and and Marvel’s output for October just didn’t grab the same sort of attention.

Major releases this month include the second wave of DARK REIGN: THE LIST one-shots, the beginning of the “Necrosha-X” crossover between the second-tier X-books, and the launches of WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, DR VOODOO and a third ongoing Deadpool series.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

===============

7.  NEW AVENGERS
10/04  ---
10/05  New Avengers #12 - 127,949
10/06  New Avengers #24 - 136,811
10/07  New Avengers #35 - 111,481
=====
10/08  New Avengers #46 -  99,513  ( -3.7%)
11/08  ---
12/08  New Avengers #47 -  95,703  ( -3.8%)
12/08  New Avengers #48 -  95,688  ( -0.0%)
01/09  New Avengers #49 -  94,291  ( -1.5%)
02/09  New Avengers #50 - 106,831  (+13.3%)
03/09  New Avengers #51 -  95,340  (-10.8%)
04/09  New Avengers #52 -  93,975  ( -1.4%)
05/09  New Avengers #53 -  94,367  ( +0.4%)
06/09  New Avengers #54 -  93,878  ( -0.5%)
07/09  New Avengers #55 -  84,745  ( -9.7%)
08/09  New Avengers #56 -  89,996  ( +6.2%)
09/09  New Avengers #57 -  85,598  ( -4.9%)
10/09  New Avengers #58 -  76,656  (-10.4%)
                           6 mnth  (-18.4%)
                           1 year  (-23.0%)
                           2 year  (-31.2%)
                           3 year  (-44.0%)
                           4 year  (-40.1%)
                           5 year  (  --- )

For a change, an issue of NEW AVENGERS without a variant cover. The last two issues both had variants, as did issues #50-54, so the drop is somewhat exaggerated. Issue #55 is a reasonable comparison, though, so there’s still an underlying decline.

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“In the Core Marvel Universe, a “gritty crime story” is one
where a blind lawyer ninja dressed as the Devil fights
a massive Sumo wrestler with a cane that shoots lasers…”

“Why is the living embodiment of love something called the Predator?”

• Option watch: Mandalay Pictures has picked up UNTHINKABLE by author Mark Sable and artist Julian Totino Tedesco. The book is published by BOOM!. Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby will produce, along with Mandalay’s Peter Gruber and Cathy Schulman.

Created and written by Mark Sable, “Unthinkable” centers on a brilliant man who was recruited just after 9/11 into a government think tank consisting of America’s most imaginative minds and tasked with dreaming up wild scenarios for possible attacks on U.S. soil. Years after the think tank was disbanded, the attacks the man concocted begin to occur, and he becomes the only one who can stop them. But the government has become his pursuer.

UNTHINKABLE gained a bit of notoriety earlier this year when Sable was detained at LAX after authorities found one of the scripts for the book.
• Meanwhile, Aurora has optioned Platinum’s NIGHTFALL by Scott O. Brown and Ferran Xalabarder. The story concerns a man in a prison full of vampires. Has anyone ever seen a copy of this comic?
• Warren Ellis’s GLOBAL FREQUENCY — a 12 issue maxiseries about eh covert operations that battles other covert operations– has already been the subject of a TV pilot, spearheaded by John Rogers and starring Michele Forbes. Although well received by those who saw it, it was never picked up, some say because of anger over the pilot being leaked onto bit torrent sites. (It seems like this would pass for valuable pre-awareness these days.) But someone is trying it again, Ellis writes:

The CW will again try to adapt Warren Ellis’ comic book “Global Frequency,” this time Scott Nimerfro will script the pilot.

Does this count as a remake?

• Idris Elba, lately of THE LOSERS, will play Heimdall in the Thor movie. We did not know Elba was Norse but welcome his participation.

With Kitty Pryde as Bella.

We enjoyed this video AND the ad for ZORRO DVDs that ran before it!

While we ourselves didn’t have time to link, much less peruse its contents, the entirety of the epoch-defining 30tth issue of The Comics Journal was online for free yesterday. But then someone pulled the plug, Dirk Deppey recounts:

Yeah, I’m afraid that on Gary Groth’s instructions the experiment in online marketing has been cancelled. Sorry.

The line-up of contents remains as stunning as before:
• Art Spiegelman and Kevin Huizenga
• Jean-Christophe Menu and Sammy Harkham
• Frank Quitely and Dave Gibbons
• Dave Mazzucchelli and Dash Shaw
• Alison Bechdel and Danica Novgorodoff
• Howard Chaykin and Ho Che Anderson
• Denny O’Neil and Matt Fraction
• Jaime Hernandez and Zak Sally
• Ted Rall and Matt Bors
• Jim Borgman and Keith Knight
• Stan Sakai and Chris Schweizer

And we’ll read it when our hard copy arrives, just like always. Johanna Draper Carlson has commentary.

On another matter, late last night a story on Variety.com was making the rounds stating that the Warriors Three had been cast for the Thor movie. But it seems whoever wrote the story had gotten his ’60s Marvel characters mixed up, since — not trying to sound racist or anything — but casting a slender Asian man as Volstagg the Voluminous didn’t make much sense. Anyway, Marvel.com has the final lineup:

Fandral will be played by Stuart Townsend. The job of Hogun goes to Tadanobu Asano. And Volstagg will be portrayed Ray Stevenson.

That’s more like it.

When Marvel sends out one of their teasers on a Friday afternoon with a picture of a monkey and asks “Who Is One Of The Most Exciting New Comic Characters of The Century?” we’re happy to play along.

Last week’s Spider-Man musical showdown seems to have had a successful conclusion, inasmuch as it resulted in positive press releases being sent out. Former Live Nation president Michael Cohl has been brought in to make sure the financially beleaguered production actually makes it to the stage; the inexperienced David Garfinkel, whose missteps are widely believed to be part of the problem, has been demoted to third, after Jeremiah J. Harris.

Most importantly, actor/musician Reeve Carney has been officially cast as Spider-Man; Carney stars in director Julie Taymor’s The Tempest as Prince Ferdinand, and heads his own band, Carney.

While people are saying the show will go on, no one is saying when — Spidey the Musical will miss is previous February start, and probably this year’s Tony Award nomination cut-off, as well.

UPDATE: It seems that today is the day of decision, as the NY Times and Post report. Today a meeting is being held to decide the future of the show. Fingers crossed!

John Horn in the LA Times finally has a fully researched–he’s even read the script– story on the sprawling mess that is the Spider-Man musical. The death of a key player, scheduling conflicts, inexperienced producers — you name it. It’s a rogue gallery of woes. The show has a total budget of $52 million and would need $1 million a week just to keep running. The biggest problem with the troubled production — originally slated to open next February but rehearsals haven’t even begun and a lack of funds seems to have stopped all progress — was its incredible ambitions, which would have made it the most spectacular musical ever staged:

The opening bridge scene is followed closely by the arrival of a giant web woven by Arachne, a temptress who is the musical’s central invention. “A giant loom is revealed — seven actors swing on vertical silks to form a tapestry,” the stage directions read. At another point, Spider-Man is so busy battling bank robbers and muggers that he multiplies into five different crime-fighting superheroes. One of the duplicate spiders swings over the audience, landing on the balcony.

Yet some folks remain hopeful that it will get additional funding, among them show composer Bono:

“For me it’s this wonderful thing of escaping from the first-person songwriting, to disappear into these outside characters, it’s just been a thrill of a ride,” Bono said. “You spend so much time digging up diamonds in your own music; it’s a treat to dig in somebody’s else’s dirt. To work on these songs was like a playpen.”

According to the piece in addition to previously confirmed Evan Rachel Wood as MJ and Alan Cumming as Green Goblin, Spider-Man would be played, as much speculated by Reeve Carney, who has a role in director Julie Taymor’s upcoming TEMPEST movie. Carney has a musical background, but is other wise little known. However, his Twitter page makes everything much clearer:

Hello! I am in a band called CARNEY and I love John Cena.

Works for us.

By Paul O’Brien

It’s an unusually hectic month on Marvel’s release schedule. Aside from the usual raft of Dark Reign tie-ins, major releases include the OLD MAN LOGAN one-shot, the second month of the relaunched Ultimate imprint, the DARK AVENGERS/UNCANNY X-MEN crossover “Utopia”, the LIST one-shots, and relaunches of SPIDER-WOMAN and MOON KNIGHT.

As usual, Marvel had the biggest share of the North American direct market. They beat DC by 41% to 30% in dollar terms, and 48% to 33% in units.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

2.  CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN
09/04  Captain America #31  -  37,128
09/05  Captain America #10  -  52,609
09/06  Captain America #22  -  82,230
09/07  Captain America #30  -  79,554
=====
09/08  Captain America #42  -  75,574  ( -11.1%)
10/08  Captain America #43  -  72,405  (  -4.2%)
11/08  Captain America #44  -  75,493  (  +4.3%)
12/08  Captain America #45  -  71,186  (  -5.7%)
01/09  Captain America #46  -  73,184  (  +2.8%)
02/09  Captain America #47  -  62,850  ( -14.1%)
03/09  Captain America #48  -  62,108  (  -1.2%)
04/09  Captain America #49  -  63,874  (  +2.8%)
05/09  Captain America #50  -  72,708  ( +13.8%)
06/09  Captain America #600 - 123,152  ( +69.4%)
07/09  Captain America #601 -  87,844  ( -28.7%)
07/09  Reborn #1 of 5       - 197,565  (+124.9%)
08/09  Reborn #2 of 5       - 125,366  ( -36.5%)
09/09  Reborn #3 of 5       - 108,331  ( -13.6%)
                               6 mnth  ( +74.4%)
                               1 year  ( +43.3%)
                               2 year  ( +36.2%)
                               3 year  ( +31.7%)
                               4 year  (+105.9%)
                               5 year  (+191.8%)

This one comes with two variant covers, with 1:10 and 1:25 incentives. Since issue #2 had three 1:25 variants, the drop’s actually quite modest. Meanwhile, issue #1 picks up estimate reorders of 4,423, which is enough to scrape the bottom of the chart at number 289.

When you bear in mind that REBORN is effectively a CAPTAIN AMERICA story arc, these are great numbers. The “death of Steve Rogers” storyline has been boosting sales for years now already, but this has sent them even further skyward. If you judge this as CAPTAIN AMERICA #604 – which it could easily have been – the numbers are clearly stellar.
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