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Chest-Thumping
2007-04-16 11:49:02

MIGHTY AVENGERS #1

CIVIL WAR: THE INITIATIVE

CIVIL WAR: THE CONFESSION

NEW AVENGERS #28

CAPTAIN AMERICA #25

March was a good month for the Marvel Heroes office. According to the standings released by Diamond this past Friday, we produced five of the top-ten comics in the industry that month.

More remarkable, and worthy of note, is the fact that four of these books were written by Brian Bendis (MIGHTY AVENGERS #1, CIVIL WAR: THE INITIATIVE, CIVIL WAR: THE CONFESSION and NEW AVENGERS #28.) It's amazing enough that anybody can produce four comic book scripts in a single month (and Brian did more than four for March), but that fact that Bendis can not only do so but land those books squarely at the top of the industry heap is nothing short of remarkable, and a testament to his talent. You may love his work, you may hate it, but there's no denying that Brian has become a major force in the world of comics, and shows no sign of slowing down.

The fifth top-ten title is no surprise to anybody: CAPTAIN AMERICA #25. And hopefully, this means that a much wider audience has sampled the excellent work being done by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Mike Perkins on this series, and that some of them will stick around to see what happens next. Like Brian, Ed manages to write multiple excellet scripts each and ever month--and while he hasn't yet quite ascended to the heights of popularity that Brian has attained, he's clearly well on his way.

Also released this past week was the trade paperback collection of CIVIL WAR. I realize that I am completely biased, but it was terrific to be able to page through the completed volume and to know that each and every page was produced by the creative team that started the series, Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. For all the hullaballoo during the period when the series was coming out, I think having the collection look this nice and be this consistent was definitely worth it--as will hopefully be proven out by sales over the long haul. I also think that if people read Mark's story in this format, away from the distractions of the assorted crossovers, they'll see that it holds together pretty solidly, and that it's very consistent in the way it protrays the various characters and the Registration Act.

More later.

Tom B

Thanks, Tom, for taking money out of my wallet!!!
Cap 25 was by far (leaps and bounds) the best book of March.

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-04-16 11:48:08

I guess I should have just waited for the trade.

Posted by leeboone on 2007-04-16 11:51:06

It would have been nice if CONFESSION had shipped to the UK :(

Posted by Fetsur on 2007-04-16 12:24:53

Well Deserved
From what I've read of Bendis, he definitely deserves the acclaim and the sales. The New Avenger book is brilliant. I'm afraid I just can't get over my Iron Man/Ms. Marvel bias enough to read Mighty Avengers, but I'm sure it's well-written!

Definitely, you guys have been doing some great work. Keep it up, and thump away!

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-04-16 13:26:58

Um, Fetsur, Confession was here in Ireland and we get out comics through Diamond UK. I'm pretty sure you could find it in back issues at a Forbidden Planet or something.

Posted by Undergirl on 2007-04-16 14:29:34

Confession didn't turn up in my store either. And that's Forbidden Planet in Central Edinburgh. Their response varied between "It's Sold Out" and "It hasn't been shipped."

Posted by deworde on 2007-04-16 14:43:13

So you can imagine how I feel about all these whiny Americans bitching about Astonishing being 2 weeks late when one of the top 5 civil war issues doesn't even blasted well turn up!

Posted by deworde on 2007-04-16 14:50:58

UK Geography Lesson
From experience of American Geographical knowledge, perhaps I'd better elaborate. Edinburgh is the CAPITAL CITY of Scotland, one of the 4 countries that make up the United Kingdom.

Posted by deworde on 2007-04-16 14:54:45

CW The Confession
Yes CW Confession came to Ireland but not the UK?? Perhaps it's because we're closer to teh USA than the UK is???
4 countries that make up the UK?? surely you don't mean Northern Ireland...that;s really ours... we want it back ;-)

Posted by eamonmcgrane on 2007-04-16 17:47:29

I couldn't find it in any of the stores I tried. What I was told is that someone in the machine forgot to tick a box and hence CWC only arrived at a small handful of the UK stores, in small quantities.

Posted by Fetsur on 2007-04-16 18:04:29

Marvel Future
After hearing this great news it makes me feel good that the fate of the marvel universe is in these amazing creators hands

Posted by starjammers12 on 2007-04-16 20:17:20

Actually, come to think of it, CWC only turned up in one of the local stores. I usually go to the friendly store, but had to go to FP to get it. Comics were being shipped from an experimental shipping house that month at Diamond UK if your local store said it was OK to try it out. I completely forgot about that. And the experiment failed, in case you were wondering.

Posted by Undergirl on 2007-04-16 20:54:03

Oh, and Tom, thanks for not letting the events suck. I hope you can keep that up. Just keep Bendis, whatever you do!

Posted by Undergirl on 2007-04-16 20:55:32

Deworde...
Have you heard of Texas? It's the CAPITAL of the WORLD! :-)

couldn't resist. Been to Edinburgh, really lovely city!

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-04-16 20:58:11

Bendis!!!
Who's ready for an EdBrubaker/Brian Bendis Team-up for a major crossover!?!?!?! *RAISES HAND!*

Posted by PiratePat1587 on 2007-04-17 06:45:56

BRU!!!
Who's ready to hand the keys over to Brubaker and let him completely drive the MU???

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-04-17 10:09:49

what about USM?
yeah, Bendis is definitely my dominatrix.
4 top selling books and my favorite one he writes is USM! that's savage.
I can't wait to read the new avengers stuff.

Posted by inarell on 2007-04-17 14:18:27

Ah well...
I don't agree with what you did to Captain America, and I really wouldn't like it if that was it for Steve Rogers. I imagine this is not the end of Rogers, but until he returns, i've stopped reading Marvel, cut-off all books I was previously buying from Marvel. I'll wait as long as I have to, but I hope you bring him back soon.

Posted by Cap_America on 2007-04-18 21:01:15

Confession
Captain America would never have said "hung", the Avenger would have correctly said "hanged". An easy mistake to make Bendis, but also sloppy.

Posted by Vaughn Kass on 2007-07-19 21:15:12

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