Maybe retailers just massively over-estimated the draw Alex Ross' name has, regardless of whether he's (co-)writer or artist?
I think everyone is expecting massive second issue drops, but trying to guess comic book sales seems like a fool's game half the time.
My roommate buys everything Alex Ross. I never saw an appeal in a comic written by an artist I like.
Alex Ross cover, Avengers "hot" title, possible Death of Cap crossover (since this was originally promoted with a Ross picture of Cap and "The Return" over it) - and it's the first Kruger/Ross MU thing (Earth/Universe/Paradise X being a big What If?/Elseworlds - how did that do, again?). Their "Justice" (JLA) project was one of DC's top-sellers, as I recall. And, of course, there's always the possibility that people thought Ross was painting the whole thing.
I agree that the most likely explanation is that people thought it had something to do with the return of Captain America or that they thought Ross was more involved in the project than he actually is...
But Marvel have also successfully made "Avengers" their most popular brand, so that might have something to do with it as well.
PARADISE X was a good few years ago, and it was an upper-middling title in sales terms. JUSTICE is a better recent precedent, I agree. And yes, it's possible that people saw a connection with the return of Captain America.
Well, I looked forward to the title and so far, it's what I expected.
Personally, I'm shocked that it is selling so much but if you think about it, it's got a number of selling points.
First, it's got Ross and Kreuger. They've got a large number of fans and a good track record when it comes to this kind of thing.
Second, it's an Invaders story. There's a market out there for Invaders tales, even if it is pretty small.
Third, you've got both sets of Avengers and both New and Mighty sell rather well.
Fourth, the book acts as a sort of sequel to Civil War and the Death of Captain America in a lot of respects.
If Marvel had only timed things a bit better, they could have used the mini as an event. Exactly when is the book supposed to be set anyway?
On a completely different note, can anybody tell me who is making the profit as a result of the dollar being so weak?
Somewhat unrelated, but Paul doesn't usually mind tangents. I know Earth X was years ago now, but did anyone actually enjoy it. I remember it being a horribly boring mess that I never bothered to finish. Is that a fair assessment, or is it just me?
I know my comic shop put me down for it because I had New and Mighty Avengers on my pull list. They said they did it for everyone who had both on their lists, and realized they shouldn't have done that because not a lot of people were buying them, myself included.
Also Sadowski as artist means the book will be late.
Earth X was longer than it needed to be and not very satisfying. It was ultimately just another dystopian future, albeit on a larger scale and with an attempt universe building that subsequent writers have ignored. The tone was grimly pessimistic until the very end, and the ending wasn't worth wading through the grimness.
It was very pretty, though, and it was kind of interesting to read if only to satisfy your curiosity as to which horrible future would apply to each character.
I remember Earth X as being fairly tedious to slog through, with a few nice ideas sprinkled here and there and wonderful John Paul Leon art. The ending was a nice surprise that I didn't see coming, but it was a long road to get there. The sequels weren't much to speak of. Again, just a very few highlights on a long and tedious road.
I had the advantage of reading Earth, Universe and Paradies X in trade. I thought that Earth X was fantastic, I thought that Universe X was good and Paradise X had some nice moments, but ultimately it was ruined by the fact that editorial decided to cancel it a few issues early so the ending had to be changed.
The "end" stories that Krueger came up with for characters like Machine Man, Wolverine, Spiderman and Captain America were far better than any of the others we've come across over the past few years. The revelations regarding the origins of the Skrulls,gods, mutants and the like made perfect sense. The battle between Galactus/Franklin Richards and the Celesitals was Epic. Iron Man's last stand was amazing. Loki's character development was cool. The explanation of the alternative realities was brilliant.
There were so many innovative little ideas that made perfect sense within the context of the story. It was a great book for those willing to give an unconventional book a try.
Now it had its flaws. Scott Summers came across as a little dumb. As mentioned earlier, Paradise could have been much more if Marvel had let the creative team finish the book. Sometimes, the revelations came a little too quick and fast so that it was hard to keep up. But really, I can't imagine anybody else having essentially written a Marvel Universe "The End" any more comprehensively.
Why do you say that it was ended early? I vaguely recall some talk of them not getting all the specials at the end at one point (A, Ragnarok, etc.) but that Marvel changed their mind and did wind up publishing them.
Apparently, Kreuger says otherwise. He had a pretty active section on comix-fan for a few years. Apparently the original ending involved Cap killing Mar Vel, mistakening believing that he was setting himself up as some sort of dictator, but this was actually part of Mar Vel's plan to help Cap become worthy of being the leader of Paradise.
Or something. My memory is a little foggy.
I followed this at the time on the Comix-fan forum. The end of Paradise X was changed in two ways:
1) The "A" and "X" issues were originally cancelled outright. They were then restored, but at 22-page length (they were originally going to be double-sized). So a planned 44 pages of story had to be cut.
2) As Niall said above, originally Captain America was going to kill Mar-vell. When Jim Kreuger was rewriting to compress the ending (first to finish at #12, then to put back the smaller "A" and "X" issues), he decided to change it so that Reed Richards became the leader of Paradise, and Mar-vell went off to try to find the core reality. He said at the time that he felt that this was a better ending.
I think there is still a good deal of desire for big action-adventure series featuring a clash between two well-known teams you don't often get to see together. It feels like an event. Add to that Ross' name recognition, and the way they teased the series early on as having a Captain America connection (misleading though it may be), and you have retailers willing to take a chance on it, at least for the 1st issue. They could probably do a lot more successful launches if they get that routine down pat; attach a big name creator, figure out what makes this series special, and sell it on that.
We ordered a bunch because it's drawn by a local guy. Plus one of the people that works in the store is in a crowd scene (wearing a Lobo tshirt no less).
Of course, this doesn't explain why everyone else ordered a lot of it...
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