Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
From: boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: re: SECRET WARS II
Message-ID: <264@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Dec-84 09:48:34 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.264
Posted: Fri Dec 14 09:48:34 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Dec-84 09:21:08 EST
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 39

> From:	cmu-cs-k!tim	(Tim Maroney)

> Remember, though, if you bought SW, you have no one but yourself to blame.
> Don't repeat your mistake!  I didn't even buy the first series, even though
> I do read X-Men and Iron Man, and was at the time it came out reading FF,
> Spider-titles, and Captain America.  No, I didn't feel like I was missing
> anything, and I have no intention of buying back issues.  What I don't
> understand is why anyone would feel obligated to support this dreck.  The
> continuity with other titles is just a cynical sales ploy.  According to
> Marvel, the tie-ins to this idiocy will be far more intimate.  They know how
> to sell to fans.

I agree. On the other hand, it's *not* the continuity freaks that made this
book a success. Even if *all* of the X-MEN fans bought SECRET WARS, that would
be only 3xx,000 copies per month. From reports that I've heard, SECRET WARS
is hitting 7-800,000 copies per month! What is making this garbage a success
is the damn "Speculators" who figure that this will be a hot book, and thus
are buying 10 or more copies of each issue. I see a lot of ads in THE COMICS
BUYER'S GUIDE from places that'll sell you SECRET WARS #1-3 for $1.00 each in
lots of 100 or somesuch idiocy like that.
	One of the unplanned effects of SECRET WARS II will be to make the
first series that much less "special", and the market for it will die. Of
course, this won't be Marvel's problem, because they will have already sold
the series, but it may well teach the Speculators a lesson (but then, I doubt
that --- they didn't learn after ETERNALS #1, HOWARD THE DUCK #1, DAZZLER #1,
etc. Those books you can't even *give* away; everyone who wants one has got
one).

I don't plan on touching SWII with a ten-foot pole, except for the first
issue, which will tie in with THE X-MEN and NEW MUTANTS. But then, I may
find myself buying the whole series again (I think I'm a masochist at heart).
After all, it's only 9 issues, it's not like it's a regular book or anything,
ya know, and after that we're free.... :-)


--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)

UUCP:	{decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA:	boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA