I’ve lost count, but another Marvel Comics NINO (Nova In Name Only) series is canceled.
The latest NINO relaunch (fourth? fifth? sixth?) was a lame attempt to bait in the Richard Rider Nova fans. Issue four is reported to have a miserable 15K in sales, and #7 will be its last issue.
Adios and good riddance, I say.
I’ve refrained from giving the latest NINO series any press – good or bad – as I knew it would tank quickly without the support of Cosmic Book News, and I was right.
Fans don’t want replacement characters. Fans don’t want their favorite characters replaced in a shitty way that ticks them off. Fans don’t want to be insulted by writers. Fans don’t want to be insulted by artists. Fans don’t want to be insulted by editors.
The 2007 Richard Rider Nova series sold a “rock solid” 35k
According to Marvel editor Bill Roseman, the 2007 Nova sales were “rock solid.” That’s like more than 2x the NINO series. Why would Marvel continue with the character of NINO? Why wouldn’t Marvel give the fans what they want with Richard Rider Nova? This is the problem, and has been a problem, since Axel Alonso took over as EIC: Marvel doesn’t care about the fans. The good news is that a lot of fans are wising up as Marvel Comics sales are tanking. COSMIC fans knew this first, as Marvel Comics cancelled the entire DnA Marvel COSMIC line when word of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie getting green lit came down, and replaced them with sub-par characters, creators and stories. Now the rest of the Marvel fans are catching up (about time).
Marvel Comics had a great thing with Abnett and Lanning COSMIC: It sold well, was separate from the rest of the Marvel Comics universe, and most importantly–it catered to a specific fan. Marvel COSMIC fans are unlike the “zombies” that infect the comic book stores and buy anything from their favorite brand (with the numbers thankfully dwindling). You keep buying and supporting crap, then don’t be surprised if that is what you keep getting.
Marvel Cosmic fans are smarter
I’ll even toot my own horn and say Marvel Comics had this site for tons of free press. This entire site was created because of Nova and Quasar (that’s where I came up with the colors of the logo: blue and yellow). We regularly interviewed the creators, posted exclusive previews and Marvel COSMIC content. We had a forum where the COSMIC fans could regularly discuss the titles. Marvel basically just sh-t all over all of that when they canceled COSMIC. Did they really think we fans were going to support the cancellation and reboots? Mind blown!
Marvel COSMIC fans have a bit higher of a standard, IMO. We’re not just going to settle for a “Nova” just because it’s “Nova” (at least most of us). Another bonus regarding Abnett and Lanning Marvel COSMIC was that it was a GATEWAY for us COSMIC fans into the rest of the Marvel Comics universe. A lot of us didn’t go to the LCS to buy Spider-Man or Avengers – and then by Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy – we would go to the LCS to get Marvel COSMIC, and then buy Avengers and Spider-Man!
Evidence of this is that sales for NINO have been downright terrible. The character got TONS of publicity from Marvel–TONS! Rider Nova got none of that from Marvel Comics, and guess what? Rider Nova sold better! It blows my mind how the Marvel Comics execs could cancel DnA COSMIC and continue to go with something so bad as NINO and Bendis’ Guardians and related spinoffs (which are cancelled every fourth or sixth issue as well). Who is making these decisions?! It just screams that Marvel doesn’t care.
Marvel is to blame
Now I’m guessing with the latest NINO cancellation, you’ll hear from Brevoort, and he’ll say something along the lines of blaming Rider fans for not supporting the book, blaming Rider as not being able to support a book, etc. Brevoort always places the blame on something else and never where the actual problems lie: with Marvel themselves. We already know that Rider Nova sold a rock solid 35K per Marvel Comics editor Bill Rosemann, so you can’t place the blame on the character or its fans. It’s obvious the problem lies with the content and editorial staff and execs: We don’t want a replacement characters! Same goes for Quasar, Captain America, Hulk, Wolverine, etc.
Marvel has never answered the question why they cancelled DnA Marvel Cosmic. So my question is: Why would you cancel a line of comics that was a success and replace them with something that is not a success and continue to do so for literally years?
Someone, please answer this for me.
Long live Richard Rider as Nova.
