"Marvel is going to kill a main character every quarter"

At last week's ComicsPro retailer summit in Texas, Marvel's Senior Vice President of Sales, David Gabriel, told the audience of funnybook store owners, "As a result of the Fantastic Four sales and media coverage, Marvel is going to kill a main character every quarter."

Although he assured them, "This is not a joke", that hardly rules out the kind of publicity stunt that temporarily attracts the notice of the mainstream press and simultaneously erodes their actual readership in the long term. It's no accident that this announcement came from a sales executive, not an editor or writer, and was delivered at a business organization's conference, not a comic book convention. For fans, "event" character deaths have already become cliches, and "rebooted" series rarely last beyond the originating creative team's departure before the reset button is hit again.

Start your dead pools and death watches, true believers!

Hmmm I think they will kill off Ultimate Spider man.

I'm a bit out of the Marvel universes, but Jean Grey... Dead? Alive? Somehwere in between?

Because when someone needs to die in an event, it's a free ticket to kill off the one called Phoenix. She always comes back, it's her thing. Usually on fire.

There going to run out of A-list characters pretty fast IMO.

I've been on the fence with comics lately anyway. If this is true... it think it will be the nail in the coffin. I am already planning on going in to my local comic shop and canceling at least half my subs anyway. This tempts me to just cancel the entire thing.

with questionable moaning sounds

This sounds stupid.

This could work. All they have to do is kill off Wolverine in a different title he shows up in every quarter.

'The Many Deaths of James Howlett?'

But yes, you know you're reaching when the execs go 'hey, we got a sales spike! Quick, do that thing they just did!'

S.

So we're assured there will be 4 deaths for the next year? That's probably lower than usual amount to be honest heh. May be since they'll be planning for them they'll have better written ones than all pure shock value....or all shock value like usual. (which how little there is given character come back as quickly as if they were playing CoX. Oh you died...awaken...hospital run....self rez.) Now if it was every month than that would get silly fast, but quarterly, someone dies probably about that rate normally. (a Titan dies every cross over at DC.)

So is this really even worth mentioning or building up as to me it be more shocking if they didn't warn us it was coming and people go hey someone died every quarter after the fact. But that's me. It's not like people ever stay dead for long anyways.

Given the name "Phoenix", readers really should have figured out from the start that dying and coming back over and over would kinda be her schtick.






-k

I'm calling the Hulk right now. His title is now the 'Hulks', plural, with Son of Hulk and Red She-Hulk and other lesser hulks filling out the cast. He's surplus to requirements right now.

OK, I haven't subscribed to any marvel main universe titles in a long time. Which Fantastic Four member did they "kill off"?

Just the Human Torch. No really big loss.