jpooch21

December 9, 2010 11:23 am I really don't think that anybody in this discussion has really hit the nail on the head. This press release wasn't made for us. By us, I mean anybody that isn't a retailer and is somebody who frequents a comic books store frequently. A lot of people who are just getting into comics have NO IDEA where to start or what is important. Can you imagine walking into your lcs having not been in one in years, or maybe walking in for the very first time, looking up at the wall and seeing 4 Thor books, 4 Avengers books, 4 Captain America books, 3 Iron Man books, 10 different X-books and then every other comic from every other publisher? I would venture to say that this press release is to inform retailers more than anybody of a way that they can explain to customers what is important. New customers will then see it right on the front cover that these are the architects of what is pushing the Marvel Universe forward in 2011. Does the writer of Amazing Spiderman need to be an Architect? I don't think so, because when somebody new walks into a store looking for a Spiderman comic, Marvel has done a pretty good job of making sure that there is one Amazing Spiderman title on the racks. Somebody also mentioned the movies, which I think is the biggest point of them all. Fraction and Brubaker are writing the two main titles of Marvel's biggest movie releases of 2011 which will then drum interest in their 2012 blockbuster whose two main titles are being written by Bendis. Not to mention X-Men First Class will be coming out and Fraction is also writing the main x-book. These movies will hopefully drive people to the store and the retailer can point them to these books, and then if they do their job well can sell all of the wonderful smaller titles that we all love to the people. 

As for the whole excluding writers part... I have a hard time believing that this would bother anybody who is getting to do what they love for a living. I mean Dan Slott is writing AMAZING SPIDERMAN, Jeff Parker is writing THE HULK. These guys have a dream job, writing characters who they have probably grown up loving and to think that they would get all hurt about this is odd to me.  

Think big picture here guys, as we will hopefully be welcoming a few more people to our hobby over the next year and it doesn't hurt at all for their to be something right on the cover saying that this is a good place to start. The less intimidating it is, the more likely somebody will jump right in.