It's a magical place!

Anonymous asked: On that discussion about CBR polls, of course, they aren't trustworthy, but how does Marvel know which characters people want solos of, which characters they will buy? I assume that's simple with those who have already had such series, but what about those who have always been part of teambooks, how do you know which would be profitable in solos?

brevoortformspring:

Well, there’s an inherent difference between which characters people want solo series of and which they’ll buy—you never truly know about the latter until you put a book out.

For the former, we collect information from everywhere. Not just the CBR polls of the world, but the e-mails that are sent to us, the message board chatter, the reports that come in from our retailers about which characters seem to be sparking with the audience, what people tell us in person at conventions and public appearances. And then just gut-level instinct.

This job isn’t science, it’s art, and what that means is that 1 + 1 doesn’t always equal 2. So it’s difficult to set up absolute rules about this sort of thing. Nobody wanted to buy a HAWKEYE series until they did—and that’s a combination of the zeitgeist, the bolstering that the AVENGERS film did to Hawkeye’s profile, the specific tone and take that Matt Fraction and David Aja brought to the series, and a dozen other elements no doubt.