Mega Man's return to U.S comics is off to a mighty start.
Less than a week after hitting newsstands, Bloody Disgusting reports that Mega Man Fully Charged issue #1 has become the highest selling comic launch in the franchise's history with a cool 30,009 copies. By comparison, Archie's Mega Man #1 debuted with 12,586 copies in 2011.
"I'm hearing that the first issue has sold out the day of on-sale despite a healthy overprint," writes Blood Disgusting's Rich Johnston. "No doubt a second printing is imminent." Indeed, a reprint featuring brand-new cover art is due on September 23.
The success of Fully Charged #1 is drawing comparisons to the Boom Studios' highly successfully Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Expectations for MMPR were low... but the first issue surprised everyone by outselling literally every comic published by Marvel in 2016. The rest is history.
While it's still a little too early to call it, if these numbers remain consistent, Mega Man may have a bright future at Boom Studios. Mega Man Fully Charged is expected to run for six issues... but after that, who knows?
Source: Bloody Disgusting
Ugh... Now we have to wonder if THIS is the new face of the franchise going forward? Please god no.
ReplyDeleteThey could have done this "thing" as an original franchise and I wouldn't care. Why do they keep re-canoning Mega Man. Seriously, freakin stop it.
Nothing that drastic will happen, don't worry. Just bear in mind FC is wholly it's own series/incarnation with its own world and canon. A new series in itself.
DeleteAwesome. Mega Man deserves the success and more.
DeleteThe Megaman brand needs any success it can take. The "It's not my Megaman" attitude doesn't benefit anyone.
DeleteI can say now that this series caught me by surprise, and... I like it. It's not perfect or terrible, It's okay.
ReplyDeleteWhile I will admit the designs are bit off putting, the story actually does something that the show failed to do, and that was give us actual entertainment in a non-sarcastic way!
I was actually quite into this plot and really curious to see how it all plays out. Call me crazy if you want, but you should at least give this a chance before you start badmouthing it to no ends...
I guess that's just Mega Man fans these days.
People have always been critical of things they are passionate about.
DeletePlease, with how quickly this franchise can be tossed aside, people are kind of conditioned to be critical of anything that might not be appealing.
DeleteDoesn't mean they won't try to support things themselves.
Meh. Meeeh. The mean, good for them? But, meh. It strays too far from the source material (and I mean Fully Charged), for me.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for the rest of the Fully Charged Comic to come out, the first issue is an absolute treat to read through and I can't wait to see the fully explored darker world building they have set in stone for us.
ReplyDeleteThat's really surprising, I thought it being a spin-off of a TV show that got axed would've put a damper on its sales. Almost 3x as much as Archie's first issue, wow.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping that Fully Charged leads to more Mega Man comics, I guess.
it's not "sales" as you would think, it's how many initial copies were ordered by comic shops. this means that comic book shops ordered more of the fully charged comics from Boom comics than comic book shops ordered from archie comics.
Deletethis has nothing to do with how popular either series is. for one, the data is from comichron, which measures "Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors", so it doesn't paint a clear picture.
Is the comic a sequel to the show? Cuz if not I might get into it
ReplyDeleteYes and no. It does a brief recap of the show's events and then hits the ground running. It stands alone quite well.
DeleteSeems like reviews for this are pretty positive. Might give this a look. Hopefully without ending up with one of the many ugly cover arts.
ReplyDeleteNow that's a bit of a surprise. Seeing how Mega Man fans have been complaining about this show and i did'nt expect peoples other than Mega Man fans to be interested in it.
ReplyDeleteI consider it a pretty good new if something Mega Man related works well.
Well we don't know if it IS people other than Mega Man fans being interested.
DeleteGuess Mega Man now officially has its own "Sonic Boom" variant. Its success compared to Archie's Mega Man doesn't seem fair at all, but Archie's Mega Man started and ran during the franchise's death while this comic is starting and running during the franchise's revival.
ReplyDelete"success" compared to archie's mega man should be measured in how long the comic runs for and how many issues they make. If it beats archie's 52 comic run, then it is more successful.
Deleteinitial orders from comic shops don't mean much. They could be forced to order a lot maybe through their contract with diamond, or boom could be playing hardball. With DC going direct to consumer, it could be that comic shops are carrying less DC and more Boom comics out of spite.
these "sales" are strictly between boom, diamond, and comic book shops, not sales to actual readers.
Last I checked, Archie's comic run lasted 55 issues.
DeleteI would highly recommend at least giving a single issue a try before damning it for all eternity. I agree that the art on the covers has been a bit off putting with it's strangely elongated style, however, once within the pages it all kind of works. The first issue takes the base laid by the show constantly teasing viewers with this "Hard Age" but never doing anything with it, and runs with it at top speed. Questions like why was Light so secretive, what was the Hard Age, what was Megaman's role. In such a short read it seems to promise answers to a lot of these questions and overall take a much more serious tone. I guess what I'm trying to say is that fans should give it at least a try.
ReplyDeleteAny chance of a review of this series, @Protodude?
ReplyDeleteSome new episodes of the Fully Charged Podcast incoming, perhaps? =P
I'd love to see and hear some more about it, since there's almost zero chance this will show up in my country.
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ReplyDelete"off to a mighty start."
ReplyDeleteShhh... we don't say that word around here!
while not a fan of fully charged(i just kinda wish we had gotten a promotional tv series based on 11/the original prototype for the ruby spears cartoon.) i'm very happy for the series success and hope that it gives mega man another big chance in other media(if not from archie/idw at least some attempt to make another main series one with the detail it had.:3)
ReplyDeleteNot strong for or agaist Fully Charged. But glad it got good sales.
ReplyDeleteI'm personally hoping they may eventually take chance on doing a MegaMan X series based comic. I'd purchase/ preorder or just subscribe to however many MMX comics they put out.
"Mega Man: Fully Charged #1 was ordered in at 30,009 copies, the highest selling comic launch in the franchise's history."
ReplyDeletenow, the thing to keep in mind is that these "sales" are from boom to comic book shops. they have shipped out 30k copies to comic book shops, doesn't mean people are actually buying it.
" It is currently under cover price on eBay – but for how long?"
this is probably a lot more telling. This tells us that the comic isn't in high demand, which doesn't bode well for he comic.
Ugly! The Japanese anime looks better than this!!!
ReplyDelete