Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! The Legion #1 from a retailer's perspective

The following is by Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience in San Francisco, as originally seen at http://www.newsarama.com/pages/Tilting/Tilting10.htm

"Legion of Super-Heroes #1 is also a real tricky order. There’s an awful lot of people who like the Legion, but there’s not that many people who buy it, y’know? Waid and Kitson have what sounds like an interesting take, but it also sounds so far afield from what people (think they) want from a Legion comic too. My biggest problem is that I think the Legion might be like Star Trek right now. I think they probably should have given it a year or two “off the market” to build up a little demand, to get people to be genuinely happy to see it again. To me it’s “Oh, a Legion #1 again? Have we passed the dozen mark yet?” So I scratch my head and stare out the window and write down “40” as if I know what I’m doing. If subs are higher than 16 I’ll bump that further, but I’m largely the cynic on this one. And I like the Legion!"

I agree with him when he says, "it also sounds so far afield from what people (think they) want from a Legion comic." Not to rag on the current reboot, but it seems to me that mainstream readers (not to be confused with Legion diehards) have a mental image of what they think the Legion is, and DC hasn't published anything resembling that since... well, since Levitz left the title, which is why the Legion has been a poor seller ever since then.

(40 copies ordered for the first issue) x (however many retailers also overorder number one) = (disappointed Legion fans when those numbers come back to earth a few months later). I'd be surprised if Mr. Hibbs orders 25 copies a month when number three is available. I only bring all of this up to remind people that retailers see things much differently than we do, and they've got access to harder data (number of copies actually sold) than we do.

Another curious comment by Hibbs is that they should have given Legion a year or two off the market to build up demand.

Certainly as a fan, I shudder at this - but I'm also thinking of the number of other books (and competing media instruments) out there - I'd be inclined to think that a 1-2 year hiatus could kill the thing. The only people to return to the book might be the truest fanatics.

I've heard baseball never recovered from their strike of a few years ago, and they're talking about the current NHL lock-out as being the death of hockey. I just wonder if you can take an entertainment product out of the market for an extended period of time today, then recapture your customers.

One might cite "Adam Strange" as a book that's returned with what appears to be success, but I don't believe that there was any demand out there for Adam Strange yearning to be satisfied. They just revived an old property and managed to hit the right chord with comic fans - just as Doom Patrol has been revived to (what seems to be) more negative response. Win some, lose some.

It would be interesting to hear what other retailers are saying.

They think they know, but they have no idea.

(Yeah, I know, it's a dumb joke, but it's also fairly close to the truth. With a few exceptions, order numbers are total guesswork.)