As a fan of the Runaways, I'm not buying Arena/Undercover, but I'm still very interested in the characters. I know Marvel takes sales as a gauge for interest in characters/concepts, but what about when a title aimed at specific audiences just misses and it's not the characters themselves? What kind of feedback can we, as fans, give to show that we just don't like the current direction and aren't buying for that reason?
The honest answer is that it’s really impossible to fine-tune the message to that degree. Given the number of readers (or non-readers) that we’re talking about, our ability to pick up feedback—from retailers, through sales, from letters and message boards and in person—is relatively limited. If there’s something that’s strongly in the zeitgeist, then that will show up. But a more fine-tuned message from a smaller number of fans isn’t going to easily make its way through the white noise.
This is a sad, but very true answer. This is the situation many Runaways fans find themselves in. The only hope, as I read it, is to make a stink about it to the point where it reaches the Zeitgeist level.
The Squeaky Wheel gets the Oil, as they say.
But I think we’re approaching that level. I mean, during the last big convention, someone asked for More Runaways. The only answer received was “Go read Undercover” in a sense, but something tells me that is why the question was raised in the first place.
But it’s still a squeak. It should be a roar.
So Roar.
