And now we get to the part of the survey that everyone is always the most excited about!!!
It's time for all of us to add up the votes and see which Masterworks are really the ones we want the most.
We hear people holler and beg all the time on the boards, asking for their own favorite volumes,
and now we'll find out if they're the tip of a massive iceberg or just a lone drip of the faucet!
One thing to keep in mind are the baselines in voting for each section of the Future
Masterworks. 738 people took the survey, but not all of them made it to the 5th page. And some of the folks who
did make it to the fifth page experienced the dreaded "timed out" problem. We had 680 people make it to the fifth page,
but some of them entered no significant responses, and just typed something like "this is just a test" in one of the comment fields.
You also must keep in mind that for all those different people, there is a mix of many different priorities when each of them approaches Masterworks. For instance, a certain segment of those 680 respondents have no interest whatsoever in Golden Age
books! Maybe they only
like Fantastic Four and that's all they care about! Or maybe there is somebody coming to Masterworks
that only
wants Golden Age material, or Atlas Era Monster Comics, and they have no interest in X-Men or Uncanny X-Men! Thus it's important to distinguish these fan blocs from each other.
So here are the baselines established for the survey. They were arrived at by adding together the amount
of people who cast at least one first place vote for a Masterworks in the four different categories for which we're
trying to provide direction (the presumption being if they don't choose anything for that category, they are not interested in that category). These numbers give us a general idea of the populations interested in any particular
segment of Masterworks: the prime lines already started, the Golden Age, the Atlas Era, and the Marvel Age characters who have yet to get their own Masterworks:
Existing Lines of "Marvel Age" comics: 610 (-40 from last year)
Future Lines of "Marvel Age" comics: 604 (-39)
Future Volumes of Atlas Era comics: 460 (-40)
Future Volumes of Golden Age comics: 437 (-3)
Interesting that three categories dropped by an equal amount, but the Golden Age category stayed about the same. (Though it's still lagging behind the other three.)
That could mean either that the Golden Age books are becoming more popular and catching on with more "regular" Masterworks fans, or it could mean that a larger percentage of Golden Age fans have found this website over the past year.
For whatever segment of Masterworks that fans were interested in, respondents were asked to rank their top six
choices in order. The top rankings on this list are decided by the
percentage of times a line was chosen in the Top Six of each survey response.
I've also broken down "power points," i.e. the number which assesses the
strength of support for the book in the rankings. Basically, every time a book got a #1 ranking, it would get 6 power points, on down a sliding scale to the #6 ranking, where it would get only 1 power point. The aggregate number when all those ranking numbers are added together give you a good idea of how strong the enthusiasm is across the survey for a particular volume.
Finally, there's also a notation of how many times a particular line appeared as a first place choice on a respondent's ballot. Now,
on to the first category!
PLEASE NOTE: Some Masterworks mockups and content maps may be in need of updating, but they're "in the ballpark" so to speak.
A) Extensions of existing lines
#1) Avengers Vol. 8
52% ballot representation
1175 total power points
58 first place votes.
(Click on image for "What If?" pop-up page.)
Avengers wins for the second year in a row! Avengers Vol. 8 would start with #69, and would feature the first appearance of the Squadron Sinister!
Roy Thomas and John Buscema were crafting tales that would help define the book for decades to come, and speaking of decades, this volume would bring the book well into 1970.
Interestingly, a number of titles beat out Avengers in first-place votes, but it seems like a lot of us just couldn't live with a ballot that didn't have the Avengers on it, so lots of us made sure to include it anywhere lower down.
* * *
#2) Nick Fury Vol. 2
51% ballot representation
1340 total power points
83 first place votes.
(Click on image for "What If?" pop-up page.)
After ruling the field last time in the Marvel Age New Lines category, Nick Fury makes a stunning debut in the Continuations category, rocketing past all the other big names save for Avengers!
And despite just barely losing out to Avengers on total votes, Nick can still take some pride in knowing that he picked up more power points and first place votes than anyone else, including even Spidey!
Besides ol' Nick himself, one name would sum up this volume: Jim Steranko. Steranko had one of the most famous runs of any creator on any title. His work on Nick Fury influenced a generation of artists
and will surely thrill the entire population of Masterworks readers if and when Marvel releases this true Masterwork!
* * *
#3) Thor Vol. 8
42% ballot representation
935 total power points
52 first place votes.
(Click on image for "What If?" pop-up page.)
In the last survey Thor Vol. 6 finished in third place. In this survey, Thor Vol. 8 finished in third place. Like All-Father, like immortal son, or something like that.
But wait! What happened to Vol. 7, you ask? It just so happens that Thor Vol. 7 is due out in just a few short weeks. Click this link for the full preview page of Thor #153-162!
With the Lee/Kirby FF complete, Thor is the final frontier for Masterworks from that legendary pair. There's just two Kirby volumes left, and Vol. 8 would include Thor's encounter with Him (Warlock) and another appearance of the planet-eater himself, Galactus!
* * *
#4) Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 10
42% ballot representation
1029 total power points
78 first place votes.
(Click on image for "What If?" pop-up page.)
Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 10 drops down from #2 to #4 on this year's list, but don't think for one second that means the old Web-Head is becoming unpopular.
I suspect some people are just getting a little complacent in their Spidey-votin' duties thanks to the regular releases of ASM Masterworks that the fine folks at Marvel have been
giving us lately. Heck, all you have to do is notice that we'd be up to Volume 10 and that should tell you enough right there.
That's not to say this isn't a volume that isn't worth looking forward to. Besides a battle with Doc Ock, there also the death of [Oops, don't want to get in trouble for giving away spoilers!].
Spidey also teams up with his Amazing Friend Iceman, and battles his most famous and tragic enemy, the Green Goblin!
UPDATE Well, clog up my web-spinners and call me Peter Porker! Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 10 just happens to have been announced as the 101st Marvel Masterworks volume, due in August 2008!
* * *
#5) Fantastic Four Vol. 11
37% ballot representation
835 total power points
39 first place votes.
(Click on image for "What If?" pop-up page.)
After falling all the way out of the top six last year, Marvel's First Family makes a return to the upper part of the chart, moving up to fifth for their first Bronze Age and first post-Kirby volume.
John Buscema fills the shoes that no one could fill and the Fantastic Four tackle problems and enemies that no one else could handle. Starting with FF #105, this volume will feature Annihilus, the Over-Mind, and Ben Grimm's oldest and dearest friend, the Incredible Hulk!
* * *
#6) Human Torch Vol. 2
32% ballot representation
821 total power points
64 first place votes.
(Click on image for "What If?" pop-up page.)
Also jumping up two spots this year is the second and final volume of the Human Torch. Paste Pot Pete! The Beatles! It's the final superhero volume from the early 60's! This final Human Torch volume will cover Strange Tales #118-134. This is a real all-or-nothing type of thing for some people, as demonstrated by
the fact that it got more first place votes than Avengers, or FF, or even Thor. Marvel will almost certainly publish this volume, it's just a question of when. And when they do, it'll be nice to see another line published to it's completion.
* * *
Here's the rest of the list of Masteworks line extension voting:
07: 30%....Dr. Strange Vol. 4 (624 points, 25 first place votes)
08: 29%....Warlock Vol. 2 (701 points, 42 first place votes)
09: 27%....Daredevil Vol. 5 (509 points, 14 first place votes)
10: 26%....Sub-Mariner Vol. 3 (507 points, 13 first place votes)
11: 24%....X-Men Vol. 7 (561 points, 34 first place votes)
12: 23%....Captain America Vol. 5 (461 points, 20 first place votes)
13: 22%....Iron Man Vol. 5 (378 points, 10 first place votes)
14: 22%....Uncanny X-Men Vol. 7 (546 points, 34 first place votes)
15: 19%....Incredible Hulk Vol. 5 (355 points, 11 first place votes)
16: 16%....Sgt. Fury Vol. 3 (333 points, 7 first place votes)
17: 16%....Captain Marvel Vol. 4 (306 points, 7 first place votes)
18: 13%....Ant-Man Vol. 3 (249 points, 7 first place votes)
19: 11%....Silver Surfer Vol. 3 (213 points, 6 first place votes)
20: 10%....Rawhide Kid Vol. 3 (201 points, 6 first place votes)
Warlock made a big jump up 4 places, but Daredevil jumped up 7 places! Is it time for another DD volume?
X-Men makes a pretty impressive return to the survey, with Vol. 7 beating out a number of more "regular" continuations from other famous titles like Hulk and Iron Man.
Sgt. Fury is about to get a volume, and Captain Marvel just got one, so that may somewhat explain their low placings in this survey.
Looking at the very bottom, I'm impressed that Ant-Man Vol. 3 was able to beat two other volumes, regardless of what they are. Silver Surfer jumped out of dead last for the first time,
though it probably helped that Rawhide Kid came out in somewhat close proximity to the survey. We'll see how many votes Rawhide Kid picks up next time, much further away from the release of Volume 2.
One last thing I noticed at the bottom of the survey: there are no Volume 2's down there. There's only three on the whole survey, and they're all in the top 8 positions. It looks like the most common
Volume numbers on this list are 3 and 5, which means that Marvel is doing a great job of moving these lines along without cluttering things up with too many Volume 1's that never get follow-ups.
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