At today's Marvel press conference, the company announced a number of initiatives designed to convert X2 moviegoers to comic consumers.  EIC Joe Quesada acknowledged that Marvel was trying to do a better job than it had for the first X-Men movie.  'When X-Men 1 came out we dropped the ball with respect to X-Men product that was accessible to the neophyte reader, the person that saw the movie and comes into the local comic shop and wants to experience what was in the movie,' he said.  'What they got in the comics was completely different from what was on the screen.'

 

Marvel COO Bill Jemas agreed.  'We did it wrong around the time of X-Men,' he said, noting that product sales related to the Spider-Man movie were much better, '...related specifically to the content.'  'We learned from our mistakes,' he said.  'There is that old slogan that movies don't move comics, but the fact is that movies don't move bad comics.  Movies do move good, solid, accessible comics that relate to the movie.'

 

First up in the movie-related products are the two X-Men Prequels (Nightcrawler and Wolverine) currently being solicited.  Announced for the first time at the press conference was the news that the covers for those books will be photo covers.  The continuity for the stories will be specifically related to the movie continuity. 

 

The movie adaptation, which will be released both in comic and trade paperback versions in April, will be by Chuck Austen and Patrick Zircher. 

 

A second Marvel Encyclopedia, this one focusing on the X-Men, is also planned for April release.  Featuring over 350 characters, the mansion, and other info related to the X-Men, the book will be a hardcover with the same page count and cover price as the first Encyclopedia.  Marvel called the first one 'one of the happy surprises of last year,' based on sell-in and sell-through both in bookstores and comic stores.  More character-specific Encyclopedias are planned in the coming years, timed to release when interest in those characters is heightened by movies featuring them. 

 

Editorial events are also planned for the regular X-Men periodicals.  Two issues of Uncanny X-Men will ship in April, featuring a new story arc pitting the X-Men against Alpha Flight.  In the New X-Men, April will see two issues of a new story arc called 'Murder at the Mansion,' a Grant Morrison murder mystery.  In May, Chris Clarement will write a sequel to 'God Loves, Man Kills' in X-treme X-Men.  And in Ultimate X-Men, Mark Millar will wrap up his story arc and run on the book with #33, and Brian Bendis will start a six-issue run in #34.

 

Marvel's growing book program will also be X-Men-focused this spring.  For the direct market, a 'much wider selection of books' will be in print, and in the mass market, Marvel will be maintaining deeper inventory positions in 'the books that are most accessible.'  One book of special note will be an April reprint of the 'God Loves, Man Kills' graphic novel written by Chris Claremont, on which the movie storyline is loosely based.  The format will be 72 saddle-stitched pages for $4.99.

 

Jemas took care to note that all periodicals tied to X2 will be printed to order in line with normal Marvel policy, but that book inventory would be plentiful.  With the number of X2-related releases in both periodical and book format, it seems likely that retailers will have plenty to sell even if sales exceed expectations.