This has been a shocking week for Marvel fans as both Captain America and Thor have seen new people take over the mantles going forward.
Meet your new Thor...
...And your new Captain America.
While for some this is shocking, it shows a side to the comic book industry, that publishers like DC and Marvel monitor sales closely. While roster or mantle changes sometimes have creative motivation, other times it's due to a dip in sales.
Let's look at the
Superior Spider-Man fiasco, where (if you've lived under a rock for years) Peter Parker passed away in the body of Doc Ock and Octavious himself assumed the mantle of Spider-Man. This series replaced the primary Amazing Spider-Man run, and had many fans up in arms.
However, let's look at it this way...
In terms of estimated sales, this is how many issues that were sold of The Amazing Spider-Man before it was replaced with Spider-Ock.
Each number stands for the individual issue.
September 2012 -- 59,772
October 2012 -- 58,185, 57,950
November 2012 -- 59,872, 81,342
December 2012 -- 66,245, 74,904, 200,966
Pretty impressive numbers leading up to the Issue #700 where The Amazing Spider-Man ended. That said, look at Superior Spider-Man's first few months.
January 2013 -- 188,182, 112,546
February 2013 -- 101,811, 95,892
March 2013 -- 94,224, 86,614, 85,671
April 2013 -- 87,945, 85,671
May 2013 -- 93,656, 85,346
While still impressive numbers, not nearly what they were when the series first debuted. Now in april of this year, Marvel switched back to The Amazing spider-Man after seemingly killing off Peter.
The Superior Spider-Man's issues sold for that month...135,484
The Amazing Spider-Man's issues sold...532,586
That's exciting isn't it!
Now of last month, Captain America sold 30,427 issues. Thor sold 36,540 issues. Compare that to The Amazing Spider-Man which sold 109,029 issues.
Perhaps you're starting to see the larger picture.
So if you don't like a female Thor, don't buy the issues. If it doesn't sell, Marvel will change it's character to drive up sales. The same goes for the now Sam Wilson Captain America. If you support the changes, then buy the books, if not then keep your money in your wallet; because at the end of the day.