If the past twelve months have taught us anything, it’s that everyone thinks they’re the next Wolf of Wall Street with products from video game consoles to comic books. Even partially plugged-in collectors seem to have all turned their attention to scooping up industrial quantities of the newest, hottest thing and then trying to resell it back on secondhand sites for a profit.
Marvel Comics, it turns out, are uniquely positioned to be targeted in this way. After the runaway success of WandaVision on Disney Plus, graphic novels starring both Wanda and Vision have become very, very hard to find. In fact, the company confirmed in February that there were very few copies of popular series related to the two heroes due to a massive increase in demand.
WandaVision Leads to Shortages
Interest in comic book heroes has never been higher. The massive success of WandaVision, with its bizarre premise and focus on previously-obscure characters, has led to a massive uptick in interest in books like Vision and the Scarlet Witch that star a married couple of superheroes.
So, if you want to read titles like House of M or Vision and Scarlet Witch right now and can’t wait for reprints, then your only options are to buy marked-up copies on secondhand sites, or you could opt to purchase them digitally from Marvel and read them in that medium.
Why has WandaVision been so Popular?
Some industry analysts have been taken aback by the tremendous popularity of WandaVision. However, it’s not surprising that the series has experienced huge success. For one thing, it’s the first Marvel TV show under Marvel Studios. While there have been other TV series connected to the Marvel films, like Agents of SHIELD and Runaways, WandaVision is the first series made by the same studio that makes the films.
Moreover, the title is also the first Marvel content since the summer of 2019, a historically long break for the notoriously prolific Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the lengthy delays to Black Widow and the Eternals film, there was literally not a single MCU release in 2020. That “lost year” has demand for pretty much every form of entertainment at an all-time high.
But, most importantly, WandaVision is likely experiencing such success because it’s so unique. A Marvel property riffing on classic sitcoms and embracing a bizarre, eerie style that makes it creepy and endearing all at once? It’s no surprise people have taken so well to the series.
