2/3 agreement between us here, Dean. I dropped Intrepids & Green Wake after #1, but I liked Red Spike. Kind of like an action B-movie. I thought it was fun.
LOL....I can't figure out where it is we agree and where we don't. We seem to agree about half of the time.
The thing that bugged me with Red Spike is that I felt like I knew were the story was going. I could be dead-ass wrong, but the problem was that I thought I knew what would happen next. And some of it was the rationale you used in your weekly spotlight about cutting 3/5 books if you're going to make your pull list manageable.
The other thing that bugged me in Red Spike was the whole selective adrenalin thing. That would never work. They would be better of just saying they gave the dudes Super Solider Serum and moving on with the story.
I think there was an answer to this question, from one point of view, in the interview I did with Dave Elliott, Editor in Chief of Benaroya, which is putting all their books out via Image. It allows them to concentrate on creating the books and being able to leverage Image's marketing, publishing, and other relationships in the industry while still retaining full ownership of their properties. Stores that would never even look at or stock a book from the back half of previews many still not touch the book with a 10-foot pole since it's not from Marvel, but they'll generally at least look at the solicit since it's from Image.
That is interesting and makes a lot of sense. If you've got a property and want to retain multi-media rights (and Red Spike felt like a movie pitch), Image is the best place to go.