Yeah they could do that, but I’m sure in Quesada’s mind that would mean Marvel is admitting those books didn’t sell in the first place while this way they can stick it to DC.

DR: Zodiac was fun to read and I don’t think Dark Reign was a failure, but you are right about the central idea, not only Marvel should do this, also DC, both of them publish a lot of crap in every event.

Peace.

i mean, the shitty minis didn’t sell, but the main titles under dark reign (Dark and New Avengers, Invincible Iron Man, the Hawkeye and Spider-man series, and The List) all sold well. I imagine that DC will retaliate with something similar… but before we call this debate done, shouldn’t we let this all play out?

They wouldn’t do that: it would be classy.

Remember when in what the consumers who used to clamor for variant covers in the hopes they would be worth more? All they’ve done is change the model a little so that retailers are the ones clamoring.

That’s be a great idea, Corey, except those Dark Reign titles weren’t ordered very well, while the Blackest Night tie-in titles were ordered in huge amounts to qualify for a plastic ring promotion, copies retailers weren’t able to turn around. Dark Reign: Zodiac was ordered low and sold low. These books were ordered high and sold mediocre. The latter leads to excess product. The two situations aren’t even remotely comparable.

Kudos to David Uzumeri for applying logic to this post. I would have expected such a standard to be applied to the blog itself before it was posted, but I suppose kneejerk reactions get the best of all of us at one time or another.

That’s be a great idea, Corey, except those Dark Reign titles weren’t ordered very well, while the Blackest Night tie-in titles were ordered in huge amounts to qualify for a plastic ring promotion, copies retailers weren’t able to turn around. Dark Reign: Zodiac was ordered low and sold low. These books were ordered high and sold mediocre. The latter leads to excess product. The two situations aren’t even remotely comparable.

Then if Marvel is sooooo concerned with helping out retailers, then why not make the offer good for their books, too? Why single out just Blackest Night?

The most depressing thing is that even though the Dark Reign books didn’t sell, they were actually pretty good. Lethal Legion, Zodiac (ignore the Mr. Negative one…) were pretty solid, in my opinion. Some of the Blackest Night tie-ins have been solid, but others have really been lacking. So you have Marvel with quality and not too much in sales, and DC with increased sales and some good and some bad quality. Depressing.

Not that the Blackest Night books didn’t have massive audiences too. A lot of those ring books were good titles that probably gained readers from the stunt – but it was still a stunt, and all Marvel’s saying is “if you have some of those left over that you can’t sell, we’ll try to turn that into something you can sell.” If you sold all yours, fine, just don’t take advantage of it. Marvel has nothing to gain except press infamy from this — what are they going to do, re-sell the DC comics? That’s absurd. They’re just trying to help out a few retailers (maybe it is just a few, who knows?) who ordered too many ring books and can’t get rid of them. That’s it. Giving out these variants for any books they send in doesn’t make sense, because then you’re just a recycling operation. Yes, it’s a dig against DC. Yes, it’s ALSO meant to help retailers. It’s a middle finger on one side and a helping hand on the other. It’s competition. It’s business. It’s nothing personal, and I don’t think anyone at DC even is taking it that way. It’s silly as hell, totally, but it’s an entertaining fuck you. I don’t in any way understand why people who aren’t directly affected by this are getting angry over this.