Don’t worry, I don’t have any more Howard the Duck movie talk in me.
Yesterday:
Pal Dorian: “Why did Marvel release this new New Avengers: Breakout book in hardcover?”
Me: “Because that’s what DC does.”
Dor: “And why did they put that recent Captain America storyline in a hardcover?”
Me: “Because that’s what DC does.”
And then I started going on a rant about how DC seems to go into things with some forethought and planning, whereas Marvel just does whatever seems to be making money for DC. For example, DC tends to reprint recent comics for which there is some measure of demand, such as Wonder Woman #219 (the end of the Superman “Sacrifice” storyline, and a tie-in to Omac Project). Marvel just seems to reprint books just to get retailers to order more of the same book, regardless of demand…why did we need a “variant cover edition” reprint of that one issue of Captain America, for example? Was there really a huge demand for it? And why not a reprint for Strange #1, which we probably could have used, and might have helped us sell later issues in the series (some of which ended up stinking up the shelves).
And then there’s DC’s recent deluge of crossover mini-series, all of which are in service to a particular editorial direction, with the apparent goal of creating a more cohesive DC universe. (Whether any of you actually like what DC is doing is another matter entirely.) Marvel’s House of M appears to be leading into another mini-series, and then, if I recall correctly, into another mini-series after that, and I’m not sure what the purpose is other than to get Spider-Man and Wolverine into more comics. Oh, and bring back Hawkeye, I guess. And “break the internet in half,” to repeat the phrase we’re all tired of by now.
And let’s not get started on the respective trade paperback programs (DC releases books in a particular order, on a particular schedule, whereas Marvel cranks out the trades before the ink is even dry on the last issue the book is reprinting, and I swear for a while, Marvel was just numbering their trades at random).
So things haven’t changed much since Martin Goodman told Stan Lee to make up a new superhero comic, like that Justice League of America book DC was doing…I guess that’s the completely new and original point I’m making. At any rate, that sort of gives you an idea of what goes through my head as I’m breaking down the Diamond shipment for new comics day. Hatred and contempt, mostly.
Not that DC is perfect…I really could have used a quick reprint of Space Ghost #1. That might have helped move the later shelf-warming issues to people who didn’t want to buy the rest of the series unless they could get the beginning.
