Broken Frontier

DC sells us all a book of ads. Granted it’s only 50 cents, but at least one reader sees a larger problem.

First of all, let me put it like this, I pretty much ignore comic book news. I read panel reports from conventions and reviews of or interviews about books I have already read. To a certain extent, I am a hardcore old school comic book fan. I like my cliffhanger endings to be cliffhanger endings, not the conclusion to the end of months of speculation. For me going in on this book, I was told it be the spring board for all DC books going forward, it was a natural change to what Countdown #0 was supposed to be, and it would be new reader friendly. I was also told it was a story.

It was in fact none of these things. What it turned out to be was advertisements for six upcoming DC books. Well, this robs me of finding out what the books are about by reading them. It is also not a springboard. A springboard was Black Summer #0, a critical part of the story not told in any of the other issues, a recount of an event so crazy that it made the events that followed so exciting to follow.

My next problem is that this book replaced Countdown #0. It was to be the conclusion of that story and the beginning of Final Crisis. It had nothing to do with Countdown. I know a lot of you sighed a breath of relief over that, but some of us wanted a logical reason for Countdown to exist and in the end I was robbed of that as well.

Finally, this is the least new reader friendly book I have ever read. If you are not firmly invested in the DCU then much of this meant nothing to you. In fact, the one thing that seems to have the book’s apologists most excited about the book is the end reveal that was so vague that DC made sure to have the New York Daily News "leak" the story on Wednesday morning. People seem in shock about all that, but as I recall this is the same paper that spoiled Spidey’s unmasking and "broke" the death of Captain America story. I believe this was a leak about as much as I do that marvel_boy was not a botched viral campaign from Marvel.

As to its merits as a story. There are none. It is six fragments tied together by a unifying bookend segment. However, the beginning of the unifying segment appears to be narrated by the DC Universe itself, while the ending segment is narrated by a returning hero who is not on the page.

As it is, as an advertisement, it is very effective... the three pages with the Spectre got me very excited about Final Crisis: Revelations and the Wonder Woman teaser may just be enough to get me to catch up on the title. Problem is DC expects me to pay 50 cents for this ad.

This is where I admire their business acumen. How better then to pay for advertising than by having the consumer actually buy it? But as a fan, it bugs me.

This week for $2.99 I got a 32 page comic entitled Local #11. It had 24 pages of story and 8 pages of supplemental material including essays on the creation of the project, pin ups, sketches, and a teaser for the next issue. This book was published by Oni Press, one of the smaller press companies that probably breaks even on their books, if not actual sinking into the red until the trade paperback is published. It was also the best book I read this week.

For $2.99, I also bought Green Lantern #30, a solid book in its own right. It was also 32 pages, but for that price I got 24 pages of story (including one full page splash and two two-page splash pages - note that means less actual story) and 8 pages of ads. Now, DC is run by Warner Brothers and Green Lantern is one of their more popular books right now, so it is probably safe to say that it operates in the black, but DC also wanted me to pay 50 cents for 30 pages with DCU #0. Now on this surface that seems like a great deal, until one examines it as being exactly 30 pages of ads.

This also happened on Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) week. What this means to me is that DC really just wants our money. It could have easily been a FCBD book. It should have been. Marvel gave us a Hulk & Iron Man magazine that had a FCBD ad on the back including comic book shop locator service. This was free to the public. Our shops strategically placed these at theaters showing Iron Man this weekend. The idea is that we will see those moviegoers on Saturday. It will give us a chance to make a sale, but also introduce them to the wonderful world of comics for free. It would be awesome if I could do that with DC’s big event book, but instead it has a price tag. Sorry, folks, but I run a business and while I would love to give this book away, FCBD is already a big expenditure... in the end I need to recoup some of that cost and fifty cents for this book helps.

Don’t get me wrong. I love DC, it is home to Batman, The Spirit, Superman, the Teen Titans, Justice League of America and many of my all time favorite books. I like Marvel, but my passion for their characters has never been the same as what I feel for DC. Here’s the thing though. Marvel is winning dollar and number share by a good margin month in and month out. I’m not trying to fuel the Marvel vs. DC debate, but I do know this, every couple of weeks I get posters and post cards to give to the customers for free, they all come from Marvel. Before Secret Invasion began, we got Secret Invasion Saga to hand out for free. But DC wants you to pay for the same kind of marketing device. It just makes me wonder what is up with the company’s marketing department. It just seems to me that you would wonder if something like that is making that big of a difference and if it is worth a try, but that’s just me.

In the end, DC Universe #0 is a great trailer for what DC has planned for the next year. I wish it had just been marketed to me in that way.