From days of long ago… from uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend: the legend of Comicscape! A weekly column… loved by good; feared by evil.
And here we are, Maniacs, back again for another Comicscape – your weekly dose of news, entertainment and opinion brought to you by yours truly, courtesy of the fine folks here at Mania.com. I won’t waste any more time rehashing 80’s cartoon intros. On with the news!
Cover art for Action Comics #875
© DC Comics
Since its very first issue way back in 1938, Action Comics has been synonymous with Superman. Since 2006, Geoff Johns has been synonymous with Action Comics and Action Comics has been synonymous with awesome (okay, some of that stuff with Richard Donner wasn’t so good). DC fans are in for a major shake-up this March when not one but three new stars take over Action Comics staring with issue 875.
Greg Rucka steps into the writers role as Kryptonian heroes Nightwing and Flamebird take center stage in the book along with a supporting cast that includes Metropolis’ finest: Mon-El, the Guardian and even Krypto. While I’m a bit sad that Johns will be departing the title that made me fall in love with Superman again, I’m looking forward to seeing what Rucka brings to the table. I think that enough Superman can be found in other comics and a little change will be good for all of us. Plus, I can’t wait to see who Nightwing and Flamebird are under their masks!
Cover art to Justice Society of America #14
© DC Comics
And in other “why does Geoff Johns have to leave all of my favorite books?” news, it’s no secret that Mr. Johns is also leaving Justice Society of America, a book that he has been synonymous with for nearly a decade, and will be replaced by the more-than-capable team of Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges.
I understand that a lot of longtime fans might be very upset by this. I admit that I’ve spent a good portion of the past month wondering why Geoff Johns hates me so much, but he won’t return my phone calls or e-mails and I’ve heard talk of a restraining order, so I guess I’ll never know.
Seriously though, let’s give Willingham & Sturges a chance before writing the book off. It’s not like they’re coming in with poor track records here. We owe them a few issues at the very least. Then, if you hate it, you can drop the book and burn all of your back issues for good measure.
In other news, Chad Derdowski of Comicscape has become synonymous with overuse of the word synonymous.
Hey, remember that totally awesome book Marvel was publishing called The Twelve? Featuring a story by J. Michael Straczynski and killer artwork by Chris Weston, this story of forgotten WWII heroes finding themselves in the modern world was one of the first books I read every week that a new issue came out. It was a spectacular comic.
Well, the first issue was out in January of 2008. It’s January of 2009 now, and I can’t recall seeing anything past the eighth issue. I know JMS is supposed to have a reputation for starting off strong and finishing in a somewhat lackluster fashion, but this is a little bit ridiculous. Hey Marvel, what gives? The Twelve was awesome!
Could somebody at least shoot me an e-mail and tell me how it was supposed to end? I’ve got a good imagination, I’m sure I could picture it. Come on!
Dark Avengers #1
© Marvel Entertainment
In other Marvel news, the first issue of Dark Avengers hit the stands last week. I really wanted to read it, but I didn’t. I can’t afford it. Its four freakin’ dollars! Okay, okay… I could afford it, but I refuse to shell out an extra dollar only to get nothing extra in return.
Right now it’s Dark Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man and a few other books. Next thing you know, it’ll be Marvels entire line and it won’t be long before DC follows suit. Now, maybe I’m just feeling saucy ‘cause I watched a particularly inspiring Muhammad Ali documentary today, but I think we need to put our collective geek foot down on this one. I think we can stop this – but much like Voltron, who I invoked in the intro of today’s column, we need to combine our forces and stick together. I don’t believe that there’s anything prompting this price hike other than pure greed, but if we refuse to pay, they can’t get away with it.
It’s my fault, really. I bought every issue of that 1985 mini-series for $3.99. I’ve bought every issue of the Dark Tower up to this point. I bought Civil War – didn’t buy Secret Invasion, but that’s beside the point. I gave Marvel an inch and they took a mile. But I’m not giving them one more centimeter.
I expect to pay a little more for a book with extra pages. That’s fair. And I’ve let the $3.99 thing slide when it comes to mini-series’, but my rationale has always been that they are finite so it’s okay. I won’t be spending that extra dollar forever; I’ll only be doing it for six or eight months. But that’s just one or two books here and there. How many books are on your pull list? Two or three per week? Five or six? There’s a good chance you’re buying even more than that. Do the math, folks. If this price increase goes company-wide and spreads to DC within the course of a year, we’re talking about a LOT more money here. Can you afford to spend another five dollars a week on comics? How about another ten? But if we refuse to buy these overpriced titles now, we can nip it in the bud.
Look, its one thing for a small-time publisher to charge $3.99: they’re not selling as many copies or making as much money and they need to recoup their losses. I can understand that. It’s another thing entirely for Marvel to gouge us and I believe they are gouging us here.
I know that paper isn’t cheap and I know that printing comics on the old newsprint they used to use back in the day wouldn’t really help matters all that much anyway. I know that the economy is bad and that it affects even the comic industry and I know that creators have to get paid. I know about inflation and I know that price increases are inevitable at some point down the road. I don’t think that time is now. I won’t pretend to know all of the ins and outs of how a comic business is run, and I’m sure someone will gladly point out the errors in my thought process - but the bottom line is that I have a really hard time believing that Marvel needs to charge us an extra dollar for any of their books. I don’t think Marvel is really hurting for money at this point; they’re not raising prices out of necessity, they’re doing it to be greedy.
Some of the guys in my shop told me they’d likely have to drop a book or two in order to keep up with the price increase. If they want to continue reading Avengers, they’ll have to drop insert other title. Screw that! If you’re going to drop anything, drop the overpriced Avengers book and keep reading the $2.99 ones! Giving in is giving up. Would Captain America give up? Would Spider-Man? No, and I bet they’d be pretty disgusted with this price increase too.
Remember that issue where Spider-Man was trapped under all kinds of rubble and he almost gave up and just allowed himself to be crushed? But he kept thinking of Aunt May and all the people he loved and drew on that to keep going. The panels kept getting bigger and bigger as he found the strength to lift the tremendous heap that was upon him and finally he broke free! Well, think of Marvels’ price increase as that pile of rubble - Instead of Aunt May or Mary Jane, think about all those sweet comics you’ll have to give up if you purchase $3.99 monthly books… yeah, it’ll be tough not reading Dark Avengers, but in the long run, you’ll find yourself able to lift that pile of twisted steel and you’ll probably be pretty proud of yourself for finding the inner strength to do so. And you won’t be lifting an imaginary pile of metal – you’ll be saving yourself a lot of money.
Corny metaphors aside… I’m not trying to be the Che Guevara of the comic shop here. I’m not calling for a total boycott of Marvel Comics; just the $3.99 books. I’m not trying to say that Marvel is the Devil or anything like that. They just happened to be the company who raised their prices first, so they’re drawing my ire. What I am saying is that if we don’t buy monthly books unnecessarily priced at $3.99, they’ll stop trying to charge us $3.99 for monthly books. I’m not asking you to stop buying the occasional $5 one-shot or to stop purchasing Marvel products altogether. I’m just asking that you refuse to throw away several extra dollars per month.
Will it work? Well… I know what comic book fans are like: I’m one too. What will likely end up happening is that a handful of us will drop the titles but the majority will continue to buy them and the only ones who will get hurt are the comic shop owners who are losing that revenue. Marvel will end up increasing their prices across their entire line and DC will follow. But that doesn’t have to happen. It’s up to us. Prove me wrong.
Yes, I know I’m being kind of rude here. I’m trying to light a fire under your ass!
What if you took that $2.99 (or $3.99, as it were) that you were going to spend on Dark Avengers and instead bought a copy of Proof, Invincible or Dynamo 5? What if you spent that money on Mouse Guard or Caliber or The Revenant [Ed Note: Thanks, Chad!]]? Hell, you could even spend it on a $2.99 Marvel comic for all I care! The comic shop owner doesn’t have to be the guy that gets hurt in this fiasco. He can still make some money and maybe you’ll be surprised by something you’ve never read before?
I suppose now is as good a point as any to throw in the obligatory “The ideas expressed by Mr. Derdowski do not necessarily represent those of Mania.com.” They didn’t tell me to say that, but I figured maybe I ought to just in case. I don’t want Joe Quesada to refuse to do an interview with somebody down the road just because I called for a boycott.
I’m a big fan of superheroes. I know you are too: otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. I’ve never really imagined a time when I wouldn’t enjoy reading their adventures, but as prices continue to increase, I find that the scope of my imagination is far grander than I even I imagined. Beyond that, I have a hard time swallowing stories about truth and justice when they come from a group of people who seem to stand for everything but. Bottom line: Marvel does not need to charge us $3.99 for their comics and you do not need to pay it.
Oh yeah, and Batman died. FINALLY. Now let’s get this Battle for the Cowl thing underway already!
And without further adieu, I give you the comic genius of Ben Johnson (and occasionally myself) with The Spinner Rack…
By Ben Johnson and Chad Derdowski
Wonder Woman Vol 3 #28 (Incentive Cary Nord Variant Cover (Faces Of Evil Tie-In)
Wonder Woman Vol 3 #28 (Regular Aaron Lopresti Cover (Faces Of Evil Tie-In)
Batman #685 (Faces Of Evil Tie-In)
Ben: A Catwoman tie-in. Just what everyone wants right now! Sweet!
Blue Beetle Vol 7 #35
Jack Of Fables #30
Teen Titans Vol 3 #67 (Faces Of Evil Tie-In)
Cartoon Network Block Party #53
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #23 (Faces Of Evil Tie-In)
Northlanders #14
Superman Vol 3 #684 (Faces Of Evil Tie-In)
Legion Of Super-Heroes Vol 5 #50
War That Time Forgot #9
Final Crisis #6 (2nd Ptg)
Final Crisis #7 (Cover A Character Cover)
Ben: Is it the most convoluted mess comics has ever seen, or a piece of sublime storytelling that you must have an above average IQ to begin to understand? Let the arguments begin.
Final Crisis #7 (Cover B Story Sliver Cover)
Ben: That’s a different kind of incentive cover.
Trinity #35
Batman Gotham After Midnight #9
Reign In Hell #7
Wildcats Vol 5 #7
Ben: Personally, I prefer cougars.
Final Crisis Revelations #5 (Cover A Character Cover)
Final Crisis Revelations #5 (Cover B Story Sliver Cover)
Ben: Seriously, I don’t get the sliver thing.
Fringe #2
Greatest Hits #5
Ferryman #5
Unknown Soldier Vol 4 #4
Push #5
Resistance (Video Game) #2
Ben: Thanks for the clarification. Now I’ll be sure to skip it.
Batman The Brave And The Bold #1
DC Comics Classics Library Superman Kryptonite Nevermore HC
Faces Of Evil Kobra #1
Chad: As opposed to the Faces of Good Kobra.
Avengers The Initiative #21 (Dark Reign Tie-In)
New Avengers #49 (Dark Reign Tie-In)
Chad: Still 22 pages. Only now it costs a dollar more! Gee, thanks Marvel!
Nova Vol 4 #21
Captain America Vol 5 #46 (Marvels 70th Anniversary Variant Cover)
Captain America Vol 5 #46 (Regular Steve Epting Cover)
Fantastic Four Vol 3 #563
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #44
She-Hulk 2 #37
Daredevil Vol 2 #115
Marvel Previews #66 (February 2009)
Ultimate Spider-Man #130 (Ultimatum Tie-In)
Ms Marvel Vol 2 #35 (Dark Reign Tie-In)
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 #583 (Variant Barack Obama Cover 3rd Ptg - Limit 3 Per Customer)
Ben: I have a Marvel bankruptcy special with President Bush on the cover if anyone wants it.
Incredible Hercules #125
X-Force Vol 3 #11
Wolverine First Class #11
Young X-Men #10
Skaar Son Of Hulk #7 (Regular Ed McGuinness Cover)
Ben: This is still being printed?
Chad: And who is reading it?
Skaar Son Of Hulk #7 (Variant Tom Grummett Cover)
Amazing Spider-Man Extra #2
Ben: That happens sometimes when you eat extra fiber.
Runaways Vol 3 #6
Dark Tower Treachery #5 (Incentive Daniel Acuna Variant Cover)
Dark Tower Treachery #5 (Incentive Jae Lee Sketch Variant Cover)
Dark Tower Treachery #5 (Regular Jae Lee Cover)
Stand Captain Trips #5 (Incentive Lee Bermejo Sketch Variant Cover)
Stand Captain Trips #5 (Incentive Mike Perkins Variant Cover)
Stand Captain Trips #5 (Regular Lee Bermejo Cover)
Ben: One author, two comics, six covers… The Death of an Industry, coming to comic shops everywhere… spring 2008.
X-Men Worlds Apart #4
Ghost Rider Danny Ketch #4
Enders Shadow Battle School #2 (Regular Timothy Green III Cover)
Punisher War Zone Vol 2 #6
Chad: Only $3.99? What a bargain! You’re tops in my book, Marvel!
Marvels Eye Of The Camera #3 (Black & White Version)
Marvels Eye Of The Camera #3 (Regular Version)
Marvel 1985 HC (Book Market Tommy Lee Edwards Cover)
Ben: If you missed it the first time I blame the invention of diarrhea on you.
Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Captain America Vol 3 HC (Regular Dust Jacket)
Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Captain America Vol 3 HC (Variant Dust Jacket)
New Avengers Vol 3 HC (Book Market Edition)
New Avengers Vol 3 HC (Direct Market Edition)
Ultimatum March On Ultimatum HC
X-Men Original Sin HC
Ben: A whole lotta apple eating going on.
Scourge Of The Gods #1 (Regular Aleksa Gajic Cover)
Scourge Of The Gods #1 (Variant Aleksa Gajic US Cover)
Doktor Sleepless #10 (Wizard World Texas Edition)
No Hero #1 (Mid-Ohio Con Edition)
No Hero #2 (Auxiliary Edition)
Art Of Paul Duffield #1 (Reg Cvr)
Art Of Paul Duffield #1 (Signed Premium Edition)
Art Of Paul Duffield #1 (Wizard World Texas Edition)
Crossed Sketchbook Wizard World Chicago Edition
Usagi Yojimbo Vol 3 #117
Star Wars Legacy #32
Umbrella Academy Dallas #3
Mister X Condemned #2
Ben: I would just like to take this moment to thank Dark Horse for printing four comics with a total of four covers. Well done.
Chad: And on the other side of the coin, we have Devils Due…
Sheena Vol 2 Dark Rising #3 (Cvr A Lee Ferguson)
Sheena Vol 2 Dark Rising #3 (Cvr B Shawn McManus)
Sheena Vol 2 Dark Rising #3 (Cvr C Kalman Andrasofsky)
Hothouse The Long Afternoon Of Earth GN
Presidents Of The United States GN
Chad: Oh man, do they do that “Lump” song in this book? I always liked that one.
Skate Farm Vol 1 GN IDW Edition
Proof #16
Chad: It’s in the pudding.
Savage Dragon Vol 2 #144
Astounding Wolf-Man #12
Dragon Prince #4 (Cover A Jeff Johnson)
Dragon Prince #4 (Cover B Ryan Sook)
Dead Ahead #2
Savage #4
Heathentown GN
Zombie Tales #10 (Cvr A)
Zombie Tales #10 (Cvr B)
Galveston #3 (Cvr A)
Galveston #3 (Cvr B)
Hero Squared Love & Death #1 (Cvr A)
Hero Squared Love & Death #1 (Cvr B)
Xena vs Army Of Darkness What Again #4 (Ash Choking Xena Cover)
Xena vs Army Of Darkness What Again #4 (Xena Choking Ash Cover)
Terminator Revolution #2 (Nigel Raynor Cover)
Terminator Revolution #2 (Richard Isanove Cover)
Garth Ennis Battlefields Dear Billy #1 (Incentive Cassaday Black & White Variant Cover)
Garth Ennis Battlefields Dear Billy #1 (Regular Garry Leach Cover)
Garth Ennis Battlefields Dear Billy #1 (Regular John Cassaday Cover)
Ben: At least it keeps the printers busy.
Giving credit where credit is due... the "Make Mine Money" tagline was thought up by Chris Smits aka Superfist in his excellent review of Mighty Avengers # 21 last week.
I stole it from him fair and square though - I asked permission first. I hope you like it, as I intend to repeat it ad nauseum whenever Marvel Comics is mentioned.
This is why I flagrantly pirate comics without regret. $4 for ten minutes of entertainment? That's what phone sex hotlines charge
The price increase is blatant greed that they focused on the "popular" books. Can't argue that.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, Grant Morrison is a hack. What's worse is that Didio is a BIGGER hack. Actually a giant hack/douche who's run the place to the ground. Final Crisis is evidence of that. I mean it really offends me as a reader to have a company want so badly to fix the mixing up and buying of other comic companies into ONE major universe and then to keep going back and screwing with it. I don't appreciate the fact that I have to open up DC comics wikipedia to read and understand a story. It's also offensive to create massive crossover storylines that cannot be appreciated by casual readers because of a convoluted piece of filth writer keeps referring back to his own work. Call me cynical or simplistic but I just want ONE freaking Superman.
Oh and Batman RIP, Final Crisis, and Battle for the Cowl is all pointless! Morrison/Didio have all ready come out and said that Bruce Wayne/Batman will be back. Way to waste it. No wonder everyone saw through that death. Atleast the death of Captain America was respectful. Sure he'll be back but no one is saying when or how but it probably won't be within a year like Batman.
Last complaint, stop screwing up Kirby's work! It's blasphemous.
Any reader of Mania should get used to reading that phrase, I will probably end up using Make Mine Money! every time it fits. Ever heard of a 25 cent increase? That I might've said ok to, but the flat out dollar hike is just too blatant and insults their customers. But it seems the customers deserve to be insulted, they keep buying the stuff after all.
noblenonsense - I don't think I'd go so far as to call Grant Morrison a hack (I have enjoyed a fair amount of his work), but it does seem to me that DiDio handed the man the 'Keys to the Crisis' without reading his resume. Crazy, convoluted and nonsensical? Well, that's par for the course.
As for your "DC wikipedia" comments: I go both ways on that argument... on one hand, I'm an old-school fan who appreciates the little nods and winks to the Silver and Golden age. And I do love me some multiverse. But on the other hand, it can be overwhelming and it certainly doesn't invite new readers into the fold. Also, there's a right way and a wrong way to handle it. For the right way, see anything Geoff Johns does. It would seem that most readers feel that Morrison has a good handle on the wrong way.
Of course, in the past the word "Crisis" has generally involved lots of history and encyclopedic knowledge of the DCU, so maybe it's fair to say that's actually par for the course as well?
Hey, at least DC isn't charging us an extra dollar for Batman and Detective Comics!
Chad, your articles rock, but there's something fishy about you railing on Marvel & DC for their price increases (or pending increases) and then moving their listings to the top of the spinner rack for the first time.
Re: Make Mine Money
I'm slowly being pushed away from comics as a multi interesting hobby. While I have always enjoyed the medium as entertainment the product itself lent it towards being a unique collectible. In the 90's that aspect was tarnished and exploited with holo-foil, chrome, gate fold, lenticular covers. Then around the turn of the last century it was blown up with the advent of cancel and renumber. I blame Heroes Reborn for planting the seed.
I do not need or want Catwoman vol.2 #1 six months after you cancel vol.1 at issue #95. Would I rather have a GL #200 with a return of Hal Jordan or another #1 after a series of minis that also had #1s? I want the unique #200 because it doesn't happen often let alone with a solo GL book. AMS, Thor, Cap, Iron Man along with Green Arrow, Flash, WW and JLA are books the core fans are going to buy so market the stories and not the number.
The rising cost to the inevitable $3.99*cough 4bucks* means I'm all but through with the monthly ritual. I want to enjoy the entertainment but when TPB can be obtained at better prices than a per issue format the choice is easy and clear. I've been making the transition for years now. The day that Ghost Rider and Moon Knight get cancelled will be the day my weekly ritual to the comic store dies. DC loses me in Feb with Robin,Nightwing and BoP. Any DC reading will done irreguarly, Marvel your next it seems. The price increases help make it even easier.
Thanks for the compliment, AMiSHPiRATE! As for the fishiness of the Spinner Rack, you'll have to talk to Mr. Johnson about that one. He's the man in charge of the Rack - I just add my two cents before it winds up here.
But now that you mention it... I did see him sporting a new watch and some alligator shoes recently. And last time I saw him, he was just ending a phone conversation with someone he referred to as "Da Q". Hmmm...
Noblenonsense-
I rarely blog but I had to jump in and defend Morrison. Secret Invasion amounted to nothing more than a massive superhero throwdown which we've seen a hundred times over again. And I can guarantee that Dark Reign will end the same way. Final Crisis has tried to be something different. We still got a lot of action but the story isn't very typical and I think it will be a significantly better read in trade. But Morrison has contributed quite a bit of great material to the comic book medium. I got back into comic books because of his JLA series. It is one of the best JLA series in the history of the canon and I have just about everything JLA that has been published in trade or singles. I would say he has one of the best interpretations of batman both in JLA and in RIP. Batman is a bigger character than Capt. America so they don't really have a choice, they have to bring him back and I agree it was stupid to let the cat out of the bag but you know with a billion dollar movie franchise that's not even finished they aren't going to kill the character off. The fun of RIP was the trip throughout the story. I loved what Morrison did, the idea of batman having calculated so many outcomes he created an alternate personality to protect him from brainwashing. I thought it was great. Sure Final Crisis hasn't been perfect but I have enjoyed it way more than Secret Invasion and the tie ins have been really great. Legion of Three Worlds, Revelation, the Flash's Rogue title have all been very good so far. They tie directly into the FC story. I can't speak for every DC book but just the FC stuff has been good. I think it is a little overblown to call Morrison a hack. In fact next to Alan Moore and Neil Gaimon he's on of my favorite writers so I couldn't just let that slide. I respect your opinion I just disagree completely with your comment about Morrison being a hack. He is extremely talented and continues to push the envelope and tell great stories with just about every project he takes on.
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I wonder how much money they would save if they stopped with all the *^&^%$#%$ vaiant covers ?