LET'S TALK: DC 2.0

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:12 pm

BTW, John is "Mr. Crystal Ball"....

From his last CBR Mayo Report article:

John Mayo wrote:"G.I. Combat" #7 was solicited as the final issue of that series. The other titles likely to get phased out soon are "Grifter," "Blue Beetle," "Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear Men," "I, Vampire," "Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E." and "Legion Lost." The other possible title is "DC Universe Presents" but it might be considered an exception case since it is a series of miniseries disguised as a series and one of the few vehicles for getting character into the market without devoting a series or miniseries to them.

He named all 4 that got the ax.

I think I,Vampire & Firestorm should be watching their backs.......

Gilgabob · Post by **Gilgabob** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:41 pm

Four 2.99 titles replaced by another 3.99 title. I see the writing on the wall as far as "drawing the line" is concerned.

boshuda · Post by **boshuda** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:49 am

Gilgabob wrote:Four 2.99 titles replaced by another 3.99 title. I see the writing on the wall as far as "drawing the line" is concerned.

They dropped that ad campaign quite a while ago. I suspect they were trying for the Groupon effect. Hoping that by maintaining the $2.99 price point they could draw enough Marvel fans over that the print runs would increase in volume enough to make up that dollar difference. Many of the highest selling titles are $3.99, so only a fool wouldn't start pricing comics at $3.99. Unless you (as a publisher) investigate more and discover unexpected consequences like overall readership falling, people not buying the other comics to pick up the $3.99 comic, etc. It's not really a gain if people drop two less-favorite $2.99 comics to pay for the $1 increase on their favorite title.

I wish they would switch all comics to bi-monthly and put in 40+ pages of content (like gluing two months of comics together) and sell them for $3.99. Ok, not wishing. If I was wishing I would wish for something other than $3.99 comics. My standard answer for wishes are not allowed on this family-friendly forum.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 8:08 am

They may have dropped the "drawing the line at $2.99" campaign a while ago but they are still holding true to it. All of the $3.99 comics have a full length feature and a half length backup feature. We are getting more content in the comics for the $3.99 price tag from DC than from Marvel.

ctowner1 · Post by **ctowner1** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:59 am

JohnMayo wrote:They may have dropped the "drawing the line at $2.99" campaign a while ago but they are still holding true to it. All of the $3.99 comics have a full length feature and a half length backup feature. We are getting more content in the comics for the $3.99 price tag from DC than from Marvel.

Although Marvel is a bit funny on this. Thye have certain books that they consider "$3.99 books" - and you get no extra content, unless it's a $4.99 or higher issue - ex, Avengers, Spiderman.

But then you have the $2.99 books, and when you get a $3.99 version of that book, you DO get extra content. For example, the new DD: The End was $3.99 for about 33 pages of content.

So seems they just figure certain titles are more in demand - they're more price inelastic (to use an economic term), so they will make out by raising their price.

Two points on this: first, it might be shortsighted in terms of the company as a whole, as the higher price might induce people to stop buying their comics at all. Second, if they're not telling you its a bigger issue, you might now know it - so, for example, this DD I bought b/c I like Bendis's DD - so I'd pay $3.99 for it anyway. But I had no idea it was extra-sized until I actually read it. So I think they're missing a chance here in terms of not letting potential buyers know they're getting more for their $$ here.

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torchsong · Post by **torchsong** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:40 am

boshuda wrote: I wish they would switch all comics to bi-monthly and put in 40+ pages of content (like gluing two months of comics together) and sell them for $3.99. Ok, not wishing. If I was wishing I would wish for something other than $3.99 comics. My standard answer for wishes are not allowed on this family-friendly forum.

You know I could get behind this. Six big thick issues with more content I pay more for? I'd almost be willing to give that a shot.

boshuda · Post by **boshuda** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:35 pm

My brother in law just messaged me at work. He just received a copy of the first Wonder Woman trade from the New 52. His reasoning was basically that he's wanted to get into more superhero comics for a while, and since it was the NEW 52 he felt it would be a good time to try it. So chalk up one more success for DC. Depending on how he likes it he's planning on trying out some more. So that's cool. Part of it is that I handed him about 30 pounds of trades that I thought he would like a while back, but not much of it was superhero because he reads fantasy novels a lot and I tried to gear it more towards that. Plus he hated The Dark Knight Returns, which I had picked up for him for Christmas a little while ago.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:16 pm

Like many crossovers from major franchises, the less popular chapter sometimes fly off the shelves.

I only noticed because we were supposed to be reviewing Catwoman #13 on next week's Weekly Comics Spotlight and since I dropped the series a long time ago, I was just going to pick one up at the shop on Saturday for review and move on from there.

Sorry, sold out. I checked in with a bunch of SoCal shops and found, both Batgirl #13 (Oct 10 release) and Catwoman #13 (Oct 17 release) sold out completely on the day of release.

Shops didn't order heavy on these lower selling books, as a result, if people become interested in the crossover, there are no books to be had (I guess 2nd prints will be coming in a few weeks).

Looking on-line, the opportunists are asking upwards of $15 each for these (I don't know if anyone is actually paying that, but if I had a copy, I'd certainly sell it now). This kind of "hot" book price increase rarely holds in the long term.

So, the question I have for DC fans who got one or both of these:

Is the story GREAT? Is it worth the big prices being demanded for these comics? Would you (or will you now that you know) be trying to cash in & sell your copies?

Gilgabob · Post by **Gilgabob** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:57 pm

BobBretall wrote:Like many crossovers from major franchises, the less popular chapter sometimes fly off the shelves.

I only noticed because we were supposed to be reviewing Catwoman #13 on next week's Weekly Comics Spotlight and since I dropped the series a long time ago, I was just going to pick one up at the shop on Saturday for review and move on from there.

Sorry, sold out. I checked in with a bunch of SoCal shops and found, both Batgirl #13 (Oct 10 release) and Catwoman #13 (Oct 17 release) sold out completely on the day of release.

Shops didn't order heavy on these lower selling books, as a result, if people become interested in the crossover, there are no books to be had (I guess 2nd prints will be coming in a few weeks).

Looking on-line, the opportunists are asking upwards of $15 each for these (I don't know if anyone is actually paying that, but if I had a copy, I'd certainly sell it now). This kind of "hot" book price increase rarely holds in the long term.

So, the question I have for DC fans who got one or both of these:

Is the story GREAT? Is it worth the big prices being demanded for these comics? Would you (or will you now that you know) be trying to cash in & sell your copies?

I guess when there are crossovers like this that move into a title you normally wouldn't be picking up that Comixology would be a good place to get the chapter without having to hunt around for that book you need. As a bonus you don't have to bag and board the digital copy.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 4:02 pm

Gilgabob wrote: I guess when there are crossovers like this that move into a title you normally wouldn't be picking up that Comixology would be a good place to get the chapter without having to hunt around for that book you need. As a bonus you don't have to bag and board the digital copy.

If I wasn't interested enough to buy the comic I'm certainly not going to pay $2.99 to read it digitally.

The problem for me is I'm unwilling to pay full price for a digital comic. By the time the price drops on something involved in a crossover, reading it has generally become a moot point.

This may be an option for someone else, but not for me. I don't value the digital IP at the same level as something I can physically touch.

If the digital comics was 99 cents it would be a no brainer.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:50 pm

I got both Catwoman and Batgirl. The Batgirl had almost nothing to do with the Crossover, it was the finishing chapter in the story told in prior issues. Not bad either, but not sure why it's a prologue.

Catwoman at least had, presumably, a Joker appearance but the story had nothing to do with the crossover either. The story was .... well it depends on if you like things "realistic". If you read just for fun, it wasn't bad. If you're the type wondering how a scheme could ever be done in real life, you'd probably hate it. It involved a chess board in the real world I'll say without spoilers. It was nice to see a Catwoman tale not about stealing jewelry though.

Bob, I think you'd probably give it a 3/5. Even if you thought it was okay I really doubt it would make you pick it back up. That's just my opinion from seeing your other ratings on books I've read.

I won't be selling it though because I don't like holes in my runs and having a NM new copy is better than selling for $15 and buying an unsure NM in the future.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:53 pm

abysslord wrote: Bob, I think you'd probably give it a 3/5. Even if you thought it was okay I really doubt it would make you pick it back up. That's just my opinion from seeing your other ratings on books I've read.

Thanks.

LA Rabbit · Post by **LA Rabbit** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:53 am

Ha, the dangers of not pre-ordering. I heard all the hub-bub about Superman 13 and I really like Rocafort so I picked it up. I did not know it was part of some giant cross-over so it will probably be my last issue. As the reveal was spoiled, there isn't much else in the issue. It sets up the cross-over but I predict you will not need to read that issue to get the full impact of the cross-over.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:18 am

Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill announced for January 30th
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/before- ... ecial.html

Best of all is art by Steve Rude!

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:07 pm

3/5 to DC Universe Presents #12, rescued from a $1 bin at LBCC.

The Kid Flash story was fun, but the 'banter' was old by about half way thru the issue. At the end it pointed me directly to Teen Titans #12. Has DCU Presents become a rotating title that pimps crossovers into other New 52 books in general or just this issue?