Marvel offers retailers a 'rare' variant, in exchange for unsold DC comics

Really? Um, ok.

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/01/marvel-offers-retailers-a-rare-variant-in-exchange-for-unsold-dc-comics/

http://blog.newsarama.com/2010/01/13/marvel-looks-to-exploit-blackest-night/

Thoughts?

Lame and pointless.

Ballsy, but I like it. It's this kind of rivalry that we need, I think. It's all in good fun, but is clearly meant to send a message.

It's so spiteful! I think it's a devious and deplorable plot, but it's also pretty funny. Marvel is always good about constantly stoking the fires of competition between themselves and DC. I can't say it's a practice I endorse, but I don't mind sitting back and watching the fur fly.

That's where I'm at. I like it, but it Is a major dick move.

The way I look at it, it's not like retailers are being forced to do anything. And I can't imagine retailers would send back a shit-ton of DC books, unless they aren't selling at all. To break even they'd have to sell a single Deadpool variant at $150, and that's assuming the 50 DC books they send back are all $2.99, a lot of the books on that list are $3.99 books. Of course, it really depends on how much retailers over-ordered on their Lantern ring comics.

Exactly. And to be fair, the Lantern ring incentive was a good idea.

This is just some lame playground shenanigans in my opinion. Kind of interesting the more I think about it though.

If the variant was given away for free, like the rings were, I'd actually give a crap.

Well I just got off the phone with my LCS they don't even have 50 books to shred. They didn't buy into the ring hype and were able to aquire enough to give some away to people who didn't buy those books anyway. But the owner says that with the shop cost (meaning not retail cover price) it is about $2 an issue. So this Deadpool cover is going to be about a $250 book from the start to gover the profits and everything. I say it goes for $500 in the first week.

I think it is smart. It gives retailers that bought into the DC hype an out for over ordering.

Retailers' view of the situation: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/01/14/retailers-weigh-in-on-marvels-comics-for-comics-promotion/

My favorite quote:

I actually wish Marvel would do something like this with their own titles, like 'Dark Reign,' because we seem to have a lot more problems with them than the 'Blackest Night' tie-ins.

This just screams of Marvel being mad they didn't come up with something like the ring promotion for lower selling titles lol. I have a feeling part of the reason Marvel is doing this is to feel out the demand for their own potential similar promotion.

^ I kind of agree with that.

Marvel may be realizing that they've been slipping. So what do they do? More commercialism. And using a rising star like Deadpool to instigate it, no less.

Joshua wrote:
My favorite quote:

I actually wish Marvel would do something like this with their own titles, like 'Dark Reign,' because we seem to have a lot more problems with them than the 'Blackest Night' tie-ins.

It is weird. It seems to me, and this is just slight observation, that Marvel is talked about more, and that it does sell more. But my opinion of DC, not even including Vertigo, Wildstorm or other, is that it is superior in quality.

Well, like you guys have said, let's see them both unzip to see who's bigger.

I don't know. To me, nowadays, both DC and Marvel produce the same crap. Vertigo and MAX still offer good, quality stuff, though.

This is a huge dick move by Marvel. I don't see a lot of retailers jumping at the chance to get these variants.

Want to know what some retailers are saying?

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/01/14/retailers-weigh-in-on-marvels-comics-for-comics-promotion/

^ Ha. They used that same clip and subtitled it as an argument over the Late Night show between Conan and Jay.

jaydee74 wrote:

I wrote a long thing about this this morning, but it's really nothing that hasn't been covered in that Comics Alliance link. I honestly think that this isn't being done out of any mean spiritedness, but a desire to see if folks were actually able to move those books that put up those numbers. I know we have exactly 50 of that lot of books, but there's no way that I'm sending what is for us $80 worth of product (cost) for a variant that *maybe* one of my customers will want (I have one guy who's a variant hunter, but he's also kind of cheap).

Of course, if they do manage to get a good response (we'll never know, they'll probably say they have anyway) that'll probably snidely point out that the sales data on those issues are flawed or something. They may well just be looking to see how a promotion like this was actually received "on the ground." That's something that could be achieved by, I don't know, calling me? I've been in the comics biz for just over 5 years now and the only time I've ever talked to someone at Marvel was when I met Jim McCann at WWC '08. Nice guy, class act. When I was at my previous shop and when we opened the new one there was a DC rep that called every week for about 6 months to check and see if we needed reorders or to let us know when stuff was hot or news was about to be broken.

Whatever Marvel says in the future about this I'd take with a grain of salt. It's like them constantly talking about the Marvel Retailer Resource Center. They've been throwing everything at retailers to get us to buy in to this thing and for the most part we're not having it, because the cost is high and what they want to give us to "recoup our costs" is, you guessed it, variants. Variants and random free trades. The trades we didn't order when they had them on sale for a $1 a piece.

The Cap Reborn announcement fiasco, Siege returnability, the MRRC and now this? I can tell you Marvel is not making a lot of friends in the retail community right now.

With the economy the way it is, it would be better for companies to focus on quality products than creating hype."

QFT

Seriously, this is a desperate and petty move by Marvel. If they want to create competition, focus on the quality of the stories rather than cheap moves like this.

BlueMaxx wrote:^ Ha. They used that same clip and subtitled it as an argument over the Late Night show between Conan and Jay.

That's what we web dwellers call "Internet meme". This scene was used for dozens of jokes over the last two years, just look for them on Youtube.

Marvel should be doing this with copies of Cap Reborn instead of D.C.'s books. Who'd gonna bother picking up 5 and 6 when the aftermath book is already out.

Fuck you Marvel. I knew there was a reason I only got like 3 books a month from Marvel. I think now it's just gonna be X-factor

Never ever thought I would be writing this but I agree with hitler

I don't know but I don't see the uproar over this.

I don't view this as malicious by Marvel. We have to keep in mind that this is a business. There will be some retailers who think it's worth it and will look forward to getting rid of some of their stock of books that haven't sold. Others will do the math and see that it's not worth it. Either way I don't see how this affects me as a fan.

For one I didn't buy many of the ring books I just bought a set of the rings which was cheaper than buying all the books. The reaction this is getting just seems over the top. If this makes you stop buying Marvel comics then you are swayed very easily or just caught up in all the fanboy uproar. As fans we tend to forget that this is still a business that needs to make money to function. Sometimes that means taking shots at the opposition. It's done in all business.

Relax and enjoy comics