The List - 8/19/09

Time again for another edition of The List, but some of the books on here might not stick around on the List for too much longer...

BATGIRL #1 - In the wake of "Batman R.I.P." and BATTLE FOR THE COWL, a new heroine has emerged in Gotham City, and as she begins her nocturnal crusade to take back the night, she will truly learn what it means to wear the mantle of the Bat. But who is this young woman, and why has she donned the cape and cowl? - I've always been a fan of the Batgirl character if not the Batgirl book, so with the debut of a "new" Batgirl I'm excited for this book. This probably won't be something that stays on the List for a while, as I'm mostly just sampling the new title and seeing how it fits into the new status quo set up in the Bat-universe.

BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM #3 - Bruce Wayne is dead…long live Bruce Wayne! Gotham's favorite son has miraculously returned, promising to lead his city into a new golden age. But while Wayne devotes his limitless fortune to rebuilding Gotham City, he fights violent opposition from Batman, Robin and a host of DC Universe heroes!
And in the Manhunter co-feature, now that Manhunter has found the previous DA's killer – or, rather, the killer has found her – what is she going to do about it? Bringing the killer in for a trial may not result in the justice Kate's been dreaming of. But is she ready to kill for justice so soon after a fresh start in Gotham? - I've always been a Batman fan and right now I'm buying more Bat-books than ever, due to the Batman: Reborn push. I'm jsut wondering how long I can keep on it though. I'm still looking forward to these books but the excitement has started to wane. We'll see what falls off the List in the coming months.

BLACKEST NIGHT: SUPERMAN #1 -Black Lantern Superman has unearthed Pa Kent's grave! But that's only the beginning of the horrifying things he's about to unleash on an unsuspecting Smallville. Discover the demented evil of BLACKEST NIGHT in this 3-issue miniseries from writer James Robinson (SUPERMAN, STARMAN) and artist Eddy Barrows (TEEN TITANS, ACTION COMICS)! - The BN: Batman book last week was solid and I'm expecting the same from this weeks offering as well. While I've never been a big Superman fan I'm excited about this becuse well, just look at that cover. Everything about that screams "buy me" from the zombie Superman standing there to the grave of Jonathan Kent in that familiar chest-diamond shape.

OUTSIDERS #21 - "The Hunting" begins here! With Arkham Asylum's most dangerous inmates running free, The Outsiders are charged with returning them to Gotham City – by whatever means necessary. Batman and Alfred split up the team in order to track down Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze and Clayface before the rogues kill again! - Here we are again, I'm trying to make a decision about the Outsiders. It's hard because I've made this decision before: should I keep picking it up? or should I drop it? The last few months "Insiders" arc ran for what seemed like forever and kind of meandered about. It's hard when writers you love put out arc like that, because is it worth sticking around to see where it goes next?

Worth A $1?

This past month saw the begining of DC Comics co-feature initiative. These 8 page add-on stories continue the exploits of what DC's Executive Editor, Dan Didio calls:

“...a number of characters and series ideas that we firmly believe in and that a lot of creators are passionate about, but unfortunately, when it comes to the actual production of an actual series or a miniseries, they always run into some challenge when it comes to sales."

So a character like Blue Beetle, who had their shot at a solo series, and developed a fan base not large enough to support a monthly publication can still see print in the pages of a book like Booster Gold.

So now Booster Gold which used to run 32 pages for $2.99, will now be 40 pages long (with 8 of those pages being a Blue Beetle story) for a $3.99 cover price.

Also recieving the main title/co-features treatment are: Batman: Streets Of Gotham/Manhunter, Detective Comics/The Question, Teen Titans/Ravager, and the upcoming Doom Patrol/Metal Men, Adventure Comics/Legion Of Super-Heroes.

So are these extra add-on tales worth the $1 price hike? Well, thats a tricky question. While The Manhunter feature feels right at home in Batman: Streets Of Gotham, the Ravager feature feels like a Teen Titans B-plot, and not a bonus story. Likewise is the Question story, which feels tacked onto Detective Comics, despite being handled by a writer (Greg Rucka) who is known for both of the characters involved in the features. Although I haven't read it, it's also important to point out that the Booster Gold/Blue Beetle team-up has boasted some pretty positive reviews, and does warrant a looking into.

I'm more than willing to take into account that these are the first batch of stories and mostly just set ups for everything involved, so I'm not writing off anything yet. But at the same time I can see fans who aren't interested in the added material and the extra $1 added on to the price (namely books like Booster Gold and Teen Titans), even though most of these titles are new or in the case of Detective Comics, being relaunched with the new pricing.

Meanwhile when drawing company lines, last week Marvel released a total of 39 titles with 19 of which bearing a $3.99 price point, with little added material to any of the titles.

This is of course AFTER John Turitzin, Marvel's Executive Vice President, when addressing the Cowen & Company Tecnology Media & Telecom Conference stated that:

"...our company is a cash machine".

Like this, but with a Wolverine variant Dark Reign cover

Turitzin then continued on, "We’re always testing our pricing on our comic books to see the extent of which we can, you know, it is inelastic, and we can increase our profit in that business. We sell comics at different price points, we sell more popular comics at higher price points, we sell other ones at lower price points, we differentiate in pricing in that way, some of our comics aimed at kids, Marvel Adventures line is a lower priced line. We’re just looking to maximise our profits for business, without alienating our own fanbase, without making them feel that they’re gouged, which I hope you don’t feel. Our goal is to maximise our revenue, and if we’re not maximising our revenue then our pricing is wrong and we have to take a look at that. So you can hope that we see that attrition and our prices come down.”

So while one head is saying that it's all about pulling in the revenue and made no mention of increased costs in producing the books, over at Comic Book Resources, in his Cup O' Joe column, Marvel's Editor in Chief is holding onto the argument that the increased prices are going towards such costs as printing and distibution as well as maintaining the stable of creators. Maintaining that there is no conspiracy involving the raising prices.

So how much longer can Marvel and DC hold the line before bringing their entire catalogs to the #3.99 price point? We'll see.