So Marvel is doing a big reboot of their comics and as a specialty all of thier new comics will have 3D lenticular covers as well as traditional versions for a cheaper price.(most likely) Lenticular covers are pretty cool, they’ve got one image on there and as you move the image it becomes something else like this :
And then typically their traditional variant is typically a mix of the two pictures like this :
So both are pretty cool in their own right and most readers just care about a good story but if they can get a cool cover, why not, right? Well that’s typically been my thought process too. If I got them, great. If not, still great.
(If any retailer wishes to correct me on what I’m about to say then please do so.)Now traditionally with these kinds of things you have to order a certain amount of comics to get a few extra lenticular covers which is understandable if instead of ordering 15 copies, you have to order 25 to get them.(Just an example) Alright, makes sense and it’s not a difficult sell to have just a few extra copies lying around for back issue stock. But how has Marvel screwed this up?
Well according to a few various sources (I.E. Bleeding Cool News and my friends at my Local Comic Shop) Marvel is forcing people to order upwards of 100% to 200% of their previous comic orders to get the lenticular covers. Now while this wouldn’t affect a lot of the smaller titles think about Spider-Man or X-Men, you’re ordering 30 copies of a title and then you have to order somewhere in between 60-120 copies to get these covers? Well Marvel is taking a play right out of Wilson Fisk’s handbook cause guess what, that’s just for one comic. By my calculations my LCS would have to spend at least $1,500 just to get all of the covers. Add that to their normal order and that’s a hefty fee and I don’t blame them for choosing not to do this. Prominent retailers like MyComicShop have already said they’re not getting them and I don’t blame them either. This is a situation that needs to be fixed and Marvel owes these people an apology in my opinion.
I’ve seen a few people defend them by saying : “Well they cost more to make.” And I totally get that except for 2 very important facts :
1) Marvel is a Billion dollar company that has a Billion dollar subsidiary of a film studio and they’re both owned by an even bigger Billion dollar company. There’s no way that they absolutely need an extra $1,500 from any comic book retailer. Midtown Comics will most likely be one of the few retailers that can actually do it and not take a hit on it financially. Any other store is basically putting a death sentence on themselves.
2)(someone’s gonna get angry at me for this.)
DC Already did this, Twice.
Why don’t we call up our old friends at DC and figure out how they did Villains Month in a year where they didn’t have the backing of 3 blockbuster films? Sure, Man Of Steel made some money but it didn’t make Guardians, Spider-Man and Thor money. They even had 11 more titles on the racks than Marvel does this time around and they declared it a success.
Futures End wasn’t that great the following year, yeah I’ll give you that. But still, they didn’t try to take even more money from their retailers because of it.
In other words, there is no defense for Marvel here.
I love Marvel Comics but I don’t see why any retailer should have to offer an exceptional tribute of profits to get a promo item. You didn’t see them shelling out $1,500 for bouncy balls of the Watcher’s eye during Original Sin, now did you?
