Marvel D*** Move Towards DC

[WompuM]

http://robot6.comicbookresources.co...are-variant-in-exchange-for-unsold-dc-comics/

Just how successful was DC Comics' highly publicized Blackest Night ring promotion? That's what Marvel would like to know.

In an apparent attempt to find out, the publisher is offering direct-market retailers "an extremely rare" variant in exchange for covers from unsold copies of six titles linked to the DC promotion.

According to a press release sent this afternoon, for every 50 stripped covers Marvel receives by Feb. 16, retailers will qualify to receive one free Siege #3 Deadpool Variant.

The specified titles -- Adventure Comics #4, Booster Gold#26, Doom Patrol #4, Justice League of America #39, Outsiders #24 and R.E.B.E.L.S. #10 -- received significant sales boosts in November, thanks to a promotional incentive that allowed retailers who ordered a certain number of copies of each book to buy bags of the corresponding color plastic rings. For instance, for every 50 copies of Adventure Comics, retailers could buy two bags of blue rings, and for every 25 copies of Outsiders, they could buy two bags of violet rings.

In the case of a low-selling title like Booster Gold, the promotion meant an order increase of more than 35,000 copies over the previous issue. Critics at the time questioned how many of those would end up in the dollar bin. But a good number of fans and eBay sellers didn't care -- they were just happy to collect the plastic rings in Pokemon-like fashion.

The Marvel release notes that the offer isn't a Diamond-affiliated promotion, and that the distributor shouldn't be contacted. Instead, Marvel will get in touch with retailers once the publisher receives their submissions.

Huh. Anyone else really missing the point in this? I know these two are rivals but these is usually a live and let live attitude. This seems pretty unprofessional in my opinion.

 

[Iron Man]

I agree, very unprofessional and seemingly pointless. What does Joe Q gain from doing this? It just makes him look more like an idiot.

 

[Themanofbat]

I think it's cool....

 

[Spider-Jay420]

I uh, ....I don't get it.

Marvel wants to know how many DC Blackest Night ties in were sold, So they are saying: "Give Marvel your unsold DC books, and Marvel will give you exclusive variant comic books."?

Every 50 DC books = 1 Siege variant.

Why even bother? Can't you look at that month's sales figure and see what REALLY sold well? I wouldn't really say it's unprofessional, but juvenile, maybe.

I mean really, does Marvel need to know that badly how the Booster Gold Blackest Night tie in issue sold? Why do they care so much?

I could see them being interested in their sales if Blackest Night was the Watchmen or something, but it's not that big a deal. Is it?

 

[Iron Man]

I uh, ....I don't get it.

Marvel wants to know how many DC Blackest Night ties in were sold, So they are saying: "Give Marvel your unsold DC books, and Marvel will give you exclusive variant comic books."?

Even weirder, they're saying "Give Marvel the covers of your unsold DC books".

 

[Franklin Richards]

They prolly want to know how the ring promo worked.

 

[random_havoc]

Part of me thinks it's juvenile and Joe Q is just getting tantrumy that he's not controlling the sales as much as he used to.

Part of me likes seeing some rivalry between big competitors like this (like when WWF and WCW used to go at it). Giving an incentive to comic shops to rip the covers off of DC comics? C'mon, in a way, that's pretty awesome.

 

[Drz]

I'm surprised theres no Deadpool corp rings coming out personally.

 

[kguillou]

Why cant Marvel and DC just shake hands already? They're both wildly successful, they dont need to chew each other out. Besides we're long overdue for another Marvel/ DC crossover event.

 

[runawayboulder]

A bit of a ballsy move by Marvel. Kind of a bully tactic. I like the idea of giving out Deadpool Corp rings instead of a variant. That would mask them being ***** by trying to be funny at the same time. A DP ring would be more of a collectors item too.

 

[yenaled]

Why even bother? Can't you look at that month's sales figure and see what REALLY sold well? I wouldn't really say it's unprofessional, but juvenile, maybe.

Sales figures are based on what the diamond sold to comic book shops, there is currently no way of knowing what numbers were sold to customers.

I don't really understand the point of this but it doesn't really effect anything.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

There will be Deadpool Corps rings, you can bet your ass on it.

But I don't think there's anything malicious involved in that. The very nature of Deadpool is satire, self parody etc. It's just taking the piss out of the fact Deadpool and Green Lantern are linked by Ryan Reynolds. It wouldn't be Marvel ripping off DC I don't think.

 

[Docker2.0]

Marvel is probably looking for ways to do a "blackest night" themselves.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Well, they have Necrosha

 

[Docker2.0]

Ha! How much you want to bet within 2 years, Necrosha will affect the entire Marvel Universe instead of just the X-verse? That or the zombies will find away into 616.....something similiar to Blackest Night.

I'm a zombie til I die but even I have to admit Marvel does borrow some of it's ideas from DC, and vice-versa.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I think the idea of this is to get a sense for how effective the ring promotion was in real-world sales, as opposed to the distributor's numbers, which is usually all the companies look at. The market is set up so that the shops order from Diamond and Diamond distributes the comics directly from Marvel and DC. Whether the comics sell at the shops is irrelevant to the publishers' profits because as far as they're concerned, Diamond already bought the comics they printed and they get paid for every issue distributed. Marvel probably wants to see whether the ring promotion actually got more people reading comics or whether it simply resulted in lots of shops sitting on lots of unsold comics.

Or I could be totally wrong. Who knows how these corporate fat cats think?

 

[Spider-Jay420]

Part of me thinks it's juvenile and Joe Q is just getting tantrumy that he's not controlling the sales as much as he used to.

Part of me likes seeing some rivalry between big competitors like this (like when WWF and WCW used to go at it). Giving an incentive to comic shops to rip the covers off of DC comics? C'mon, in a way, that's pretty awesome.

I like the rivalry, too. We all get better comics in the spirit of competition.

And after reading it again, I don't think it's dickish at all. More like a "DC isn't fooling me (Joe Q) with the ring promotion. I know Booster Gold didn't sell, and now I'll show you."

I remember when the shops were selling the rings, but how much were they charging for the set? Anyone know?

 

[SuperFerret]

I got all 8 for about $15.

 

[CBG]

I wonder how DC will react. . .

 

[bryanss3]

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[Spider-Jay420]

I got all 8 for about $15.

That's a good deal for you, but doesn't really seem worth it for the shops. They gotta buy all those extra copies, just to make an extra 15 bucks? I wonder if selling the rings made up for the lost profit from the Booster Golds, and other tie ins. I doubt it.

 

[iloveclones]

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Man, Hitler schtick never gets old does it?

I love the officer's reaction when he says that he dressed up as Badrock for Halloween.

That video alone is going to get me through the day....

 

[Kenda Man]

...Why even bother? Can't you look at that month's sales figure and see what REALLY sold well? I wouldn't really say it's unprofessional, but juvenile, maybe.

I mean really, does Marvel need to know that badly how the Booster Gold Blackest Night tie in issue sold? Why do they care so much?

I could see them being interested in their sales if Blackest Night was the Watchmen or something, but it's not that big a deal. Is it?

I agree that they should just look up the records as well. I feel like it's a publicity stunt to cause commotion and a way to prevent Comic book stores and DC from making any more profit with those particular BN Tie-ins.

I see my LCS still has those issues and rings available if you want to purchase them. I don't know why Marvel requires the defaming of the comic books to reward the LCS with a variant issue.

How come Marvel can't just require the order receipt from the LCS for the BN-Tie ins and a number count of the issues instead of ripping the competitor's comics up? Unless Marvel is trying to stop the ring promotion from continuing, gather intel on how cooperative comic shops are for ordering excess quantities of books to get items to distribute with the comics (like the ring and comic promotion) and if customers are buying into it. I like the stamp idea someone proposed on the message board. I just feel it's a tacky move that could have been done more discreetly, but I guess it's cool to sabotage the competition. It will be the LCS owners' decision, but Marvel was the one that instated the idea.

What's to stop this from being a reoccuring thing?

"If you send in 100 covers of "Bightest Day 1", we'll give you 1 variant cover issue to "The Siege #5!" DC didn't bother Marvel during "Dark Reign" and it's Tie-ins, and offer a trade in 50 Dark Reign issues or tie-ins for a DC bag-of-rings-promotion.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Dark Reign isn't an event. It's a status quo.

 

[iloveclones]

I don't see what the fussing is about. The LCBS's would have gotten NOTHING for those unsold copies. At least now they can get a small something if they want.

Marvel should be aware of unintended consequenses. Since they can't really sell them anymore, if I were a LCBS, I'd give away the cover-less comics for free. Is that what Marvel really wants? Free samples of their competitors product being given out? Booster Gold is a pretty decent book. If I were Marvel, I sure wouldn't want someone dumping, say, Black Panther, and giving JLA a try.