The problem is that Marvel was making a profit before the price hike. If the $2.99 price tag was so low that Marvel was losing money, then by all means, bump up the price. That's why most indie comics are $3.99. Marvel, however, publishes so many titles and so many copies of each title that they'll still make a profit if they sell Dark Avengers or Thor for $2.99 each month.
It's like when gas prices steadily rose last year to damn near $4/gallon. I whined and moaned then, and I'll whine and moan now.
For the record, gas prices rising last year had nothing to do with supply, despite some eco-people complaining about reaching "peak oil". Prices rose because of runaway speculators, i.e. greedy people wanting to make a killing. Even amidst the rising cost of gas, the Bush Administration still was buying up reserves of oil it didn't need, helping the cost remain high. Ironically, it took the tanking of the economy to really bring gas down. In NY gas is usually under $2.80 most places; yes, it is now more expensive to buy a 22 page comic than it is to buy a gallon of gas.
I love how solicits claim comics are "32" pages. They are not, at least in terms of reading content. They're 22 pages with 10 pages of ads; whether house ads from Marvel or otherwise.
The loss of ad revenue has likely hurt the print arm the longest. Around 2006-2007 the amount of ads Marvel had was almost obscene. I vaguely recall a 22 page RUNAWAYS story that had 24 pages of ads around December sometime in 2007 or so. Nowadays not counting front and back covers, most comics have maybe 8-10 ads, and at least half are Marvel house ads for other comics. Ad revenue is a steady stream of income for print mediums, more so than actual monthly sales in many cases. It has been claimed that the reason Marvel publishes more books, even in the wake of a recession, is to keep ad prices at a certain rate. In recent articles Marvel bemoaned the notion of publishing "only" 40 titles if they took drastic measures to keep the cover price low. Personally I question whether the market can support the 100-150 books Marvel publishes a month. Nearly 1 out of every 2 comics on the racks are Marvel, and has been that way for a few quarters now.
There are some who see the prices of comics as low compared to other magazines and believe the future of the monthly comic is in doubling the price but also doubling the page count; say, $5 comics with over 40 pages of story a month; one poster on CBR suggested this. Frankly, most modern artists/inkers/colorists can barely handle 22 pages within 4-5 weeks. With late comics becoming more than a rare nuisance, that solution won't do.
Joe Quesada's business structure is many things, but I see part of it as very cynical. I easily seem him daring readers to abandon him, seeking a feast or famine structure. Daring the fans to "put up or shut up" every time he is asked an inconvenient question online or at a con, or someone did more homework than him and figured out that some story or policy or renumbering was illogical or flat out wrong, as with HULK #600. Therefore, the idea of Joe Q's Marvel so blatantly testing the wallet pain consumers and retailers are willing to endure in the wake of the worst recession in 20 years sounds about right to me. It's consistent.
The print medium has been taking hits lately, with many newspapers and magazines closing shop; even MAD magazine, which is attached to DC comics, shifted from monthly to quarterly, and had gone from zero ads in the 90's to many ads after. So some would say that some drastic actions in comics are inevitable. It is telling, though, that DC was the first of the big two to start going, "we'll actually try to justify the higher prices in some books with more content". Marvel CLAIMS they were "going to do that all along", so why keep quiet about it until, oh, a mere 2-3 months after back-up strips in many DC books were announced? Joe Q's loudmouth Marvel? Baloney.
Marvel's print arm held steady profits in last quarter 2008, which was seen as strong by many. That was just as $4 books were starting in mini's.
Prices are something that have risen at Marvel since Joe Q was freed from Bill Jemas; Jemas may have been a maniac with some bizarre and even terrible creative ideas (Mark Waid had some doozie stories), but he was the one trying to keep prices as close to $2.25 or $2.50 as possible. When the prices rose to $2.99, it was done gradually over about 12-24 months. Had Joe Q followed a similar slow rise strategy, the backlash wouldn't have been as harsh as it has become with a buck at once. But, I see that as more fitting to his provocative, passive-aggressive confrontational business nature. He reminds me of some sports radio personalities in NY radio who belittle or bully callers as know-nothings, but then conveniently forget when they are proven wrong, and expect you to do so, too.
Business wide, Joe Q's EIC tenure has been a huge success. PR wise with the customer base, despite advances in technology and con structures in the 21st century, it's been hit or miss. This price fiasco is simply one more example. Joe may not be as greedy or cynical as sports CEO's who rise seat prices to ridiculous amounts ($300+ for crappy games), but sometimes he seems like a microcosm of that strategy. There are ways to maintain and pursue profits without appearing or outright being full of contempt and cynicism for the customer base, as "out of touch" as they call it. Sadly, many businesses don't practice them.
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