The New King of Comic Sales

What a difference a few days makes. Last Monday, I was talking about Marvel's Day and Date Digital announcement. I thought that news would keep Marvel in the spotlight of the comics blogoverse for a while, but Friday DC stole Marvel's thunder when Bleeding Cool revealed  DC outsold Marvel for October.



And for the most part, the comments (over a hundred so far) are very positive and congratulatory to DC. It seems that most readers are glad to see DC succeeding with the relaunch.

Some naysayers are talking about how things will return to normal (ie: Marvel going back to the top sales spot) in a few months, but I wouldn't count on that.

For one thing there are quite a number of new DC projects coming up in the 2nd wave of the relaunch including these titles:

• A new JSA book
  
• A new Captain Marvel book (spinning out of the Justice League back up series)
• Watchmen 2
• Grant Morrison's Multiversity
• Batman Inc. (Which I was really enjoying until the hiatus)
• World's Finest (or some Batman/Superman team up book)

With those titles on the horizon and the current line doing so well, I think Marvel will have a hard time dethroning the new king of the charts. Marvel's usual strategy of countering with new versions of Avengers, Spider-man and X-men have all been played out. This current overturning actually takes place in a month when Marvel released their new Wolverine and the X-men 1, which came in behind Incredible Hulk 1 (which just goes to show how much clout that franchise has lost due to overexposure.)

Here is a chart of the top ten for October. Looking at it, the number of $3.99 comics is a little dismaying. Also, if you know someone who paid $4.99 for Fear Itself 7, please give them my sympathy. :D I've heard nothing but disappointment about that series. It appears to have been a Toy Pitch gone bad.

1	JUSTICE LEAGUE #2	$3.99	DC
2	BATMAN #2	$2.99	DC
3	ACTION COMICS #2	$3.99	DC
4	GREEN LANTERN #2	$2.99	DC
5	FLASH #2	$2.99	DC
6	DETECTIVE COMICS #2 [*]	$2.99	DC
7	INCREDIBLE HULK #1	$3.99	MAR
8	WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #1	$3.99	MAR
9	FEAR ITSELF #7	$4.99	MAR
10	SUPERMAN #2 [*]	$2.99	DC

With that, I present today's Free Comic, featuring another sort of King. The Boy King! from Clue Comics 5



- Enjoy!

High Rez Reviews 2 | Justice League #1

Today, Caine returns with another High Rez Review - this one of the new Justice League!

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LAST ISSUE.....
It all started on May 31st...
"On Wednesday, August 31st, DC Comics will launch a historic renumbering of the entire DC Universe line of comic books with 52 first issues, including the release of JUSTICE LEAGUE by NEW YORK TIMES bestselling writer and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and bestselling artist and DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee. The publication of JUSTICE LEAGUE issue 1 will launch day-and-date digital publishing for all these ongoing titles, making DC Comics the first of the two major American publishers to release all of its superhero comic book titles digitally the same day as in print."

HIGH RES APP PREVIEW...
Today I'll be reviewing a comic purchased on my iPad from the DC Comics digital comic store: The Justice League.  As a rule these High Res Reviews will be spoiler free unless we give you lots of warning of the contrary.

 DC's Digital Comic store is laid out similarly over the web as well as on the iPad (so if you don't have an iPad the app portion of the review should still apply to web users/ readers).  At 2:00 p.m. eastern time I was able to launch the app and see the comics available on August 31st.  Before then there was a general weekly preview digital comic that was offered for free.  DC's Comixology powered app works just fine.  The comic was selected, paid for and downloaded very quickly over wifi with no glitches or crashes.

There is a problem, in this blogger's opinion, with DC's standard website however.  Simply put there is no link to download the comic from their browse comic page.  Now, you can access all of DC Comic's digital comics through read.dccomics.com but what happens if you don't know it or can't remember it?  If there was a link on the page below it wouldn't matter...

HIGH RES COMIC REVIEW...
The JUSTICE LEAGUE has always been DC Comic's greatest heroes come together to take on those threats too large for any of them to handle on their own.  The new JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 is no different, accept it that it is.  Confused?  Don't be.  You see Super Heroes are brand new to the DCU now.  They've only been around for about a year and all of them (by them I mean the JLU) seem to have sprung up nearly all at once around the U.S.  None of them really know each other and nearly all of them feel that the others may not even be real.

The book opens on the Gotham City roof tops with this "Batman" character being chased by the GCPD in riot gear, swat attack helicopters, and sniper rifles.  They don't seem to be assisting him, nor do they care that he's trying to save the city.  As the chase continues we are introduced to Batman for the first time only to have him literally bump right into the Green Lantern who's come to assist this mythical man who seems to dress up like a bat.

 We are introduced to the very arrogant Green Lantern (and I happen to think his updated personality is an improvement) for the first time and once they escape the police and continue chasing the threat to the city there is conversation of an alien who's rumored to exist over in Metropolis.  Where, as it would happen, is the very place they need to go.

You see?  It's all new, not only to us the fans/readers but to the characters inside the DCnU as well. 

The art by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair and the rest of the team possess a particular "gritty-tech" feel to it.  If you liked the way HUSH looked visually then you are all set.  Like all comics the art (and the writing) won't be liked by all fans but DC has their "Brightest" on this book so I'm betting they think this is the preferred look of the DCnU.

The art did not get in the way of the story, which flowed nicely and built to a climax at the end of the first issue as we were successfully re-introduced to three of the future members of the JLU,  teased by the namedrop of a major villain in the DCnU, and given a good dose of the way this new reality feels.  There were pleasant surprises, fun moments, and happy reunions that any major DC fan isn't going to want to miss. 

PAPER COMIC DEATHWATCH NOTE...
I went ahead and got my hands on the printed paper copy of the same comic and look what they are placing inside?  QR Codes.  :)

Well that about does it for this round of HIGH RES REVIEWS.  What do you think?  Are you a tablet owner?  Are you reading comics on it?  If so are you buying comics on it?  Thoughts on the 3.99 price point?  We'd love to hear from you about this review, and about digital comics in general.  Feel free to leave any comments you may have.

~Caine

The Beginning of a New Age

Editor's Note: I can't promise this will be the last article on the DC Relaunch you'll read on this site. As a comic news event, it's probably the biggest one we've had since Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted the DC Universe - and that didn't have the digital angle. So with that in mind, Clayton and I are happy to present some quick thoughts today on what is sure to be the start of a new age, one way or another. - Jim

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Clayton: To be perfectly honest, when I heard about the DC Reboot, I was a little concerned. However, I wanted to wait a little longer and see what they had to offer before I made any judgments.

Jim: Yeah, my knee jerk reaction was that as a creative move, it struck me as sort of played (how many reboots have we seen that failed?) but as a big, bold marketing move, it was sort of genius.

Clayton: Now after seeing their September previews, I can honestly say this just doesn't work for me. I can overlook many of the changes; even learn to accept this new Superman but there is a lot of stuff that rubs me too wrong.

Jim: I’m still in wait and see mode. I’m actually excited about both versions of Superman coming out. Morrison’s will be either an amazing success or a fabulous train wreck because that’s how Morrison’s stuff always seems to me. I have no idea what Perez will do with the character, but he’s such a classic old school guy that I’m betting I’ll find some stuff to like in it.

Clayton: I just don't like the fact that there is now, nor apparently ever was, a Justice Society of America. Decades of history that built the foundation of a once great company is gone. It has been said that they wanted the more contemporary heroes to be the originals. Big, big mistake!

Jim: That to me is one of the dumbest things about this. The beauty of the old DC Universe is that you had all of the characters from different spans of time in the universe (Golden Age, Silver Age, ect…) which meant that artistically, no one era dictated the look and feel of the universe. I mean, would anyone really design characters to look like Wonder Woman or Firestorm now? Imagine if this global redesign had taken place in the 90’s.

Clayton: As for their new line up of titles, very few actually appeal to me at all. I was once a huge Teen Titans fan, but honestly, I can barely keep my lunch down when I see what is going to pass for the Titans now.

Ok, that may be a bit harsh, but the uniform designs are really not the best, (And don't even get me started on Harley Quinn and Black Canary's new looks).  Speaking of the 90's, Black Canary actually has shoulder pads!

Jim: I’m looking forward to Justice League International and OMAC. Others I may check out our I, Vampire and Resurrection Man. (Which strikes me as a bit of a odd ball. Of all the titles to bring back, that’s the one they choose?)

Clayton: Yeah, it’s not all bad. There are some titles that I may start checking out. The new Hawk and Dove looks interesting, as well as Frankenstein: Agent of Shade. Legion Lost, The Grifter, Justice League International, possibly Blue Beetle, Fury of Firestorm, and Static Shock as well. If these comics can hold my interest, then maybe I will step out of myself a bit and try one or two of other titles.

Jim: Either way it works out, this promises to be one of the most exciting years in comics. :)

- Have a great July 4th Weekend everyone!