Villains Month: interruption or not?

[JohnMayo]

One of the things I noticed last year with the zero issues was how some of them fit naturally into the flow of the story for the titles while others didn't.

With Forever Evil, I've noticed that a few titles (and I'll admit to having already forgotten which ones) seemed to be at an odd place to pause for the Villains Month issue(s). Others seemed to be at a perfect place for an issue (or more) to focus on the villain.

What do you all think? Is Villains Month interrupting some of the ongoing stories or not?

[comicm]

Not at all for me. Bring on the Bad Guys.

[fudd71]

I am excited about Villains’ Month and am looking forward to the books. Many titles that would be interrupted simply don’t have an issue coming out this month, in a way that is less of an interruption then simply a delay. Sure it is a planned delay but a delay nonetheless. We will see how this plays out and if the affects of Forever Evil play out in future issues when these books return

While there are parts of this event (let’s not argue over the definition of what an event is at this point) that are an interruption, I see them more as highlighting a larger editorial issue found in almost all major and not so major shared universes in comics. Each and every major character seems to have multiple versions that are incompatible with other versions of the same character in the universe at the same time.

A modern storytelling style that adds to this problem is the nonlinear issue (something personally I have seen way too much of), the problem is this leads to pages being labeled so far in the future or past (“yesterday”, “5 hours ago”, “3 hours from now” “one week from now” or some other similar nonsenses). This doesn’t seem like a problem until you realize it also leads to the inevitable page labeled “now”, “currently”, “the present” or something similar. You then tell two or more stories (arcs) in this style and then retroactively say story A took place before story B. This is not clever or anything of the like it is a lie plain and simple, you tell me each week that something is now you can’t then say this now is before the now three weeks ago. That is completely opposite to the definition of the word now. If you are going to tell me a current story took place before a previous story and the previous story has a page labeled “now” the current story you are telling better not say anything other then “3 weeks ago”, “months ago” whatever, but they can’t have any pages labeled “now” and then expect me to believe the new “now” is before the old “now”. That is a lie and lazy writing and completely incompetent editing.

My other concern is that things will happen to characters in one book and be ignored in the next. Perfect example, Batgirl is not at a good stopping point but is only one issue into a new arc. (As an example) I don’t want to see Barbara taken off planet and locked in an alien prison for several months in the event only to have the Batgirl title resume like it 10 seconds after the end of the previous issue and none of the event stuff is mentioned or even seems to have happened. This is the type of lazy writing and super lazy editing that really makes me question how much comic creators really care about their work. The current Catwoman title has already had some of this problem, the Catwoman in the Catwoman title is seemingly unaffectted by the actions of the Catwoman in Justice League of America, the Wonder Woman in the Wonder Woman title is completely different and unrecognizable from the Wonder Woman in Justice League.

Okay I have ranted enough. I am still looking forward to the month and can’t wait to get home and start reading.

[comicm]

The covers are 100% better than expected. Man those 3-D covers are some of the best covers I have ever seen.

[fudd71]

The covers are 100% better than expected. Man those 3-D covers are some of the best covers I have ever seen.

I have to agree!!! I do not normally care about covers in the least, but these 3D covers truly are spectacular.

On a separate note I had told my shop that I didn't care and would be happy to take the 2D covers. My LCS owner in an amazing act of customer service pulled the 3D covers for me and said "As one of the most loyal DC customers the store had I absolutely deserved to have first chance at the books, and all regular purchasers of the DC titles got the 3D covers first". I have to tell you that for a LCS I am blessed to have what I would argue is one of the finest in all the land. I walked in around 6 PM this evening and there were no 3D covers to found on the racks. Even though I had said I didn't care and I'm sure my copies could have sold earlier in day, they were held for me and I received my normal discount on them all. There was another comic shop in town I know that already had the 3D covers marked up to $8 & $10. Not that this is news or surprising to me it is still nice to know my faith and loyalty to this great shop and its wonderful staff was rewarded. Any fellow forum member in the Southern California area looking for an LCS I can wholeheartedly recommend House of Secrets in Burbank, CA. I actually live closer to several other comic shops, including stores like Golden Apple, Meltdown and Secret Headquarter (larger stores that consistently make national lists of best stores or are known for there celebrity signing or in the case of Meltdown where the Nerdist Podcast is recorded) but I am happy to drive the extra 10 miles each week to shop at a store that has better customer service then any other store I have been to or even heard of.

[JohnMayo]

On a separate note I had told my shop that I didn't care and would be happy to take the 2D covers. My LCS owner in an amazing act of customer service pulled the 3D covers for me and said "As one of the most loyal DC customers the store had I absolutely deserved to have first chance at the books, and all regular purchasers of the DC titles got the 3D covers first". I have to tell you that for a LCS I am blessed to have what I would argue is one of the finest in all the land.

That does sound like a great comic shop. Any chance you could grab a business card from it as post it on the thread I started from comic book store business cards (http://comicbookpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1890)?

[comicm]

The covers are 100% better than expected. Man those 3-D covers are some of the best covers I have ever seen.

I have to agree!!! I do not normally care about covers in the least, but these 3D covers truly are spectacular.

On a separate note I had told my shop that I didn't care and would be happy to take the 2D covers. My LCS owner in an amazing act of customer service pulled the 3D covers for me and said "As one of the most loyal DC customers the store had I absolutely deserved to have first chance at the books, and all regular purchasers of the DC titles got the 3D covers first". I have to tell you that for a LCS I am blessed to have what I would argue is one of the finest in all the land. I walked in around 6 PM this evening and there were no 3D covers to found on the racks. Even though I had said I didn't care and I'm sure my copies could have sold earlier in day, they were held for me and I received my normal discount on them all. There was another comic shop in town I know that already had the 3D covers marked up to $8 & $10. Not that this is news or surprising to me it is still nice to know my faith and loyalty to this great shop and its wonderful staff was rewarded. Any fellow forum member in the Southern California area looking for an LCS I can wholeheartedly recommend House of Secrets in Burbank, CA. I actually live closer to several other comic shops, including stores like Golden Apple, Meltdown and Secret Headquarter (larger stores that consistently make national lists of best stores or are known for there celebrity signing or in the case of Meltdown where the Nerdist Podcast is recorded) but I am happy to drive the extra 10 miles each week to shop at a store that has better customer service then any other store I have been to or even heard of.

That is very cool. I had a very similar experience with my shop owner because I was not sure I was going to get all of the covers through DCBS.

[spid]

I just got my books from DCBS with a couple of the books I ordered involved in this promotion. I only picked them up because I liked the idea of the 3D covers. Man am I impressed with these covers. If I had known these covers would be this good and I was in a better financial situation I would have got a lot more books.

[comicm]

I agree the covers are very well done. I did not expect them to be as nice as they are.

[JohnMayo]

I've managed to avoid the covers entirely so far. This has been easy to do since I get my comics from DCBS. Given that my next DCBS order is looking huge (even by my standards), it is probably best that I continue to avoid the 3D covers.

[SpideySavestheDay]

On a separate note I had told my shop that I didn't care and would be happy to take the 2D covers. My LCS owner in an amazing act of customer service pulled the 3D covers for me and said "As one of the most loyal DC customers the store had I absolutely deserved to have first chance at the books, and all regular purchasers of the DC titles got the 3D covers first".

My shop did the same and managed to hold 6 of the 7 3D covers for me. For whatever reason they ran out of Reverse Flash covers for all their pull boxes. Other shops did mark up their prices of the 3D covers but all had plenty of 2D's stocked.

I do think the gimmick covers are fun but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra $1. I ran over budget and was unable to pick up a few other books due to it (ironically Forever Evil #1, the very mini-series that spawned the villains' month, fell outside of my spending limits). DC will make a killing with the promotion. Especially since only their higher selling books are being published this month in duplicate, triplicate, or quadruplicate.

As for the original question about interrupting the stories, not sure yet.

[comicm]

On a separate note I had told my shop that I didn't care and would be happy to take the 2D covers. My LCS owner in an amazing act of customer service pulled the 3D covers for me and said "As one of the most loyal DC customers the store had I absolutely deserved to have first chance at the books, and all regular purchasers of the DC titles got the 3D covers first".

My shop did the same and managed to hold 6 of the 7 3D covers for me. For whatever reason they ran out of Reverse Flash covers for all their pull boxes. Other shops did mark up their prices of the 3D covers but all had plenty of 2D's stocked.

I do think the gimmick covers are fun but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra $1. I ran over budget and was unable to pick up a few other books due to it (ironically Forever Evil #1, the very mini-series that spawned the villains' month, fell outside of my spending limits). DC will make a killing with the promotion. Especially since only their higher selling books are being published this month in duplicate, triplicate, or quadruplicate.

As for the original question about interrupting the stories, not sure yet.

That is interesting because my shop received absolutely 0 Reverse Flash 3D covers and that is the only one I am missing.

[fudd71]

My shop did the same and managed to hold 6 of the 7 3D covers for me. For whatever reason they ran out of Reverse Flash covers for all their pull boxes. Other shops did mark up their prices of the 3D covers but all had plenty of 2D's stocked.

I do think the gimmick covers are fun but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra $1. I ran over budget and was unable to pick up a few other books due to it (ironically Forever Evil #1, the very mini-series that spawned the villains' month, fell outside of my spending limits). DC will make a killing with the promotion. Especially since only their higher selling books are being published this month in duplicate, triplicate, or quadruplicate. As for the original question about interrupting the stories, not sure yet.

That is interesting because my shop received absolutely 0 Reverse Flash 3D covers and that is the only one I am missing.

Talking to friends, customers and local shop owners the allocations seem to have been much worse this second week as opposed to the first. Also the books stores got shorted were seemingly random. My shop for example got plenty of Reverse Flash but almost no Lobo, another nearby shop had Lobo but got almost zero Court of Owls. So these allocations seem somewhat random.

[SpideySavestheDay]

What do you all think? Is Villains Month interrupting some of the ongoing stories or not?

I've read the Batman and GL books and the answer appears to be yes and no. The villain's who are in the current arcs of those books (Relic & Riddler) have a story that fits within the ongoing arc. If readers of those stories don't want an interrupted storyline or burdened with stories outside the arcs, then they can skip the other books. Personally, I like the one-shots. Some are better than others but knowing at least one of the books fits with the arc is fine with me.

By the way, what is the deal with the Joker's Daughter 3D comic? Why would anyone pay $35 (current price on ebay) for it? Hate to see a large wave of speculators back in the market.

[JohnMayo]

While a few stories were interrupted, many of the villain month issues fit into the sequence smoothly. I was surprised by how many were very stories with fresh that weren't connected to anything prior to it and how many just ended with no direction of where to find the villain next. Virtually all of them were good reads but I'm not expecting them to having any substantial lasting impact (if any) on the sales of the ongoing titles.