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Here’s what I don’t understand.

Marvel’s said they’re printing to order on the Ultimate books. No overprint. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Now, it’s easy to see that they think the demand for these books will be such that kids will be selling ‘em on ebay for $20 each the day it comes out. It’s easy to see that these early announcements are geared to fright ening retailers into increasing initial orders in order to meet a demand that Marvel is telling them they should perceive. That’s cool; I’ve seen some of the world and how it works, and if retailers fall for that, it’s their store.

Ya can’t blame Marvel for trying to increase orders; I don’t even blame them for marketing comics as a manufactured collectible…

…but, you know…

…disco’s been dead so long it’s got house music parodies. You can buy Jim Lee X-Men and “Death of Superman”s and Doctor Solar #10s in any quar ter box in any part of the country.

It’s not 1986. It’s not 1993.

Looks like Jemas thinks the next big thing will be spending money on comics-as-collectibles, like it was back then … but even Todd MacFarlane isn’t spending his discretionary income on baseballs anymore. Comics-as collectibles is as dead as disco, pet rocks, and Beanie Babies put togeth er. No one buys comics now “as an investment,” yet that’s what it looks like what Marvel’s executive team is banking on. It looks like Marvel is cater ing to an audience that isn’t around anymore, and is too busy trying to find a PlayStation 2 to buy than to worry about what’s going on with Spider Man.

But.

Stuart Moore is over there. And Axel Alonso. Those guys have good instincts. I bet if they can keep their heads down, do their jobs, get the good folks over there producing entertaining stories in the excellent medi um which is comics, it won’t be collecting comic books, like Jemas thinks…

…it’ll be reading those comic books...

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