See, the problem with a reaction like this is, while it makes sense from a corporate perspective (i.e. the 'no man, no problem' rule, known in South Carolina as the 'shoot first and go to Applebee's' rule), it makes absolutely no sense from any other perspective. Dig this...the solicits for this issue have been sitting quietly in full view of the public for some time now. The guard-dogs of Murrikan values apparently only get to slavering when the meat is plopped in front of them. They're too lazy to go digging for it. And DC (or their handlers at WB) have figured that little fun-fact out.
Comics ain't news, no matter how Warner Bros or Disney try and spin it. They're slow-news day or Sunday edition filler at best. Which means that DC actually made a bigger mess out of pulling issue 712 than it would have been had it been plopped down on the racks on Wednesday whenever. And even then, only those of us who read the 'trade journals' care.
But because DC/Warner is courting a fairly ambivalent media, they can't risk doing something that'll offend the 0.1% of the population who don't read comics yet still feel as if they have the option to decry what goes on in said comics. Issue 712 is, in a sense, a sacrifice to a minority whose vocal aggressiveness far outstrips its potential as a consumer of the offending material. They ain't gonna buy it now, they weren't buying before and thus, logically, they ain't no loss. Oh, granted, there'll be a few folks who feel put-upon by the presence of a [insert disparaged social/cultural/economic scapegoat] in their funny-books, and they'll drop it like it was hot, but let's be honest...that happens with any popular medium. It's like the fluctuation of the tides.
No, what DC is doing here is playing to the 'potential customer' base. It's part of the same strategy that brought us the clean slate of the reboot, only reversed. It's a publicity stunt, designed to show the vocal minority that DC is just like they remember (aside from the decapitations, revealing costumes and genocide), 'Mom and Pop and Apple Pie, why not come on down to the local internet cafe and buy a couple of issues, hey?
The question is...will it work? And if it does, what's next?
EDITED TO ADD: David Brothers, as always, puts it succinctly.
4 comments:
I am in absolute agreement with David Brothers on this. this reeks of cowardice, and, yes, party-line bigotry. I swear: DC can kiss my big old hippie arse. as much as I dearly want to see more Krypto stories, I don't want to get them like this. this is gonna leave a bad taste in my mouth for a long time to come.
& I never knew about the Thoreau thing, either. wow. that's some pretty ham-fisted, dumb, clumsy writing, that is, 'ey? what happened to Straczynski, then? I don't get it. I remember really liking Midnight Nation. . .
Straczynski has shown a remarkable tendency to get bored with projects that he doesn't own. And he's never been subtle, IMO.
Like as not, the problem is that JMS doesn't seem to be as genre-savvy as most of the Big Two's writers...he doesn't seem to realize that his pet concepts have been explored before, at length. Then, when folks point this out, he loses interest and moves on.
Something worth considering. After the Action Comics #900 fuss, DC reprinted the book. In the old dayd they'd have pulped it.
So, a reverse-reverse publicity stunt then? Pretend to pull it in order to drive sales of the eventual release up via manufactured outrage and indignation?
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