For weeks I'd been watching the hype build on the particular issue of
Amazing Spider-Man, in which ol' Web-Head and
President-Elect Barack Obama team-up at the inauguration. So this morning I decided to brave the cold, and head to three different local comic shops to witness the carnage first hand and, if I was lucky, might even snag a copy of the book.
I have to say, I am
terribly disappointed in the way comic shops are handling this issue. Sure, there's cashing in on people's buying habits (
thanks news media!) and then there's just plain taking
advantage of people to make a little extra money. I parked outside of one particular store (who will remain nameless) for almost 30 minutes... an HOUR before he opened in order to get the Barack Obama cover to this book. I entered and walked to the new book shelf to find...*GASP!* NO ISSUES!?!?
Um.
What did I miss?
Several others asked the same question I did...'where's the Barack cover?' He insisted that the book was a 1:75 variant and Marvel gave him no advance warning on the printing of this book. SO, while in line, the lady behind me showed me HER copy of the Barack book, purchased right up the street at another LCS at the bargain price of...$19.00.
Well, let me debunk the myth as told to me by at least 2 comic shops who checked with their reps at the distributor.
Let's say comic shops were asked to order...20 copies of COMIC X #1. If you ordered AT LEAST 21 copies of COMIC X #3A, you were allowed to order at the very least 21 copies of COMIC X #3B, if not more. So this book
MIGHT qualify as a ratio of 1:75...depending on your ordering habits, but I have a feeling all the Barack covers at this shop either went the route of EBAY.
You might be wondering why I'm including this information in a
review for this book. So just to cover my backside, here's my review:
It's a 5-PAGE back-up feature written by
Zeb Wells *
yawns* and drawn by
Todd Nauck (
of Young Justice fame) that honestly, is meant to be an
homage to Obama, but comes off as honestly, a very juvenile lackluster fizzle-of-a-story that honestly, could have been included in the middle of
ANY Marvel comic as a bonus feature.
Didn't Marvel do something very similar to this with something called "In the Fast Lane" a few years back??? Disappointment abounds.
But all this information I've provided was meant to come to one conclusion: this was meant to
SELL BOOKS. And it worked. People were there at the comic shop ready to drop money on these issues in
numbers I haven't seen shops in a while, and shops were ready to take
every penny.
How ironic that
FINAL CRISIS #6, (the supposed
DEATH OF BATMAN issue) sat quietly in a stack of books with little fanfare.
So, to sum it up, if you got this book,
GOOD FOR YOU. By luck or by happenstance, today's your day.
...and no, I
DON'T WANT to pre-order the second print cover, but thanks anyway.