quote:Originally posted by He Who LSHes: For all that, Valiant shot itself in the foot by withholding the conclusion from anyone who did not buy all previous chapters in each series. If you simply didn't care for Rai or Magnus Robot Fighter, for example, and did not shell out twelve bucks for two issues each (priced, then, at $2.99), you were not allowed to buy the finale -- a marketing blunder made even worse by Shooter's firing soon after.
I don't get how that worked. So if I wanted to buy the finale, was there some security guard in the shop going through my receipts ready to snatch the issue out of my hand for not buying Rai (for example)?
What a strange, counter-productive system anyway. It's almost comics marketing by way of fascism.
The final issue of Unity was not put on the stands. You had to bring all 18 or so issues to your CBS so they could verify that you were, indeed, a true fan, and then they would sell it to you from behind the counter.
It must have functioned on an honor system. All I know is that my CBS at the time wouldn't sell the issue to me.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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The Unity experience definitely soured me on the company. Shooter's departure a short-time later provided the death knell. The stories under his reign were purposeful and energetic, and introduced a variety of non-super-hero characters such as Archer & Armstrong, the Eternal Warrior, and X-O Manowar. Even the super-hero titles, such as Dr. Solar and Harbinger, offered fresh takes with appealing characters and unexpected plot twists (including the early deaths of major characters in both Harbinger and Rai). Shooter was on the verge of revitalizing the super-hero genre, which, by the early '90s, had started to stagnate at Marvel and DC.
However, all of that promise was pushed out the window thanks to the Unity debacle and Shooter's leaving. Subsequent stories lacked any charm or sense of direction. Within months, I had dropped virtually every Valiant title. (I think I continued to buy H.A.R.D. Corps for awhile longer.)
To return to Dev's point about company-wide events being necessary to increase sales . . . I'm tempted to think that comics companies operate on a different plane of reality than fans do. They seem to assume--as Valiant did--that fans will buy anything to get a complete story or to complete their collections. Valiant's rationale was that "true fans" would buy every issue and, therefore, the last issue of Unity would not fall into the hands of speculators. However, common sense would dictate that the opposite scenario was more likely to happen.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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REading Final Crisis, as well as Blackest Night has me thinking about another aspect of the last few years of crossovers...
The main mini is not enough to usually get everything needed to fully understand the story. The final Crisis collection includes at least three outside issues in it, which greatly help the narrative of the story and allow the reader to understand the bigger picture.
Marvel is not innmune to this thing either. They taken most of their line along with them in the last few crossovers as well...or had several mid sized crossovers happening at the same time.
This is somthing that annoys me about them, no matter how good a overall story is, you should be abole to get the full story that is needed for the understanding of the story in the main book. Side stories are fine, as DC did with the original Crisis...tales that tied in and enhanced the story, but were not necessary to unsderstand what was happening.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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The world's greatest super hero! It says so on the cover.
on December 26th. BUT IT'S CHRISTMAS!
and apparently the only other Marvel U book that week wil be Avenging Spie Man. So if you were hoping to get a Marvel comic that week ... I hope you like Spider Man.
I would fact check this but I don't seem to be able to navigate Marvel's hip website.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
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Why is this necessary!? This is like what DC is doing with Hellblazer. I don't understand why they feel the need to constantly fix what isn't broken. UUUUGGHH.
From: St. Louis, Missouri | Registered: Sep 2012
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Ah yeas...as seen with MArvel and DC (in a huge way)...relaunchses/reboots seem to be the newest thing.
Sales slagging a little...reboot the series with new creators and put out a new number one with 52 variant covers.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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Why is it necessary? Because it gets media attention.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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Thing is, if they follow history, they'll revert back to the numbering at some point.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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This is Thor v5 upcoming. And Avengers v5 (v6 if you count New Avengers v1, which had no corresponding adjectiveless series). Iron Man v6. And Cap v7 (v8 if you count GA Captain America Comics, although that had no numbering-overlap with the Tales of Suspense-continuing Cap v1. v9 if you also allow the three-issue "Dead Men Running" mini to count, since it was published between v3 & v4).
[Of course, LSH is on v7 as well. v9 if you count Lost v1 & Worlds.]
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Even if there are fans excitedly buying the new series, I can't imagine that most of those same fans will stick around after more than a handful of "boots". I think most of us here are nowhere near as interested in the LSH as we used to be simply because of all the reboots and changes we've been through.
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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So if I wanted to buy the finale, was there some security guard in the shop going through my receipts ready to snatch the issue out of my hand for not buying Rai (for example)? 
![[LOL]](graemlins/lol.gif)
