The High Price of DC Comics Continuity

I've been looking at comic books to read lately and with Marvel Unlimited, I'm real excited to read some of the old Silver Age books that started the heroes we know today. The price is great to be able to read all these old titles…the creation of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the Hulk…are inspiring. Sure, not all the stories are great and the art is not always 100%, but they are still fun reads from 50 years ago. And that's my current dilemma. I want to read them all, but I also want to see what current artists and writers have to offer and I'd like to experience publishers other than Marvel as well.

While Marvel provides a wonderful service that gives you access to over 50 years of books, DC and the others…not so much.

I was thinking that along with Silver Age Marvel, I'd start reading some of the 'Digital Age' comics, or those that began the current day-and-date publishing to paper and digital formats.

Once again, Marvel Unlimited shines here…they give access to books up until a few months ago all for the same subscription. I can read whatever I want from Marvel and get a firm understanding of their entire pantheon of heroes from inception to current day. DC, while the first to go day-and-date, charges their normal fee for EACH issue. That's good if I want to read a few series here or there, but just looking at the offering for Blackest Night (I'll explain why I looked at this in a minute), if I place all 79 issues in my shopping cart on Comixology, it would cost $192.21 just to read a single event…digitally.

That same $200 would pay for over 2 years of unlimited access to EVERY Marvel event…EVER.

DC needs to get with the program.

I'm not going to pay unacceptable amounts to try to catch up with the DC continuity – even though I know there are some really great stories there.

And the thing is, when I read a good run on Marvel Unlimited, I got out to my local comic book shop and buy the trade. Marvel gets my money yearly AND when they produce a good trade.

DC gets my animosity and maybe some money when I am convinced by enough positive reviews to purchase a trade of thiers. Oh well…if they want me to purchase more, they have to provide better service.

In any case, I am looking to get into some of the 'digital age' comics as well as the older Silver Age issues. I figured I'd look for the first day-and-date issue and it turns out it was Justice League: Generation Lost #4 by DC…<sarcasm>wohoo</sarcasm>. This issue was of course part of an event…Brightest Day. Well, I don't want to start in the middle of anything so…I went back to try to get some perspective…that means not only the entire Brightest Day event, but the preceding event since it is critical to understanding. So I think I'll start with Blackest Night (yeah try looking that up in Google without the comic book reference).

Finding the books that constitute the Blackest Night in trade, if possible, or in single issue on Comixology sets me at about $110 for the event, and I am not even to Brightest Day yet. You can see why I'n not too happy with DC, and I don't see any reason to read any of their stuff that's not an event since…well…I am not in the 1% that can fork out whatever dough DC wants to charge…thank you for pricing me out.

Soooooo, to make a long story even longer…I'm looking into reading Marvel starting at Fall of the Hulks since that starts about the time Blackest Night does. It's included in my Marvel Unlimited subscription so I don't have to worry about spending more, and once I get to 2010, I'll probably start reading the other Marvel titles since they are in Unlimited too.

I'll throw in some non-big-two titles as I see fit, but I think this will give me a good feel for comics from the Silver Age and current 'digital age'. This is a pretty large plan so it will probably fail, but I'm gonna give it a try – it's already paid for, at least as far as Marvel goes. DC…we'll see if I read anything from them after this, oh, but they reset their continuity with 52…seems like I'd be watching the next season of Walking Dead without having seen any of the first few seasons…not something I'd want to do…we'll see…

Morning Ramble 2.15