Drawing the line at, whatever we feel like?

DC Comics had a slogan called"Drawing the Line at $2.99", which is a clever way of saying that all of their comics would cost no more than $2.99. This slogan was ushered in January 2011 and phased out right before the revamping of their comics with the New 52 in September of 2011. According to sales figures, the campaign had no affect on DC sales. While the slogan may have disappeared as had the prospect of increased profits, the actual pricing of many DC comics remained 2.99.

DC's flagship title, Justice League (JL) costs $3.99. This is the same as some of their more popular titles such as Batman. JL is drawn by DC's visionary leader Jim Lee and was the first comic released for the New 52 line. Less popular titles of the New 52 line are still priced at the $2.99 mark. This difference in pricing had me wonder why some of the DC comics are priced at 3.99 while others at 2.99. 

iFanboy website laid out some solid reasoning as to why the $2.99 price tag was done away with, such as someone who doesn't normally read a comic would see 2.99 be just as expensive as 3.99 in light of how much time per $ they would receive in entertainment. I would add that the retention of the $2.99 price tag is in effect for less popular titles as a way to encourage new readers on board. These are the readers that already buy comics on a weekly basis and acts as a low price point to entice them to try a new title. If the title becomes more popular (as a result of the low price acting as a lure), then I would wager the price tag would jump to the $3.99 mark. Another reason for the price differences is that there is likely a difference in the artist's page fees. Every artist employed by the big companies such as DC and Marvel are paid per page they draw. Better and hence more popular artists can command higher page rates than less skilled and hence less well known artists. These lesser known artists often draw fledgling comics and hence the production costs for these comics is also less. The idea of different page rates would explain why Jim Lee's JL costs more than say Supergirl who is illustrated by Mike Johnson (who by-the-by does produce some great art but isn't as well known as Jim Lee).

The topic of the New 52 also reminds me that the majority of the initial story arcs have now ended. Out of the 52 new comics released back in September of 2011, I have continued reading roughly 6 on a regular basis and occasionally grabbed a few issues of about 3 or 4 others, but find myself always a few issues behind on them. 

Lee's cover for JL

Mack cover for DD

Justice League is the first of the New DC comics to complete its initial story arc while it seems that most of the others are about 1 or 2 issues away from doing the same. I have been pretty pleased with the comics that I have continued reading except for Green Lantern, which has a sluggish story and I am still mystified (to put it kindly) as to why nothing in the character's life had changed following the Flashpoint series. As to the Justice League story, I was immediately enamored by the highly skilled line work of Jim Lee. His art is still one of the finest in the realm of comics, although at times it is more flashy than substance unlike other artists such as David Mack. 

2 pages from JL featuring smashy-smash panels & no dialogue

The initial story arc of Justice League was interesting because it rapidly brought the team together as the evil Darkseid made a play at taking over the world. This brought us some spectacular fight scenes that utilized Lee's art to the fullest. However, the context of the story was rushed leaving myself wondering why Darkseid was doing any of this; I'm sorry, but a reason of 'he's just evil' does not always cut it. In the end, there really wasn't much of a story that Geoff Johns brought to the starting plate of Justice League. We were really only handed a beautifully drawn six issues of fight scenes where the characters clumsily found themselves brought together as a means to stay alive during Darkseid's devastating attack in America, which by-the-way is where apparently every extraterrestrial /demon likes to invade the world. I can only hope that from issue 7 on we see an actual story somewhere in the pages of Justice League. Otherwise, I may only regularly be collecting 5 comics from DC.

Well, I think I rambled along enough here. Suffice to say that I understand (for the most part) why companies like DC charge different prices for their comics but that doesn't mean I like it. And speaking of not liking something, I really hope that an actual story with a plot emerges in JL. While I love Jim Lee's explosive fight sequenced paneling, I would also love to know who these characters are!

DC's New 52 & Flashpoint Mini-Series

Flashpoint has now ended and DC comics is mid-way through releasing the renumbered and (slightly) re-imagined monthly comics. In all there are 52 of these new comics, most of which are comics that had already been published on a monthly basis and are now being reset to issue #1. A few, however, are comics that feature characters that did not previously have a monthly book about them, or at least they have not had a monthly book in a long time, such as Animal Man and Grifter.

Without giving away the entire plot or conclusion of the Flashpoint miniseries, it ended on a fairly high note but the storyline felt incredibly rushed. The storyline made sense but the characters and motivations could have been fleshed out a lot more; in particular I wished that the role of Louis Lane and the rise of Aquaman and Wonder Woman could've been explained more. This is a typical problem for the big story arcs that companies like Marvel and DC have been producing. The book's story lines are well executed but are thin due to the constraints of working within 28 or so pages. Flashpoint would have been greatly improved upon by making each issue about 10 or 20 pages longer. The cost of the additional pages could have easily been found in cutting out the glossy covers and premier paper stocks. A second point here is that the conclusion of Flashpoint did not seamlessly flow into the newly numbered DC comics that were supposedly directly impacted by this event. Perhaps a stand alone epilogue issue would have helped, but overall I think a one or two page nod to the Flashpoint series would have been nice in some of the more major first issue titles like Justice League, Superman, or Batman.

The first week of DC releasing the renumbered titles involved the release of only one comic, Justice League. This title was written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee. Johns seems to be the DC equivalent of Marvel's Matt Fraction or Bendis who are responsible for writing and creating close to all the major events at Marvel. Johns is a highly skilled scribe and I best know him from his work on Green Lantern where he has produce ambitious and well executed story lines. Jim Lee is a legend in comic book art and I have found his art maturing over the past 5 to 10 years. His art has become increasingly detailed and his lines more focused (less frayed). The combination of these two talents, Johns and Lee, made Justice League worthwhile picking up without even considering what the story was about. However, the story proved to be fantastic as it explains how the Justice League came together during a time when superheroes were still mythical and not well understood by the general public. The story line takes place in the past while the other first issue books focus on what the characters are currently doing. This is a nice strategy as it uses Justice League to explain the new DC world while allowing the other books to explore that world. The issue is also great for it provides a sense of mystery and excitement in that the reader cannot readily guess how the story will come to a close. With the renumbering of the issues and declaration by DC that the new books will be a departure from the old, one cannot assume how the Justice League will be formed based on what has occurred previously in DC comics. In all this was a strong first foot forward for DC comics and definitely has me continuing to pick up Justice League!