Marvel Universe

[jjreason]

He had big fucking claws, that's for sure.

[jjreason]

FUCK OFF GRIMLOCK - SINCE WHEN ARE YOU SUCH A FLORNBI????

Anyhoo. Secret Invasion 3 sucked. That's 1 good issue and 2 sucky ones now, for anyone keeping score at home.

Captain America is still the best comic on the shelves (and it has NOTHING to do with Secret Invasion. Weird, eh?).

Invincible Iron Man #1 was pretty good. Pepper Potts flashing Tony her cheap thong strap gave me a semi.

[jjreason]

Long time no replies. I just finished the latest 2 issues of New Avengers and am reading Secret Invasion 6. I'm actually really happy with the way they're dealing with the crossover this time - Bendis is using New Avengers to showcase key events leading up to the invasion featuring the Illuminati. It's awesome! Even Secret Invasion has pulled a 180 and has been good for the last 2 issues. With 2 issues to go, I'm really hoping that it ends on an exciting high note like the first issue did.

All the other books I'm behind on, save Cap (which is still the best $3 you can spend each month at the comic shop). I have 2 issues of DD, Thor, Hulk & FF to read and more Amazing Spidey than I could shake a stick at.

[vynsane]

yeah, secret invasion has been cool, keeping up with avengers of the new and mighty variety at the same time. i would probably be a bit more lost if i didn't get both of those titles, i fear...

as for spidey, "new ways to die" is freakin' awesome, so get reading, JJ... seriously.

[jjreason]

Copy that! The comic book guy said they're selling like hot-cakes. I wish I'd gotten the Ross GG cover on the one issue, but sadly there were NO copies left of ANY of the covers of any of these last 4 issues to sort through!

[vynsane]

Copy that! The comic book guy said they're selling like hot-cakes. I wish I'd gotten the Ross GG cover on the one issue, but sadly there were NO copies left of ANY of the covers of any of these last 4 issues to sort through!

meaning you missed out completely? or just had to settle with the standard cover? not sure...

i grabbed the GG cover to part 1 because my subscription copy was a week late. in fact, it arrived the day after i picked up the gobby cover. i may grab the adi granov venom cover to part 2 as well, still debating.

[anarky]

Slightly off-subject, but are there actually books that only ship with one cover anymore?

[vynsane]

i know, it's not yet gotten to 1990's proportions, but it's a bit ridiculous. the first four issues of the new invincible iron man, for instance, had a total of something like 16 covers, not to mention second-printings! granted some of them were photo covers to tie into the movie release, but still... it was a helluva lot.

[jjreason]

If you're a cover-completist, you're unhappy these days for sure. The cool part for the rest of us, though, is that there are some AWESOME covers being done these days - and it's kinda neat to be able to choose the one you want (when you're lucky enough to find a couple of different ones).

Vyn - I have the books, just not the Ross GG version of 571 (or whichever one it was). I did get the variant painted Venom one though, and it's neat-o.

[vynsane]

If you're a cover-completist, you're unhappy these days for sure. The cool part for the rest of us, though, is that there are some AWESOME covers being done these days - and it's kinda neat to be able to choose the one you want (when you're lucky enough to find a couple of different ones).

yeah, the main problem is that there have been a third short-packed variant cover for a few of them, that midtown immediately marks up to at least $10, if not multiple increments thereof.

i think they debuted a variant of one issue of secret invasion for $40!

Vyn - I have the books, just not the Ross GG version of 571 (or whichever one it was). I did get the variant painted Venom one though, and it's neat-o.

okay, cool... wanted to make sure you hadn't missed out - i could probably grab them at midtown comics if you didn't have them. btw, it's 568 according to a little website i know (that desperately needs an update, but i'm just too damn busy... i have a few weeks worth of comics that need scanning).

[Rollo Tomassi]

I am deliberately getting the JRJR covers. I pick and choose on other books. Thor and Iron Man usually have 50/50 covers. I hate it when they decide to do a popular artist's cover as a 1/50 variant instead of 50/50. Like the Mike Turner cover of Uncanny 500. What the fuck Marvel. I think it would have been more of a tribute to the guy if THAT had been the regular cover and Land had the HTF version.


I hate Zombie variant covers.

I will REALLY hate Ape variant covers if they start in with that shit.

Haven't decided if I will go for NOIR variants if they start with those. Those teaser images are the tits.

[anarky]

I saw one of the Marvel Apes variant covers is a sort of joke drawing of "Daredevil Ape" by the late Mike Wieringo. If they do that as the HTF variant, people will be PISSED.

[jjreason]

And rightly so. I don't see how Marvel benefits from this as much as the gouging retailers though - I guess they might convince Joe Comicguy to order 50 issues of whatever instead of the 35 he knows he'll sell just to have them toss in the variant. Is that the idea? If so, can he even really recoup the wasted money on the extra 20 copies if he shills the special book for $25 bucks or so? Barely, I'm thinking.

Ebay's the key to these fucking things, just wait for a few months and start checking. They'll be around.

[Diabolical]

That is my one real complaint about my LCS - he throws all the incentive covers on ebay. He even posts it on his weekly shipping email.

ULTIMATES 3 #2 (OF 5) TURNER VARIANT SEE OUR AUCTIONS @ EBAY TO BID ON THIS ITEM

But I really don't see how he could distribute them fairly to customers when there might be tons of people that want the one copy he gets.

[vynsane]

That is my one real complaint about my LCS - he throws all the incentive covers on ebay. He even posts it on his weekly shipping email.

ULTIMATES 3 #2 (OF 5) TURNER VARIANT SEE OUR AUCTIONS @ EBAY TO BID ON THIS ITEM

But I really don't see how he could distribute them fairly to customers when there might be tons of people that want the one copy he gets.

he could hold an in-store auction, not a present-to-buy auction, but an email equivalent of a sealed-envelope auction... highest offer wins. he doesn't need to go directly to ebay, that's just money-grubbing.

most store owners i know throw the variants to the longest-running loyal customers who are interested in that book - so, like, the store i went to on long island, they'd put the variant in my folder when they know that's the issue i'm looking for...