Well Marvel’s trade your DC books for a limited Siege #3 Deadpool Variant event has been causing quite a stir, and some people seem to be upset about the event. Marvel Comics Tom Brevoort decided to take to Twitter to talk about it and hopefully explain a little about the thought process behind the trade program. (Please note the below quotes are from multiple tweets over the span of a few moments)
“I see there’s a lot of chatter about our SIEGE #3 offer, so I have to ask the question: how is this bad? We’re making no money on the deal (actually losing a little) but it will put some more much-needed cash in retailers’ pockets, And if your retailer doesn’t have these books in stock, excellent! Good on them, they ordered appropriate to their customer base. But while no retailer wants to hurt their relationship with DC, we’ve been hearing from lots of them that they’re happy we’re offering this. As for the stripping, that’s all about making it cheaper for these guys to send the books back. But we’ll take complete copies too. And sure, send the stripped insides to the troops–well done, you! They tend not to keep comics mint on the battlefield in the first place. And while we listed the titles we’d be taking–all of the “ring”books– we never mentioned either DC or Blackest Night at all. Not a knock. And if DC wants to make their own offer, let ‘em! That’s cool too, if it frees up deadlocked capital for retailers to order new stuff.”
Now having talked with Tom before, I fired of a Tweet of my own to him hoping maybe we could learn more…
“@TomBrevoort Lord knows why people are upset. I already know someone dying to get the Deadpool cover on Siege #3. I think (Cont)”
“@TomBrevoort It’ll help retailers who play ball, though I talked to someone who says you’re trying to kill the comic store but can’t say how”
“@JefPrice That’s a strange, emotional response. I can’t see how this does anything but help. At worst, it’s zero-sum.”
“@TomBrevoort Well I think you guys are giving retailers a shot at trading books that they can’t sell for 1 that will be in high demand”
“@TomBrevoort That’s how it’ll help IMO, Also the retailers who have it will be sought after.”
“@JefPrice That’s hopefully exactly it. Unless SIEGE tanks.”
“@TomBrevoort Want to do a little interview explaining the thought process behind it?”
“@JefPrice We might be able to set that up. Reach out to Arune.”
“@TomBrevoort Will do.Typing up the other one as we speak…er…tweet.”
While Tom was willing to do a more in depth interview, I’m afraid at this time Marvel is declining to do interviews on the subject. However I did speak with Arune who gave me the go ahead to share this information with those who may not have been on Twitter while we were talking. I was told any public comments made are fine, but that they will be doing no press on this matter.
So there you have it! What are your thoughts on the matter? NC