A Beautiful Gory Display: Inauguration Day Special (Jan 20)
Marvel Comics showed some serious promotional genius with this issue, even if they caused headaches for the retailers. The retailers found out about the Obama content at about the same time the average person did, with almost no chance to increase their orders. Further, there were a string of conditions that had to be met for stores to receive any copies of the variant cover, which prominently featured the President-elect. Of course, that’s the only cover anybody wanted, and it was in short supply. And that led to the ugly spectacle of non-comics buyers going to the store for that issue and seeing the Obama cover on sale for $80. It’s a little much to ask somebody to come in off the streets and understand variant 
covers and order platforms and the whole mess, so to them, it looks like gouging. To the store, it’s really just a way to recoup the investment on the sheer number of regular covers they had to order to get the Obama cover. What should have been a positive experience for all involved turned into a giant hassle.
covers and order platforms and the whole mess, so to them, it looks like gouging. To the store, it’s really just a way to recoup the investment on the sheer number of regular covers they had to order to get the Obama cover. What should have been a positive experience for all involved turned into a giant hassle.Now, rather than Marvel’s notorious incompetence with retailer relations, I think the short timeframe and media announcement were actually a deliberate choice. It seems to me that they wanted to dominate the attention last week so as to overshadow DC’s big event from last week. You know, the one where Batman died.
Of course, we all know that Batman’s not dead dead. There is nobody in the world who thinks that Batman is over and done with. Still, DC has put the various Batman series on hiatus for several months, which is unprecedented. Detective has been published every month for almost 70 years; Batman for 68. That alone makes this a fairly major event, and I believe that one thing we learned for sure last year is that people like Batman.
The nice thing about the lack of media attention meant that it was actually a surprise. In his own book, Batman had just wrapped up a lengthy arc called “Batman RIP”, in which he was broken down to the extent that he actually went briefly insane. The villain masterminding it appeared to be his dead father, but was finally revealed to be either an actor or Satan. Long story short, Batman came back from the brink, beat a guy who might or might not have been the Devil, and then seemingly died in a helicopter explosion.
For an arc called “RIP”, the ending seemed anticlimactic. Batman survives two helicopter explosions before breakfast, so for everybody to react as if Batman were dead felt somehow flat. And 
here’s where the genius part came in. In the very next issue he was, of course, alive and well. But that issue led to his involvement in a completely different series, Final Crisis. And when the next issue of FC came out, that’s when Batman died. That’s right, he didn’t die in his own book, in a storyline called “RIP”. He died in a completely unrelated series when nobody was expecting it. Even for jaded nerds like myself, th at was legitimately surprising.
here’s where the genius part came in. In the very next issue he was, of course, alive and well. But that issue led to his involvement in a completely different series, Final Crisis. And when the next issue of FC came out, that’s when Batman died. That’s right, he didn’t die in his own book, in a storyline called “RIP”. He died in a completely unrelated series when nobody was expecting it. Even for jaded nerds like myself, th at was legitimately surprising.Both “RIP” and Final Crisis were written by Grant Morrison, who’s been praised here before. And this was a genius move on his part. Batman survived in his own book, only to die in a crossover series in which his involvement to this point had been minimal. And yeah, while an explosion would have been a lame way to go, in Final Crisis Batman went out in as literal a blaze of glory as one can go. His last act was to shoot an evil god with a time-traveling bullet. That may require some explanation.
To make a long story short, Final Crisis details the victory of long-time villain Darkseid. (As an aside, Darth Vader is based more than a little on Darkseid. I mean, Darkseid (who debuted first) even gets his powers from the Source. George Lucas has some explaining to do.) It’s basically about how he enslaves the world and how the few survivors resist. I’m assuming it’s largely impenetrable to the general public, but for people who’ve lived with this stuff for decades, it’s great fun. Anyway, in last week’s issue, Batman shows up to confront Darkseid. Batman’s decided to break his rule 
against firearms and even his code against killing just this once. Early in the series, Darkseid shot his chief rival dead with a bullet that traveled from the future (Yes, he pulled the trigger a thousand years from now and the bullet went into the past to find its target. This stuff is awesome.). Batman saved the bullet, and uses it on Darkseid. It’s a great scene – Batman’s human, Darkseid has the powers of a god, and Batman’s got the upper hand the entire time. Darkseid’s last act is to blast Batman. And just in case there was any doubt, the last page is Superman (who is pissed) carrying Batman’s charred corpse.
against firearms and even his code against killing just this once. Early in the series, Darkseid shot his chief rival dead with a bullet that traveled from the future (Yes, he pulled the trigger a thousand years from now and the bullet went into the past to find its target. This stuff is awesome.). Batman saved the bullet, and uses it on Darkseid. It’s a great scene – Batman’s human, Darkseid has the powers of a god, and Batman’s got the upper hand the entire time. Darkseid’s last act is to blast Batman. And just in case there was any doubt, the last page is Superman (who is pissed) carrying Batman’s charred corpse. Again, there’s nobody who thinks that this is going to last. Heck, there are three resurrection scenarios introduced in the issue itself. But it’s played like it’s final, and the three-month hiatus for the Batman books certainly makes it notable. Personally, my last hiatus from Batman lasted for nine months and occurred while I was in the womb. So this might be a little rough.
It’s probably for the best that Batman’s death (or “death”) didn’t get media attention. People who saw The Dark Knight would be justifiably confused as to why two talking humanoid tigers spend a good portion of the issue in mortal battle. (It’s even better than it sounds – one of them was wearing a tweed jacket!) And it’s always a source of confusion when the public thinks a fictional character is dead. Remember 1993, when Superman died? Not only did non-readers feel betrayed when he came back, but some people just didn’t get that part at all. At least one person I know thought that the movie Superman Returns was about him coming back from the dead. It might be better for the Batman movie franchise if people don’t think he got blasted to oblivion sometime after The Dark Knight.
Maybe DC didn’t do a press release for just that reason – they didn’t want to risk damaging the character in the long term just to sell a metric buttload of copies of a single issue. Marvel, on the other hand, went for a quick buck and turned in a subpar story and a publishing plan that helped engender the hostility of customers and retailers. There’s probably a lesson to be learned here, but I’m still fixated on the tiger fight.
