Wonder Woman - a review of the animated feature

Wonder Woman (2009)
Directed by Lauren Montgomery
Story by Gail Simone and Michael Jelenic
Screenplay by Michael Jelenic
Featuring the voice talents of Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Virginia Madsen, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, and Vicki Lewis
Synopsis: On the mystical island of Themyscira, a proud, strong warrior race of Amazon women lives in a utopian civilization shielded from the corrupt world of man. After Army fighter pilot, Steve Trevor, crash-lands on the island, a betrayal within the Amazon sisterhood leads to the escape of Ares, God of War, and Amazon Princess Diana must capture him before he unleashes global chaos and destruction. With Steve Trevor’s aid, Diana tracks down Ares for a battle unlike any humankind has ever faced.

The more distance I put between myself and when I first watched this film, the better I feel about it. I must admit to not liking it as much as I had hoped on first impression. There were a number of things (which I will get into) that aggravated me as I watched the film. The more I think about the film as a whole, the less bothersome I find those things, and I think it has allowed my appreciation for the final product to grow beyond them.

This wouldn’t be much of a review if I didn’t talk about those things that lessened my viewing pleasure at the onset however. So I will discuss those items as well as things that I particularly liked about the film.

First, the ‘negatives’. Maybe these aren’t really that big of an issue in the grand scheme, but they were enough to pull me out of being fully immersed and entertained by the film as I was watching it. I’ll try to go in semblance of order (as they occurred in the film), but chances are I won’t adhere to that. I’ll begin with character design. I thought most of the characters actually looked really good. I wasn’t overly enamored with Diana’s design, mostly that was due to her hair (minor nitpick on my part). I thought Artemis looked great. I also liked what they did with Persephone. As far as the voices, I was mostly pleased with those performances. The one voice that really did not work for me however was Keri Russell. I just did not hear her voice and think ‘that is Wonder Woman’ at any point during the film.

Getting to the actual events in the film, there were a lot of places I felt opportunities were missed. When Steve Trevor crashed on Themyscira, there was never at any point sorrow expressed by him for his fallen comrades. I realize he didn’t have a whole lot of time to think because it wasn’t too long before he was running for his life from the Amazons, but there should have been a few moments where he voiced regret over the fate of his fellow pilots. I felt like Michael Jelenic dropped the ball there. A little later, after Steve has been captured, he utters the word ‘crap’ and Hippolyta responds that they don’t recognize that particular term. Then a few moments later (under the influence of the golden lasso) he tells Hippolyta that her daughter has a great rack and all of the Amazons in the room seem to understand that expression without any difficulty. So they don’t know what crap is, but rack is a term they are familiar with? Now, it is possible that they didn’t actually know the word but were crystal clear on his intended meaning, so one could choose to explain it away like that. It was just annoying to me because if you’re going to go to the trouble of establishing a simple word like crap as being outside of the basic jargon, you can’t come in with a term that would be even more unfamiliar and act like it is a part of the regular vernacular.

Another opportunity I felt was missed was with Hipplyta and Ares’ son Thrax. I don’t know if Thrax (as the son of Ares and Hippolyta) is part of the common Wonder Woman mythos or if his origin and appearance was specific to this movie, but it really seemed like they could have used the character more. Hippolyta beheads him at the beginning of the film when the Amazons are fighting against Ares and his army. Ares is greatly angered by this and you would think that would be used as motive for him to target and kill Diana later in the film as revenge. Yet that doesn’t happen at all. He doesn’t go after Diana at any point. Thrax is basically just a throwaway character in this film. He does appear later when Ares goes to Hades for help, and it turns out Thrax is Hades’ slave in the underworld. Again, Ares is clearly not happy about that situation, but he doesn’t take that anger and direct it toward Diana. That was a wasted opportunity to make Thrax’s inclusion in this film meaningful.

My next gripe is about something that is canon, but I felt as though this was the opportunity to actually give a good explanation for its existence. The invisible jet. I haven’t read the original Wonder Woman stories so I don’t know when the invisible jet was first introduced and how it may have been explained. I know the target audience for this movie is essentially existing fans of the character, so there is an expectation of those viewers being aware of the jet. That said, I still felt like this movie could provide the opportunity to explain the how and why behind the invisible jet. Instead, it was suddenly just there, no explanation as to why it exists or where it came from. When Diana had to take Steve back to the United States, the invisible jet was unveiled. One can only assume that was a gift from the gods as well. But why? Why a jet? Why an invisible jet? And how long had they been in possession of it? Given Diana’s earlier comments that she had explored virtually every inch of the island and there was nothing new for her to find there, it seemed to me that she had never been off the island at any point to see what was beyond their shores. To wit, she had never been in the invisible jet before, and if that is indeed the case, how did she know how to fly it? But really … why do the Amazons need an invisible jet? They have flying horses (or at least they did in this movie). I really would have liked for Michael Jelenic to take a few seconds in the movie to explain the wheres and whys of the invisible jet. It was another opportunity lost.

Speaking of the jet, there were a couple of instances around it that could have been better plotted. After Ares entered the underworld, Steve flew an injured Diana in a helicopter to the nearest medical facility. Yet Diana and Steve had taken the invisible jet to the compound where they faced off against Ares. That means that later, when Diana and Steve are again in the invisible jet to go after Ares, they first had to go retrieve the invisible jet from the compound (well, unless there is some sort of auto-flight capability where it could be brought to them). Why didn’t Steve just use it to transport Diana to the hospital in the first place? That actually leads into the second instance. Later in the film, Steve sees a missile launch while the Amazons are fighting Ares’ army and Diana is taking on Ares himself. He jumps in the invisible jet to chase the missile down. We already know he is a fighter pilot (since that is how he was introduced at the beginning of the film when he was shot down over Themyscira), so it is obvious he would know how to fly it. Which again begs the question as to why he didn’t fly Diana in the jet earlier and instead took the helicopter. Getting back to the missile, there were questions surrounding that as well. First, it is launched from Washington D.C. and targets Themyscira. I’m not sure what the location of Themyscira is in relation to Washington D.C., but I have to imagine that there was a more convenient site for a missile launch than Washington D.C. (such as from a submarine somewhere closer by the island for instance). And why did Steve chase it? He had no idea where it was heading when he jumped in the jet. There is no reason for him to have assumed it was targeting Themyscira unless he thought Ares was behind the launch and I don’t why he would be under that impression. Now, one can certainly attempt to explain Steve’s actions away by claiming that regardless where that missile was heading, it wasn’t a good thing for it to have been launched. Clearly it was going to hit someplace and do a lot of damage (possibly taking lives). So one could say he had good reason for chasing it down. But that is only if he honestly believed Ares was behind the launch, because otherwise he would have been flying in the face of the decision made by his government, for which he is a serving member in the military and could probably be court-martialed for interfering with an order given by a commanding officer (that being the commander in chief of the United States military).

My final gripe is with the end of the battle against Ares and his forces. After Ares has been vanquished and his army retreats, Steve comes rushing in (having returned from his adventure with the missile) and kisses Diana. And the rest of the Amazons raise their swords and cheer. Huh? After they just been in a costly battle (many of their sisters died) against their long standing male persecutor, they cheer Diana being kissed by a man who was completely transparent in his base desire of her as an object of lust when last they encountered him on the island (remember his comment about her rack). Really? That’s the reaction they would have? I’m thinking the more likely reaction would be to prod him with a spear to separate him from Diana (I could definitely see Artemis doing that).

So those are the negatives. Now for the praise. The battle scenes were outstanding. The battle between the Amazons and Ares and his forces at the beginning of the movie were really enjoyable. The swordplay between Hippolyta and Ares was great. Diana’s confrontation with the street thugs and then Deimos was very entertaining. Her clash against Ares was equally impressive. Diana’s strength and determination was very much visible. She traded blow for blow against every adversary and never faltered.

I enjoyed when Diana spoke to the little girl in the park who was sad because the boys wouldn’t let her play with them. It was fun to see her tell the little girl how to use a sword and then watch as the little girl put those tactics into play and took down one of the boys.

I liked the way Persephone was handled. It made perfect sense for her to be the one to betray the Amazons. She was the obvious choice to be Ares’ primary jail keeper and one could see how he might twist her over time because of what happened on the battlefield. It was only natural for her to slay Alexa the way she did since it was Alexa’s cowardice that almost cost Persephone her life and left her with a lasting reminder of that day.

I liked how Wonder Woman’s outfit was explained – the colors (and likely even some of the design, such as the stars) were selected to represent the country to which she was going to visit as an emissary. Why couldn’t Michael Jelenic have taken a moment to do the same thing with the invisible jet?

I very much liked the music. I thought it was outstanding (I wish there was some sort of a soundtrack available).

One other minor thing I liked at the end. When Diana leaves to fight the Cheetah, Steve tells her to call if she is going to be late because he doesn’t want dinner to be cold. So obviously he was going to be cooking dinner (though Diana was actually the one carrying the bag of groceries – which makes me wonder if perhaps she was going to be doing the cooking originally). Maybe Steve cooks when they meet at his apartment and Diana cooks if/when they meet at her apartment – that would certainly be the most balanced way to go about it.

Overall, it was a good movie. The animation was good. The performances were all good (though as I mentioned, Keri Russell just didn’t sell me as Diana). I won’t put it on the same level as the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series because those were really something special (though obviously a much different format), but this film definitely stands up well on its own. I certainly hope there will be future Wonder Woman animated features but I don’t know if that is in Warner Brothers’ plans. If we’re fortunate, this DVD will sell well enough for them to put another one into production.

Does the DC Universe really need Barry Allen

DC is launching a new limited series titled Flash: Rebirth to herald the return of Barry Allen as an active player in the DC Universe. Barry Allen actually returned to the land of living last year in the second issue of the Final Crisis limited series. Flash: Rebirth is intended to re-establish Barry as the primary Flash.
My question in regards to all of this is - Why?
Does the DC Universe really need Barry Allen? Wally West has certainly proven to be a more than capable Flash since he took over the mantle upon Barry’s death in the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series. Perhaps the better question is does DC Comics really need Barry Allen as the primary Flash? I don’t see why that would be the case.
Some might want to liken Barry’s return to that of Hal Jordan. The situations are quite different however. Barry sacrificed himself to thwart the plans of the Anti-Monitor. Hal Jordan sacrificed himself to reignite the sun in the pages of The Final Night story. While Hal’s sacrifice was considered a heroic act, it was really an act of redemption to make up for his activities following the destruction of Coast City where he went off the deep end, destroyed the Green Lantern Corps, and re-christened himself as the super-villain Parallax. Barry died a hero. Hal died a broken ‘hero’.
The biggest difference is the amount of time that passed between the characters returning to their former posts. This is really the major point of my contention with Barry’s return. Barry Allen died in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was published in 1985. He has appeared in a few comics here and there over the succeeding years (typically in stories that are either flashbacks or where he is a version of Barry Allen from the past who is using the speed force to move through time to tackle whatever happened to be the challenge of the day), but has otherwise been out of the picture until his return in the pages of Final Crisis in late 2008. That is a period of twenty-three years that Barry Allen has not been the active Flash in the DC Universe.
Hal Jordan died in the pages of The Final Night, which was published in 1996. However, he stopped being the active Green Lantern two years prior to that (1994) in the story-arc Emerald Twilight (issues 48-50 of the third volume of the Green Lantern series – Kyle Raynor became the new Green Lantern beginning in issue 51). Jordan returned to active status in the DC Universe when he became the new host for the Spectre in the Day of Judgment limited series, published in 1999. And Hal retook the mantle of Green Lantern in the Green Lantern: Rebirth limited series, published in 2004. So depending on how you want to look at things, Hal was only ‘gone’ from the DC Universe between 1996 and 1999, a period of three years. He was not the active Green Lantern between 1994 and 2004, a period of ten years.
Three years (or ten years) versus twenty-three years. That is a significant difference. Hal was never really gone long enough to be missed as a key player. He might have been out of the Green Lantern role for ten years, but his presence was still very much felt in the DC Universe. Barry, on the other hand, has been gone the full twenty-three years. He has not been an active player in the DC Universe at all during that span.
Let’s talk a little bit about time. Generational time to be more to the point. There isn’t a particular consensus on how long a generation actually is. Wikipedia has a decent article on the length of a generation. Based on the amount of time between the creation of the first offspring between a mother and a daughter, a familial generation could be anywhere between two and three decades on average. More interesting is the idea of a cultural generation, which has an even shorter term (between ten and fifteen years).
What is the significance of generations in this discussion? Three years between active appearances for Hal Jordan means no skipped generations. Even ten years between his active status as Green Lantern doesn’t skip a generation (though if you’re using cultural generations, it is right on the cusp of skipping one). Barry Allen’s twenty-three years does constitute at least one skipped generation. And if you’re using the ten year basis of a cultural generation, then it would be two skipped generations. Let’s use some real numbers here though. I was sixteen years old in 1985 (the year Barry Allen was killed off) and had been a regular monthly comic reader since the age of twelve (I had read comics for many years prior to that, but only the sporadic issue here and there that my parents allowed me to pick up on occasion --- at age twelve I discovered a used bookstore where the proprietor also sold comics and thus my monthly habit was born). I was thirty-nine years old at the time Barry Allen returned to active status. Consider for a moment a young reader just starting out on comics at about the age of twelve in 1986. His Flash would have been Wally West. And that would really be the only (primary) Flash he would read between 1986 and 2008. In 2008, that comic reader would be thirty-five years old. So essentially, if we assume the average comic reader became a regular (monthly) reader around the age of twelve (as was my case), that means those (average) readers under the age of thirty-five would have little-to-no familiarity and certainly no connection to Barry Allen. To flip that, it means DC’s primary audience for a Flash series starring Barry Allen is thirty-six and older. Does that really seem like the best demographic to be aiming for? Is that where DC sees a majority of their current sales on titles these days? Is the largest percentage of DC readers in the thirty-six and up demographic? If that is the case, then I suppose there can be a case made for making Barry Allen the primary Flash in the DC Universe. If the largest percentage of their readers are under thirty, then this plan really makes no sense.
Let that sink in for a moment. Comic readers in their late teens, twenties, and early thirties have zero connection with Barry Allen. A good number of them may not even know who Barry Allen is. If they are Flash fans, the greater likelihood is they are fans of Wally West (even looking at other media -- which actually expands the scope of the audience, you’re no longer dealing strictly with just comic fans -- the Flash they know from the Justice League animated series is Wally West). They don’t really have any particular interest in Barry Allen. I wouldn’t imagine they have any particular desire to have Barry Allen as their Flash. So who is this Flash series really for? Why does the DC Universe need Barry Allen back as the active Flash? And why does DC Comics need him?
My contention is they don’t (at least not as the primary Flash). I think DC is rather misguided in bringing Barry back in this particular manner. I don’t believe it is going to be the kick-start to the franchise they may be thinking it will be. The mini-series might sell well enough but it won’t carry over to a monthly title when they re-launch it (I don’t think the actual sell-through of the limited-series will be as impressive as the order numbers that will be announced – in fact, there will likely be a significant decline in orders between the first few issues and the final one because retailers will know what the actual audience size is by that point).

Not so thankful to loyal readers

Legion of Super-Heroes No. 50 (DC)
Writer – Justin Thyme; Penciller – Ramon Bachs; Inker - John Livesay
Solicitation: Written by Jim Shooter; Art and cover by Francis Manapul and Livesay. It's the final issue! The climactic conclusion of the Universal Annihilation War is here and every Legionnaire, every reservist and even the United Planets' Young Heroes battle to save existence. Also featuring the return of Cosmic Boy, the death of a longtime Legionnaire and a gorgeous wraparound cover!
As you may have noticed in the solicitation for this issue, it was supposed to have been written by Jim Shooter (who started writing this incarnation of the series with issue 37) and pencilled by Francis Manapul (who also started working on the series with issue 37). Also noted is the return of Cosmic Boy and the death of a Legionnaire. As evidenced by my identification of the creative team, it was not Jim Shooter who wrote this issue nor was it Francis Manapul who pencilled it. In addition to that, Cosmic Boy was nowhere to be seen in the issue, and a longtime Legionnaire did not die (at least certainly not on panel --- there was a war going on so it is possible some generic Legionnaire may have perished in the skirmish but it wasn’t anyone who was brought to the reader’s attention.
What does match the solicitation is that this issue contains the conclusion of the Universal Annihilation War. Unfortunately, it is a very rushed and uninspired conclusion. That isn’t surprising considering a completely different creative team had to pick up the story started by Shooter and bring it to a close. Yet while the Universal Annihilation War was ‘wrapped up’, there was another significant plot thread that was left completely dangling, and given that this is the final issue of this incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes, we’ll never get to see the resolution of the situation. What is even more unfortunate is the fact that it should have never come to this.
According to Rich Johnson in his weekly ComicBookResources.com column Lying in the Gutters, Jim Shooter and Francis Manapul both chose to leave and not complete the final issue, each for their own individual reasons. I can only speculate as to Jim Shooter’s reason, but I would imagine it had a lot to do with his original story arc having been planned to run through issue 54 of the series and then having to completely rework the entire thing when Dan Didio abruptly decided to cancel the series with issue 50. Shooter noted in an interview that he had planned to feature the wedding of Brainiac and Dream Girl in a two part story. With the sudden change in the number of issues remaining for the series, he had to completely abandon the wedding and wrap up what he could of the story in a single issue. In addition, he would have to tie up two different major plots (the Universal Annihilation War and the situation with Princess Projectra betraying the Legion) in four fewer issues. Obviously it became a mission of frustration and impossibility because only the Universal Annihilation War was concluded (the Princess Projectra plot wasn’t even touched on at all in the final issue).
I’m not what you would call a Jim Shooter fan in specific. I don’t have a dislike of his work, but he isn’t someone I would consider to be in my list of favorite comic writers either. Truth be told, I wasn’t very thrilled with the changes that were made in the direction of this title when he came aboard. There were character changes, some more drastic than others, and it was definitely not the same book that had been a big favorite of mine during the Waid and Kitson run. Even so, there were enough interesting plot elements in what Shooter was doing that I was convinced to stick around beyond just his first few issues. Even though it was different, it was entertaining enough to keep me around for the long haul. Of course, had I known at that time the title was in for a turbulent and shortened future, I would have left it along with Waid and Kitson.
On the surface, a reader might want to blame Jim Shooter for the way this final issue was presented, but he was definitely not at fault for the way it all played out. I can’t criticize him at all for walking away from it at the end. He was put in a very unenviable position. His work was severely compromised by Didio’s decision. One might say this sort of thing isn’t exactly uncommon – a creative team is given the news that their title is being cancelled and they have to wrap things up in a quick fashion. That is true, but generally when those things occur, a title is being cancelled because of poor sales. That wasn’t the overriding factor with this series. This particular series was cancelled out of what I consider sheer spite. Didio and Shooter butted heads numerous times over the course of Shooter’s time on the title. In fact, Didio actually fired him at one point. The firing was announced on several comic news web-sites. But then it was announced many days later that Shooter was back on the title. Sales on the title have been declining monthly since Mark Waid and Barry Kitson left the title (though in truth they had dropped off somewhat even prior to their leaving). When the announcement was made in October that Legion of Super-Heroes would be ending with issue 50, sales numbers were still reasonable. Estimated sales for September were just under 25K. October sales were just under 24K (you can find those figures and more here). So yes, the series was clearly shedding readers (though at 24K it was still above the usual cut line and doing better than a number of titles that have hung around for a good while with much lower numbers), but how much of that was due to reader uncertainty about the future of the title? The book had only recently undergone a creative team change (with Shooter and Manapul coming in) and a shift in direction. Then Shooter was announced as having been fired and then almost as quickly it was announced he was back. It wasn’t a secret that Didio and Shooter were fueding at that point, and given that Didio had already pulled the trigger once, readers couldn’t feel too comfortable about the long-term prospects of the book. So yes, it stands to reason that there might be more defections than usual. But again, this wouldn’t have occurred if Didio hadn’t ‘fired’ Shooter in the first place.
The fact is this horrendous final issue and lack of resolution on the Princess Projectra plot is the fault of Dan Didio. He could have allowed the book to continue on through the 54th issue and let Shooter complete the arc he had planned before pulling the plug. Instead, he chose to end the series with the 50th issue and cut the story short without any regard to whether the running plots could be adequately resolved. In essence, he shafted the dedicated readers. On the very final page of this issue (the DC Nation page) it says ‘We greatly appreciate the support of our loyal readers’. Really? I don’t feel appreciated. I feel like Dan Didio didn’t give a crap about the readers. If he did, he wouldn’t have cut the series to begin with. Even with that, he wouldn’t have allowed this issue to go out as it did (with a badly rushed and incomplete resolution and very disappointing art) and with nary an announcement to fans AND retailers about the change in creative teams. It isn’t as though this issue was pulled together in a week. DC knew well in advance of the shipping date that this issue wasn’t what was solicited. Yet they never said a thing about it (the original soliciation with the Shooter and Manapul credits is STILL listed on their web-site). And I’m supposed to believe they appreciate me as a reader? Had I known Shooter and Manapul had no involvement with this issue and that the Princess Projectra plot wasn’t going to be resolved, I would have never bought the issue in the first place. So no, I don’t feel at all appreciated. I don’t feel like a valued reader. I don’t feel like Dan Didio has any respect at all for the people who have been with this title since issue number 1. All I feel right now is ticked off and ripped off.

Price increase in a down economy (part 2)

Diamond has recently raised their purchase order benchmark from $1,500 to $2,500. For those unfamiliar with this benchmark, this means the publisher has to be selling enough copies of their title to merit Diamond paying them at least $2,500 to buy said copies (and Diamond is buying them at a discounted level --- as mentioned in part one of this post, that discount is close to 60% for some publishers, so $2,500 is the equivalent of approximately $6,250 at full cover price). If a title doesn’t receive enough orders to reach the $2,500 benchmark, Diamond will not place the order. And if Diamond believes a title isn’t going to generate enough orders to reach the benchmark, they won’t even list the title in Previews to begin with. This also appears to include relists, so if a title can’t achieve the benchmark when listed a second or third time (or any subsequent times), then no purchase order will be generated and comics shops won’t be receiving additional copies.
What does this mean to you, the end purchaser and reader. Well, first it means there are going to be some publishers who will either be going out of business or will have to find another means to distribute their titles. It means there will be some titles that will no longer be available through the usual channels. It means if you don’t buy a comic the first time it is listed, you may not be able to get it on second or third printings because those print runs may not occur. Obviously this affects the smaller publishers the most, but all publishers are likely to feel some impact when it comes to relisted titles.
Of course, having a higher cover price makes it a little easier to reach the benchmark. A publisher would have to have orders for over 2,090 copies at a $2.99 cover price while they would only need to have orders for over 1,566 copies at a $3.99 cover price. For a number of publishers, there is room for price increases. Marvel is obviously moving to $3.99 very soon. DC will likely follow. I expect Dark Horse will do the same. Image already has some titles at $3.50 so an increase on those wouldn’t be as significant as those from Marvel, DC, etc. But then you have publishers such as Boom! Studios and IDW who already have a $3.99 cover price. Should we expect them to bump to $4.50 so they can meet the benchmark? Or $4.99?
That begs the question – how much is too much? I know I’ve already passed over some Boom! Studios and IDW titles I would have liked to have tried because I didn’t want to pay $3.99 for them. Of course, I have paid $3.99 (begrudgingly) for a couple of titles so I can’t say as an absolute that I would never pay that much for a comic. Even so, I can’t really say I’ve felt like there was four dollars worth of entertainment in those particular comics. When you compare a comic versus a movie or a tv or animated series on DVD, it doesn’t hold up. The average comic probably takes about 20 minutes to read (some even less). That breaks down to about $12 an hour on average. A movie ticket costs less than $12 and that is good for anywhere from 75-120 minutes worth of entertainment. A movie on DVD may run about $25. For a two hour movie that is about the same average cost as a comic. A season of a television series on DVD probably runs in the neighborhood of $50-$90. That is for anywhere from 13 to 22 episodes at about 20 minutes per episode. $50 divided by 13 episodes comes in around $3.84 per episode. $90 divided by 22 episodes comes in just over $4 per episode. An animated series runs between $20-$30 for 4 or 5 episodes. That comes out to somewhere around $6 per episode (some discs have more episodes and some series can be had for a much better price – for example you can buy the most recent edition of the Gunslinger Girls collection, 13 episodes in all, for a suggested retail price of $39.95, which works out to just over $3 per episode). Most DVDs also have extras on them these days, so you’re getting additional value as well.
That isn’t really the key thing I want to touch on in this discussion however. What I really want to introduce is the fact that Diamond is shooting themselves by eliminating publishers. Sure, in the short term it will help them cut costs and be more efficient. In the long term, they are pushing out the very business that is going to help them to remain an ongoing entity once Marvel fully engages with their digital initiative.
Digital initiative? How exactly did we jump from benchmarks and price comparisons to digital initiatives? It really isn’t a great leap. If you haven’t heard, Marvel is investing $10 million in digital media with an expectation of receiving a profit from said investment beginning in 2011. A company doesn’t make that kind of investment unless they are expecting significant returns. Currently they are offering some digital content for a monthly fee (part of their library is online, but they are not making any current issues available there). Marvel is raising the prices of their comics 33% for what I expect to be a couple of reasons. First, costs have certainly gone up. I know paper has become much more expensive in the past few years. Second, they are obviously trying to maximize profits. Third, I believe they are setting the stage for a transition to digital media.
Consider if you will --- if they are selling their comics to Diamond at a 60% discount (or in the neighborhood), that means they are receiving $1.20 for each comic with a $2.99 cover price. That would grow to $1.60 at a $3.99 cover price. I don’t know what the printing/materials costs are per comic. Perhaps $0.20 per comic? $0.25? Less? I just have no idea. If we assume $0.20 per comic, that means Marvel is down to $1.00 per comic at the $2.99 cover price (and this is before they pay the creators and whatever other production expenses they have) or $1.40 at the $3.99 cover price. If Marvel were able to deliver their comics strictly as digital media, that would eliminate the printing expenses. More importantly, it would eliminate the need to use Diamond to distribute their comics. Currently we see (based on my assumption of discounts and printing costs – which obviously are just made up numbers because I don’t know what the actual numbers are --- hopefully the numbers I am using are at least in the neighborhood) Marvel getting $1.00 per comic and likely to get $1.40 per comic once they raise the price. So if that is what they are generating now, then wouldn’t it stand to reason they could offer their comics in a digital format for the same price (or somewhere close to that price)? And now let’s really take a leap. If they are selling 50,000 copies of a given title right now at $2.99 a pop --- imagine how many copies they might sell if they were offering them digitally for only $1.00 per issue? Currently a comic fan can buy 10 comics a month for about $30 (plus tax). If a publisher is delivering their content digitally for $1.00 an issue, a comic fan can get 30 comics for that $30. The comic fan is already spending the $30, now they get more comics out of it. Even if the comics were $1.50 an issue, they are still getting twice as many comics as they were before. And once the price goes to $3.99 an issue (printed), a comic fan will only be getting 7 comics a month (and have $2 left over). So you have 7 comics a month at $28 (plus tax) vs. 20 comics a month for $30 (plus tax). Which do you think is going to appeal to comics fans?
Also consider that with digital delivery, Marvel is going to have the ability to reach an even larger audience. Currently there are only so many comic shops in the direct market. People who do not have a shop locally have to buy their comics from an online retailer, if they buy them at all. Those who do buy from online retailers are likely going to stick with the major known titles and be hesitant to try an unknown title or limited series (unlike fans who can purchase comics from a local shop, they can’t thumb through something new to decide if they might like it or not). If a comic is only going to cost $1.00 or $1.50, a fan will be more willing to try something unknown. But guess what, it won’t exactly be unknown. Since the comic is available digitally, Marvel could easily provide several pages of a title to be ‘thumbed through’ online so a reader wouldn’t have to buy it completely sight unseen. We already see preview pages of comics released online through comics news sites such as Newsarama and Comic Book Resources. Well now Marvel can host those pages themselves for virtually everything they are selling. Guess what else. The title is never really out of print. Since it is digital, it doesn’t have to be printed and sit in a warehouse until someone orders it. It can be ordered and delivered at any time. So when a fan suddenly discovers a title, they can buy all the back issues they want and have them available immediately. Those comics will continue to sell year after year after year (even if it is only 50 or 100 copies in a given year).
Getting back to the larger audience, I’m not just talking about the current comics audience. Marvel already sells to fans who have a local comic shop and to those who buy via online retailers. With digital delivery, they are going to be able to sell to people who don’t currently buy comics. Because they can offer digital comics at such a lower price point, it is going to be easier to get people to try their product. So going back to the numbers, we have a title currently selling 50,000 printed copies. At a price point of $1.00 or $1.50, with readers now able to buy more comics, people who previously may have wanted to read a title but were already spending their comic allocation on other books will now be able to buy it. Toss in non-comics readers who are enticed to try it because of the price point and availability, and is it unreasonable to expect the comic that was moving 50,000 printed copies to more than double or triple that in digital distribution? So now Marvel is making significantly more money on the title even though the book is selling for much cheaper.
What part of this equation isn’t more appealing to a publisher? They cut costs, they don’t have to deal with the middle man (Diamond), they increase distribution, and they sell far more ‘copies’, thus increasing revenue.
This is the future. Marvel is putting down the groundwork. It may not be five years, it may not even be ten years, but I fully expect that sometime in the 2020s (if not before), Marvel will not be printing monthly comics any longer and will be delivering those titles strictly as digital media (I still expect there will be printed trade collections that will move through booksellers and the like). DC won’t be far behind (especially when they see Marvel starting to make major inroads with their digital delivery system) and Dark Horse and Image will certainly follow.
So where does that leave Diamond? In a lot of trouble. Especially since the small publishers who would be the last to make the transition to digital delivery are being forced to find another distributor or actually make the digital transition RIGHT NOW. Hey, how about that. Diamond’s move may actually be benefiting some of these publishers (the ones that survive at least) because it is forcing them to make the leap that is the future of the comics industry right now.
Let’s not forget retailers. They are in the same boat as Diamond. Once Marvel pulls their monthly titles out of the print market, a lot of retailers will be going out of business. And when DC follows, the remaining retailers will be shuttering their doors as well. Unless they find some other stream of income for their shops (beyond gaming merchandise) their businesses will not be sustainable. I hope retailers are either currently seeking other revenue streams for their shops or have a really good plan B in mind.

Price increase in a down economy (part 1)

As most, if not all, of you have probably heard by now, Marvel will be raising the price of their monthly titles to $3.99 in 2009.
In regards to that price increase, Brian Hibbs mentioned this is his most recent column:
‘The reason Marvel is willing to try selling regular monthly comics at $3.99 is because 10 of the top 10 for the year are $3.99.’
Given the current economic climate, one might wonder why Marvel would decide to increase the price of their titles by 33%. With people losing jobs left and right and a significant number cutting back on non-essentials in order to lower their expenses, it might seem on the surface to be an illogical move.
The math tells a different story.
First and foremost, the numbers I am about to use are purely speculated. I don’t know what the exact discounts are through Diamond, but I do have a rough idea of one side of it. According to Dan Vado’s comments in regards to Diamond’s recently announced policy change (more on that later), it appears Slave Labor sells their titles to Diamond for around a 60% discount of the cover price (it is slightly less than 60%, but I’ll round it to sixty to make the math easier). Marvel and DC likely have a better deal but I don’t have any data on those numbers. As far as the retail side goes, I don’t know what percentage of cover price they pay to Diamond. I’m going to take a wild guess and say they pay Diamond somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% of cover. It could be less, it could be more, I just don’t know (the only real numbers I have to go on would be the discount that is offered by online retailer Discount Comic Book Service --- they sell Marvel and DC books for 40% off cover and most other publishers for 35% off cover, so clearly they have to be buying Marvel/DC books for at least 50% of cover and at a slightly lower discount for all other books). For the purposes of my calculations, I’m going to use 50% as the basis.

So let’s take a look the numbers based on a $2.99 comic vs. a $3.99 comic, and then we’ll factor in a decline in quantity sales due to the price increase.
We’ll use 50K as the baseline monthly sales for the publisher and 50 as the monthly sales for the retailer. You’ll note in these numbers as presented that the bottom number is what matters for the publisher (sales after discount) while the discount (profit*) amount is what matters for the retailer (because that is the money they are making back before any expenses are factored in).
Marvel
Copies 50,000.00
Price 2.99
Sales (pre-discount) 149,500.00
 x 0.60
Discount 89,700.00
Sales (after discount) 59,800.00

Retailer
Copies 50.00
Price 2.99
Cost (pre-discount) 149.50
 x 0.50
Discount (profit*) 74.75
Cost (after discount) 74.75

Marvel
Copies 50,000.00
Price 3.99
Sales (pre-discount) 199,500.00
 x 0.60
Discount 119,700.00
Sales (after discount) 79,800.00

Retailer
Copies 50.00
Price 3.99
Cost (pre-discount) 199.50
 x 0.50
Discount (profit*) 99.75
Cost (after discount) 99.75

So in this instance we see the retailer is making an extra $15 and the publisher is making and extra $20K.
Now let’s have a look at things when we factor in a 20% drop in sales.

Marvel
Copies 40,000.00
Price 3.99
Sales (pre-discount) 159,500.00
 x 0.60
Discount 95,760.00
Sales (after discount) 63,840.00

Retailer
Copies 40.00
Price 3.99
Cost (pre-discount) 159.60
 x 0.50
Discount (profit*) 79.80
Cost (after discount) 79.80

Both the publisher and retailer are still making more money than they were at the $2.99 price point even though sales have declined by 20%. The publisher is making $4,040 more and the retailer is making $4.95 more.

Now we’ll look at the numbers when we factor a 25% drop in sales.

Marvel
Copies 37,500.00
Price 3.99
Sales (pre-discount) 149,625.00
 x 0.60
Discount 89,775.00
Sales (after discount) 59,850.00

Retailer
Copies 38.00
Price 3.99
Cost (pre-discount) 151.62
 x 0.50
Discount (profit*) 75.81
Cost (after discount) 75.81

The publisher and retailer are still making more money than they were at the $2.99 price point. The publisher is making $50 more and the retailer is making $0.06 more.

But here is where things get tricky. The publisher (Marvel in this instance) isn’t going to be hurt by the surface drop in sales (even if it is a 25% drop across the board). However, chances are there will be some cannibalizing of titles going on in addition to the primary drop. By this I mean that people will be dropping some titles they may not want to drop just because they can’t afford to buy as many as they previously did at the lower price point. This is in addition to people who just drop out completely because they decide this ‘hobby’ is getting too expensive for them (that is where the original drop would be coming from – whether that would be as high as 20% - or even 25% - isn’t something we can know at this point). If we assume it is lower (or even if we assume 20%), the publisher (Marvel is this case) would see only minimal decline in overall sales dollars (if there was a decline at all --- chances are there would be an increase in sales dollars overall).
Retailers, on the other hand, won’t be so lucky. Because if people are dropping out completely due to the cost increase, it isn’t just one publisher’s books they will be dropping. It will be every publisher. So the retailer has to contend with a larger scale drop in revenue. Then factor in the cannibalization of books (especially as relates to titles from publishers other than Marvel and DC) the remaining customers will be doing to cut costs (and allow them to continue to be a part of the ‘hobby’), and their sales decline even further. So while the publisher (Marvel in this instance) might see higher sales, the retailer can almost certainly be expected to see less money.

I think this move also makes it much more difficult for a publisher (such as Marvel) to launch new product. There will already be a cannibalization of titles as I mentioned. Readers are going to be less interested in trying out a new limited series or new on-going because it will mean bumping something else off their list. Retailers will order less because their numbers are already down and they are not going to want to get stuck with a bunch of copies of something they can’t move. So that puts the new series (limited or on-going) behind the eight-ball before it ever gets out of the gate. That means fewer opportunities for creators as well. If a publisher isn’t careful about thoroughly testing the waters on a project before they decide to move ahead on it, they are going to end up losing money on it and cutting into whatever gains they realized from their price increase.

That leads me into part two of the discusson (which will be in a separate post that should be available in a day or two).