Posted in: Comics, Games, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man | Tagged: fcbd, Marvel Comics, miles morales, peter parker, sony, Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2 FCBD And The No Good, Rotten Decision By Sony & Marvel

Did you have trouble on FCBD finding the Spider-Man 2 prequel comic? You were not alone, thanks to stupid decisions from Sony and Marvel.

Spider-man 2 is one of the most anticipated games of the year and one that most comic fans have been waiting for with bated breath. Last week on Thursday, Sony and Marvel released a cover for a prequel comic that had fans buzzing big time, and even better, they announced that fans wouldn't have to wait long to have it in their hands. It will be made available for Free Comic Book Day this weekend. Rejoicing online, parties in the streets. There was only one problem: nobody told the comic stores.

Spider-Man 2 Could Be A Rare FCBD Book Worth Something

No, in their infinite wisdom, they announced the book on Thursday and left it up to stores to figure it out. The book was never whispered about, never a rep from Diamond sending out an email saying, "Hey, there is a pretty big book that may be available late in the game for FCBD, order a bunch." Nothing at all. Just an announcement about a tie-in book for one of the biggest characters and video games of the year from the biggest publisher in comics, and no details for the stores on how to get them. The even better news? It seems that it was utterly random how stores received them. No plan, no rhyme or reason. In the area where my store is, only three shops in the area got any. One store got two bundles of 20, one scored 55, and one scored 30. My store, and countless others around the country, got zero. Predictably, word got out that it would be scarce, which activated the speculator community. On Saturday during Free Comic Book Day, we tailed 17 phone calls about the Spider-Man 2 book, and countless people in person wondering where it was or leaving mad, thinking we were hoarding them in the back for profit.

Why, oh, why did they do this??? There is zero excuse for this. The companies should have announced the book with all of the other FCBD books or shortly after so that stores could have plenty of copies of what was undoubtedly the best title that could be available. Instead, they botched the release in every way possible, and now everyone is pissed. Of course, you can also get it digitally, yet another slap in the face to comic stores.

"In this story, their lives collide as Peter, Miles, and MJ attempt to balance their responsibilities to the city and each other. They keep returning to one of the main themes of the comic: is magic real? Because in this action-packed issue, a beloved Super Villain makes their first appearance in our universe and appears to have supernatural abilities that defy mere webs and fists: none other than The Hood! To find the answers to these questions, we collaborated with the experts: Writer Christos Gage (who was also one of the writers on Marvel's Spider-Man) and Artist Ig Guara. In celebration of Free Comic Book Day. Fans in the US can visit a participating comic book store or download the comic digitally on the Marvel Unlimited app* or Marvel.com starting on May 6. The comic will be available digitally worldwide through the Marvel Unlimited app at a later date!"

Free Comic Book Day is supposed to be when the companies help us drive people into local shops to not only give people free comics and help fans of all ages discover new stories, but it is also a day for us shops to make some money. When you screw up like this, it helps nobody and makes people upset, from the readers to the store owners. What a stupid way to do this, and further proof that, at the end of the day, the comic companies can't be bothered to help local shops at all. As always, we are on our own.

***EDIT*** Yes, we know Diamond was not directly involved with distribution of this comic. Quite the opposite actually, they had nothing to with it, as it seems that this was sent out with Penguin Random House customers. That doesn't change the fact that the distribution of this giveaway was botched. Why wouldn't you include Diamond customers as well? Why not use their distribution network to get this in people's hands? To me, that actually makes it worse, as a non-PRH customer, my store and customers were screwed from the beginning. Just a bizarre way to handle this all the way around, but we would like to acknowledge that we were not implying any fault on Diamond.

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