Posts tagged deadpool varient promotion

The epic battle between Marvel Comics and DC Comics has ensued for years, but comic book lovers have rarely picked a side – until now. The competing comic companies have branded some of our favorite characters and inspired generations of readers to embrace the comic tradition. Tuesday new release anyone? However, as time goes on, the battles have become bloodier, and judging by Marvels latest promotion, you can see how.

In Novermber, 2009 DC Comics launched their Blackest Night promotion that gave comic book distributors free promotional rings with certain bulk orders of specified comics. The Comix Connection featured the Blackest Night rings in a blog with the sick photograph above. They saw a major boost in sales, dominating 8 of the top 10 spots for the top 25 grossing comics of November. Marvel comics made a presence on the list, filling 14 of its spots. While the Darkest Night promotion helped drew DC Comics to the top, Marvels standings still showed that comic fans were loyal to both DC and Marvel.

Comic books lovers have been embracing both Marvel and DC Comics since their existence, but after witnessing Marvels rebuttal to the Darkest Night promo,  some are swearing off Marvel altogether.

In January a press release was sent from Marvel stating, “Retailers – for every 50 stripped covers of the following comics sent to Marvel, you will qualify to receive one FREE Siege #3 Deadpool Variant.” The “following comics” included:
Adventure Comics #4
Booster Gold #26
Doom Patrol #4
Justice League Of America #39
Outsiders #24
R.E.B.E.L.S #10

The first sentence of the press release engaged readers with a thoughtful incentive, “In an effort to provide assistance to comic retailers in 2010, Marvel is offering retailers an opportunity to turn unsold comics into an extremely rare Siege #3 Deadpool Variant!” However, considering that all of the listed comics were published by DC Comics (NOT Marvel), this “opportunity” came off as more of a backhanded scheme. In that way, it was an “opportunity” to help sabotage DC Comics. 

This method of madness for boosting their own sales and destroying competing DC Comic products didn’t go unnoticed. Of the almost 200 comments on the Comic Book Resources blog post, most shared their disgust with Marvels cheap tricks. A parade of bad press followed the promotion throughout February, provoking Marvels newly promoted Vice President and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort to strike back. He didn’t hide behind a mask but he sure did whip his cape with furry in his Marvel Blog.

Brevoort even struck back at neigh-sayers with sarcasm on twitter. The tweet, “Turns out nobody has any extra copies of those ring books…” accompanied the above photograph of over 300 DC comic covers. While their ultimate success still hasn’t been calculated, the failure has been seen on blog comments everywhere. One commenter on Comic Book Resources wrote, “Marvel is SCUM!!! I am dropping all of my Marvel books and I am never buying another book published by Marvel. This includes my beloved X-Men.” While Marvel attempted to “help out” retailers, they lost the respect of many consumers. They lost respect of many fans.

The Marvel promotion is now over and soon we will see the results. In the meantime, DC Comics continues to toss out the promotions. Now with the purchase of The Flash #1 and Green Lantern #53 comics, customers will receive one of the two new Brightest Day promotional rings. Purchase the comics and enjoy the collectors Brightest Day rings by visiting here or visit a comic store near you after the April release date. These Brightest Day rings are an example of smart branding, something that Marvel may want to re-evaluate.