Wonder if the softcover will be the same as the hardcover, or if they'll change it further? "What did you think I was going to do? I was going to give him this free souvenir sword for visiting the Justice League satellite!"

And I already did the "X shoots first" joke months ago, when this was first announced.

thanks for the beetle heads up though

Blue Beetle #7 explains why he could see Brother Eye. I won't spoil it, but it has to do with the Scarab Beetle's true origins.

As for IC, reading it in a 'script' format like this, I realize for the first time just how horrible the dialogue is. Cheesy as hell. Ugh, I'm glad I decided to not double dip and buy the hardcover...

Honestly, if the ultimate purpose of IC was to bring back Earth-2, or some form of a multiverse..... they couldn't have written a more confusing and convoluted and disorganized story than they did.

And really.... all these dialogue changes implying the importance and existence of Earth-2???? I mean WTF? It's like the whole Earth-2 thing was an afterthought!

Sort a like DC saying " Oops..... oh, no big deal.... we'll just go back and change the dialogue in IC to justify the fact that we have changed our minds again....but we won't admit to that.... we'll say that we always intended it to be this way."

There is certainly evidence to the contrary.

If parts of the story of IC were to be a mystery, then one would expect that it be solved. But it would appear that DC's answer to the mess called IC is to change the dialogue in order to make the Earth-2 connection more clear.

But why not do it that way in the first place?

Is this DC's new commercial policy? Write a big event story that suggests one direction for a story.... but then change that very same story when the trade comes out.

It's looks like DC wanted the Earth-2 revelation to come out with Justice League #1.... and so they hid the fact in the original pages of IC. And now that the cat's out of the bag, they want to change the content of IC to make reference to Earth-2???

My god what a disaster.

The mess that IC has become is truly sad. Clearly it was a rush job both in the writing and the art.... and all to justify meeting a deadline date for the first issue of "52". It really makes one appreciate Marvel's decision to delay the shipping of many of their titles so that they could do Civil War justice.

Over time, the creative disaster and giant F-U to fans that has defined DC's handling of IC will undoubtedly be gradually forgotten as time passes....

..... but what will not change is the fact that my memory of the experience of reading IC will never be redeemed. For me it was terrible and the knowledge that they have backtracked on both art and dialogue only magnifies the creative failure (albeit commercial success).

I'd ask you what you were smoking at the time, but clearly you managed to find a copy of the special, limited edition polybagged-with-a-free-vial-of-crack variant.

A heck of a lot more for one thing.

The first 20 issues went through multiple printings and a series of paperbacks that went through multiple printings.
Enough so that they were repackaged the series as both hardcovers and softcovers that carried the banner "Sold in over 30 countries". These are where the first revamp happened when Smith expanded the story in some sections with additional art, changed dialogue and scenes shifted.
Both HC and TPB's were continiously in print for about 8 years before being replaced by the one volume edition, which was again revamped with with additional art, changed dialogue and scenes shifted. The first printings of both sold within days of being released and second printings had to be rushed to retailers.

I haven't seen the recoloured Scholastic printings sold in schools so I don't know if any further revmping has happened, however, the entire Bone saga has been in print continiuosly for many years and several different formats, so, yes, I'd say it sold more than Infinite Crisis...Particularly now with the Scholastic deal.

And Bone's readership is what compared to Infinite Crisis?

No offense, but some of these go beyond changes for clarity. Indeed, the changes with regard to Earth-2 change the meaning and direction of the entire project. They contradict what we were told in the story and what we were told repeatedly by DC Editorial (no multiverse, no Earth-2). The place to lay the groundwork to bring back Earth-2 was not to change the IC collection but to do so in the book where Earth-2 will reappear (presumably, considering JLA #0, in JLA).

But I think that would answer the question posed by folks who are scratching their heads wondering why the series feels different as a whole.

When I first read the issue, I read the lines as:
Wonder Woman: "What did you think I was going to do?"
As in "I was going to cleave him in half with my sword. Duh." Apparently this was not the way to read it? She meant to pin him to the floor? Okay.

Except that in the art, she clearly about to cut through Mongul's head like a watermelon. It's a way of pinning him to the floor, sure, but not the most non-lethal way.

So what's the deal? I'm not really sure I believe that Johns' script was so vague that Jimenez drew her giving a fatal blow by accident -- He posted excerpts of the script on his WizardUniverse.com column and it's pretty specific about what level of gore he wants in it (hint: a lot).

Did they decide afterwards that, hey, Wonder Woman killing Max Lord is a pretty reasonable and justifiable action for some, but deciding to bisect Mongul while he's unconscious is sorta dishonorable? Because it is, but that's something they probably should have figured out first. And I don't mind the fact that they changed it but they probably shoulda touched up the panel too.

Just my two cents.

A lot of the dialogue changes are more for clarity than anything else and that's not something you can anticipate.

I work in animation and come across the same sort of story problems. And it can be the simplest thing in the world, like needing extra dialogue or an extra set up scene. The problem, though, is you've had the reasons why certain things explained to you, you've got the foreknowledge....And you can go over it over and over,(and over), again. Yet you don't realise that you've missed a key ingredient, that can makes the whole scene confusing, because you can see it with your "mind's eye", but people without those explanations and foreknowledge can't.