Comic Book Resources

It wasn't any different than DCU: Brave New World, was it? It cost half as much but was only 1/4 the content. I thought it would be something else, but considering the price I really shouldn't have. It had a lot of "wow" moments, it set up some base information for Final Crisis and it did get me incrementally more excited for it. I'd call it a success, but nothing that DC could turn into a weekly release .

How about "they want the comic to be really cheap"?

Why is everyone so cranky about this book? Is it because Grant Morrison was hyping it as the bridge between Countdown and Final Crisis? For God's sake, it was a fifty-cent teaser; once I saw the price tag my expectations dropped instantly to "oh, this is just a come-on." The only thing that annoyed me about it is that it was a little too much "inside baseball" to make it worth me picking up a lot of extra ones for class. And the chances are we'll be getting them as bag stuffers at ECCC anyway.

Well, like I note above, Greg, the book has generally had a very positive response from fans, so I don't think there's all that much crankiness involved!

But as to the actual quality, like you said, it's a teaser, and as such, it was not a particularly good comic book (as good comics have plots, not just disparate scenes slapped together).

I see it as a trailer, nothing more, geared towards DC readers. Some online reviewers who weren't as familiar with the DCU weren't as kind to it as those who are.

However, as far as seeing it as a 'bridge' between Countdown and Final Crisis, it doesn't quite work that way, as it focuses on characters who weren't really a major part of Countdown. But, as a trailer for Final Crisis, it works. they should've renamed it 'Final Crisi #0', imo.

Yeah, sure, "trailer" is a fair description.

I'm not begrudging DC for doing this book - it was a huge success. Just saying it wasn't a good comic. As you say, it might not have even trying to be a good comic, and in that regard, it succeeded nicely.

Well pooh on the nattering nabobs of negativity. I liked it, it had Green Lanterns in it, the art was pretty and it only cost .50 cents. What's NOT to like?

What’s NOT to like?

The lack of a coherent plot, or heck, the lack of a plot, period.

Unless, of course, you were joking, Sally, in which case, please disregard.

How are you defining "success", Brian? You're not suggesting that the book was an artistic triumph, so I presume you're thinking in commercial terms. But this was a fifty-cent loss leader. Every copy cost DC money. Surely, to be a success, it has to generate enough extra sales on the advertised projects to cover its costs. I don't think you can judge it a success just because the hardcore DC faithful liked it (although they undoubtedly did like it), because they were presumably going to buy the advertised projects anyway.

The acid test is whether it generated extra sales from more casual readers, and their reaction to the book was much more mixed. True, I was at the negative end of the spectrum - but from what I can see, the casual readers' reaction to the book mainly ranges from indifference to mild confusion. At the very least, I think it's a leap of faith to call the book a "huge success" at this stage, before we can see the effect on sales.

The Joker died? If so, when did he die, and how did he come back? (was this during the Morrison's run?)

I don't normally read the regular "bat" titles, but did pick up the DC Universe # 0, so I was wondering about the
Joker.

It's nice to see "Evil" finally gets their due, and "Good" get a good ass-stomping for a change.

Of course, all's evens out in the end. (or not - depending on Morrison and Geoffs).

I thought the art was ugly, the "teasers" uninteresting, and the entire thing just a big bath in continuiwank jissum.

How are you defining “success”, Brian? You’re not suggesting that the book was an artistic triumph, so I presume you’re thinking in commercial terms. But this was a fifty-cent loss leader. Every copy cost DC money. Surely, to be a success, it has to generate enough extra sales on the advertised projects to cover its costs. I don’t think you can judge it a success just because the hardcore DC faithful liked it (although they undoubtedly did like it), because they were presumably going to buy the advertised projects anyway.

I'll freely admit that my evidence here is a bit ephemeral, but the success I am talking about is that it has created a buzz. The buzz that has been generated by this and the upcoming Final Crisis is huge. I haven't seen a buzz like this since Civil War (and not since Identity Crisis for DC).

And it's a buzz based on a comic that was not actually good, which struck me as interesting (although, again, as bad as 0 was, it was a good deal better than Countdown).

I don't understand why DC didn't just put this thing online for free and not even waste the money and paper to make a printed version of this.

I also couldn't help all but notice that all the big drama about the supposed return of Barry Allen...uh, where was he? He didn't really contribute anything. It looked like it could be Bart even.

I am writing the weak story mojo up to it just being a teaser--my store gave them away as a FCBD item.

Still, didn't DC say this book was created to be bridge from Countdown to Final Crisis? Since nothing of import really happened in Countdown, did they just shuck that idea? Cuz I don't recally too much New God, Mary Marvel, Jimmy Olsen, Challengers stuff going down in DCU 0. Argh.

But even a little bit of Blackest Night was nice.

The Batman part was very cool...but beyond that, it was just kinda of a teaser for the next 6 months to a year of Dc stories with a Crisis flavor, not necessarily even a teaser for the mini-series itself....I didn't read Countdown, but followed the online synopsis of it, as at one point it was to be the "spine of the DCU," and nothing in this seemed to lead out from Countdown at all, did it?

I said it somewhere else:

1. DC aficionados loved the issue and praise it. New readers mostly didn't get it.

2. Countdown to Infinite Crisis was great. Ever since, all preview books (Brave New World, DC Universe Zero) and "clean new slaets" marketing ploys (One Year Later) were failures and mostly in bad quality.

Back when Countdown to IC was published I was in the same position: Non-regular DC reader who don't know much about what's going on in the DCU, at least from reading first hand, but interested in the big event. I was ready to buy IC anyway, but Countdown completely sold it to me. And I'm sure the same happened to both new and old readers.

BNW and OYL were supposed to do the same, but didn't stick, be it because they were done poorly or they didn't click with new readers. I myself never picked any of the books featured in BNW and most of the OYL issues I read were terrible. The ones I liked didn't convince me to become a regular reader.

And then came DC Universe Zero. Again I'm in the same position of non-regular DC reader. I will read Final Crisis in any case (not sure if I'll pay for it, though). This issue was supposed to fill the gaps ans sell couple of books and events to new and old readers. In my opinion and from the reaction I see from other potential new readers, it failed. At keast on the new readers front.

I was interested in FC and still am, its preview story was the only one that mattered to me. Legion, Batman, Wonder Woman (aside from the '300' rip-off) and Revelations did nothing for me. I felt lost. About GL/Blackest Night I at least know some things, despite the fact I haven't read the whole SCW yet. Even the "big revelation" wasn't exciting. When ignoring the fact that it was rumored weeks ago in LITG, I still knew it's bound to happen after two pages of the color-changing caption boxes.

"Big return", "big revelation", whatever you want to call it.

The narration was very cool, though. Morrison just showed us a soul being born, or in this case, re-born.

The "geared towards DC readers" part is the problem I had. I'm only a casual DC fan - I pick up their books for certain creators - and DCU 0 didn't pique my interest in the assorted Final Crisis tie-ins. In fact, I found it downright off-putting. So, from that perspective, it was a failure.

I've never heard of Libra, didn't understand that "I've never heard of Libra" was the whole point, and completely missed the Flash thing until it was pointed out to me. (OK, it was sweet, but it still went over my head at first.) And don't get me started on the GL spread - I found that completely impenetrable.

But hey, it was only 50 cents, so I wasn't -that- upset. ; ) And I am still buying the mini, at least.

Brian, I'd have to say that the tone of this comments thread is pretty typical of what I've seen people saying about DCU #0. So I'm a little confused by what you say about buzz - at least outside the DC faithful.

It's my blog and even I know not to trust my commenters as to what is and is not going to be popular.

I'm so tired of reading people tee off on it. It was 50 cents. Not like somebody's wallet would be broken because the issue wasn't up to snuff. It was a trailer piece, I liked it, and I don't care what anybody else thinks. Okay, that's a lie, but you get my point.

I was just talking about this with a friend who never read comics until the last couple of years and sticks mostly to trades and graphic novels. She hated this comic, and found it to be completely impenetrable. Which, y 'know, it totally is if you haven't been following this stuff for years. I thought it was fine as a collection of teasers, but man, DC really did drop the ball in regards to picking up new readers.

Maybe this issue is geared towards me, though I haven't gotten it yet. I stopped getting 52 halfway through and had no desire to get Countdown.

I'm not looking forward to much from DC lately, not even Final Crisis. I feel odd that I'm so much more excited about Marvel's Secret Invasion than Final Crisis, but DC has just gotten darker and depressing since Sue Dibny was killed. I get enough angst and depression from X-titles (when I choose to get them), I don't need that from DC. The "rumored" death of Martian Manhunter is definitely not a highlight.

I am a bit intrigued about the Darkest Night storyline... though I'm very hopeful that someone will slap the blue outta the Guardians by the end of that story.

Nine new pages for $0.50. Most cost-effective book in a dog's age. The "advertising" was free, gravy.

'Nuff said!

Honestly, for all the praise it's receiving online, the Darkest Night teaser was probably the most worthless part of DC Universe 0. It offers almost nothing that readers of Green Lantern don't already know from reading the series, presents it in such a way that it seems meaningless if you're not reading the series, and is advertising for an event that is coming out A YEAR AFTER the rest of the storylines advertised in DCU 0.

Those three pages probably would have been better used teasing some plot details of Rage of the Red Lanterns, seeing as how that's, you know, an actual Final Crisis tie-in and all.

Cronin hath spoken thusly:

"But as to the actual quality,...it was not a particularly good comic book (as good comics have plots, not just disparate scenes slapped together)."

Agree completely, but loved the teasing. Teasing is foreplay, no?

Chris said:

"I don’t understand why DC didn’t just put this thing online for free and not even waste the money and paper to make a printed version of this."

Perhaps because they wanted ALL comics fans to have a chance to read it. A large percentage of people still have no internet access at home, and some have no access at all.

(also, from a study in September 2006, only about 50% of people had high-speed online access, the rest still on dial up; I am sure the number is higher now, but there still a lot of people on slow intenet connections)

Honestly, for all the praise it’s receiving online, the Darkest Night teaser was probably the most worthless part of DC Universe 0.

True. I have absolutely no idea what the hell is happening in that double-page spread. Totally incomprehensible.

How sad is it that someone feels compelled to go someplace they supposedly don't like, just to embarrass themselves with typos, juvenile name-calling, and repetitive stupidity?

The answer is "Excessively".

"Perhaps because they wanted ALL comics fans to have a chance to read it. A large percentage of people still have no internet access at home, and some have no access at all."

Are you really arguing that there is a large group of people without internet access who are spending enough money to keep up with DC's current direction enough to understand anything in DC Universe #0?

Because that doesn't gel, in my mind. Dial-up can be had for $15 a month. That'll get you three to four single issues a month, and there are more previews for supposedly integral books in DC Universe #0, itself.

I'm not saying there aren't any fans without internet service, but I would bet they're an extreme minority. The size of which would negate any benefit for DC in getting those customers on-board.

"It’s my blog and even I know not to trust my commenters as to what is and is not going to be popular."

I believe that Final Crisis will be the top selling DC book in along time, but will new readers be able to relate to it? I'm not sure.

I know that CSBG is famous (and infamous, depends on the POV) for the almost-blind love for Grant Morrison, so maybe it's hard for you to go against him. I'm myself a fan of his works, but not as long-time fan as most of the people here, so perhaps it's easier for me to lower my expactations for FC. DC Universe Zero just proved to me that this event is in favor for DC zombies and for my kind, the "occasional" readers.

About the 50 cents price tag: I don't have a problem with it, never said I have and I don't see anyone else saying he had a problem, so I don't know were all the defensive comments of the price are coming from.

"I know that CSBG is famous (and infamous, depends on the POV) for the almost-blind love for Grant Morrison, so maybe it’s hard for you to go against him."

That doesn't really make any sense in regards to Brian's posted opinion. He's repeatedly pointed out that it wasn't a good comic book, even though it seems to have been received well. Also, did you not notice where Joe Rice (a big-time Morrison fan) said how little he cared for the book?

I didn't understand what was going on, except for the Batman scene.
It's a good thing someone invented the internet to tell me what actually went on.
Only this day in age would you need cliffs notes on a comic book preview, what will our ancestors think of this issue?

We'd have to dig them up first to find out, ninjawookiee.

[quote]I don’t understand why DC didn’t just put this thing online for free and not even waste the money and paper to make a printed version of this.[/quote]Because unlike Marvel, DC is not interested in abandoning everything that makes the superhero comic book unique. In five years, when all Marvel superheroes have publicly unmasked and Marvel comics are exclusively OGNs or online releases, I'll be damned glad DC had faith in what this genre really is.

I don't see what the big problem is about this issue.

WW-------------- People, eeeeeeeeeeeeevil looking people, are collecting soil samples from various sites where genocides were committed. This is part of their plan to destroy Wonder Woman. (Someone with basic knowledge of WW knows she was created from dirt, put 2 and 2 together.......)
Elsewhere two gods, Apollo and ?, say WW's mission has been a failure, it's time to send the 300 the do the job she couldn't. C'est tout.

The next time I go to the movies I'm gonna complain about all the teasers. All thing being equal everyone should have enjoyed at least one segment.
There is one thing I would change, I would have added pages from DC's Heroes and Villians two page origin thing on their website.

I don’t understand why DC didn’t just put this thing online for free and not even waste the money and paper to make a printed version of this.

I do not believe the majority of comic book fans frequents the Internets as much as us. This potentially reaches everyone.

From what I can tell, people were expecting DC Universe 0 to be an introduction to current DC for newcomers. It's not, and I can see why people are complaining about it.

Instead, DC Universe 0 is appealing to DC's base. After the disaster that was Countdown, DC really needed to appease their fan base that the upcoming event titles won't completely suck. And DC Universe 0 is fairly effective at doing that.

Yes, it's advertising. Is there anything wrong with that? (I actually like DC's current record of using teasers, be it Rip Hunter's blackboard, the Christmas wish list, or DC Universe 0.)

I was simply expecting DCU 0 to be 50 cents worth of entertainment.

It wasn't.

You don't pay for trailers. You especially don't pay for trailers of movies that look stupid. The Batman bit was the only semi-intriguing one. Why would I care about the Rainbow Squad of Lanterns?

As a lapsed DC reader (still follow a few creators there) who skipped Countdown and everything related to it, was never drawn to Geoff Johns Green Lantern and was never much of a Wonder Woman fan, all I can say is it got me pumped about what DC's got coming for the first time in ages and ages. It reminded me how much I like DC when they're at their best.

It's a great teaser and it certainly worked on me - I was planning on buying Final Crisis, but now I'll be checking out some other DC titles too.

I would be indifferent to the book (the trailers did absolutely nothing for me) if not for the baffling decision to charge for it. Joe's dead right: who the hell pays for ads? Where the hell does DC get off expecting any cashola at all for a trailer reel? I didn't even pay for my copy and felt annoyed at what a waste of time it was, and DC had the gall to charge even a pittance for it on top of that?

In my own humble opinion, whether you like it or not DCU 0 was a vast improvement on COUNTDOWN. Following 52, its aftermath and all the regular titles was exhausting enough, but then having to endure COUNTDOWN?!?

Paul Dini is my favorite writer ever, but COUNTDOWN was utter rubbish from the onset! How much DID Mr. Dini contribute to this title? Was it a matter of "Hey! Jason Todd knows Donna Troy, right?" and some monkeys hopped up on sugar did the rest?!?

I'm getting FINAL CRISIS for JG Jones' artwork. I'm not expecting much else at this point. If there's anything else of value, great. If not, I won't be disappointed.

"You don’t pay for trailers. "

Many people do. Crackdown sold very well last year not because it was a good game (mind you, it was), but because it had the Halo 3 online beta attached to it. Back in the day, Tobal sold well because of an attached Final Fantasy demo. People went to see movies just to see the Star Wars trailers attached to random films... and then left.

And those were *full price* trailers - this was a 50 cent advertising piece, and it did its job somewhat effectively (although only the Wonder Woman piece was clear enough to be understood completely without context).

My only issue is that DC should be doing this type of thing more often - bi-monthly seems right - to highlight more of their line than the big three (now four, I guess, with the GL franchise) - that's where they're slipping up badly these days. Do one with a Titans framing sequence and highlight Nightwing, Robin, and Blue Beetle. Do one with a JLA framing sequence and highlight Flash, Green Arrow and Outsiders. Online readers will complain they're not getting enough story or whatever, but screw 'em. DC is far too passive in marketing in comparison with Marvel (of course, some people online praise this passivity, which is perplexing), and this would be a way to start to turn things around.

[They shouldn't have come out and said "oh, it's Barry", though. It was written to be ambiguous, and while Bart's death (unlike Barry's in Crisis and Wally's various disappearances) was quite final, nothing bad ever comes about by leaving a mystery hanging for a month and provoking discussion.]

It is absolutely ridiculous to consider playable demos and online betas on the same level as trailers. You could get into the Halo 3 beta without buying Crackdown, and Final Fantasy XII sold roughly 3-4 times more as a standalone game than Dragon Quest VIII with the Final Fantasy XII demo pack-in did. Even then, for these titles, the situation is exceptional - for most online betas you get in simply by applying, and most Xbox 360 demos are absolutely free of charge.

More to the point, none of those games was more expensive than usual simply because they had an online beta or demo opportunity attached. they shipped at standard MSRPs for new software for that system. The demo/beta was treated as an extra bonus you get for buying the game. Likewise, nobody made those Star Wars fans leave the movie they paid to see once the trailer was over. They got the trailer, essentially, free - it's not like George Lucas was charging everybody an extra five bucks to see it. Fans were not asked to directly subsidize the advertising in the way that DC expected DCU0. DC's practice here is exceptional, and inexcusable.

Was DCU 0 really an advertisement/trailer? A trailer is a presentation of material that's already there. I'm unclear if this is material you could already find in other books, or if it's original work. If it's something you can't get anywhere else, $0.50 isn't a terrible price to pay, but comparing it to Brave New World, you got a lot more bang for your literal buck. This should have been free with purchase or folded into FCBD, but whatever.

As far as the online thing goes, I think there's a silent majority that doesn't participate in comics discussions online (like me a few years ago) and benefited from the pulp copy. My $0.02.

While most trailers use cuts from the finished film, there are plenty of trailers that have used footage filmed only for the ad or that is ultimately deleted from the final film. Probably the most prominent example of this is Pixar, whose early trailers are usually composed entirely of original footage to keep from giving too much about the film away, but I can think of some other campaigns that used original footage for promotional purposes, too.

Also, we have no idea that the material in DCU0 won't be reprinted in context later, or the same scenes covered in other books with more depth. To be fair, we don't know that this ISN'T the only time we'll see this stuff, either...

>and Final Fantasy XII sold roughly 3-4 times more as a standalone game than Dragon Quest VIII with the Final Fantasy XII demo pack-in did.More to the point, none of those games was more expensive than usual simply because they had an online beta or demo opportunity attached. <

If you take away the trailer pages, you got (about - I didn't bother to count) nine pages of new story for $0.50. That's the same (if not a little cheaper) than the average per-page rate for a comic book. You got the ad material for free, same as with those Star Wars trailers. There wasn't any subsidisation going on - if DC had put out nine pages of story for $2.99 and jammed the rest with ads, THEN you'd be subsidising the advertisements as presumably DC's costs for the production of the issue were lower given the reprint material. As it stood, the reader paid market price for the amount of new story delivered (the framing sequence) and got the trailers as a bonus.

(And, of course, that's assuming that they were true trailers and not introductory scenes that we'll never see reprinted anywhere else. I can't see Morrison, for example, NOT using that conversation with the Joker in the actual RIP story, but we'll see).

Ach, forgot that quoting doesn't work the same on this blog.

"and Final Fantasy XII sold roughly 3-4 times more as a standalone game than Dragon Quest VIII with the Final Fantasy XII demo pack-in did."

That's not a great example, since DQ and FF target the same audience (DQ being a subset of the FF audience, admittedly). Tobal was a different genre than FFVII, but because FF the demo was so hot people were buying a title they'd never play and using the Tobal discs as coasters.

Sony started selling demos in stores at one point and made money off them (probably the best example of doing something like DC did here).

(Source: http://www.vidgames.com/ps/software/demodisks.html - search for "retail" and you'll find a couple.)

The idea that trailer / demo / advertisement material isn't something people are willing to pay for is an exaggeration, to say the least.

"More to the point, none of those games was more expensive than usual simply because they had an online beta or demo opportunity attached."

If you take away the trailer pages, you got (about - I didn't bother to count) nine pages of new story for $0.50. That's the same (if not a little cheaper) than the average per-page rate for a comic book. You got the ad material for free, same as with those Star Wars trailers. There wasn't any subsidisation going on - if DC had put out nine pages of story for $2.99 and jammed the rest with ads, THEN you'd be subsidising the advertisements as presumably DC's costs for the production of the issue were lower given the reprint material. As it stood, the reader paid market price for the amount of new story delivered (the framing sequence) and got the trailers as a bonus.

(And, of course, that's assuming that they were true trailers and not introductory scenes that we'll never see reprinted anywhere else. I can't see Morrison, for example, NOT using that conversation with the Joker in the actual RIP story, but we'll see).

The Tobal thing was also ten years ago when the video game industry was completely different and would never fly in the modern industry, if you want to split hairs to that degree... honestly I can't believe that was even used as an example alongside Crackdown/Halo 3, but whatever, I'll address this.

In that case, you have to remember that FFVII was not published by Squaresoft, but by Sony Computer Entertainment America in the US. I believe, at the time, Tobal and FFVII were the only Squaresoft titles that SCEA had U.S. rights to publish. There is absolutely nothing unreasonable about assuming that people who buy one Squaresoft game might want to try out another Squaresoft game, although it's undeniable that Tobal hasn't withstood the test of time the way FFVII has. It was hardly a bait-and-switch, even less so than Crackdown/Halo 3 (which didn't share developers, merely publisher).

The DQVIII/FFXII is invalid because... uh, it was the result of Square-Enix being able to package one of their own games with something else they were publishing? And DQ fans are a subset of FF fans in the US, really? In my experience they don't get along very well, because DQ fans typically have a great admiration for Toriyama's designs and very old-school gameplay, while FF fans demand more cutscenes, more spectacle, and convoluted anime-style plotlines. Or are you one of those guys who assumes that everyone who plays console RPGs plays FF first and then anything else second?

Just reread it this morning, and it is just plain good. If you expected it to be Final Crisis #0 or something, it's not. It explains why the next big event is called Final Crisis, it hints that Prime is going to be showing up in some Legion related event, someone powerful is playing chess with Batman as a board piece, there's a Roy G. Biv of lanterns, plus a black lantern (related to the Black Hand hinted in the Batman vignette?), a new villain in the Flash's rouge's gallery. Sure, it's not a complete story, but the art is good and the writing is good. There's not much more to be revealed to a new reader or an old reader.