I think the big message from that observation is probably that those big crossovers take a hell of a lot longer than normal comics to produce.

Brian, don’t forget that each issue of crisis has 1.5 issues worth of pages, making the story 10.5 issues long. If the Superman book also has extra pages per issue, the 2 of them would be 3 issues worth of pages long. That would be approx. 300 pages.

So 124 pages shorter than Watchmen then...

"Then again, that’d be NINE issues of story for a trade - kinda hard to collect that into one trade."

Brian, don't forget that each issue of crisis has 1.5 issues worth of pages, making the story 10.5 issues long. If the Superman book also has extra pages per issue, the 2 of them would be 3 issues worth of pages long. That would be approx. 300 pages.

"I just don’t understand why they would choose Mahnke. He’s not BAD; he just doesn’t draw ANYTHING LIKE J.G. JONES. I mean, were they even TRYING?"

Yes, they were trying---trying to annoy you! Looks like they succeeded.

These 4-5 issue trades that are getting more common are just too damn small!

"I couldn't finish the series because I am too slow"

and

"I couldn't finish the series because I signed with another company"

are both pretty equal in my book.

There's been 12 issue trades.

The original Crisis comes to mind. Ditto the Watchmen.

I thought the latest issue looked really good art wise. So the different artist thing is working out so far. Also Manhke drew that Libra story in DC Universe 1. So that would be a good inclusion to the trade. Not to mention the Carlos Pacheco story in Justice League.

The industry that somehow makes money that I can't understand is the Movie industry. They pay 10s to 100s of million dollars on these things, maybe one out of ten movies makes it's money back. ANy other industry they would of gone out of business.

I'm off subject. DC Comics multi-verse stuff confuses me to no end. I read part of INfinite Crisis and couldn't figure out what was going on except that Superboy died.

There's no sane, non-finacial reason that DC can't collect 9 issues into one sturdy TPB -- even with nice paper. As long as people pay HC money for 4 issues (like Justice), DC won't make sense. Even "Hush" has NO REASON at all not to have a single volume.

Remember, DC didn't put the Infinite Crisis specials from the four buildup miniseries into the collected version (I assume they'll do so eventually) - Superman Beyond is in exactly the same situation.

"Seems pretty straightforward to me."

Three issues into two paragraphs? That's not bad at all (although I'll admit it cut out the GL/ murder investigation subplot that weighed down the first couple of issues).

How's this - the plot thus far in sixteen words: Darkseid achieves mortal form, covertly invades, kicks ass, JLA tries to respond, can't, Darkseid conquers Earth.

Sure it is. I've only read the issues sporadically, while killing time at book stores, with more than a month between readings and I haven't had any trouble. But for your sake, here's what Wikipedia says:

"The mini-series revolves around "The Day Evil Won", as Darkseid and his fellow evil New Gods invade Earth in the wake of the utter destruction of the heroic New Gods. Having transcended into the forms of astral entities capable of possessing mortals, Darkseid assassinates the lone surviving New God, his son Orion, and arranges for his harbinger Libra to organize Earth's super-villain community into an army of followers using the "Religion of Crime". These events lead to the death of Martian Manhunter and the destruction of the Daily Planet. Meanwhile many of the planet's major superheroes are quickly picked off one by one.

Opposing Darkseid is an army of heroes united by Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott as well as Shilo Norman, the new Mister Miracle, who has recruited Sonny Sumo and a group of rookie Japanese super-heroes "The Super Young Team." Though the young Japanese superheroes save Shilo and Sonny from being killed by Darkseid's Justifiers, the heroes suffer two major setbacks. Oracle and Mr. Terrific are unable to save humanity from Darkseid's unleashing of the Anti-Life Equation onto the internet. Flashes Wally West and Barry Allen — who have escaped death itself try and save Orion from being killed by a time-traveling sniper bullet — return to the present time, albeit a month later than when they left and discover the world is in ruins; Darkseid has conquered Earth."

Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Why would it be hard to collect into a trade? Why do we have to have an industry and customer base that doesn't get upset with 3, 4-issue hard covers to collect Justice? Then 3, 4-issue softcovers? Secret Wars was 12 issues, as was Crisis on Infiinite Earths. They have single-volume trade paperbacks.

Why not Final Crisis + Superman Beyond under 1 cover?

I mean this sincerely, not as combative snark.