CBR Live! Archive
Fast Action by Marvel Over the Spider-Man/Obama Comic
I have to give Marvel a lot of credit. Originally, the second printing of the Amazing Spider-Man issue with Barack Obama was going to come out on February 11th. "February 11th!" I thought, "Almost a month after the fact?"
However, Marvel has reacted quickly and now they appear to be coming out with the second printing a week after the release of the first printing, just one day after Obama's inauguration!
Here's the second printing cover by Phil Jimenez (click to enlarge)
Anyone know for sure if it is coming out the week after?
- Posted on January 10, 2009 @ 02:38 AM







20 Comments
Blackjak
January 10, 2009 at 3:31 am
Looks like this time they spotted the un-inked ear...
Anyone know if that was just the preview image that was unfinished, or if it actually came out with an unfinished ear?
scooter
January 10, 2009 at 7:37 am
So, this blog is going to become another Obama worship site a well? Lord knows there aren't enough of those already.
Rich
January 10, 2009 at 8:03 am
This comic has Marvel and comics in the national and international news. I don't see a problem with discussing it here, regardless of anyone's personal politics. I imagine retailers will be glad to know the release date has changed as well, especially since it's to a better day (presumably) for sales.
Lawrence
January 10, 2009 at 10:04 am
The blog post doesn't praise Obama at all, it only mentions his name and that he's on a Spider-man cover. If you consider the simplest acknowledgement of his existence praise, you're in for a very rough four years.
williams
January 10, 2009 at 11:31 am
Small comic store owner:
Let's see...I have to order additional copies of a comic whose sales are flagging in order to buy more copies of the same book with a different cover. Do I care about the environment and paper wastage? Do I want to throw good money after bad in this economy?
Massive publicity on the book and only deep pocket big time Diamond accounts are going to get it...well let's hope Marvel goes back to press with it the way they did with the death of Captain America so little mom and pop comic stores can make their customers happy...Oh! Second Print that no one wants...great! If this is like the Cap death debacle I wonder how many of the rip-off ebay listings are coming from within a few miles of Timonium Maryland (guess whose corporate offices are there) or out of Wizard's back door.
Bill Reed
January 10, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Nope. We only worship bald Scotsmen here, remember?
Apodaca
January 10, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Go away, scooter.
Joe
January 10, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Williams:
I'm pretty sure that "small mom & pop" comic store owners aren't forced to buy anything. Although it does make business sense to sell as many comics you can. Can't make any money if you don't sell anything. More sales = more profit.
Blackjak
January 10, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Warren Ellis isn't that bald!
kolya
January 10, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Unfortunately for that joke, Warren Ellis is possibly the most English man in recorded history. Eamon Bannon, there's a bald Scotsman.
williams
January 10, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Joe,
Please feel free to inquire of Diamond Distribution as to what the parameters were with regard to ordering this book. Oh what the heck I'll tell you myself: Ordering an amount of Amazing Spiderman #583 equal to or greater than total pre-orders for Amazing Spiderman #575 qualified retailers to order the Obama cover of #583. Sales for Amazing Spiderman #583 would have been down from #575 (an anniversary issue to boot) so this created a situation where dealers were FORCED to buy unsalable product so that they could then spend more mioney to get quantities of the Obama cover. This, in turn, makes the regular cover version less salable than it would have been. This is is a waste of paper and money not to mention usurious behavior on someone's (either Marvel or Diamond Distribution) part. Comic companies and distributors should not be in the business of manipulating the collectibles market. Remember: these are "dated periodicals."
Blackjak
January 10, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Bugger
confused as usual...
and Ennis is Irish, so no excuse there!
Brian Cronin
January 10, 2009 at 4:38 pm
williams, you are so far off-base that I really have to wonder if you're being willfully obtuse.
Amazing Spider-Man #575 was an ordinary issue of Amazing Spider-Man. Amazing Spider-Man #583 withOUT the special cover is now automatically a FAR MORE salable item having the Obama back-up included in the issue than it was before the Obama story was added. In addition, just by ordering one more copy than #575 (an ordinary issue of Amazing Spider-Man), retailers are allowed to basically print money by purchasing the Obama variant.
The Cap #25 comparison fails because the issue then was that people felt that Wizard knew that Cap would die, so they were better prepared to order the issue in question (remember, retailers were not told that Cap would die beforehand). Here, EVERYone knew EXACTLY what this issue of Spider-Man would entail - an Obama back-up and an Obama variant cover.
There is no problem here (unless you are of the mind that companies should not attempt to profit off of the usage of Obama) - retailers win, Marvel wins and the readers win (as there is clearly a huge demand for this comic).
The only problem I could see would be if the book sells out and people can't have access to the book - but Marvel has quickly addressed this problem by having the second print rushed out to come out the next week.
There is no problem here.
R
January 10, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Nice to see Scooter Libby chipping in with his opinions, there!
karl
January 10, 2009 at 8:01 pm
why is any store forced to sell this anyways? if they dont think the unused non-obama covers will make up for the variants they can get, then they should just ignore it and order their normal amount... if any store is left with an absurd number of unsold copies, then thats their fault for not gauging demand correctly.
people act as if stores have to do what marvel/diamon tells them to do... these stores (in theory) should be run by intelligent adults.
meh
January 11, 2009 at 2:09 pm
i just think this is just another example of Marvel becoming more "disney" ... money, money, money. True, it's a big deal Obama is the President, but cashing in on it is lame. I've been reading comic books for 30 years and I'm sorry to say I'm not interested in reading a comic book like this. It might be one thing if it was some special give-away thing given out at the inaugeration ... but if I'm paying to read Spider-Man I don't want to read the "Marvel Team-Up" of Spidey and America's real life President.
I AM FeAR
January 11, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I'm not buying it, but I sure hope for the people who do that, for the increased cover price, the Obama story is at least worth the read, unlike the ridiculously stupid Colbert backup they did during New Ways To Die.
patrick
January 11, 2009 at 9:38 pm
my comic book guy said that the 2nd printing was indeed coming out on the 21st
Apodaca
January 12, 2009 at 12:20 am
"i just think this is just another example of Marvel becoming more “disney” … money, money, money. True, it’s a big deal Obama is the President, but cashing in on it is lame. I’ve been reading comic books for 30 years and I’m sorry to say I’m not interested in reading a comic book like this."
Then you should know that Marvel and Dc have both been primarily concerned with financial profit for decades. That was the whole reason for the 90's bust, remember?
This is not even anywhere close to being something new.
Ryan Day
January 12, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Indeed, I miss the days when superheroes had classy teamups, like with the cast of SNL, David Letterman, and Don Rickles.