Secret Invasion Versus Final Crisis

All right, the numbers are finally in concerning Secret Invasion #2 and Final Crisis #1. Now, I never use sales numbers as a basis for the quality of a comic book. It is merely an indicator of the popularity of a comic book. And that is important since the amount of money a title generates dictates the creative direction of that title as well as how long a life that title possesses. And the fact is that my opinion that Secret Invasion was nothing impressive is totally irrelevant. All that matters is how many units an issue sells. It is all about money.

First, I have to mention that Marvel absolutely owned DC in May. Marvel snagged 51.86% of the share of units in the Top 300 compared to DC’s 31.68%. Marvel also garnered 52.38% of the share of dollars in the Top 300 compared to DC’s 30.18%.

Now, I knew that Secret Invasion #1 would outsell Final Crisis #1, but I figured that Final Crisis #1 would probably outsell Secret Invasion #2. Wow, was I ever wrong. Secret Invasion #2 absolutely crushed Final Crisis #1 by 37,606 units. Secret Invasion #2 sold 182,390 issues compared to Final Crisis #1 which sold 144,784 issues. That is a stunning blow to DC and is yet another black mark on Didio’s reign at DC. Didio has to be completely embarrassed by this.

Now, DC can take solace that the horrendous lead-in to Final Crisis known as Countdown didn’t completely kill off any and all interest in Final Crisis. Countdown #1 sold 72,688 issues. That means that Final Crisis #1 enjoyed a nice 50% increase from the final issue of Countdown to Final Crisis.

Secret Invasion #2 did take it on the chin compared to the sales numbers from Secret Invasion #1. Secret Invasion #1 sold a whopping 250,213 issues. That is a 67,823 issue difference between Secret Invasion #1 and Secret Invasion #2 which constitutes a 27 % drop in sales. I will be curious to see how much of a drop that Secret Invasion suffers between issue #2 and #3 considering what a poor read issue #2 was.

Still, Marvel has to be absolutely tickled pink that the second issue of Secret Invasion crushed the first issue of Final Crisis. Marvel basically won this fight between the two events with a knockout punch in the first minute of the first round.

I have had my problems with Joey Q, but the fact is that Marvel continues to routinely whip DC’s butt in the sales charts. I may not like several things about the current state of the 616 Universe, but for the most part, it is a well oiled machine and is extremely popular. Add on top of that the fledgling Marvel Studios with their first two hit movies in Iron Man and Incredible Hulk and things are looking good for Marvel at the moment.

I am curious to see if DC can finally turn the tide and actually make a good run at Marvel. It is easy to say that Didio must be fired immediately. The fact is that Didio has done some good things during his tenure. Infinite Crisis, 52, Batman, Detective Comics, JSA, Booster Gold, Green Lantern (In particular the Sinestro War) and Action Comics have all been wonderful titles. I like that Didio pulled the trigger on the return of the Multiverse. I dig that Hal Jordan and Barry Allen are both back.

I think that DC has done many good things and that there is a solid foundation for them to build off of. The important thing is for DC to get a much better focus of where they want to go from here. It seems that Didio is scatter-brained and changes his plans for the direction of the DCU every other day.

Of course, there is no doubt that Didio has been at the helm for many serious mistakes by DC. The “cleansing” of established white heroes to make way for minority heroes with the same codename and gimmick is not my preferred method of creating diversity in the DCU. This move tends to piss off long time readers of these established characters and makes it easy for readers to hold a grudge against the new character. We have seen DC take this approach over and over with characters like The Question, Firestorm, Blue Beetle and The Atom.

And these new versions have not been popular. Firestorm and the new Atom got cancelled. I guess Blue Beetle has not gotten cancelled because Didio doesn’t want to lose face and see all of his new versions of old characters fail. I have heard that many people like Blue Beetle, but the cold hard fact is that Blue Beetle gets putrid sales numbers. Blue Beetle #27 sold a paltry 13,798 issues. That is definitely the type of sales number that causes vultures to circle around a title.

I much prefer Marvel’s approach to creating diversity in the 616 Universe. Marvel doesn’t junk established white heroes. Instead, Marvel takes older characters like Luke Cage and Black Panther and re-invents them and makes them relevant again. Then Marvel gives the characters a big push and makes them bigger players in the 616 universe. Marvel also goes the route of actually creating new characters like Echo. I know that sounds like a lot of hard work, but believe me, it is worth it.

Another problem with DC is that they obsessively try and reinvent themselves every other year. It creates a chaotic environment in the DCU where readers have no idea which version of a character they are going to get. Marvel does a great job of understanding their identity and sticking to it. When you pick up a Marvel comic book you know who is going to be Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four, etc. There is much more stability in the 616 universe and it makes it new reader friendly.

I am not saying that Marvel never shakes things up. Marvel did “kill” off Steve Rogers. Of course, we all know it is temporary and that the original Captain America will be back better than ever. On the other hand, with DC comics there are like three different versions for every character. Wait, which version of Starman is this? Wait a minute, who is Blue Beetle now? I thought the Question was a guy? And it goes on and on.

DC needs to take this opportunity to return to their roots with the Multiverse firmly in place and build some stability for a good long time. Stop junking established characters for newer versions of the same character. Stop with the Crisis events that constantly re-write and radically alter continuity. Just stick with what you have going and focus on building a stable and quality DCU that is new reader friendly but still appeals to long time readers.

There have been other mishaps under Didio’s direction. Flash has been a hot mess since the end of Infinite Crisis. This title has been just horribly mishandled. Flash is a great example of a lack of direction, vision and commitment by Didio. The re-start for Wonder Woman was terribly botched. At least it appears that DC has managed to correct that problem finally. The Justice League of America is a shell of a title that is only used to shill stories for other comic books.

But, what was most alarming was the way that Didio completely bungled everything relating to Final Crisis. Evidently, Morrison turned in his scripts for the first two issues early so Didio would know what Morrison wanted to do with this story. What does Didio proceed to do? Come out with Countdown and Death of the New Gods without even bothering to consult Morrison on how this would gel with Final Crisis.

Evidently, Morrison did not even know anything about Countdown or Death of the New Gods and was already half-way done writing Final Crisis. The result is that Morrison barely references either title in Final Crisis. Morrison stated that he used Infinite Crisis and 52 as his foundation for Final Crisis.

That is absolutely shameful of Didio. How in the world can you pull off a big event without coordinating everything connected to it with the writer of that big event? I may not be all that impressed with Secret Invasion, but you have to give credit to Joey Q for allowing Bendis to plant the seeds for Secret Invasion years ago. Joey Q also made sure that everything that lead up to the debut of Secret Invasion would gel perfectly with the big event itself.

On the other hand, you have Didio ignoring what Morrison is doing and then not even bothering to let Morrison know what DC wants to do with Countdown and Death of the New Gods. There appears to be no communication from Didio to Morrison. It also appears that Didio never called Morrison to ask him how Morrison wanted to set-up Final Crisis in the year prior to the big event.

Morrison has even stated that he had to fight tooth and nail with the DC editorial staff to plant even a few crumbs into the various DC titles in the year leading up to Final Crisis. This is beyond inexcusable. It is simply unprofessional and a sign of a complete and total lack of focus by the editor and a lack of communication between the editor and his talent.

Then to top it all off, we find out that DC is going to have to bring Carlos Pacheco onto Final Crisis with issue #4 in order to help out J.G. Jones with the artwork. Really? With all the lead in time to Final Crisis, there was no way for an editor to manage Jones in order to ensure that he got the job done in a timely fashion?

Honestly, Didio has done such a poor job with his handling of the lead up to Final Crisis and the event itself. DC deserves whatever beating that Marvel lays on them with this duel of the big events.

Maybe it is time for a change at DC. Maybe Didio has done all that he can do for the company and there needs to be a change at the EIC position. Personally, I’d hire Mark Waid to be the new Editor in Chief of DC. I think Waid could get along with the talent and communicate effectively with everyone. I also think that Waid is a good big picture guy. And Waid’s encyclopedic knowledge of the DCU is tough to beat.