Okay this is the limit. In January DC will launch a new JLA book by Geoff Johns and David Finch, and to make sure it sells more copies than WALKING DEAD #100 or UNCANNY AVENGERS #1, they will roll out 52 variant covers—one for each state AND Puerto Rico and Washington DC.
To go along with the “This land is your land, this land is my land” vibe, DC will also launch books starring Katana and Vibe by, respectively, “Arrow” creator Andrew Kreisberg and artist Pete Woods and Ann Nocenti and artist Alex Sanchez.
The two books finally fulfill DC’s diversity mandate: Katana is Asian, while Vibe is of Latino descent.
The vast amount of variants was explained as a tribute, not a sales gimmick:
“Given the title of the comic and the year in which we’re announcing — an election year — we wanted to celebrate the country, as well as the various states.”
There will the initial “regular” cover of “Justice League of America” #1 — featuring an American flag — and then each of the variants will depict elements from each of the states. The sure-to-be collectible cover initiative will not be an “incentive” stunt for comic book retailers — every shop owner has the equal opportunity to buy every cover equally.
Given the fact that America is about to go to the election polls, and are coming together to support the relief efforts for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy, this is the sort of positive comic news that contributes to hope and pride in the United States. Further, given the diverse ethnic backgrounds of Vibe and Katana, it all just makes the “Justice League” universe — and, in turn, DC — seem just a bit more inclusive. We need all those things in this industry, and in the comics we love.
Because what is the use of the tales of Heroes if not to inspire, bringing people together while celebrating our differences?
Besides making issues of JLA #1 like US quarters, at least 52 artists will get a cover rate. The recovery is here!
Oh God…. this is SO stupid.
Such stupid bullshit.
Well, DC have been cranking out the variants since the launch of the new 52, so I’m not really surprised.
That being said, 52 variants is the height of it though.
“In what they say is a completely unrelated move, Marvel today announced that the third volume of Uncanny X-Men will feature a variant cover for each county, parish, province, municipality, borough, shire, and territory. Unlike DC’s JLA covers, these will be incentive covers, and retailers will only be able to get all 3000+ of them by ordering 15,065 copies. The rarest cover will be for Musselshell County in Montana.”
Has the DC staff been drinking flood water?
Usually comixology files have all variant covers. This comixology file is gonna suck. 52 clicks before the story starts, hahahahaha
BEST IDEA EVER!!!!
The only thing scarier than 52 variant covers is…..VIBE is getting his own series. Or should have posed that as a question….VIBE is getting his own series???????
Really….I have to ask….is diversity that important that you release a book that will be cancelled by the end of its first year just to say…”hey, look at us…we gave a little known, little cared about Latino character a chance”. ?
On the other hand, I can honestly see Katanna sticking for a while….her loose ties to the Batman mythos as an Outsider and now a Bird of Prey (plus the chick with a sword factor) may allow her to grow and audience and stick for a while. If she sticks its because she’s a cool character and is well written….not because she fits two minority diversity quotas….
Again, dare I say it….diversity for diversity’s sake is stupid, petty and condensending. Great characters will find an audience and a home….characters created to fill a hole do to a percieved lack of diversity is just insulting to us all….the minority group in question in particular.
And all of this “diversity” is going down while CYBORG has yet to see his own series hit the lite of day and he might be the one character who sticks around for a while in an ongoing…
Or how about John Stewart?
DC had the ultimate diverse character and “removed” her from the NEW 52 equation for virtually no good reason. I stand by this statement to the end of the god damn universe….Barbara Gordon was ten times the character she was as Oracle than she is as Batgirl. Batgirl can easily be replaced ( Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, anyone else they want to make Batgirl)….Oracle was irreplacible. One of a kind character…a female character with zero super powers, and zero use of her legs, and she was the cog that united the entire Batman universe. Oracle kept them informed, connected, safe, etc. She was arguable the best character in all of comics. And what did DC do…..made her just another Batgirl.
Terribly sad….and so much for true diversity.
If comixology carries all the covers, then the book will have more covers than story pages.
That’s the natural result of getting customers based on appealing to individual power fantasies or other aspects of a title character. How many of the 300,000 readers in the base are going to be covered by the ADA?
The math of trying to appeal to those 300,000 buyers doesn’t support any attempts at diversity; it’s like a woman in Fargo, North Dakota looking for dates online when all the guys are hundreds or thousands of miles away.
The diversity problem can only be solved by advertising and doing stories that aren’t based entirely on title characters.
SRS
“Given the fact that America is about to go to the election polls, and are coming together to support the relief efforts for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy, this is the sort of positive comic news that contributes to hope and pride in the United States. ”
Really, MTV? Or are you being satirical?
Why do I expect the statehood covers to feature stereotypical “elements”? If this were the old DC 52, they could do a cover featuring each superhero’s home state. Kid Flash and/or the Elongated Man in Nebraska, Barry Allen in Iowa, Doom Patrol in Michigan…
I’m… I’m speechless. It’s not even so much the idea of 52 variant covers (really, that was inevitable), but the HUBRIS in that press release. “This is the sort of positive comics news…”. Yes, everybody in New York and New Jersey that had your home destroyed and/or still without power: don’t worry, you’re going to get your very own NY or NJ themed Justice League cover! Comics to the rescue!
Too bad Katana creator Mike W. Barr isn’t writing her new book. Too bad DC doesn’t respect creators.
Wait, The Flash is from Iowa? How did I never know this?
“Given the fact that America is about to go to the election polls, and are coming together to support the relief efforts for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy, this is the sort of positive comic news that contributes to hope and pride in the United States.”
That sentence just makes me feel gross.
Was this article written by Mark Oliver Fish? ’cause it sure seems like it.
52 variant covers. Okay. So what. I’ll still only buy one copy. Doesn’t affect me in the least.
Vibe and Katana getting series. Hey, let’s slam minorities, because obviously, since they are minority characters, it must be “affirmative action” Nice. Well done Beat. And here I was thinking that you were a liberal site. Instead, we get that type of crap writing?
And what, exactly, is so wrong with trying to get more diversity in the comic characters?
I don’t see how this doesn’t have the potential to be any different then the retailer variants IDW and Marvel did.
As far as the diversity thing, at this point it seems like they are damned if they do, damned if they don’t by the snark in the article above.
I feel like Comixology has been putting variant covers at the end of the book if it’s over 2 unique covers.
God forbid you should actually read a book first before deciding sight unseen without even a glimpse of what the pitch was that it might actually be a good concept for a story.
Let us note that the launch of MARS ATTACKS from IDW had fifty-FIVE variants (one for each of the original cards), so this is not the most ever.
I can’t imagine more than one or two hundred people would bother to try and make a full set — I’d think that plate changes and paying artists to do 55 covers would eat up whatever profit DC could hope to make on these, no?
As long as I can order a no-variant version for my store, I’ll be extremely happy.
-B
All I can say is… I wish I was drawing one…
The ultimate in variants – just have the cover blank and you can draw your own!
I just discovered it today, when I was searching for comics set in Iowa.
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Iowa
Makes sense, if his nephew lives in Nebraska.
I think Thomas Wayne above answered that one pretty well already:
“diversity for diversity’s sake is stupid, petty and condescending. Great characters will find an audience and a home….characters created to fill a hole do to a percieved lack of diversity is just insulting to us all….the minority group in question in particular.”
That should be “Great stories will find an audience.” Focusing on a character in a story to the exclusion of everything else means that the story is being created for readers who focus on characters to the exclusion of everything else, instead of, say, a story written to make a political point, to explore an ethical dilemma, or to extrapolate the effects of climate change on the U.S. Lousy stories don’t have great characters.
SRS
Only 8 more years left in this decade before the 90’s nostalgia dies down and then we get 00’s nostalgia. Who knows maybe by 2021 we’ll see the old universe back or another reboot possibly closer representing the old universe than we have now. Only with rehashes of 52 and Blackest Night..bring it
I understand why people are bitching about this, but I think it’s kind of a fun idea. Then again, I only buy trades so they can do whatever they want with the individual issues.
That said, if the art turns out to be good I would totally pick up a poster made out of these covers.
….you know Marvel does this on a regular basis, right?
Hey, your all talking about it. Does anything else matter.
Buying matters more.
As long as I can catch a glimpse of most the covers on EBay or The Beat or somewhere, that will be good enough for me. I don’t need to spend my money supporting this idea. Others can please chip in as desired. The Comixology solution sounded cost effective though. Happy purchasing.
The creative bankruptcy at DC Comics continues unabated.
Is this like the comic store Godzilla covers where every cover was the same except the sign on the comic store was different? I mean is it the same JLA picture with a different state flag behind them? Johnny John Jones holding every state flower….
UGH, THIS MAKES ME SO SICK TO MY STOMACH!!!!
Dc is really reaching the worst of its own.
Seemingly, it never occurs to them to just produce quality work.
Every time I think, “How much worse is it going to get?” Then, this happens!!!
At this point, i really miss the old DC heroes, which they make more sense than this new 52 trash.
Huh, everybody seems missed most despicable news of the bunch – proffessional crap-maker Ann Nocenti gets third DC series… fragging omfgwtf crime against everything that’s good… utter bastardization of quality by DeeDee and Harras and their talentless 90s hack-buddies… Lobdell, Liefeld, Nocenti, DeFalco, Mackie, Jurgens, Levitz, DiDio can’t you see how bad your writing is, cannot you evaluate your work from somewhat objectively critical standpoint… don’t you have a bloody shame, you wankers? What a triumph of arseholeness. Get your stinking damned dirty ape paws off my comics… I need another bottle…
The Fact is that a lot of people will want the one with their home state on it. This is a Press Release and as such is subject to Hyperbole.
Also, the desired result is press and people talking…guess what?
I’ve cut back on most of my collecting but my one area that I still get everything is Green Arrow and he’ll be on all 52 covers! Sheesh!
Really? Because I have to say, whether you think it’s a good idea or not, it’s pretty creative. It’s not been done before (I don’t count the IDW Mars Attacks thing because that was based on the original cards) and it’s got people talking.
No, ‘creative’ would be 52 original ideas, not yet another exploitive multiple variant cover stunt. That’s been done almost constantly lately.
The Godzilla covers weren’t the same “except the sign on the comic store was different” The Godzilla foot and smoke above the crushed stores were the same, but each store (and any people in the picture) were drawn separately, and drawn from photo references we sent to IDW.
Comments are closed.