Ah, gotcha. No, I actually haven't made it to my local shop since the relaunch. I would actually be surprised to discover them marking up issues during the first week of sales like some shops have been exposed as doing--though I have no doubt that they're being marked up when the next week's new comics hit the shelves. I don't mind that so much, as long as there's a week where they're at cover price. Those shops putting them out at double or more, though, should be ashamed of themselves and boycotted by their regulars.

I picked up 5 issues this week...only had the chance to read Batman and I really enjoyed it.

I went to the local shop today about noon (30 min after open), and they were all out. They also didn't have many from past weeks, either. Glad to hear you enjoyed Batman. That's the one I was looking forward to...

I've been lucky. The shop near my house still has all issues when I get there around 6:00. On the other side of town, my brother's local shop has a line waiting in the morning, and everything sells out in a few minutes. My place still had over 20 Batmans including several variants (for a $2 markup on the variant cover ones...).

Comic Madness only jacked up the price on one comic this week (Supergirl). But it wasn't jacked up too badly ($3.99).

My review for Wonder Woman is just a two-word review: shit sandwich.

I liked it (and loved Chiang's art) but yeah, I feel most folks are probably going to be pretty down on it overall. It's definitely a weird direction for them to take.

After reading Catwoman and Red Hood, I was expecting Wonder Woman to have a hot girl on girl scene.

That's the second time you've mentioned this store. If you don't like their prices then shop somewhere else. At least they have the books you're looking for. From what it sounds like, they are charging less than online prices and less than what other stores have in the area. Seriously, stop crying. Either pay or don't.

Awfully harsh for a first post. More importantly, you're flat out wrong to take the position you have. By your logic, we would not shop at a place if we disliked some of their prices and that's unrealistic. It's entirely reasonable that someone would still visit their LCS even if they disliked some of their prices, and just as reasonable they would share that in a discussion about new releases that are selling out and being sold at inflated prices.

And anyway, why am I bothering with all this? You're a first time poster with an attitude. Consider this an act of generosity. Do learn to play nice. The DVD Talk community isn't the place for posturing and "I can say what I want to say because this is the Internet" nonsense.

You completely missed the point. It has nothing to do with personally liking a store or not. Jacking up the prices is just plain bad for the industry. It reeks of the 90s speculation era, and that is not a good thing.

The whole point of the relaunch is to attract new readers, but most new readers are going to be dismayed when they see jacked up prices and not even bother. The only people that will actually be willing to pay jacked up prices are speculators, and these people are never around for the long term. Catering to the speculators is never a good business strategy. The 90s proved that.

I had a delightful conversation on Google+ earlier about the relaunch with a young woman I know through Flickchart. She's read few comics over the years, but "The New 52" caught her attention. She stopped at a comic shop but they were sold out so she bought the digital version of Action Comics #1 to read on her iPad. She really liked it, and had questions like, "What's the difference between Action Comics and Superman or Detective Comics and Batman?" I gave brief overview of the history of the four books, and someone else chimed in to describe the differences among them in their relaunch incarnations. It was fun watching a relative newcomer express interest and excitement over comics.

The best microcosm of her reaction to all this was in the following post:

I haven't read it myself so I don't have an informed opinion of the issue, but if it gets someone like her excited about reading, then I'm all for it.

That it's up even $1 from cover price in the first week is ridiculous enough in itself. It's not surprising when looking at the field of comic shops, but as someone who has ties to someone that runs a shop it's just so depressing to see this bullshit. This is really an unprecedented opportunity to get people genuinely interested in a major company wide launch. Again, that people would take the opportunity to capitalize on it in the short term is not surprising, but it is completely disheartening. There is maybe the most long term growth potential for new customers (with genuine interest and excitement) during this event that I've ever seen in my 20+ years of working around comics. It's just so shortsighted of places that are gouging.

My wife made it a point to spotlight 3 titles each week and knock them down to $1.50. You know why? Because it's a perfect opportunity to get people on board during this time of excitement and hopefully get them to check out a book they normally wouldn't have, or even make it easier to grab another one that they weren't going to get since they're getting a 50% discount on the other. (Including Supergirl this week. ) She also got reorders of Batgirl and Detective Comics this week too. You know where those went? On the shelf for cover price. Is she an idiot for not trying to move them for what would be a $5 extra profit on Ebay? Maybe. I'll let you know in 3 months when we see if selling those copies for cover price leads to people coming back in to pick up the next handful of issues thus doing more for the store and industry than that $5 on Ebay would've gotten her.

There's really no way of covering for this kind of practice. They're charging less than online prices? For a book that came out today that they already have over cover price? HOLY SHIT! Buy that place a whole tray of cookies!

That is a shit practice and a huge disservice to their long-term customer base. The shop is well within their rights to do whatever they want, obviously, but just as such, anyone that steps foot in there has a right to share their opinions on the subject.

I liked the art, and don't mind the general tone or direction. But it was the fundamental failures of basic storytelling which made the comic such a ... fundamental failure. Sloppy, messy, and completely unengaging. And for a first issue designed to pull in new readers, it's an even bigger failure. We learned nothing of the character, who she is or what she represents, or of the world she inhabits other than it's "spooky" and has something to do with "Gods".

I'll have to read it again later, on the can. But my first experience was not what I'd call a positive one by any stretch of the imagination. Even Bizarro would scream WTF IS THIS SHIT?? and not mean it in the opposite way.

This is the first time you've mentioned this post. If you don't lke the posts in thsi forum then read some other forum. At least there's interesting chatter here. From what it sounds like, you're a douchebag and these posts are annyoing you. Seriously, stop crying. Either read or don't.

Bedrock Comics in Houston got more copies of week two and three DC 52 books in and had them on their regular shelf at cover price. One of the reasons I give them my business. They don't mark books up until after three months for the most part.

You should try Barnes and Noble. I walked in to buy something else and noticed they had most week 1 and 2 books in stock.

On a side note about speculators... I'm kinda shocked to see that people are paying $200 to $250 bucks on eBay for the set of 52 books.

Yeah, now I wish I had thrown down $80 for the pre-order set

You know what, he's right. Stop going to the store, tell your friends to stop going to the store. If you're a big comic book fan you can preorder your comics from DCBS or mailordercomics for much cheaper. If you just want the collections, just go to Amazon. Or just stop collecting.

Spoken like a real employee at a (bad) comic book store. And some people wonder why the industry is in the stage it's in. Not like we need new readers! If you don't like it, tough, don't let the door hit you...

I'm curious about these same things. I know that it's different lines/different stories (somewhat), but it's one of the reasons I never got into comics. Seeing so many titles and not knowing where the stories were or anything like that made it all very overwhelming.

I picked up both Action Comics and Detective Comics, and I enjoyed them. I'll pick up the other Batman titles, too, and I may look at Justice League if the store here ever gets #1 back in stock.

Didn't realize employees from Comic Madness would stalk me here!

For your information, I didn't pick anything up from Comic Madness this week (and no DCs from them last week). I stopped in because A) It's the closest store to where I live and it's usually convenient and B) I was curious to see if they would jack up the prices again like last week. I usually support the local store but in this case, their act of douchebaggery has me spending my dollars elsewhere.

I picked up this week's 52 at DJ's Universal Comics in Studio City (closer to work). Cat still has copies of EVERY #1 released so far (except for Detective Comics) AND he's still selling them for COVER PRICE. He also gives a 30% off discount on new books. So when choosing between giving Comic Madness $5.99 for Red Lanterns or picking it up for $2.10 at Universal Comics, I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Be sure to let your employers know that.

Speaking of which, DCBS is continuing it with the #3 issues. Preorder all 52 #3 issues for $79.74 this month.

One of the things that helps is when a crossover story has its title branded on each issue in which it takes place, regardless of series. It's also been my experience that editors are keen to make sure you understand when you pick up an issue which issue(s) are being published next, and what part they are of which storyline(s). Typically, this used to be the last thing in a letters column; today they tend to just run whole page ads that give you a checklist of each issue that's part of a story, including the on-sale date.

Admittedly, you can't glean this information merely from the cover. You also have one key advantage that readers didn't have when I was an active reader, and that's the Internet. You can always ask on this forum, for instance, if you want to know the difference between Action and Superman and someone around here will surely be happy to answer you! [letters column editor voice]In my day, ya had ta do yer homewerk on yer own! [/letters column editor voice]

Oh, and for the record, Action and Detective were originally anthology books, but when Superman and Batman, respectively, debuted in them and became instantly popular, the books more or less became "theirs." Over the years, they've run back-up stories that weren't related to those characters, and for a brief time, Green Lantern was the star of Action, but they've more or less been considered Superman and Batman titles.

Historically, Action was meant to feature a lot of action (hence the title) and Detective was meant to be a crime book. Over the years, though, with the massive crossover story taking place in those and other books, though, creative teams have had a lot less room to establish a different tone for one book over another.

In the relaunch, Action is set behind the mainstream continuity by five years and features a younger Superman establishing himself, making rookie mistakes, etc. whereas by the time of Superman he ought to more or less have his act together. In Detective, the emphasis is again on a more intellectual, detective-type story whereas Batman I'm given to understand is more of an action-driven, almost horror-type book pitting Bats against disturbing villains.

(We have no idea, of course, how long each book will have its own personality this time.)

Yeah, I always laugh when I hear someone say that getting into comics is too difficult now. It is actually easier to get into comics now than in previous decades simply due to the internet. If you want to find the history of a comic book or specific character, it only takes a quick google or wiki search to find anything you could possibly ever want to know. In previous decades, if you wanted to find the history you actually had to track down back issues yourself, and even tracking down back issues is far easier now with the likes of ebay and such. [grumpy old man]Kids today don't know how easy they have it![/grumpy old man]

maybe the demand is less around here, but I haven't seen anyone jack up prices on anything yet, but if I did, that would be the last comic I bought there. Shit has been selling out too...the first week I had to hit 4 different shops to find a JLA combo pack, Week 2 I passed on animal man on day one and still ahven't been able to get it, and Week 3 i passed on the Demon book, and again haven't been able to find it since. I was skeptical about this, and I know we are still in month one, but there have been a ton of people int he comic shops when I go at lunch now that were never there before...

So, I picked up Batman, Nightwing, Catwoman, and the Deadman book (I've never read deadman before, but the idea that he recognized soemthign was worng intrigued me).

So far I read Batman, which i said earlier i REALLY liked, maybe my favorite so far, this one and Batman & RObin are neck and neck for me (and I've never been a huge batman fan, just casual here and there).

I also read Nightwing today, which again I liked a lot and I'll stick around to see what happens for a while.

Is there a Red Robin coming or is he only going to be in Teen Titans?

Haven't gotten to anythign else yet, hopefully tomorrow night...