Do you remember when you stopped collecting comics?
I do.
The day, February 26, 2017.
The History
It was coming as I had grown increasingly weary of Marvel’s continuing reboots and simply wanted to finish Dan Slott’s current Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy arc–the first current Marvel title I’ve collected since that late 90’s.
Slott, Spider-Man’s incumbent writer, had caught my eye in 2015 with his Superior Spider-Man run. For those unfamiliar with the book, the premise alone was intriguing: What would happened if a dying Doctor Octopus was able to switch bodies with the Amazing Spider-Man Peter Benjamin Parker?
I was two years late to the party but I backtracked and now have all but 9 of the 33 main title issues[i]. In my mind, The Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy served as a sequel to the aforementioned Superior Spider-Man run. An added incentive was Marvel’s “Buy Physical, Get Digital” Codes which allowed me to store my physical copy safely at home but at the same time have easy access to the digital copy on my iPad Pro wherever I went. Best of both worlds right? Plus! No double-dipping.
This digital promo was basically the only reason why I was still buying anything Marvel given my aforementioned misgivings. I even considered them to be somewhat ahead of their rival DC Comics–who were too cheap to offer the same incentive[ii].
Things change
It was only while redeeming the digital copies to Amazing Spider-Man #24 and Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy #5 yesterday afternoon wherein I discovered that Marvel had discontinued their promo. The redemption code gave me several issues that I had no desire to read nor explore. No doubt this was Marvel’s attempt to give their other titles more exposure.
I had all but lost interest at that point.
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[i] Quite a feat if I do say so myself as there are not that many of the latter issues available in the Philippine market.
[ii] Starting April 2017, DC Comics will be offering a similar “Buy Physical, Get Digital” promo with a number of their titles. Clearly they are capitalizing on Marvel’s Digital Faux Pas.
Tedi31.com 