Captain Marvel

I haven't read #2 yet but after picking this up along with the new Iron Fist book - also $3.99 - I commented to the guy at my LCS about how annoyed I was with this price point. This reaction came on strong as I just finished reading Moon Knight #2 which felt REALLY slight for $4. Iron Fist (again, haven't read yet so can't comment on quality or value-for-money) FELT slim in my hands so I am not sure how many new Marvel books I am going to continue picking up. At $3 I might continue on with Iron Fist & Moon Knight, which I just bought on a whim. At $4...probably not.

Marvel is saying they are giving the digital edition as well (why do I need the digital edition when I bought the physical copy?), which is at least something. DC is giving us...well, let's see, they've dropped the backup stories from their $4 titles and have not added extra pages to most but are adding...hmm... better cover stock... woo!! Be still my heart! It is particularly insane that they priced lower-tier books like AllStar Western and Sword of Sorcery at $4. I am sure that is one of the largest contributing factors to SoS failing so early.

The absence of ads is one of the best reasons for buying digitally, even at full price. I feel the same way as you about how they interrupt the flow. Sometimes it is almost comical how detrimental their placement can be to the story (a really whimsical ad beside/breaking up a heavy plot point). I buy a small percentage of my books digitally currently but am going to be getting a tablet this summer. Then I plan to read way more that way - particularly the DC titles I am cutting from my pull where I can get them at a dollar less after a couple of months - and I am digging Marvel Unlimited so might just keep that up and wait the 6month period to get the new books. At $4/book vs $10 for as many as I can read, it is a good deal, as I am not at all concerned with collecting these issues, I just want to read them.

Exactly.  Agreed.  Well said.

The bit that i've bolded is a much better and more succinct way to put what i was trying to say.  The book was really good, good enough that i'll see out this initial arc before i really have to make the hard decision, but when you have a $4 Marvel book in one hand and a $3 or $3.50 Image book in the other (let's say Captain Marvel vs Pretty Deadly, to make it Kelly Sue vs Kelly Sue, or Moon Knight, which i would love to be picking up but is too overpriced for me to justify doing so, vs East of West), the $4 book feels like a $3 book that i'm being gouged on, while the $3.50 book feels like a $4 book that's been discounted.  When i finished reading Captain Marvel #2, my immediate reaction was, "Well that was fun, but where's the rest of it?" whereas i don't feel that way at all with Saga ($3), or The Wake ($3), or East of West ($3.50) or Black Science ($3.50), or Pretty Deadly ($3.50), or whathaveyou.

Ultimately i suppose my gripe is that, hey, Marvel, or DC (with $4 Batman, specifically), they should be trying their best to make sure i have a good experience enjoying their product.  Take care of your customers, that's business 101.  They should be making it easy for me to grab those books from the shelf, throw them on the counter without a second thought, and walk out of the store with them.  And with a $4 book that feels really short and constantly interrupted by commercials, they're not doing that.  That gives me all kinds of second thoughts.  They're making it a hard decision for me, instead of making it an easy one.  And in that sense, they are failing me, the customer, and they're failing the shops who want to move those books, and they're failing the artists and creative people who've put their heart and soul into that work.

With Moon Knight, let's say, i'll just wait for the trade.  No problem.  That's fair (though i think the case can certainly be made that Marvel's trades are overpriced as well, when compared to those of the competition).  But i think the point stands.  Don't make the decision difficult on me; make it easy.  Don't tempt me to go searching the nether-regions of the internets to find someone that's "sharing" the book i want to read.  I don't want to do that.  I want to support my local shop (which i do, every week), i want to support Kelly Sue and the artists and all of the other creative people behind the endeavor (which i do, every week).  But when you put a $4 price tag on something that was a full dollar cheaper just a few months ago and which feels substantially lighter and shorter than some other great book that's .50 cents to a dollar cheaper, then you're making it tough to continue to support that book.  And that bums me out.

Sidenote: I don't have a tablet, so digital codes are unwanted and somewhat meaningless to me.  But even if i did have a tablet, the notion that they would bump up the price a full dollar because they're including the digital code for the same exact book that i've just bought a physical copy of is upsetting.  If that's the case, then they should be offering two versions at the shop, a full-priced one with the code, and a cheaper one without.  That would be fine by me.  But, to be clear, i don't believe for a second that that's why they've raised the price.  I think there's somebody at the top who's making that decision based on accounting spreadsheets and b.s. market research, who has no idea what he's doing, or at least he has no idea how this new policy is going to affect how people feel about the company, and how that might affect the relationship between the weekly customer and that company's products in the long term.  It's the polar opposite of trying to foster good will and take good care of your customer base.

We are getting fairly far off topic but I think this is a discussion worth continuing so I created a new thread in the General Discussion section - talkingcomics.freeforums.net/thread/496/value-money-captain-marvel-thread

Cap'n Nick,

Compared to the absolutely stellar (sorry for the pun!) first issue, almost anything would have!

It was one of my favorite books of the week; a fun story (with a look into the pathos behind Tic's story), really nice art, and...flerken cat!

Is everyone still onboard with Captain Marvel?

Still loving the story but wanted to get the general impression of the art. I'm not digging the art from these 9 issues. Perhaps the transition from the Soy/Andrade/Rios run was a bit jarring.

Hate to be a downer on an otherwise great book.

Does anyone know what happen to the whole Iron Patriot and Carol Danvers relationship? I feel like it was here one issue and gone the next.

Is anyone else concerned about the future of this book beyond Black Vortex? Looking at sales #'s it has been on the decline every month and in November has dropped to 19K. Generally this is a very bad omen for the future....