Some of you may have seen that The Fourth Rail was one of the many places giving an outpouring of support to H-E-R-O, DC's newest super-hero offering. I highly recommended it. Don highly recommended it. Geoff Johns reviewed it once in early preview form and again when he wanted to put his own money on the line, offering a money-back guarantee to those who bought it but didn't like it. The numbers were disappointing, a little on the low side, but it seemed likely that the book could build a buzz and allow retailers to correct their mistake in underestimating demand, as they had with Fables or Y: The Last Man.
Honestly, that's what I expected. Though Marvel has stuck with its somewhat bizarre logic that because they're doing well now, it must have something to do with the lack of overprinting (hint: It has a lot more to do with the talent you have onboard and the direction from your editor-in-chief and president creatively), DC has shown a willingness to ignore speculators and satisfy the readers. They'll do reprints, and fast, when demand is warranted. So when H-E-R-O #1 sold out of all three stores at the chain I work at on the first day, and we tried to reorder only to find out that it was sold out from DC, I thought this was a good sign. All was right with the world, and despite low orders from the start, H-E-R-O stood a pretty good chance of becoming a buzz book.
Then I read at Newsarama today the press release about DC selling out of H-E-R-O #1. Expecting the announcement of a second printing, I found instead this statement from Vince Letterio, DC's Manager of Direct Sales: "As always, retailers should look at their orders for upcoming issues as soon as possible."
If I may channel my inner Jon Stewart for a moment: Whaaaaaa---?
Letterio is not new to the direct market, so presumably he knows the rules of the game. Orders do not generally increase on a series as it goes on. They go down. This trend is sometimes bucked by new jumping-on points and quick trade collections, but a majority of readers want to get on at the beginning if at all possible. There are currently around 20,000 (probably more, but not many more) people who have read H-E-R-O #1. Some of them probably won't come back for a #2, that's just inevitable. But they could be replaced by others who have heard the buzz and want to check the book out... if they could get the first issue!
There are of course many possible reasons for this seemingly inexplicable decision. Perhaps DC is testing out the "no overprint" waters a little, given their more frequent sellouts and refusal to reprint as quickly, as evidenced most strongly by the seemingly important Aquaman relaunch, which hasn't been given a reprint either, despite being in fairly high demand. But that seems unlikely, as it would make it difficult for Bob Wayne to take the moral high ground and snipe at Marvel, and why would he want to give that up? It looks like so much fun from the ground. Plus, as many retailers and fans have noted, Marvel's no-overprint policy is mostly good at leaving perfectly good money on the table, and DC seems to have realized that up to now.
Perhaps the feeling is that H-E-R-O, with its Vertigo tone, is perfectly acceptable to DC's bean counters at the lower Vertigo sales levels. Given the recent fate of Doom Patrol, Suicide Squad and other off-beat super-hero fare from DC, however, that seems unlikely. The super-hero books, regardless of their tone, seem to be held to the super-hero sales numbers that all the other books are held to. Perhaps it's simply a matter of numbers, and the feeling is that retailers will miss the boat a second time and fail to order enough of a second printing to make it worth the money, but DC has generally been pretty good about not treating retailers like idiots, so that seems unlikely as well.
Or maybe DC is planning to do a reprint, but wants to give retailers and readers a reminder not to take DC for granted and just up the orders for Marvel, figuring that "we can always reorder DC." After all, the press release does contain the phrase "has no plans at this time" which is usually DC code for "please buy the expensive hardcover, the trade collection won't be out for two years." Certainly a reminder not to take DC for granted is a good one, although I'm not so sure that a series on the bubble is the place to make that stand. I'm also not certain that waiting to do a compilation of issues one and two is the way to go, what with the first issue being gone and the second one still three weeks off release. That's plenty of time for the buzz to die down.
It is my hope that one of two things will happen here. Either we'll get a reversal of the decision and a reprint will be announced, giving in to "massive fan and retailer demand" which makes DC look good and give all us armchair quarterbacks a reason to feel warm and fuzzy that we were right all along, or H-E-R-O will build its readership despite the failure by DC to capitalize on the early buzz with an easy jumping-on point and sales on the trade will be much higher because of the inability of most to get the early issues.
Whatever happens, I'm pretty disappointed in DC's marketing department right now. It's a shame when one of their freelancers, someone who isn't even working on the book and really doesn't know anyone working on the book, is working harder to push the book and putting more on the line than the people who get paid to do it.
Some of you may have seen that The Fourth Rail was one of the many places giving an outpouring of support to H-E-R-O, DC's newest super-hero offering. I highly recommended it. Don highly recommended it. Geoff Johns reviewed it once in early preview form and again when he wanted to put his own money on the line, offering a money-back guarantee to those who bought it but didn't like it. The numbers were disappointing, a little on the low side, but it seemed likely that the book could build a buzz and allow retailers to correct their mistake in underestimating demand, as they had with Fables or Y: The Last Man.
