Get ready for some extreme 90's cover treatments as Marvel has announced today that they are rolling out some foilogram variant covers for the launch of Ultimate Comics. What is foilogram? It's a cross between the two most overused gimmicks, hologram and foil covers, from the 90's. Along with chromium and the standard variants that seemed to be on every other cover near the end of the 90's, most blame these for the speculator boom and subsequent crash of the market (there was more to it than that, but they sure didn't help). Hit the jump for my and other blogger's reactions to the news.
Personally, I'm extremely disappointed they are going this route with the use of variants and rank it up there with DC's current 1-250 variant cover ratios on certain books in terms of disdain.However, we have to keep in mind that variants are just that, variants. They have no impact on the quality of the book and are not something to be this upset over. Marvel has been ramping up variant usage for the past year or more, from Wolverine appreciation months to apes and zombies to the current decade themed variants. It was only a matter of time before these types of covers returned and, so long as they do not affect the price of the comics (these are still priced at $3.99, which is already a groan inducing pricepoint), there's no reason to get our panties in a knot over it.
From Around the Interweb
Simply put, reaction to the news has been overly negative, to say the least. Robot 6's JK Parkin could only post a long series of "No. No. No. No." to the news, which needed no context, while Rich Johnston, of Bleeding Cool, could only give cryptic warnings of the impending return of these gimmick covers, with examples from the 90's litterng the post, warning readers to, "Run! Run! Run! Run! Run!", from the coming onslaught. Internet messageboards, as expected, were aflame with readers proclaiming the end of comics and others, as always, claiming they wouldn't be buying any Ultimate Comics titles.
Thoughts?
What do you think about the announcement of foilogram covers? End of the industry as we know? Sign of the apocalypse? Mayan omens for the end of civilization as we know it? Let us know in the comments below.
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16 comments:
This doesn't affect me as I am not going to be buying the new Ultimate comics with their 3.99 price tag. Even if I was, it's just a variant, so I could happily ignore it.
That being said, this is a "what-the-fuck" thing to do from Marvel. Have you ever met a comic fan (not a speculator, but an actual fan that reads the damn comics) that thinks a book will be better or feel more important because it has a foil/hologram cover? I haven't. If anything, this is aimed more towards the retailers, who will be able to charge 10 times what the book actually costs.
Oh, and here's the required bad joke: "More like FAILogram, amirite?"
Marvel's business decisions are just getting stupider by the minute. They keep making it harder and harder for me to buy their stuff. This, the Cap #600/Reborn idiocy, and their incredibly horrible marketing, which includes their incredibly dismissive attitude toward their fans, which I can understand even if I don't approve of it.
Sure, this stuff doesn't effect the content of the comics but I'm still giving the idiots my money which says to them they can continue to pull this kind of stupid shit.
Ironically, the one thing I don't really disagree with is their move to $4/32 pgs. comics, since people are obviously willing to pay for them. I'll pay $4 for a 22 pgs. comic sometimes though, just not for any Marvel comic.
To me, this cover thing is indicative of the route Ultimate comics seems to be going. Every since Ultimates 3 it's like a curse has been placed on the entire line, and at this point, if Ultimate comics ceased to exist, I would shed no tears.
If Ultimate Spider-Man went away, Bendis could spend more time on his other books, or maybe work on the 616 Spider-Man. Millar could easily do more stuff in the 616 or create something similar to the Ultimates in that universe, and I honestly see very little reason for the Ultimate X-Men to exist anymore. I would like it if Ultimatum actually ended with say, the entire Ultimate universe being destroyed forever. But no, it's going to be dragged out until the line is inevitably cancelled, and we'll have to deal with sub-par comics until then (save for Ultimate Spider-Man, which could plausibly begin to slip in quality).
Unless they do something REALLY interesting at the end of Ultimatum (which, come on now, it's Jeph Loeb), I'm probably going to give up on the Ultimate universe.
you seem to be using that Vader NOOOOOOOOO! graphic a lot lately! haha!
ultimate...comics? foil? 90's ....return? lol
The Ultimate Universe is dead to me.....
usually retro and throwback is cool, so it might work. but with all the negativity and logical reasoning behind it, it probably won't work out well. I'm bummed more that this can lead to even more doom to ultimate spidey (the one good comic in the ultimate line).
This is still a better decision than letting Jeph Loeb near a typewriter.
@jason quinones - Heh, I've been liking it as my default bad news banner since it properly reflects my reaction to the news it's been posted with.
As a child of the 90's, where about 50% of the comics my father gave me came from, I can say that as a kid I loved these covers. I had a foil cover of the first ever Venom comic, Spider-man 2099, I think some Hulk and X-men as well. As a kid I loved them but now...their just a silly gimmick I could care less about. I don't care that Marvel is bringing them back as variants, as long as their not the regular covers I'm fine.
Well, I certainly won't be buying any Ultimate comics! But then, I wasn't buying them anyway, so it doesn't exactly make much difference. (Never could get into mainstream Marvel characters. Stuff on the fringe, sure. Supreme Power, Alias, True Believers. But for whatever reason, not the major characters.)
So honestly, they could do 5 variations of each issue with holofoil, wobble pictures, and a different backup story in each variant like Team Titans, and it wouldn't bother me at all.
My opinion on Foilogram: blergh. 'Nuff said.
I don't care about foilogram at all, but variant covers usually please the hell out of me (especially these decade variants, which are probably the best variant theme in forever).
Though with that in mind these are REALLY BORING variant things so they can just go away. Won't be affecting my picking up of issue 1 of Ultimate Comics Avengers either, something I'm intent on donig just to give the Ultimate universe a fair change
I won't buy these comics because I'm not interested. Anyway I don't have this huge a problem with Marvel doing this kind of gimmick, because I can see where they're coming from. These new "ultimate comics" series is clearly oriented towards younger, newer readers, and the shiny covers are a viable way to lure them into buying the first issue.
Man, now that I think about, I would have paid to see Warren Ellis' face when they told him his new comic was going to have a foilogram variant. I just don't see him as the type of guy that enjoyed the extravagance of the 90's, or any reason to bring them back.
Knowing Ellis, his reaction would've probably been something like "whatever...".
Curses – foiled again!
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