Teen TItans Giant

Over a year ago, DC Comics announced a joint venture with Wal-Mart to produce comic book titles exclusively to be sold in Wal-Mart stores. The books would be 100 pages an issue and retail for $4.99. Each issue would contain a variety of reprints anchored by a new story created for these titles.

I wanted to support this initiative.

I have access to a Local Comics Ship (LCS) which provides a wide range of products and friendly customer service.  But as much as I love my LCS, I do worry about where are the comic book fans of tomorrow coming from.

I had a cousin who was a big fan of the Hulk. He had watched the Incredible Hulk TV show with his grandfather, he owned Hulk coloring books and a variety of Hulk toys.

But he had never seen a Hulk comic book.

Wow.

People know Superman and Batman from movies and TV shows, from lunch boxes, jars of peanut butter and underwear. Do they know about the comic books that spawned these characters?

Make no mistake: the LCS model saved the comic book industry. Back in the late 1970s, comic books were in a downward spiral.  The mass distribution model of filling spinner racks in drug stores, convenience stores and grocery stories across the country produced only diminishing returns.  But moving to a model that focused on distribution to comic shops, the gross inefficiencies and wastes of the mass distribution model were eliminated.  The industry was rejuvenated in the 1980s.

But over time, LCS distribution became not the main avenue of distribution but virtually the only one.  The idea of the discovering the joy of comic books in a squeaky spinner rack in the corner of a drug store faded to obscurity.  

A Local Comic Shop can be a place of wonder. But what gets you in there the first time?

That’s why I thought the DC/Wal-Mart plan was a good idea. 

The titles appealed to my sense of nostalgia.  The trade dress for these giants clearly echoes the design of the 100 page spectaculars that DC published when I was but a child and just discovering comic books. 

As I said, I wanted to support this initiative.  Even though I have a pull list at my LCS, I was still prepared to lay down a fiver or two to show my support in a very real way for DC’s Wal-Mart comics.

The problem was that any time I was in a Wal-Mart, I never could find the furshluginer things.   Asking a Wal-Mart employee about these books was no good.  People would blink at me as if I was speaking a different language. 

Then about two weeks ago, I spotted one of these DC Giants, racked with some children’s books. I purchased the issue.

The issue specifically was Teen Titans Giant#5.  I bought this issue in June 2019; it was published in September 2018. The ad on the back side of the book exclaimed that Aquaman’s movie WILL be coming out in December.

Other than the issue being outdated, what did I think of the book?

Each story as a cover page with a brief summary of what has gone before to provide context for the story to follow. 

There are ads for DC trade collections so it does the job of providing cross promotion for other books from DC. 

The book ties together thematically. Of the four stories in the issue, I had already seen the Teen Titans reprint from the Geoff Johns/Mike McKone run on the title, a reboot effort to recapture the glory days of the Marv Wolfman/George Perez Teen Titans era.  The new Teen Titans story is competently written by professional comics writer Dan Jurgens and competently drawn by professional comics artists Scot Eaton & Wayne Faucher. OK, that sounds a bit snarky. There is something to be said for the simple joys of a competently told story of super heroes vs. super villains. 

The other two stories are not Teen Titans tales but they fit the theme.  One is an installment of Peter Tomasis’ Super Son series with Jon Kent, still the young son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, as Superboy and Damian Wayne, the assassin trained sociopathic son of Bruce Wayne, as Robin. The other story is Sideways, DC’s most recent attempt to create their own Peter Parker. Sideways is a high school teenager with teleporting powers that are both kind of cool and the cause of a lot of heartache.

At $4.99, the book is quite a bargain. Given that the base line price point for comics these days is $3.99 for as little as 20 pages of story and art, getting just under 80 pages of story and art for only a dollar more is quite a value.

I understand the future of the DC Wal-Mart Giants is up in the air. I think the deal is DC wants to keep the giants going is some configuration but not necessarily exclusive to Wal-Mart.  Perhaps even letting comic shops join in the fun.

I still wish that DC would continue to make an outreach beyond the LCS. The other day, while waiting for a prescription for one of my ubiquitous illnesses, I thought how nice it would be if the drug store had a squeaky spinner rack, filled with comics, for me to take home and snuggle up with in bed under the covers.