Penguin Random House and Suicide Squad

Marvel and Penguin Random House

Diamond's hold on the distribution of comics has finally reached its end. After DC decided to part ways a year ago and partner up with both Penguin and a subsidiary of Midtown comics, Marvel have now decided to follow suite and sign up with an exclusive deal with Penguin to distribute their comic line. 

While this may not affect the general reading audience, this will certainly have an effect on Local Comic Shops. Personally, I see this as an opportunity to expand the readership, getting these comics into bookstores so they can be easily picked up by the larger audience. 

The comic industry has never been particularly good at capitalising on its own success. Why not expand to book stores? Comic Book adaptations in both film and TV is as popular now as it is today so can you imagine if those that watched both seasons of the Boys got the chance to easily pick up the graphic novels? Or if you could walk into your local bookshop and get a subscription to The Amazing Spider-Man?

Diamond has kept the industry stagnant for a long time, mostly because they've never had to worry about competition as there hasn't been any. But with the big two now splitting away from Diamond, they will have to do a lot with the publishers they still have in order to keep them.

DC have announced they will do their own thing for Free Comic Book Day, an event organised by Diamond in order to garner new readers into their local comic shops. But in order to increase the limitations on the market, that market will need to expand. 

I don't see Diamond going away, but I see them becoming much smaller than they were before.

Suicide Squad Trailer

James Gunn's entering another comic book Universe, and one which it seems will finally allow him to stretch out his feet and go crazy with the toys in the sandbox. Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2 are both extremely fun films and I hope his Suicide Squad will sit alongside them as comic book adaptations with their own distinct style. I'm not up to date with Suicide Squad, I've never read the comic and I didn't even bother watching the 2016 movie. But now, it finally seems that the DC Cinematic Universe has found its direction. The trailer was humorous, even if aspects of it seemed to go into MCU levels of witty banter, something which I feel both Universe's could do without. This looks like something I do want to see, I feel James Gunn understands the Comic Universe and will make an entertaining movie.

The film itself serves as a rebooted standalone sequel to the original film, which as this point DC could do themselves a favour by forgetting it exists, or releasing the Ayer cut which could bring in a number of new fans. 

I think releasing that cut of the movie is a great way to advertise this new film. And if it already exists, I see no reason why Warner wouldn't release it. If this is about integrity, then their vision is clouded by a movie that no one liked. There are times when you may as well shrug your shoulders and just let People have what they want. In my last blog, I wrote about have numerous cuts of a film is actually something that works in favour for the movie, and having another version of their movie may actually save it.

The Snyder Cut for Justice League saved that film for those who didn't enjoyed the Studio Mandated Whedon Cut, so maybe the Ayer Cut will save Suicide Squad and entice more People to watch the new James Gunn Movie. 

Updates (A little bit about Future Posts)

So I'm hoping to post more Comic related content here. I won't always update whenever new news is released as a lot of the time I don't really have much to say on the topics. Regardless, I have plans to look at more Comics. Some ideas I have floating around involve Todd Macfarlane's Spider-Man run, a look back at Grant Morrison and Liam Sharpe's recent Green Lantern run and a retrospective on an as of yet secret marvel comic from the early millennium which I consider to be one of the worst runs of any comic I've read.

There's a few other ideas I have floating around in my head, but that's all I'm ready to announce for the time being. Anyway, if you have any thoughts on the topics discussed today, please let me know your thoughts.