Of Serialized Opportunities Missed
Fond memories of receiving my AMAZING SPIDER-MAN subscription each month in the post – rolled up and battered, yes, but I owned it and it came to me and it was wonderful.
Fast forward 25-30 years:
In newsletter 0071's "Favorite Thing of the Week," I wrote about the first issue of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's THE BATMAN'S GRAVE, a remarkable reminder of the endless narrative potential of "Detective" part of "The Dark Knight Detective," a potential seemingly lost in the muck of current continuity-heavy series, of which I have no clue of – or interest in – what's going on.
But that continuity-based pissing and moaning is beside the point; my point here is that I would love to read each issue of THE BATMAN'S GRAVE as it came out (as I would CRIMINAL) – I live in the middle of nowhere and there are no comics retailers within 30 miles of me – but, for some reason or another, series-based subscriptions don't (seem to) exist in the digital comics landscape – a glaring omission.
(If I'm wrong, please point me to the place where I can send my money now.)
It's an omission – and lost opportunity – that gets to the heart of my issue with digital comics (and with buying digital movies or digital albums or things like that): to charge the same price for digital access as one does for physical ownership is asinine; a pricing system stuck in a mid-naughties loop of diminished returns and publishing malpractice.
Solutions?... Individual series subscriptions a la individual digital magazine subscriptions or "Season Pass" options on Amazon Prime? Or perhaps the solution lies in the DC Universe streaming app? (Or Marvel or Comixology or Whatever) – a premium tier for current series / season passes like ad-free Hulu?
Just thinking out loud here. I'll probably end up buying the HC collection of THE BATMAN'S GRAVE – and maybe that's the idea – but I'd prefer to not have to wait: by not making an option for subscriptions readily available, publishers are neglecting key components of comics storytelling – serialization and anticipation – and the fond memories they inculcate.
