DC Comics H8TES You, the Customer!

I’m a big fan of comic books and have been reading them since I was a teenager, back when Duran Duran were burning up the charts. Wait a minute, they’re back in the charts now, aren’t they!? Proving, yet again, that history repeats itself. But I digress.

I bought and read comics, off and on, for over 35 years. My main focus was Marvel and especially DC Comics. I started out reading The Amazing Spider-Man and my favourite character, Batman. For any comics history buffs out there, I started buying Batman just before Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s brilliant “Year One” came out, so that’s issues 404 to #407. After checking on the net, I see they were published between February and May 1987. Yikes! 34 years ago!

Give us ALL your money!

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After a couple of years, I stopped buying Spider-Man but continued reading the two main Dark Knight titles: Batman and Detective Comics. I added Legends of the Dark Knight to my monthly haul when that title was launched in November 1989. Yep, I was a big Bat-Fan.

I continued reading DC Comics titles including such classics as Hellblazer, Sandman, Animal Man and Shade the Changing Man. I saw the birth of Vertigo and watched Neil Gaiman’s star rise and rise. But this is turning into a mix of a comics-history lesson and a walk down memory lane, so I will stop waffling and get to the point of this ranty post.

I love comics! And I’ve always enjoyed reading them. So, what proof do I have that DC Comics hates its customers? OK, here we go.

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Lucifer, Volumes One to Three

In October 2018, DC Comics released a new Lucifer comic written by Dan Watters with art by the Fiumara brothers, Max and Sebastian. I read the first couple of issues and really enjoyed them, so I started buying it monthly. It reminded me of the older, classic Vertigo titles that I used to read, with good, thought-provoking writing and high-quality art. I got pulled into the story and it quickly became my favourite monthly comic. You know there is a “BUT” coming here, right?..

BUT, bad news hit when DC Comics announced they would be cancelling the title after issue #18, with the story unfinished. OH NO!! Yet another quality title is getting the chop. So, Lucifer’s final published monthly issue was issue #18, which I bought back in March 2020, before the Lockdown started and the world ground to a halt. What are ya gonna do? Comics publishers are quick to cancel titles if they aren’t selling enough copies. Lucifer was selling between 17,000 to 20,000 copies a month. Not a BIG title, but steady. I’m not totally naïve, though. I know it’s all about “the money,” after all.

Then, out of the blue, some seemingly good news: DC Comics promises to release a Graphic Novel Collection of the final six unpublished issues, #19 to #24. OK, great! It’s a shame I can’t buy the issues individually, but at least I will be able to read the conclusion to Dan Watters’ run on the title. I’ll have to wait for it, but “Lucifer, Volume 4: The Devil at Heart” will conclude the story.

Lucifer, Volume 4

I ordered Lucifer Volume 4 and waited for it to be released. And waited… Eventually it came out in February 2021, ELEVEN months after the last published issue. That’s a long wait but I’m sure it’ll be worth it. So I start reading the book, and it’s great! The writing and art are still top quality. BUT something’s not quite right…

I’m reading the first chapter of the book but I feel like I’ve missed something. Have we jumped ahead in time, or something? I check the copyright page of the book and discover that this collection STARTS at issue #20! Hang on a minute, the last issue I bought was issue #18. What happened to issue #19? I thought I must have missed it somehow, so I check online. Nope, the last issue available to buy is issue #18. So where’s #19?

Are you ready for this? It turns out Customer-Loving DC Comics decided to put the missing issue #19 in the previous Graphic Novel Collection: Lucifer, Volume 3. You can’t buy it individually. So if you want to read that single missing issue, you have to spend 20 bucks on a graphic novel which contains FIVE issues you already bought. Insert applicable swear word here!

So what did I do? What would you do? Ahoy there, Cap’n, it’s fair weather for sailing the high seas! It’s the first time I’ve sailed in these waters, but DC Comics sent me here. Screw You DC Comics! You don’t want my custom, well that’s fine with me. I’ll spend my money somewhere else. Phew! Rant over! Yeah, I know. A “grown man” moaning about comic books, quelle surprise!

Thanks for reading and apologies for a rather rare rant from me.

-Wakizashi, *happy that Spidey No Way Home is finally out in Japan*

This is a Video I made telling the story.

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