When will they learn?

Above: The death of Batman (or is it?) from FINAL CRISIS #6.

So, Batman is dead. Ho-hum. The jaded part of the comic book fan in me is saying: "He’ll be back." Still, this is really a non-issue for me (other than the fact that it's a dumb and over-used idea to sell comics, that is). Although I love super-heroes, I no longer read any comics published by Marvel Entertainment or DC Comics. The death of Batman (or Bruce Wayne, in this case) is just another lameo attempt by one of the Big Two publishers to sell comics. This is just as silly as slapping Barack Obama on the variant cover to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. When will some publishers learn that relying on gimmicks and idiotic ploys do not help the comic book industry?

Oddly enough, I am now reminded of comics' speculator boom of the 1990’s.



Above: The variant cover to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583… which if you bothered waiting in line for at some comic book stores, you can now seal up in plastic bag, lock it away in vault to one day be worth enough money to pay for your kids’ college education.