DC could have done any of the things Marvel is doing if they wanted. DC has the opportunity to redo their books an repackage them in another expensive hardcover. It's not as if someone gave Marvel that opportunity. It was in their control.


Well, perhaps "opportunity" isn't the right word, then.

I mean, yeah -- DC could have gone back and repackaged material a few times, and in some cases (though not always) made incremental improvements along the way, and they've chosen not to do that. But they've likely chosen not to do that because it's just not going to be worth the return-on-investment. The market for the stuff these days just isn't going to make it worthwhile.

I still think that if there weren't the intermediate step of a very expensive product to support redoing that work, it's likely that that first, very disappointing Marvel Mystery Comics volume wouldn't have been corrected for reissue in paperback -- even as a mass market item, that'd be unlikely to sell enough to cover those costs.

It's easy to say "Marvel or DC (or whomever else) could or should do this," but the sad reality is that this market just isn't all that enthusiastic about reprints of Golden Age material. (And I can't imagine it'd be all that much more receptive to previously-reprinted, repackaged stuff.)

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Last Edited By: Fin Fang Foom Jul 18 12 10:21 AM. Edited 2 times.