Well. That kinda sucks. I had downloaded Emerald Dawn 2 to read tonight.
Were did emerald dawn go they promised Two weeks and I checked every other day in the watchtower and found nothing. What kind out business goes back on its word that quickly. The answer bankrupt morally and monetarily ones
1 Like
I’m betting the removal of both of the Emerald Dawn mini-series was a last minute thing nobody planned on but sadly had to be done for reasons that may not be any of our business (for legal reasons). Sometimes things like that happen.
When Applejack says books won’t be removed without ample notice, I believe her.
1 Like
I agree @Vroom. I mean, I can’t entirely blame people for getting mad since they did say two weeks notice. But Emerald Dawn was up for what? 5 days, even when they were rotating out Titans it never happened that quickly, especially when they promoted it coming almost a month ago.
Saying morally bankrupt is a bit dramatic. I highly doubt they put it up and said “now it will only be up for 5 days… should we notify people? Why? Screw them! MWAHAHAHA!” I somehow doubt that is what went down.
I will say thought that I get things happen and there are probably multiple people this kind of thing goes through while most of us tend to assume they can just put whatever they want up whenever they want, it almost surely is not like that. BUT if something goes down that quickly even if it can’t be helped they need to at least say due to unforeseen circumstances it went down in a post on the forums at least.
3 Likes
Does anyone have any idea why marvel seems to have no issues putting up their comics on unlimited but this site rotates and removes stuff and indicates licensing issues. Is dc licensing completely different and has many more restrictions? Just curious why one company seems to do it so easily and the other seems to be much more restricted. Just trying to understand.
3 Likes
I think it is because DC Universe has an agreement with DC Comics management to limit the library to five thousand issues, so not to impact too much Trade Graphic Novels sales.
DC Comics owns these comics. DC Universe only rents them, on DC Comics terms.
2 Likes
They might have the agreement, but given how much Marvel Universe is for just the comics, if they had 30,000+ comics, plus a decent if not huge library of past shows and movies, plus original content growing every week it would have to be much more expensive.
1 Like
Guys Time Warner owns DC Entertainment. Meaning if DC Universe pays a rental fee to DC Comics for content they are paying the fee to themselves
3 Likes
Time Warner and AT&T completed their merger in June of 2018 making AT&T /Time Warner worth $ 233,000,000,000. Which is 51 Billion larger than Disney corp
3 Likes
@jhuston
Yes, in terms of Warner Brothers themselves it is funny money.
But to DC Comics, it is income and for DC Universe an expense, in real terms and in accounting terms.
Also someone like Comixology is actually providing DC Universe the digital form of the comics, at least the older issues. And that is a real expense too. DC Universe is not scanning in old issues, for something like Action 1, they couldn’t afford to. Someone else did it, and is renting out the fruits of their labor, so that is a real cost too.
But it not the income/expense it is DC Comics having the upper hand in negotiations with DC Universe, as to limiting the library, because losing Graphic Novel Trade sales is losing real money in every sense of the word.
Personally, I don’t like the speculations that us subscribers do. It’s one thing to share our opinions, as in, “I think…” But it’s different to simply state something as if it were a known fact backed up by proven knowledge.
We, as subscribers, have no idea about the internal corporate structure in use at DC/ Warner/AT&T. Plus, we have no idea about licenses and licensees. Unless DC actually tells us facts, all of our assumptions are worthless.
And since all opinions are worth the same, anyone’s complaints about the service are just as valid as someone else’s compliments.
We need to stop discounting the complaints with assumptions.
As always, DC is the service provider, and they will lay out their business plan however they want. Our complaints and compliments are useful in their decision making process, but our assumptions are not.
(That’s my opinion. 
)
4 Likes
Sorry
Let’s just say the limit is still 5000 in the library.
It was 2500, so it was increased somehow.
Issues are still being added.
When the limit is reached, and titles are rotated for deletions in the future, due to ‘low popularity’ we will see what happens next.
So far, deletion of current content seems to be the plan, to accommodate new material as stated by the Mods, with two weeks notice given.
Applejack said a while back in that it was possible that titles would probably start rotating again once the 5000 title limit was reached sometime in late March or April. She also hinted (in another thread) that the library might be expanding again in the near future which would at least somewhat remove the need for rotation.
What’s annoying about Emerald Dawn being removed is that not only was there no notice, there doesn’t seem to have been any acknowledgement that it was even done. I get that things can happen on short notice (maybe a technical glitch with the code or maybe a licensing issue with ComiXology; I don’t know) but it would be nice to at least see something on the Watchtower saying that the titles were removed, even if they can’t say why.
1 Like
Part of the reason why Marvel Unlimited probably works is because it predates most of the other digital comics platforms. It was already in operation for several years when ComiXology began selling digital comics individually and Marvel likely negotiated their deal for day and date digital distribution with the caveat that they be allowed to keep it running (also as the biggest of the comic book companies they have a lot of clout).
An important thing to remember about digital comics is that unless you are buying DRM free copies in PDF or some other format, you don’t actually own anything. You are licensing the content from the publisher through a third party (usually Amazon/ComiXology). The publishers who didn’t have an Unlimited service of their own when they negotiated their deal for day and date digital probably have very similar terms to the ones that studios and networks have with streaming services.
@harley.333 Opinions are built on assumptions. If we share our assumptions with our opinions, it helps others to compare them with their assumptions. Through discussion, we can separate the bad assumptions from the good. Through research and certain forms of discussion with certain people, we can separate fact from fiction. I see no reason to squash the sharing of assumptions if your goal is actually to help the collective reach a stronger understanding.
1 Like
Agreed. Just make it clear that you’re stating assumptions.
2 Likes
Assumption
There may be a long game plan which could be used to increase the size of the library…
The five thousand has been stated by Applejack to be used for major arcs and titles in the ‘Core of the DC Universe…’ I think she said she meant ‘the capes’.
This was a reply to why no Vertigo. Her reply was not yet, except for things like Swamp Thing, etc. Already in library. Constantine came the next month.
When asked about titles for young reader. The reply was not yet, need parental controls.
When I asked about Silver Age Flash, Brave and Bold before Batman team ups and Showcase, she said limited demand. Readers want never material, says our compilation of requests.
Same probably for Golden Age, Milestone, etc.
If we all request what we want, it will be as requests to Suggestions and recorded.
Mods are mainly looking for requests in Suggestions, not in Comic Books or General or elsewhere.
Then when five thousands in library,
Mods can show evidence that there is a great demand
For titles for younger readers and vertigo at best and perhaps older stuff, stuff we can’t find elsewhere.
And Mods can say to management
See all these needs, thousands of more issues are needed to be added to the library to satisfy.
You don’t really want to delete existing stuff, do you? The subscription base will be very angry.
And thus the library will grow, every six months or so, as newer material AND older material that was requested, in Suggestions are added to the library.
What do you think of this as an approach?
I think that’s a great approach. Demand, demand, demand! I’m paying, so my opinion matters. You’re paying, so your opinion matters.
And we should stop justifying why some comics aren’t here. If moderators think we understand and accept the reason (or assumption) that a title or imprint is missing, they won’t promote it to the powers that be.
1 Like
Demand can’t be the whole reason. There are almost two hundred issues of golden age content between Action Comics, Detective Comics and Batman alone. Most of Green Lantern’s silver age run is here and a fair amount of Justice League (including the 100 page giant issues that are reprints) as well as some Aquaman (the last makes sense due to the movie but still). Also I find it highly unlikely that there were more people demanding “Cry For Justice” than silver age or bronze age anything.
It can’t just have to do with popularity of the character either since Barry Allen is hugely popular in both TV and movies and is way under represented especially when compared to more niche characters in terms of mass appeal like the GLs (with the possible exception of John Stewart).
Some of the limitation has to do with what content has already been digitized but there is quite a bit on ComiXology already with more being added weekly even if DC was slow to jump on the digital bandwagon so that can’t be all of it. Licensing sure but I fail to see why silver age Flash would be licensed while silver age Green Lantern isn’t.
2 Likes
As far as the Cry For Justice thing, I think you over estimate how many people are demanding Silver age or Bronze age anything. Those comics make good collectables but a large chunk of today’s comic fans are not really interested in reading long runs of it. I have a feeling a lot more people are reading cry for justice then the Bronze age Batman comics. Don’t get me wrong I know there is an audience and am sure there are a lot of people who like it. But in the “what comcis would you like to see” threads since this service has come out the vast majority requested is stuff from the 2000’s and up not Bronze Age Flash stories. So I can buy it is more popular. Truth is I don’t see a lot of request for more Golden and Silver age comics. I like they have what they do from that on here, but don’t think it is a coincedence very little of that has been added since they started expanding the comics selection.