Let’s get this out of the way up front: Marvel is not taking the last page of all of their comics and only making them available digitally, as some sites (and social media accounts) have been inaccurately reporting online. It’s actually the opposite… Marvel is offering extra content with the purchase of your comic, for free.
The QR code promotion — if we can call it that — started with the July 10 publishing of X-Men #1, which included a specific code that, when scanned, took readers to a bonus page on Marvel’s website revealing more info about the series’s new villains. Like the issue, it was written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Ryan Stegman. And to the point of this inaccurate reporting, the issue itself not only finished the story it was telling, it ended on a big splash page reveal. The bonus page acts as a sort of after-credits scene. Or as X-Men editor Tom Brevoort describes it, it’s a shout-out to another classic X-Men #1.
In Brevoort’s July 14 newsletter, answering a question about the above QR code, he explained the strategy. “It was a bonus page to begin with, an extra page—we didn’t scale back the contents of X-MEN #1 in order to do it,” Brevoort wrote. “And it gave us a page whose contents we could conceal until the day of release, thus avoiding any early spoilers. You’ll find that we’re doing similar pages in most of the new X-launches. They’re a little free bonus, a little extra—sort of a modern day equivalent of that ‘Things To Come’ page that ran in the first issue of the Claremont/Lee X-MEN #1.”
How you get from Brevoort plainly stating they didn’t scale back the issue to “they’re pulling out the last page! Grab the pitchforks!” makes me honestly wonder if these people know how to read, which may be the main issue here. And I know I’m being mean, but full disclosure I’m not a huge fan of misinformation on the internet, particularly when it’s easily verifiable as false. Not to mention spreading, you know, lies, helps nobody — including yourself.
Back to the matter at hand, Brevoort continued the discussion in his July 21 newsletter, where a reader wondered about collecting the pages for posterity. Said Brevoort, “The QR pages will be incorporated into the eventual collections. And just this week, somebody threw out the idea of including them if the issues got second printings—but it was already too late to do that for X-MEN #1, so I doubt we’ll follow through with it on the rest of them.”
The QR codes have continued in both Phoenix #1 and NYX #1, and I can say as someone who read all three issues: they are complete stories. The bonus pages are a neat look ahead at additional parts of the story. But nothing is missing from the issues themselves, nor held back — plotwise, or otherwise. In fact, I’d add that while X-Men #1 carries a $5.99 price tag, both of the subsequent titles carry a $4.99 price tag. Yet all three have 30 pages of story, plus five or six pages of letters, text, tributes, and credits (five for X-Men, six for the other two). And then on top of that, you’re getting the QR page. We could argue forever about inflated comic book prices, but by modern standards, this is, well, standard.
So to reiterate… The QR codes Marvel is including on most of the new X-Men books — not all of them, nor all Marvel comics — are bonus pages that do not subtract from the page count of the issue, and they will eventually be included in the trade collections. Not whatever scuttlebutt is going on, online. Sorry to be the bearer of good tidings!
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This is not a very convincing argument for a stupid decision by Marvel.
Seriously? Backpedaling to the max, this article exists just to suck up to Marvel’s Editors. The hidden pages for the three issues released so far have all been massively important, and if they weren’t, why would Brevoort and the office say the reasoning is about spoilers? Either the page is a bonus and not important, or it’s a huge spoiler they had to hide, and therefore it should be included in the book! Factor in that QR codes don’t work forever, eventually I guarantee Marvel will no longer hold the images on their servers, and fans who own Issue #1 will be left without the page at all. Another hint that the pages are absolutely meant to be read alongside the comics, is that they will be included in printed collections. The final page for X-men #1 introduces the council of villains for the new era (Big deal), NYX #1 introduces a new villain, and sets up an ongoing thread for future issues (big deal), and the most egregious offender, Phoenix #1, introduces a new villain, finishes the narration throughout the issue, AND changes the entire context of said narration (BIG DEAL). Marvel needs to listen to the backlash this time, they made a poor decision. It’s too late for Uncanny and X-factor/X-force, but the QR digital idea needs to be gone by the time Storm #1 is coming out in October.
This article makes a lot of excuses, that all fall flat. Is the page not important bonus content? OR is it so important they had to hide it from leakers? Can’t be both! To recap, X-men #1 sets the stage for the new council of villains, NYX #1 introduces a new villain, and most egregiously, Phoenix #1, hides the ending to the ongoing narration to the issue, completely changing who is narrating, and the context of the entire issue! This is a terrible idea, and hopefully backlash means only the next couple releases will do this. Also, if the goal is to avoid spoilers, as soon as the image is loaded online, it’s everywhere, almost harder to avoid the spoilers then it used to be.
Whoops, commented twice because I thought the first one didn’t go through. Oh well.