The Question: The Five Books of Blood HC (anyone get this?)

[Will.S]

http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/9/1/9166_400x600.jpg

I have all the single issues and I thought this mini was absolutely great.

Lots of cool Crime Bible passages that are ominously evil and very well done, plus Greg Rucka is probably the only writer who can make the Renee Montoya as the Question thing work. I loved the cool touches such as when she went back to Vic's old stomping grounds in Hub city and meeting Professor Rodor also know as "Tot" and Myra. There's also interesting tension with her love interest Batwoman a.k.a Kate Kane.

Now here's a question for the folks who got this HC, does it have worthwhile extras? If so what are they and what did you think of the book?

[Jack Zodiac]

Seriously, a hardcover? Why not a trade paperback? The mini-series had awful numbers, why do they think anyone would clamor to buy an expensive hardcover collection?

[Kid Kyoto]

The idea might be that the people who bought the mini will buy the collection no matter what format so you may as well get the extra $5 from them.

[titanfan]

The idea might be that the people who bought the mini will buy the collection no matter what format so you may as well get the extra $5 from them.

<whine>Maybe if the HC actually had you know, the CONCLUSION TO THE STORY, I might be interested....</whine>

[Will.S]

Seriously, a hardcover? Why not a trade paperback? The mini-series had awful numbers, why do they think anyone would clamor to buy an expensive hardcover collection?

The idea might be that the people who bought the mini will buy the collection no matter what format so you may as well get the extra $5 from them.Instocktrades.com and Amazon.com sells it for around $13-14 bucks but I'm sure it'll be collected in trade format as well.

<whine>Maybe if the HC actually had you know, the CONCLUSION TO THE STORY, I might be interested....</whine>
Heh true, it leaves you wondering where it'll be picked up on again. It'll probably be in another Question book/mini or in another book that features the Question.

Other than that I don't think Grant is going to touch that in Final Crisis.

[Jack Zodiac]

Instocktrades.com and Amazon.com sells it for around $13-14 bucks but I'm sure it'll be collected in trade format as well.

Still, for the direct market, what's the logic in producing expensive hardcovers for a series that didn't sell well to begin with? I doubt everyone who bought the mini-series is going to go out and buy the collected edition (unless it has ass loads of new content), and anyone with a passing interest in the writer or the character is going to have to decide between not reading it or buying an expensive hardcover or waiting and hoping that maybe DC collects it in a trade paperback soon.

I supposed that maybe they published a hardcover hoping that whatever new Crime Bible stuff we see or hear in Final Crisis will pique some interest in the collection, but that's a long shot. And so far, I can't find a single site, not even DC's own site, that mentions what the extras are, or even if there are any. If it had, say, a bunch of extra pages of the Crime Bible, that'd be pretty cool. Maybe worth twenty bucks, maybe. But still, something would be nice.

[Will.S]

Still, for the direct market, what's the logic in producing expensive hardcovers for a series that didn't sell well to begin with? I doubt everyone who bought the mini-series is going to go out and buy the collected edition (unless it has ass loads of new content), and anyone with a passing interest in the writer or the character is going to have to decide between not reading it or buying an expensive hardcover or waiting and hoping that maybe DC collects it in a trade paperback soon.

I supposed that maybe they published a hardcover hoping that whatever new Crime Bible stuff we see or hear in Final Crisis will pique some interest in the collection, but that's a long shot. And so far, I can't find a single site, not even DC's own site, that mentions what the extras are, or even if there are any. If it had, say, a bunch of extra pages of the Crime Bible, that'd be pretty cool. Maybe worth twenty bucks, maybe. But still, something would be nice.
Going straight into a hardcover seems to be DC and Marvel's standard procedure with mini's and collected editions so I was expecting a HC with a bunch of extras. I also think that there were people who were waiting for the trade (or in this case the hardcover) so they might pick this up alongside the Denny O'Neil Question trades.

Granted $19.99 for 5 issues is a larger investment than buying them in singles which would have cost $14.95 but I suppose the hard cover and extra content are why they are charging more for it. The only info on the book that I've gotten so far has been from Greg's forum on the comicbloc forums:

http://www.comicbloc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59852

Apparently it contains journals and transcripts and stuff like that but I'd like to see the extra content for myself.

[echopryme]

Why hardcover? Because Renee Montoya is Libra and people will be going crazy to get it soon.


And THAT, is the end of the story if I'm correct in my hypothesis. I mean, come on... Libra carries around a Crime Bible and has no face. Who can't see this?!?!

[Batman Fan 31593]

Heh true, it leaves you wondering where it'll be picked up on again. It'll probably be in another Question book/mini or in another book that features the Question.

Other than that I don't think Grant is going to touch that in Final Crisis.

Renee's story will be picked up on in this summer's Final Crisis: Revelation, staring the Spectre (Crispus Allen), by Greg Rucka. Here is an excerpt from Newsarama:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=153960

GR: And then at the end of the first issue, he gets pointed toward someone else who mattered a great deal in his “life” before this, and is told to go and kill that person.

NRAMA: Would this someone from his past be someone who's also had some changes since her days on the GCPD, namely, Renee Montoya?

GR: See, I don't know if I should be coy here or not, but yeah, in the interests of full disclosure, Cris encounters Renee. Or, to put it in a more dramatic, comic-friendly fashion -- the Spectre meets the Question. We're kinda seeking to redefine "odd-couple" here, I suppose -- the theoretically most-powerful entity in all of the DCU encounters the, arguably, most street-level hero.

I'm into juxtaposition, what can I say?

NRAMA: Yes.

They haven't really, y'know, kept in touch. In fact, as far as the Question knows, her former partner died and that was pretty much it. Cris didn't really send out change of address cards when he got his new gig.

NRAMA: Just looking at the surface of their relationship though, given what happened in Crime Bible, how does Cris view Renee?

GR: Oh, c'mon, man, that would be telling. When we last left Question, she'd been made -- "manipulated into becoming," might be a better way to put it -- the head of the Order of the Stone, the religion of crime's order of "monks." Given that the order constantly seeks to redefine their depravity and evil, and given that the Spectre's main purpose is to bring vengeance to the wicked...I think you can see there's probably going to be some tension, there.

Like I said, mercy isn't a trait Spectre is known for.

[Will.S]

Renee's story will be picked up on in this summer's Final Crisis: Revelation, staring the Spectre (Crispus Allen), by Greg Rucka. Here is an excerpt from Newsarama:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=153960
Dammit, why did Greg have to write that book.

WHYYY!?!?

I guess I'll be trade waiting that one then (or should I say hardcover waiting).

[The Xenos]

Well, I didn't mind the open ending or lack of one. I hoped it would lead to an ongoing series. Unfortunately, this is DC. That happens at a glacial pace and The Question is not a top priority. Plus it's continued in Final Crisis: Revelation? Eh. I want to read it, but it kinda sucks that it's an almost random connection to where these stories start and where these stories go. How the f--- is a more casual reader supposed to follow Rucka's story?