Devil’s Due Free Comic Book Day

You can’t condemn Devil’s Due for quality. They pick ridiculously talented artists, their coloring is so good it’d have to beat itself to become No. 1, and their writers aren’t afraid to drop nukes or perform lobotomies. It’s everything you’d want in a Free Comic Book Day issue, which is supposed to act as marketing pamphlet for the company’s product. Why, then, are we given a couple of stories that make sense only to people who have been regularly reading these series? Why tuck these rungs into the ladders of continuity when we could get standalone stories that still exist in a timeline, but don’t ask the reader to cross-check with ongoing titles?

Perhaps there’s value in hooking folks so they have to go buy the rest of the framework, but you’re going to get as many readers that spit out the bait when they realize it requires commitment.

Still… it is glorious reading, isn’t it?

— Brendan McGinley

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#2005

May 2005

W: Brandon Jerwa, Marv Wolfman, Ken Siu-chong · A: Tim Seeley, Stefano Caselli, Sunder Raj, Alvin Lee

Flipbook with Darkstalkers, Free Comic Book Day 2005; G.I. Joe and Defex previews

17 copies from $0.50