"Unity" #1 Recruits Comics Legend Neal Adams

[x-omatic]

I like the Adams cover without the reflection.
My first exposure to Neal Adams work was his Continuity comics and this reminds me of his Crazy Man and Cyber Rad stuff.

[Shadowman99]

Hm, I may be totally wrong but I think I kind of 'get' why there are an overly large number of variants for this particular issue of Unity.

I get the impression that Valiant are putting a lot of their eggs into not only this series, but this issue in particular. I think they're trying to give their general readership a big bump with this comic by offering a smorgasbord of big VEI characters and exciting universe-affecting events so that new readers can get an epic first taste of the universe, and branch off into picking up other VEI comics from there, as well of course, giving current Valiant readers something awesome to read.

The retailer return incentive and the large number of variant covers suggests to me one thing: Wall space. Valiant are buying as much wall space as they can get. The retailer returns incentive means retailers can buy as many Unity #1's as they want, and simply return what they don't sell without facing any negative consequence. This in turn means they can order large quantities of the comic, and with the range of different covers available they can make significant displays for Unity featuring significant stock and really push sales by convincing consumers to "give issue #1 a try: If you don't like it, no problem eh?" And because retailers will hopefully buy large numbers of the issue, Unity (and therefore Valiant) in turn will be occupying a prominent focal point in comic shops, or at least a large amount of wall/rack space, either way catching the consumer's eye with a large number of colourful variant covers. Of course, variant collectors/comic speculators may pick up any number of multiple copies which is an secondary boost to the sales figures.

Hopefully, all things considered, this strategy will increase Valiant's general readership, which will of course help the company in the long term, with new readers picking up other titles and TPBs after a short time. In this respect I think Unity is a really important opportunity for Valiant: But I think that the sales figures for Unity #2,3 and 4 will be the more telling figures in the grand scheme of things.

Just my

[Paul Nolan]

Even the worst of the 1990's only had 5 covers (e.g. Jim Lee X-men #1)!

DV8 #1 had 8, Gen13 #1 had 17

[lorddunlow]

Even the worst of the 1990's only had 5 covers (e.g. Jim Lee X-men #1)!

DV8 #1 had 8, Gen13 #1 had 17

At least the Gen13 covers were fun.

[nycjadie]

Even the worst of the 1990's only had 5 covers (e.g. Jim Lee X-men #1)!

DV8 #1 had 8, Gen13 #1 had 17

I stand corrected!

I'm not sure how much wallspace they will get. Justice League #1 didn't take 51 different spaces at my LCS.

[tchalla8]

November solicits are out....we're now up to 12 covers...

[lorddunlow]

I will probably be getting the blank variant. Wonder if it will be con exclusive like the others?

[tchalla8]

I will probably be getting the blank variant. Wonder if it will be con exclusive like the others?

Never seen those con exclusives in a solicit, so this one must be different.

[lorddunlow]

I will probably be getting the blank variant. Wonder if it will be con exclusive like the others?

Never seen those con exclusives in a solicit, so this one must be different.

Well, the were technically separate publications as they were flipbooks. So, this might be the same, but just have the Unity #1 contents. However, I think you are probably correct.

[Daniel Jackson]

I like Neil's work in this one better than the A&A variant he did last year.

[kjjohanson]

Even the worst of the 1990's only had 5 covers (e.g. Jim Lee X-men #1)!

DV8 #1 had 8, Gen13 #1 had 17

I stand corrected!

I'm not sure how much wallspace they will get. Justice League #1 didn't take 51 different spaces at my LCS.

I imagine it depends on the shop. Midtown had a handful of spots for Justice League #1, but not 51. Usually each Valiant issue has a single stack, with the pullboxes and regular addition more or less alternating. But other books such as Jupiter's Legacy had a spot for each variant. I think it mostly depends on whether the store anticipates that readers will want each cover.