DC certainly made a great move among fans when they announced right before NYCC that they would be “holding the line” and make a linewide change to their comics: the books will lose two pages each, but will firmly be priced at $2.99 (outside of select minis). Marvel responded with eyerolls, with both executives and creators insisting that the loss of pages will ultimately hurt the stories and that the prices for the issues really seek to benefit retailers.
However, it looks like DC’s play in their first month may already be changing hearts and minds over at Marvel, according to a report from Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool. Starting in May, Marvel may be trying a similar technique. While this doesn’t seem to be a linewide thing yet, apparently Marvel will test out the 20-page $2.99 books to see what the changes are in sales. Marvel creators will not lose any money on the changes, and all previously submitted and accepted 22-pages will remain published. Marvel also wants to try and increase the amount of issues per year in any given series from 12 to 13, which could be an interesting tactic.
We’ll know more about this by May assuredly. Or if Marvel comes out and makes a statement soon, which is also highly plausible.
(via source)
