Today is the last day that retailers can order Siege: Fallen, the upcoming coda to the event comic written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Oliver Coipel, and Marvel stepped up today to get retailers backs (via Bleeding Cool). If a retailer orders this title and they find themselves stuck with droves of it, they can send them back to Marvel no questions asked. That’s how confident Marvel is in the product.
Given that it’s writer hasn’t even been announced yet, it’s understandable that orders may be low even with artist Tom Raney aboard and the clear upside to the title. Speculation here and beyond has centered around it being The Sentry set to die (mercy killed) and that the writer will be Paul Jenkins, but that is anything but concrete as of yet.
Still, now shop owners have incentive to overorder the title and Marvel has a pretty low cost, high reward option on the table that could earn them big rewards for an apparently underperforming title. It seems that these ventures often work out for both retailers and the publisher, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see more offers like this in the future.
Don’t be surprised to see yours truly doing a nice little jig on that day as well, and perhaps a bit of a commemorative top 5 list of “The Sentry’s Greatest Misses.” Die like a dog, Sentry!
