I'd like to kick you in the balls with X-23's adamantium toenail

I awoke this morning and found a link to a blog post from DC in my twitter feed. The blog is written by Bob Harras and is in reference to the cross overs that will be taking place with Batman, specifically the Court of Owls society.

Here's an excerpt:

"This May we are taking the opportunity to show that The New 52 is a shared universe in a couple   of different ways.  First of all we have the epic NIGHT OF THE OWLS story across the Bat-Books as the Court of Owls attacks Gotham City. You can follow different parts of the tale in Batman #9, Batman Annual   #1, Detective Comics #9, Batwing #9, Batman and Robin  #9, Birds of Prey  #9, Batgirl #9, Red Hood and the Outlaws #9, Catwoman #9, Nightwing #9  and All-Star  Western #9 (which takes place in 188- but still in the  same universe as the rest of our books)."

So it seems that every #9 book regarding Gotham City is going to deal with the Court of Owls, including the first Batman Annual.  The Night of the Owls story arc from BATMAN is an amazing story that I can't wait to read each month, but, this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.  Fuck that, it's actually really pissing me off.

Currently I'm only buying four of the nine titles in surrounding Gotham, monthly that's costing me roughly $12.
With this cross-over bullshit, if I want to keep up with the story line I'll be forced to spend over $30 on books I'd never have paid to read in the first place!  I've read a couple Batgirl issues and some of the Red Hood books too, and there is a reason I stopped reading them.  They were shitty books that didn't deserve my money. The only thing I liked about Batgirl was the amazing cover art by Adam Hughes. It says alot when the best part of a book is the cover. Knowing that once you get past that you're in for a let down is the best reason to keep your money in your wallet.

I have a simple solution for the marketing schemes employed to boost sales.  Instead of figuring out what's working with one title and than spreading that around all of the other related titles, how about making every book amazing? With a storyline worth paying for without having to resort to these cheap and transparent ways of getting fans to buy more books.  Better yet, if a book isn't selling well, drop the fucking thing!

DC isn't the only publisher that pulls this kind of shit either.

I was recently introduced through a friend to Marvel's character X-23, the twin of Wolverine.  I hunted down the series (NYX) that brought her into comics, and read them all. Shit, I even recommended it to people.

Than I started reading her solo books and when I reached the end of issue eight I found this:

I didn't want to read DAKEN, much less buy it.  I took a deep breath and waited for Daken #8 to come out, only find out that the tie-ins were going to span another two books.  Not so bad right? Only two extra books to buy? 
That's what I thought until I read DAKEN #8 and found that the story needed to be put in context because while X-23 appears in DAKEN, that didn't mean the entire book was a simple continuation from X-23. So, I went and found the issue previous to the cross-over and my rage filled me yet again because DAKEN #7 was the final issue in a four part story arc.
Now I have to buy four books just to make sense of half of the first issue in the X-23 tie-in?
Go fuck yourself Marvel.

Why don't you just make DAKEN a good fucking read that fans will WANT to buy instead of a title that you FORCE fans to buy?

It's shit like this that when it comes to my purchasing dollar is going to blow up in your face.  Instead of pulling me into one new story, what you ended up doing was driving me away from two.

Both Marvel and DC are in the business of making films, as such they will tell you that "piracy is a big problem" for their bottom line.  Well boys, showing contempt for your readers by pulling crossover stunts, to me, is just as bad as putting out a weak ass movie that fans have to pay too much money to see.  If you keep up with this kind of crap I will begin recommending that people raise their sails and download all these extra books you TRY to make us buy, and not necessarily from your official websites either.
These are shitty financial times, so stop with the fucking cash grabs. I'm a fan of comics and want to stay that way. I've fallen in and out of collecting a few times because it became too expensive and I don't want that to happen again because of this kind of greed.

I wonder what the comic writers themselves think when they're told they have to participate in a crossover?  Something tells me the writers of the popular books don't want much to do with it and would rather stick with what's in their head. I also bet that the writers of the weaker titles can't wait to hear that a well received character is going to show up in their book to literally save their ass.

This post probably wasn't the the most eloquent blog post and there was basically no artwork. But I didn't charge people $2.99 to read it. I also didn't make people go hunt down another blog so they could make sense of this one.