The Hypernaturals debuted on Free Comic Book Day in 2012 with a full length issue followed up two months later with a $1 first issue. I missed the former and planned to trade wait anyway, but being a huge fan of Abnett & Lanning's Marvel Cosmic I decided for a buck to sneak a peek at their creator-owned cosmic stuff just to be sure it would be worth waiting for. Dense and epic and fun... oh yeah, this was primo D'n'A. I eagerly awaited the trade, looking forward to its place on the shelf next to my Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy collected editions.
But a funny thing happened on the release of the trade... I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. Like the first couple of ultimate Comics Spider-Man trades there was no discount in price between the floppies and the collection, and what's more, the price of the trade at $16.99 is almost doubly expensive than getting the FCBD issue and the $1 first issue followed by the $3.99 second and third issues.
I thought it was a mistake in the printing and checked with my retailer to see if perhaps it was just a mistake, but no... at least not at day and date anyway and I don't see any correction on Amazon either.
Even if the FCBD and first issue were normal priced, the trade is still $1.02 more expensive than buying them from the stand or the bin. Are trade waiters now being punished for wanting to read more at once (and for not playing the monthly collector game)? I thought the publishers wanted more trade readers or to use the trade to entice toward the monthlies or to discount the first volume of an addictive series (I immediately wanted more Hypernaturals after reading vol 1) to entice the reader back for more ala Vertigo and Image tactic. If ever a $9.99 trade was called for it would be here.
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