Marvel Comics Writer Gail Simone Defends X-Men Books Hiding Exposition And First Character Appearances Behind QR Codes: “We’re All Trying To Make These Books Something Fun”
Contrary to popular opinion, Marvel Comics writer Gail Simone is a staunch supporter of the latest X-Men relaunch’s ‘first issue gimmick’ of hiding both relevant exposition and first character appearances behind QR codes.
As previously reported, upon reaching the conclusion of any given first issue published as part of the X-line’s new, post-Krakoa From The Ashes initiative, readers will be met with a giant, unmissable QR code.
Upon scanning the code with their smart phone or tablet, the reader will then be taken to a special ‘bonus page’ for the issue, as hosted on Marvel Comics’ official website.
However, rather than being small character interactions or canon-respecting moments of fan service that have no actual impact on the story at hand, these bonus pages instead contain, at least as seem in the three published thus far – X-Men Vol. 7 #1, Phoenix Vol. 1 #1, NYX Vol. 2 #1 – the full-on, first-time appearances of each book’s respective villains (and in the case of X-Men, a group who appears will serve as the From The Ashes era’s overarching main antagonists).
Though Marvel Comics Executive Editor and current X-Men line Editor Tom Brevoort has confirmed that these pages will definitely be included in each books’ eventual collected editions, their locking behind a QR code has still raised a number of concerns among fans, particularly in terms of this gimmick being rendered completely broken by future website migration or server change by Marvel Comics[ official website as well as just how this gimmick will factor into an issue’s collectablity.
Take, for example, the cabal seen in the below bonus page from X-Men #1. Will their first appearance be recorded as this single issue despite the fact that they don’t technically appear in the book itself? Or will it be the trade collecting the issue, wherein they actually do appear on a printed page?
The problem only snowballs when looking at how rather than a group of collective, seemingly already-established villains (The Zealot is almost undoubtedly Cassandra Nova, and The Doctor is likely former Orchis exectuvie Dr. Alia Gregor), both Phoenix #1 and NYX #1 introduce completely new, individual villains for their protagonist to face.
And while these concerns weigh heavily on those actually buying the books, the same cannot be said for the aforementioned Simone.
Taking notice of the Twitter discourse that erupted around the topic earlier this week, the latest Uncanny X-Men writer declared, “They’re fun, they have little hints of what’s coming. They are only in the first issues. Where ANYONE got the idea that this was forever or that you could ‘never read the last page,’ is baffling”.
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Met in turn with the above criticism regarding the single issue being incomplete versus its collected counterparts, Simone pushed back, “It is astounding to me that anyone is flummoxed by this.”
“To add a page to a TPB takes about 5 minutes to decide to do,” she argued. “Bonus material gets added to collections ALL the time.”
Turning her attentions to X-Men readers at large, Simone then declared, “Folks, we’re all trying to make these books something fun, something like comics USED to be…behind the scenes stuff, mini-interviews, letter, a mini X-bullpen column.”
“For the first issues, they added bonus teaser pages by the actual creative teams,” she added. “That’s all.”
Responding to one fan who bluntly asserted, “Gate locking content behind a phone gimmick sucks. Hate having incomplete content in the books, do not anticipate these codes will work in a year, and do not intend to continue buying floppies of this run,” Simone further insisted “It’s one bonus page in one issue.”
The next QR code-featuring entry in the X-line’s From The Ashes publishing endeavor, X-Force Vol. 7 #1, is currently set to begin its sortie on July 31st.
Meanwhile, the first issue of Simone’s Uncanny X-Men run is on track to hit shelves on August 7th.
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