I've read both the comments of Joe Field, the guy who had the brilliant idea to have a Free Comic Book Day in the first place, and of Joe Quesada, the guy who had the brilliant idea to mend Marvel's fences and get some real talent in the House again; here's what I think, for what it's worth:  I agree with Joe Fields.

First of all, we need the event to be annual -- annual means once a year on or around the same date (check out Thanksgiving Day, Memorial Day, etc.).  So the May date makes sense for that reason if for none other.

Second:  We do not need to wait until the most opportune moment for Marvel.  That may or may not mean the release date of the Hulk movie -- whenever that may be.  If it's in June, as originally planned, great.  But if not, well, then what do we do?  Do we just blow off the idea of a movie tie-in altogether?  If the movie comes out late and we hold the FCBD off until it opens, the entire idea suffers -- and that means for DC, Image, CrossGen, the indies who participated, the consumers, and of course, us -- the retailers - remember us?  The ones who were your hosts for last time around?  Yes, it was great that the publishers participated and kicked down with special books, but really, the retail locations were what made it happen or not.

Third:  X-Men 2 looks to be great, and as Joe points out, it happens at the perfect time to make this thing seem solid in its sophomore incarnation.  The school kids are still around, it's at the beginning of the summer season, which is a great time for neophytes to check out comics, because there's a wealth of crossovers plus a lot of special event comics that are one-off type stuff that a newbie can grab onto and not feel lost.

Fourth:  Any Hulk comic more accessible than any 'watered-down' X-Men book.  Hmmm.  Why can't we have a FCBD version of Ultimate X-Men #1 -- or is that too 'watered-down'?  I thought Ultimate X-Men #1 was a GREAT book, and it would go over wonderful.  I didn't find it watered down at all, but rather found it a great way to get involved in the X-Men mythology.  Besides, X-Men outsells Hulk in my store by huge proportions -- as good as Hulk is, X-Men sells better.

Five:  'Ang Lee and Jennifer Connelly' is FIVE words.  And while they are really cool, and we think the Hulk movie looks really cool, we really aren't looking to promote a certain movie, we're looking to promote comics, right?  And don't we want to do that when we have the best chance to really make it sing for the whole summer, instead of waiting till the summer is half over before we even start?  The X-Men movie trailers I've seen are totally captivating, it has the advantage of being released into a warm pool -- that is, a bunch of people who saw the first X-Men will want to come out for X-Men 2 -- and if it's as good as the first movie, it will be a great tie-in to the second FCBD.  I don't see a need to wait on a movie that may or may not come out midsummer when this one is ready to roll in the very beginning of the season.