DC Comics announced today that the Adventures of Superman #596 would be returnable. The issue shipped to stores last Wednesday, the day after the horrific attack on the twin towers of World Trade Center in New York City. Due to an unfortunate coincidence the Superman comic features a scene in which Metropolis's twin LexCorp Towers have sustained damage due to events in the 'Our Worlds at War' storyline.
ICv2 talked to several midwestern retailers about the returnability of the Adventures of Superman #596, and they told us sales on the issue were brisk, and that they wouldn't have any to return. One dealer was holding his two remaining copies for regular customers, rather than see them go to speculators. Some may think the item will become a collector's item, but there was no significant action on the issue on eBay as of Monday afternoon. Regardless, the retailers ICv2 talked with doubted whether many copies would be returned, though people on the East coast may feel differently about the book.
While the television networks can't resist showing the airliners crashing into the WTC towers over and over, the rest of the entertainment industry seems eager to spare the public anything that might remind them of last week's tragic occurrences. The image of the twin towers has been airbrushed off Spidey's shades for the poster for the new Spider-Man film, and the studio is trying to suppress the teaser trailer, which shows Spidey nab a helicopter full of villains with a cable strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The twin towers are also being excised from the Men in Black sequel, and the latest Arnold Schwarznegger shoot 'em up, blow' em up cinematic extravaganza has been postponed. Even a Jerry Stiller comedy film, Zoolander, will have the twin towers optically removed from location footage shot in New York. The remake of The Time Machine, originally set for a December release, has been pushed back to February, reportedly because of a sequence in which an explosion on the moon sends a shower of meteors down on New York City.
