Let me start with one little disclaimer: this situation isn’t really VeVe’s fault.
They didn’t start the fire. It has long been churning before comics have been burning.
Because this is about 1.
And 2.
And 3.
And 4.
And sometimes more, but let’s face it… those four numbers are the worst… especially one.
Now I know some of you are wondering where I’m going with this, although some comic collectors are probably already nodding their heads. To everyone else, no, this isn’t about The Count (who is top notch, by the way).
This is about the fact that every time anyone wants to do a fresh take on an old superhero, they either do a one-off, a four-parter, or an even longer series and they always start with one. So many modern comics are “What-Ifs” without the title these days. They’re sanctioned alt-fiction; thanks to the whole multiverse concept giving lots of creative license which some of us on the outside of that umbrella can only dream about.
But if you’re a new comic book collector and try just putting in something like “Spider-Man #1” on an auction site… good luck. Start with the Marvel Wiki, and don’t be surprised if dozens of other comics show up instead of the one you want. Fortunately, when looking stuff up on a regular search engine, you have a lot of tools available to sort that mess out. Dates, who wrote it, cover artists, all of that is totally searchable.
And then there’s VeVe and StackR.
Breathe in… breathe out. Time for some low key stress relief techniques. Self care is important. Especially because in this case, I’m going to need it before I ever put in something into the search engine that is Title Hero plus #1-4.
Back in the good old days before VeVe Comics, we had a broken VeVe search engine but we still managed alright because there wasn’t that much overlap. The fixes that went in helped a lot when we only had to contend with issues like “Amazing Spider-Man” versus just “Spider-Man” and whether the X-Men was “Uncanny” or not. Even then, there have been mistakes. For example, I think I have 20 Spider-Man #2 Uncommons from accidentally stacking the wrong one. But now that the flood gates are open to modern comics, I’m really pulling my hair out.
StackR is not immune to this.
In fact, that’s when I got fed up and decided to make a topic on this problem. I happened to get a special mint UR of Edge of the Spiderverse #2 on the main app drop and wanted to see how many were sold and how many might be burned. But putting in “Edge of the Spiderverse #2”, I got an entire roll of other Edge of the Spiderverse #2, because they also released a bunch of variant covers on the Green App.
Someone hand me a pillow! I need a good scream!
I can not be the only person out there that is frustrated by this!
We have to have search engines for artists, cover artists, and publishing dates. Have to. There is no other way to separate some of these comics any longer, there are too many of them with the same exact name and number now. It’s become an absolute time-burning headache.
Quality of life suggestions:
It would also be nice to have a blue or green heart symbol inside the main VeVe app for where the comic came from because I only collect Blue App comics. I consider the Green App comics mostly reading material. Speaking of reading material, it’d also be nice to have a visible reader rating (9+, 13+, etc.) so I know which ones are safe for me to read. I have a runaway imagination and I can’t take the dark stuff without having flashbacks and nightmares for days on end. I know that VeVe Comics has a way to search for that (and thank you) but it’d be better if there was a tag on the comics just like there are tags for “Silver Age” and “First Appearance” etc.
Anyway, I’m sure others have more suggestions when it comes to this topic, so don’t forget to use the feedback button in the app.
Until then, I think I’ll stick to big numbers like 130, or 168, or 252.
It’s much safer.