On December 31st, Marvel kicked off the end of their (latest) Ultimate Universe with, "Ultimate Endgame," #1. As part of the fun they had one variant option of that hot new trend--which is already burning itself out--blind bags. There was a problem, however, in that many of the blind bags turned out to have quite damaged comics inside once opened. Apparently, these weren't shipped the best in some cases and that could result in a store's whole order having nasty nicks and spine tics--not encouraging if you're hoping to pull a rare variant in decent shape. Marvel hasn't said anything official about this, but Penguin Random House (the distributor of Marvel floppies) has declared that as long as retailers send in the damaged comics with the covers stripped off, they'll refund the expense. I mean, that's something?
This is a bit of a mess, and considering how many blind bag promotions there have been from assorted publishers, you'd think PRH/Marvel would know how to ship these. I know Marvel is planning to do more mystery polybags for their, "Daredevil," relaunch, so one can only pray a valuable lesson was learned, and we won't see the same stories about damaged comics in a handful of months. Then again, if this blind bag craze peters out as quickly as it seems to be, it may not even matter before long if people simply quit caring. I suppose we'll have to see what 2026 holds for comic gimmicks and whatever the next hot promotional schtick is.
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