The, "Battle Beast," Comic Blind Bags Were a Hit--Now Will Everyone Poorly Imitate Them?

Battle Beast is a character in the, "Invincible," comic universe. He just got a spin-off comic set in that World, and folks are going wild for it--but not due to the art or story (although it's a fun comic). You see, they did a blind bag promotion for this comic, and it has sold like hotcakes. There were multiple covers that were solicited, including cover C which was a polybag with a mystery cover inside. It could be almost any of the other covers, from a ratio to some kind of surprise. Folks bought these up and have enjoyed seeing some cool rare sketch covers, reprints of other fun comics (including a, "Marvel Team Up," with Invincible and Spider-Man that Marvel approved a new printing of), and these blind bags were only $3.99--making it seem like a pretty cheap buy-in to potentially get a cool and rare cover for less than a Mega Millions Quick Pick (ever since the price went up). I bought one to read and got...the standard cover B. Still, it was fun, but I have a big concern now: Everyone else is going to run this into the ground.

When a gimmick does well, everyone who can copy it will do so as long as there isn't some kind of trademark/copyright/legal issue to stop them. Glow-in-the-dark covers, lenticular covers, die-cut covers, they all became a big thing--it isn't just comics, either. When crafting weapons or food in video-games became popular, suddenly every game had some kind of hunting mechanic. When Marvel made a successful cinematic universe, all these other studios tried (and mostly failed) to do the same. If one idea does well, everybody who can attempt to replicate it will usually do so in some fashion--and most of the time not as well. 

An unexpected surprise option of the blind bags.

The, "Battle Beast," blind bag was a hit for Skybound (an imprint of Image) thanks to a number of factors all happening together. It is a comic featuring a popular character with the, "Invincible," show on Amazon Prime fresh in everyone's mind. This blind bag was cheap (for a comic), as well. Plus, it had some surprise comics nobody expected like the, "Marvel Team-Up," reprinting legit surprising folks.I don't look forward to DC or Marvel trying to do a blind bag variant themselves for a character nobody cares about and asking $9.99 for it, only to be surprised when it flops. 

You all may think I'm overworrying, but if somebody wants to bet me a dollar coffee from Scooters that within the next six months we will have at least six different blind bag promotions solicited (possibly from six different publishers, and maybe even from a single publisher that just goes all-in) I'll take at least one of those bets--where I'm the guy saying six-or-more and I'll feel pretty comfy with that wager. Let's see where the rest of 2025 takes us, I suppose, but I'm pretty sure my George Washington will be safe in my wallet.