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It's surprising that Marvel and DC didn't purchase Comixology to prevent this from happening. We've seen what Amazon did to book publishers, I don't see any reason to believe they won't do the same to comic book publishers.

On the other hand, perhaps lower pricing/subscription services is just what the comic book industry needs to get more people reading comics.

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I think it will be a lot harder to cannibalize Marvel and DC's profit centers because of the value of the actual IP itself, as opposed to book publishers who don't have the kind of "brand" recognition and sway that a Batman or Spiderman has.

That's pretty much my guess, Marvel & DC might be hoping there is growth potential.

But surely they would want to be the ones in control of this?

Not saying they wouldn't love to be the ones in control, but it could be just one more reason they elect not to get in a bidding war with Amazon, and hope for the best.

The price of this might be the destruction of comic book stores. It's often hard for companies to bypass retailers, because the retailers will get mad at them, and the retailers are the majority of their (direct) customers.

This way, Amazon does Marvel/DCs dirty work, but Marvel/DC still gets paid.

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