How Did This Piece Of History Sell For So Little?

Taking inspiration from Rich Johnston's column about Rise & Fall of Arsenal #4, I looked up a recently ended auction for one of the most (in)famous pieces of DC Comics art in a long time:

It went for only $76.77. A double page splash, folks. I bet if this was auctioned for HERO INITIATIVE at a convention, it would go for a few hundred. I'm sure the artist was certain it would command more, since he made sure to clearly sign the work.

Don't Let Your Cats Out On The Streets

I'm practically all talked out on how bad the Justice League of America books are lately. I am pretty much just as sapped when it comes to the Rise & Fall stuff.

But then this issue of JLA: The Rise & Fall of Arsenal comes out and, well, it's so bad that it is impossible to have nothing to say.

I still don't have the energy to really go and say a whole lot about how bad this is. Nothing can really top the blow-by-blow shredding of the book by retailer Brian Hibbs (that's right: a retailer shitting on the book on the date of release). But I'll share this image to give you a sense of how bad the book is.

And I'll, also, say this: for a book that doesn't have any reason to be especially timely, it sure had a lot of people scrambling to work on it. There are noticeable shifts in the art. Without this issue's deadline having major effects on other books coming out, my first guess would be changes. What I'm saying is, for one reason or another, it seems there was editorial feedback that guided and changed the final product...yet this steaming turd is still what hit the stands.

I think I saw one JT Krul book in the last few months that seemed passable, making me want to hold off on grouping his work with that of James Robinson's recent JLA stuff. All that did was delay the inevitable, because this Arsenal stuff makes Cry For Justice look like it deserves its award nomination.