Marvel's CIVIL WAR #2 came out today, and it's proving to be the biggest day in comic book retailing since the THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN event marked the simultaneous zenith and death-knell of the last boom period. However, and interestingly enough, what is getting the real mainstream media attention isn't the huge sales numbers (300k and rising), but the plot point of Spider-Man revealing his secret identity to the public. Everyone and their dog (The New York Post, The Howard Stern Show, Yahoo's home page, and I assure you, on the BBC homepage by tomorrow) is interested not in the business angle, but the storytelling one. And that tells me comics are on their way to regaining their status as a form of proper popular entertainment, rather than "collectibles" or cultish items for a minority audience. Now everyone's a geek.
**update** Told ya.