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There’s a common cry in comics discourse about the prevalence of variants in the contemporary industry. Recently, I saw news about an issue with over 70 variant covers , coming only shortly after what was a previously beyond ridiculous high-30s . As far as I can tell, the economics of variants seems to be a little fucked, with companies looking to squeeze as much as they can out of both consumers ( especially whales ) and shops. Various schemes, such as attaching variants that are likely to be more sought after to either bulk purchasing or purchasing entirely different issues, force retailers to choose between spending unnecessarily on surplus copies or disappointing customers. The general consensus online, as much as consensus can be found in disparate YouTube bickering, is that the modern state of variants is a constant source of disappointment resulting from frustrating excess. It’s certainly reasonable to take a look at the sheer number of redundant covers and wonder why that money...

 The starkest stylistic differentiation of the art history courses that I took was the clear linearity throughout each of them. Many history courses are built around wide-ranging scopes. Stage 1 courses generally had the largest. One, a Pacific history course “focussed” on the last 1,000 years of the Pacific region, but began with a quick overview of prehistoric developments, such as Sunda and Sahul. Another, even more general course, consisted of a rapid cruise through numerous touchstones of the last 500 years from around the globe, starting  with European arrival in the Americas through a number of revolutions and wars and other generally unconnected happenings. Stage 2 and 3 courses generally had a little more restraint, with some courses focussing on events in one country (such as Japan or Ireland) with a period of less than 300 years. For both, the course was structured by political developments (the Tokugawa shogunate and the ongoing relationship with England) during th...