Last week, Amazon acquired digital comics hub ComiXology, and the (comics-reading corner of the) internet flipped out. Business Insider predicted that the deal would "change the comic book industry forever." Retailer organization ComicsPRO described Amazon as "a huge corporation that shows little need to turn a profit [trying] to convert a niche market into a commodity"—and then threw a jab by drawing a distinction between digital comics and "the real thing."

So, is this the death of the direct market? The end of digital comics as we know them? The advancement of an evil empire at the expense of the hard-working cartoonists and publishers and loyal readers?

Nope.

Let's get the major hand-wringing points out of the way first: ComiXology will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary, under its current leadership. If you're currently a ComiXology customer, you'll be able to keep buying comics at the same place, for the same price, with the same account, and reading them with the same interface on the same devices.

If you're a creator or publisher, ComiXology CEO David Steinberger confirmed that your contract and royalties won't change, at least not in the foreseeable future. You'll deal with the same people, through the same process, in much the same way. The programs Business Insider points out in their sky-is-falling predictions already existed; Amazon had been publishing comics on the Kindle for years, and developing original comics properties for months before acquiring ComiXology.

>The comics industry lingers in a frozen adolescence, clinging to a shrinking target audience like a sea captain railing at the storm—when the real problem is the rotting wood of his own hull.

But what about comics retailers? A few years ago, ComiXology was being heralded as the death knell of comics shops, and that obviously hasn't happened—digital distribution isn't ripping customers away from struggling comics shops so much as attracting new readers to the medium, many of whom later find their way to brick-and-mortar stores.

Then there's ComicsPRO's statement, which is frankly a little baffling in how profoundly ignorant it seems. "A huge corporation that shows little need to turn a profit [trying] to convert a niche market into a commodity"? What does ComicsPRO consider Disney's relationship to Marvel, or Time-Warner's to DC—both of which answer far more directly to their parent corporations than ComiXology will to Amazon?

Is the concern is a distribution monopoly? If so, the direct market is in no position to criticize: over the last 15 years, Diamond Comics Distributors has consumed almost all independent print distribution in comics, and dictates practices and policy to retailers and publishers alike. The idea that print comics are somehow more independent than their digital cousins—or a scrappy underdog fighting the good fight against evil corporate profiteers—is frankly ridiculous.

No idea has proven more damaging to the comics industry than the myth that its professionals—not just creators, but retailers, even distributors—work for love and not money. It's a philosophy that has justified exploitation of creators and theft of intellectual property. It's allowed the entire industry to pass the buck for its failures—from publishers to retailers, and retailers to —for decades. And it's why the comics industry lingers in a frozen adolescence, clinging to a shrinking target audience like a sea captain railing at the storm—when the real problem is the rotting wood of his own hull.

ComiXology is not a charity. It is a business—one that has done very good work with apparent goodwill, but which has also survived and grown on the corpses of competitors. Now it has been bought by another business, and both have promised that business will continue as usual. It's a deal that will probably have a small impact on a handful of people (ironically, between the widened market and the possibility of collaboration or at least more synchronicity between ComiXology Submit and Amazon CreateSpace, independent creators will probably see the most direct benefits), and negligible impact on nearly everyone.

So, no: this is not the end of the world, or even the first step down a slippery slope. It's evolution. I'd say "adapt or die," but honestly, that inflates the stakes. Adapt or don't, comics.