We've looked at the reaction of Donny Cates – and the rest of the comic book industry – to the issue of comic book piracy. We even had a few suggestions of our own to prevent it, including utilising hard digital marking tech to identify pirates. Well, we didn't expect a ready example of the principle involved to be provided quite so speedily. Tonight, Donny Cates was tweeting, regarding PDF previews of Thor #1 that were sent out to comic book stores recently, before the Final Order Cut-Off date. And that he found being passed around a private Facebook group for collectors and speculators.

Hey. If you're a comic shop and we send you a preview for a book, and then you leak it online for speculators and pirates??? Try and remember to take your account number off the PDF. Talk soon. And have a happy thanksgiving — DONNY⚡️CATES (@Doncates) November 28, 2019

This is the kind of thing that can cost a comic book store their Diamond account. So… yeah. Here's a more official and sanctioned sneak peek…

THOR #1

(W) Donny Cates (A) Nic Klein (CA) Olivier Coipel

A BRAND-NEW, SUPERSTAR CREATIVE TEAM TAKES THE KING OF ASGARD TO NEW REALMS OF GLORY!

The prince is now a king. All Asgard lies before Thor, the God of Thunder. And after many months of war, the Ten Realms are finally at peace. But the skies above the Realm Eternal are never clear for long. The Black Winter is coming. And the God of the Storm will be powerless before it.In Shops: Jan 01, 2020

Final Orders Due: Nov 25, 2019 SRP: $4.99