Fixing DC Comics - Is it even possible?

[Random Axe]

This debacle has just about run out of any steam it may have had after the initial re-launch. I really don’t see anyone here who actually likes this stuff and even fewer who think this was an improvement. The sales cannot be any better than they were prior to the New 52, probably worse. Now the big question is how does this get fixed…or does WB even bother? Or do we even care? I have some ideas, probably all wrong, that could possibly help regain our former beloved company.

Shut it down – The new 52 came on the heels of the prior issues with no real lag time. It seemed like you had creators working on the last issues of old 52 or whatever at the same time the new 52 was being developed. The lack of thought process and vision and their rush to get these out is evident. DC should just shut down production for six months. This allows the dust to settle, time for licking wounds and buys time to assemble creative teams to start up the old issues. The company won’t lose face with this. If anything it’ll look like they truly care about the product they release and are a company that can admit they made a huge mistake. Just shut down the production and get your **** together.

Creative team assembly - If DC had just put effort into their creative teams on books prior to the new 52, this entire last year of garbage wouldn’t exist. You can’t tell me that a Johns/Lee/Williams Justice League wouldn’t have exploded in the prior universe. Why wait till you reboot the entire universe to pull them together? If DC puts the right people on the right books, sales and success will follow. There’s no magic formula, just get the best people together and let them have fun with the characters.

Fire Jim Lee – Go ahead and keep him as an artist, just don’t put him in charge of anything, not even the pencil sharpener. He creatively peaked with Hush. His redesigns, his computer gaming arm of DC Entertainment and his overall input has been failure. You think his Wildstorm crap being fully integrated into full DC continuity was anyone else’s idea?

Fire Dan Didio – How this clown still has a job is a mystery. He’s enthusiastic about the industry, he freakin loves comics. That’s obvious and commendable. I like and respect his love of this business. As an executive overseeing this nonsense, he is an absolute abortion. Go ahead and keep him as a writer, he doesn’t deserve to be unemployed. He’s just way over his head in this position and has made too many poor decisions to remain.

Hire Mark Waid – If I’m the publisher, if I’m WB and I witness this floundering of DC with no direction and no plan, I go after someone who knows this genre as well as anyone. I throw lots of six figures at him. He knows what works, he knows comics history and is very much in-touch with contemporary books. I can’t think of anyone who has more respect for the magic of comics who can also get the best out of the company’s books and creators.

Continue digital books – This will be the future of funny books as much as I hate to see it. Go ahead and embrace this and make them easily downloadable from every possible site. I hate to see the effect this has on comic shops, but I don’t have any ideas for them. They are paying the ultimate price for these recent decisions.

Merchandise everything – DC and WB needs to flood every possible market with every possible character. Don’t just put stuff in WB stores, hit everyone. Deathstroke dartboard, Red Tornado dish towels, Hawk and Dove salt and pepper shakers, Aquaman cereal. Do whatever you can to promote your brand including as many cartoons as possible. Grab the kids early and you’ll never have to explain why Superman has trunks, it’ll just be a given as it was with us. Remember a time when you slept in Super Friends bedsheets and had Green Arrow pajamas? That era needs to return now.

Okay, enough with my rambling. Probably nothing of the above is the correct way to go, and perhaps there is no right decision left. Maybe it’s just a never ending string of bad and worse choices till the company goes belly up. I know a lot of much smarter people here will have other thoughts and will likely poop all over my ideas, which is fine. A healthy debate of our beloved characters and their eventual outcome is welcomed.

[johnnystorm]

Honestly, as much as I love comics, super heroes, & the like, I think that maybe comics as a medium we know is pretty much about over. i just don't know where it will go from here...I think the damage has been done.... because what do you do- if you actually did gain any new readership with the new 52, if you revert to the old DCU they'll leave. The older readers like us already bailed on the revamp. And I'm not getting back in...after the past 5-6 years of Crisis, & returns, & Countdown, & now this...I'm selective now on my buying & reading, and I've found other pastures to play in. My money is going into back issues, independants, and the like.

I've collected EVERY issue of JLA up until now.... even the crappy stuff with the Detroit team & the the very end stuff with Metamorpho, Fire & Ice. But I gave up on the new version, and stuff like Superman & Wonder Woman as a couple just puts me off. Maybe I'm just old and turning into Andy Rooney.."Don't ya just hate it when they add extra lines to Batman's underwear? Why is that?"

Marvel is following DC's example with a linewide reboot as well. Maybe they'll be more successful as it looks like they are trying to consolidate toward the movie versions. i think that's what DC wanted as well, a consistant version they could franchise to games, movies, Tv, etc, they just are going about it backwards, redoing the comic line to make a palatable Hollywood costume for Superman. The difference between the two is Marvel is more organic, they changed Spidey's look or Thor's look in the film & then slowly adapted the look in the strips. And they don't seem ashamed of their characters either, whereas DC seems to feel the need to force Superman & the crew into being heroes for adults...while still marketing the heck out of kid's jammies.

I think you are right about putting the best people on the best characters to sell the product. A good story with good art is GOOD, and doesn't depend on where Superman's shorts are on, inside or out. And to avoid continuity hassles, why keep bringing it up then? Sure, the JSA is full of it, but you know, the people reading that book KNOW that, and it's part of that particular crowd's tastes & expectations. Doesn't mean it's necessary in Firestorm, or Flash. Green Lantern is one GIGANTIC continuity sponge, minute details about the Guardians are still driving the epic tales. And that's expected...in that series. Just because Lex Luthor is back in this month's Superman doesn't require yet another origin revamp or added details. Just tell a good story with pretty pictures!

Successful redos of old series have been done before...the Valiant revamps of Magnus & Dr. Solar come to mind. Neither negated the classics, yet neither slavishly followed them either. They took the best parts, forgot to bring up the bad parts, and proceeded to go on from there. Alan Moore's Swamp Thing is another good example. He didn't flush the past, he embellished it, and moved on down the road using the parts that suited the new version best.

At this point though, I don't see them returning "our" DCU. Or firing everybody en masse. and even if they did, would we still believe it when our heroes were given back? Or would we remain skeptical and wait for the other shoe to drop. I remember Infinite Crisis #1, flipping to the last page and gasping audibly when I saw the Golden Age Superman of Earth-2 appear. Yes! They're bringing back Earth-2! Well, how'd that work out for you? The Who said it best: "Won't get fooled again".

[BlackKnight]

We Only Need 1 Name.
Bring in Patrick Duffy .
We Could "Fix" All of this Nonsense with 1 Panel.

[thunderbolt]

agree on all points, with this addition, Geoff Johns needs to be demoted at best. He should not have the keys to the car anymore either. He is one of the three stooges behind this absolute mess. Keep the few things that are working and teams on books that are selling and/or getting critical praise and rereboot the rest to the silver age status quo and build from there. Dump the Wildstorm crap, no one cares about it and quit stroking Jim Lee's ego and lining his wallet.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I agree with everything you said Scott, I'll just throw in one more name in addition to Waid.

Bruce Timm.

The man GETS these characters. And he is able to take them and reinvigorate them without destroying what was there before.

And he can bring all of his animated pals he wants!!!

Chris

[VintageMike]

I tend think everything can be rehabbed, but you hit on something with many of your points that's really the biggest obstacle to any kind o real change: when the people in power are messing things up. Getting those folks out of power is next to impossible in these situations as long as they find a way to please the people above them.

[Figuremod73]

I agree.

This would be a good time to really start promoting digital and to push classic reprints to the forefront.

I think this would be a good chance to market some of the old fashion mags in the magazine format at grocery stores to. Action, Detective, and Sensational should come back as anthologys with minor characters as backup features. Make it double sized like the japanese mangas.

I would really like them to try some of the whimsical/imaginary stories in some books again. Bring back some of the fantastical stuff they use to do. It doesnt have to be in every book, just try it in solo stories from time to time.

[Random Axe]

agree on all points, with this addition, Geoff Johns needs to be demoted at best. He should not have the keys to the car anymore either. He is one of the three stooges behind this absolute mess. Keep the few things that are working and teams on books that are selling and/or getting critical praise and rereboot the rest to the silver age status quo and build from there. Dump the Wildstorm crap, no one cares about it and quit stroking Jim Lee's ego and lining his wallet.

Yes, I forgot about Geoff. He was given keys to the car and he's proven he can't drive a stick. Put him in charge of the GL universe and let him go nuts. He can be in charge of four or five Lantern titles and that'll keep him busy enough not to meddle in other affairs. He and Tomassi, another very talented writer can bring out the best of the Corp. and build a cornerstone of the DCU like it has been for the last seven years.

YOu can also mix things up by having different arch villains for some characters. Much like wrestling where you work a program with a heel, have some bad guys not normally associated with a character become the adversary. For example, Darkseid could suddenly take a liking to Captain Marvel and try to corrupt Batson into becoming one of his minions. This could be a year long arc where he tries to use the power of Shazam enhanced with the power of Apokolypse before Earth's heroes break him of his control.

Luthor could become totally bored with fighting a Kryptonian and start crap with an Amazon. Or maybe he goes against Batman in a corporate war of billionaires with each person's full technology in play.

I dunno, just throwing some ideas out there. The point is there are endless possibilities of going back to the old DCU but with new concepts that don't alter continuity.

[madmarva]

I think as things go along the New DCU will gradually begin to morph back into a more recognizable version just like John Byrne's Superman did. Now, I don't think it will ever be exactly the same, but the silver-age wasn't the golden-age and the changes in the bronze were dramatic across the board. The first Crisis blew up 50 years of continuity and so on.

Face it, DC isn't creating these books just for us 35-50-year-old geezers who are set in our ways and have also read thousands of comics and know all the plots and tricks of the trade. They are for the 15-30 year-olds that don't give a crap about history and haven't even noticed Superman and Batman have their underwear on the inside instead of out. While I'm not thrilled with what DC is producing and hate a majority of the redesigns of the costumes, the changes DC made in the 1990s (other than the crappy Superman armor suit which is an absolute travesty) were harder for me to swallow than most of these. I grew to like Wally and Kyle and Connor as the new Flash, GL and GA, but I still prefer Barry, Hal and Ollie and am glad they are back.

I'd like for DC to produce a small all-ages line of out-of-continuity books featuring their prime characters and concepts in their most recognizable form. Kind of the opposite of Marvel's Ultimate Universe. It could be a bone to readers like us who have stuck with them for so long. But DC has a hard enough time keeping good talent on their main books. Pipe dream I know.

[thunderbolt]

^^^ The problem is DC is not bringing in that audience. The DC sales went up at first, but only at Marvel and others expense. This stunt did not bring in actual new readers. It just shifted them around. Now I be the new has worn off and most are moving on from DC. THey really need to cut the price of downloads too. If they were a buck or two cheaper than floppies they might sell a few more to casual readers.

[bobws]

DC Doesn't feel the need to fix anything right now. They feel they fixed things a year ago and hope that they will have an audience that will stary with them as it is easy bto keep up with what their universe is now.
They are not concerned with making the old guys (us) happy. They need the new young blood money spenders and that's what they are marketing towards.

[thunderbolt]

I bet most people that they are targeting can see right thru the fake hipster attempts going on in most of the weaker books.

[madmarva]

THey really need to cut the price of downloads too. If they were a buck or two cheaper than floppies they might sell a few more to casual readers.

I totally agree with this. I recently got an ipad and after looking over comixology and marvel and Dc's sites, I can't justify paying more for less for digital when I can still get the floppies at a 35 to 40 percent discount from subscription services. I do like the idea of going digital to reduce the amount of boxes I have, but right now the cost is too high, even when the digital product drops a $1 off the retail price after the first month.

I understand DC and Marvel are trying to protect their current bread and butter — the direct market retailer — but I don't ever see myself paying the same price for digital as I would for an actual copy that I might be able to sell at a later date to recoup some of my expense.

[Figuremod73]

To bad there isnt a way to trade in back issues (at there book value) for digital copies.

[enyawd72]

BOTH DC and Marvel need to get back to basics. The publishing aspect has been losing money for a long time because it's just too much. There's a reason we all fondly remember the 1970's as one of the best periods for superheroes. Both companies had a limited number of titles going. It was possible to read every Marvel book or every DC book every month without going broke. Go back to monthly titles, print them on newsprint, and lower the cost to a buck.
Next up, STOP with all the "event" stories. Some of these comic writers act like they're writing Shakespeare. These are supposed to be FUN stories about guys and gals in colorful undies beating up each other. I would rather read a well written single issue story about Batman solving a rash of burglaries than a craptacular event "Batmageddon" that drags out for 16 months across 10 different titles.
Next, make artists follow a style guide. Spider-Man has had more freaking costume changes in the last year than I can follow. Doc Ock has been redesigned into a slobbering cyborg ala H.R. Giger. Superman has no trunks, and everyone in the DC universe apparently has collar envy and the same tailor.
Artists need to stop serving their own egos, and start serving the stories. Their job is to tell a story, not redesign every character they work on to make it "theirs".
Lastly, each company should start their own TV network and/or channel. Show every film, live action, and animated version of every character 24/7 and advertise your comics and merchandise.
Imagine a DC network that showed Batman serials, George Reeves Superman, Adam West Batman, Superfriends, Lois and Clark, The Flash, Smallville, Justice League, Batman TAS, Super Powers, etc. etc.