DC Comics Starting Over Again

[palitoy]

They should do this each month. It couldn't hurt any worse than what they've been doing. #1 issues every month I say

Collectors Edition!

[hedrap]

If they're really paring titles down to just film/tv related...that's an admission the tail does wag the dog. This eventually leads to DC directly being controlled by WB development and published like a tv series is ordered. And if it's all done in service of film/tv...comic talent will be competing with every screenwriter or producer trying to get a studio deal.

On the bright side, this could be a huge opening for indies again.

[madmarva]

With most of DC's comics series selling below expectations after the most recent rejiggering, it's not the worst idea from a marketing standpoint to align the comics with the film and/or TV versions. This isn't what I'd prefer, but from a corporate standpoint, it makes a certain kind of sense.

However, what if the movies flop or just do moderately well at the box office like "Man of Steel?"

Why not wait and see if BvS is a hit first? As other have said, it just seems desperate.

What's the next step? Licensing the characters out to a block of creators like Marvel did first with its big guns — which flopped — and later with Daredevil and others under the Marvel Knights banner?

Sure seems like there should be new vision near the top, whether its at the publisher level or Editor in Chief (or whatever Bob Harras' title is) or both spots.

In one position or another, Didio has been in charge of DC's super hero comics since the early 2000s. That seems long enough considering current sales.

My understanding is that part of Jim Lee's deal/contract when he sold Windstorm to DC was a VP type position within the company in perpetuity. So evidently he will be at DC in some capacity, but it doesn't have to be co-publisher.

The question is if DC bumps Didio and Lee from the publisher spot, who does DC go to?

Geoff Johns would seem logical, but his fingerprints as chief creative officer are all over the Berlanti-produced TV shows, which to me are the best thing DC/WB has going in terms of super heroes. Do you move him from that spot and risk knee-capping a good thing?

It's wild that super heroes are bigger than ever in pop culture but the monthly comics featuring them are in another trough. Marvel's dominating the market share because of the Star War license, but its sales are down. Maybe it's just medium of monthly pamphlets that's in trouble? Everyone has been predicting the death of print for a couple of decades. Maybe it's finally happening. Or maybe with so much super heroics available on TV and on the big screen, comics seem too flat to potential new readers?

[The Bat]

Guys...Marvel is no different. Look at the mess the they've made after the NEW Secret Wars "re-boot"...it's a complete disaster! It's unrecognizable from the Marvel Universe I know.

[Starroid Raiders Dagon]

Pretty sparce on the info. so far. Not surprised they want the new number 1s, as that seems to be the comic companies make bucks these days. I was surprised they put a bunch of miniseries in one book. Those were almost all titles I would have bought. Not sure why they changed the format. They were supposed to start at the same time as Swamp Thing.

Metal Men by writer Len Wein
Firestorm by writer Gerry Conway
Metamorpho by writer Aaron Lopresti
Sugar & Spike by writer Keith Giffen

[thunderbolt]

If they do things like Jim Gordon in a bunny robot suit and call it Batman what do they expect?

[MIB41]

Rebooting the entire brand seemed like an insult to readers intelligence when they did it a few years back. But to do it again really suggests it's current subscribers are just costume chasers who have no interest in character development so much as mindless spectacle to invent new toys. No artistic effort required.

[Bruce Banner]

Oh great. Not again.

[LonnieFisher]

Why can't they just let them grow old and die of natural causes?

[wise guy]

If they did that it would be like the Watchmen

[monitor_ep]

I tried a few titles in the DCnU but I had to stop, it wasn't the universe I used to spend money one for years. My comic order used to be between $200-300 a month and that was mostly DC. I did not mind it because most of the time the comics were good. Now all it get is a handful of titles per month. I do not think I will be picking up any of the DCnnU unless they go back to the original universe.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I think DiDio has been in charge of creative in one capacity or another since 2003. It is amazing that he has survived all of these upheavals, even if he's really not to blame for any of this. Historically, that doesn't matter. Carmine Infantino was given the axe after about 8 years in a corporate role, and fewer years at the very top. He had been with the company 20 years before being kicked upstairs! Paul Levitz was Jennette Kahn's right-hand man through the company's greatest creative achievements, and didn't get to sit in the president/publisher chair long at all...they "retired" him. He was the last vestige of the DC that carried on from the original founders.

In the long-run, the day DC bought Wildstorm (and Jim Lee) was the ruination of them, as far as I'm concerned. It set into motion all of these things. I have nothing against Lee, DiDio or Johns personally, but the characters I love have become unrecognizable under their watch.

Chris

[samurainoir]

Unless there is a change in their talent roster, I'm not likely picking up any of the DC #1's, unlike the previous New 52 launch where I eventually settled on about 8 titles after sampling many many titles. Dropped those titles with change-ups in the creative teams within the first couple of years.

To be fair though, it's the only tried, tested and true method to guarantee a spike in sales to show the shareholders and upper management. For three or four decades now. DC and Marvel wouldn't keep doing it if it didn't work. DC gained the upper hand following the New 52, Marvel was going to take the same strategy, but pulled back and opted for a slow rollout instead of #1's. However Marvel took the Lion's share of the market (something like 70%?) following their Age of Apocalypse strategy of shunting the entire line into What If territory for half a year with Secret Wars (and a slew of #1's) and then returning with an entire line of #1's. DC is simply responding in kind.

We weren't immune either as young readers. I was definitely a Marvel kid (other than New Teen Titans), but the post-Crisis DCU allowed me to get onboard new iterations of Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, Justice League #1's as well as discover new titles like Suicide Squad and even quirkier titles like Sandman, Hellblazer and Shade the Changing Man, which arguably sustained my interest in comics through my teens. Wally replacing Barry gave me my own Flash to root for from the ground-up, particularly since I really liked Kid Flash in New Teen Titans.

As a kid, I was all in when it came to the cool new Black Costume that Spider-man was wearing. Web of Spider-Man #1 was exciting because I could get a Spider-Man title starting at #1 (with the cool new black costume!)

But, there are STILL plenty of title out there for me to read these days, and still too many for me to keep up with. Most of them just don't have DC bullets on them. Over at Marvel I'm reading Spider-Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Howard the Duck, Squirrel Girl, and I'm sure a bunch of others that I'm forgetting about following the new #1's. Must read indies include Rachel Rising, Walking Dead, Chew, Crossed, Uber, Mercury Rising, Saga, We Stand on Guard, just to name a handful.

I guess I can understand folks being upset if they do chase characters, but for me if the "old friends" I grew up with at Marvel and DC don't have interesting creative teams attached anymore, I've got plenty more of reading material elsewhere.

[Blue Meanie]

Yeah...but that Web Of Spider-Man cover had an INCREDIBLE!!! painted cover by Charles Vess...so your exuberance is excused

[thunderbolt]

so, 3rd reset in 5 years at DC.