kgrogers1979

Possible gains =/= real gains

The constant dwindling of sales over the last 15 or so years would seem to indicate that the number of new readers gained is less than the number of long-term readers whom get fed up and quit.

Really I think the written comic book is a thing of the past. Reading, even reading comics, is not something kids today are into. Kids today would rather play video games. I don't think it is a coincidence that the video game industry went mainstream in the mid/late 90s with the Playstation and that is the same time when the comic industry started dying. Comics are a hobby for old people that grew up reading them in the 60s/70s/80s. Most kids today aren't going to get into an old school hobby anymore than they are going to start playing old NES games.

The average comic book reader is probably in his 30s. I think that in 30 years give or take when the average comic book reader is dying of old age, the entire comic book industry is going to die as well. I really don't see the industry surviving that much longer. Superheroes like Batman and Superman will live on in other forms besides the written comic form. We are actually starting to see a migration of that now with all the superhero movies and TV shows now being produced. Smallville lasted for 10 years, beating out many similar shows. Kids will watch a movie or TV show, but they won't read a comic book. The days of the written comic book are numbered.




For me personally, continuity is a big deal, a much bigger deal than a price tag. I love continuity, and Marvel's screwing with it in the 90s is precisely why I abandoned them and never bought another Marvel comic since then. DC is getting to that point now. Barbara returning as Batgirl is a huge slap in the face to me.

Josh-da-man

I don't know what to think of Justice League Dark starring John "Hellblazer" Constantine, Shade the Changing Man, Deadman and Madame Xanadu.

I'm ambivalent on it... on one hand, it sounds kind of atrocious; on the other its being written by Peter Milligan (who wrote Vertigo's Shade and is currently doing a great run on Hellblazer) and might be kind of a throwback to the pre-Vertigo, late 80s dark side of the DCU.

I, Vampire looks like it's going to be kind of Twilight-y, but might not end up being too bad.

Demon Knights is being written by Cornell, so it might have some promise. Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE might not be bad, either, as it looks like a continuation of Morrison's take from Seven Soldiers.

Click here for official details and cover images.

Travis McClain

I'm reluctant to be a Monday morning quarterback but the admittedly bad shape of sales suggests to me that the changes that need to take place aren't coming from the top. But they haven't asked me, so whatever. We'll see what happens but I'll go ahead and admit I'm not really buying new comics. Now, maybe I'm the problem because I'm not actively supporting the publishers. I would argue that they're the problem, continuing to fail to attract my money. I want to enjoy new comics, I really do, but every time I think I'll give them another chance, I take a gander and am entirely unimpressed.

It's bad enough to have massive storylines, but too often in the last several years I'll take the time to get a new issue of something and by the end of 22 pages I feel like I was only given a teaser. Say what you will about "KnightFall," but at least each issue was crafted to be satisfying on its own. Batman rounding up Arkham escapees one and two at a time, that worked. We understood that this was just one event in a large sequence, but at least each issue was an event. I read Identity Crisis when it was published and instead of following a series I was looking through a collection of trailers.

Stories don't need to be self-contained, but I feel like they're drawing out a solid five-parter into a 20-parter just to suggest an epic scale. When I was an active reader, there was a sense that a story had to warrant being spread across more than one issue. Now it seems that each story is expected to be stretched out. I'm getting cranky in my old age, but I don't like six minute long album cuts with self-indulgent guitar solos on radio and I don't like comic book stories spread across more issues than is really necessary. I also don't like the designated hitter, people who treat animals like fashion accessories or reality TV shows about trophy wives.

brayzie

I find that hard to believe considering that Green Lantern and Batman are still continuing the stories from RIP and Blackest Night with their #1 issues.

Not to mention oversaturating the market with 5 different Batman titles.

Supposedly, killing off the Flash 6 issues into his relaunch was all part of the plan according to Didio.

JMS revamping Wonder Woman only to have her revamped/relaunched/rebooted again for the new #1's was all part of the plan.

Travis McClain

I don't claim to know the ins and outs of DC operations or anything, but it's my perception that DiDio is in over his head there. It strikes me that he's one of the industry guys who has operated in isolation so long he's forgotten how to reach outside the direct market to engage anyone, and doesn't realize how important it is to do that. Maybe I'm wrong, but every time I hear him talk in a DCU animated feature interview I just wonder if he has any concept how he sounds to someone who doesn't have a pull list.

PhantomStranger

Sadly, I agree. I do not believe comic books as we know them will survive the transition to the digital world. It is not a coincidence that the last generation of readers that still supports comics currently came of age before the Internet became widespread. Basically the industry is still mining the few people left over from the boom years of the early 90s, which is shrinking in population every year.

Superheroes will survive, but mainly as storytelling vehicles for television and movies.

kgrogers1979

Five more titles announced.

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/06...on-of-justice/

Oh my god. The Teen Titans redesigns are just embarrassingly idiotic. Conner has never had a great outfit, but this is by FAR his worst. At least Tim is still Red Robin, but the new outfit is incredibly stupid.

madcougar

Static Shock AND Rob Liefeld!? Hells ya! Make mine DC relaunch!

kgrogers1979

I didn't even notice Liefeld's name until you mentioned it. So both he and Jim Lee are in on this reboot. This whole thing is becoming more and more like DC's version of Marvel in the 90s.

I also paid closer attention to the Teen Titans description.

Tim Drake is forced to step out from behind his keyboard when an international organization seeks to capture or kill super-powered teenagers. As Red Robin, he must team up with the mysterious and belligerent powerhouse thief known as Wonder Girl and a hyperactive speedster calling himself Kid Flash in TEEN TITANS #1, by Scott Lobdell and artists Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund.

The bolded parts worry me. It sounds like Tim may be retconned to never having been Robin, because it sounds like this may be his first actual superhero adventure. Considering there wasn't a single mention yesterday of Tim when all the Bat-books were announced, it very well may be that Tim is no longer associated with Batman. There is a new Nightwing book, but apparently not a new Robin/Red Robin book... If this is true, and they are drastically changing Tim this much, then this pisses me off even more than Barbara coming back as Batgirl.

Also Cassie as a thief? WTF

stingermck

Ok, todays batch is terrible. Unfortunate for Teen Titans, which recently got back on track.

Heh. Liefeld. Well at least he got his start on Hawk & Dove.

madcougar

My first thought when I read this was is this Wonder Girl Stephanie Brown and not Cassie Sandmark? Stephanie Brown has a strong history with Tim Drake and honestly, I can't tell who this is supposed to be as they are both blonds.

Timber

Looks like Brett Booth doing his best Jim Lee impression. Still though I am a Brett Booth fan so I might have to pick this up along with whatever Lee is drawing. Where is Scott Clark? Seems they're getting the old Wildstorm crew back together.

And these designs look straight out of early 90's X-Men with the only thing missing is a character with a gun.

Navinabob

So... Supes will run around and fight with that super-kick-me paper stuck on his back? Really? Or maybe Kid-Flash just keeps slapping on a new one every few minutes.

ReallyReallyLame.

brayzie

Wow. I thought that everything Batman related would stay intact. Looks like Tim Drake was never part of Batman And Robin.

Was Wonder Girl's lasso always red or is that to coincide with the Geoff John's color emotion spectrum? If Kid Flash and Robin are starting with brand new histories, how are they going to explain Superboy since he was a product of the Death of Superman?

fujishig

Okay, with that Teen Titans reveal, I'm changing my stance, I really really hope now that this is an AoA style temporary reboot or that they're just trolling us with fake reveals. Is that Witchblade or Cybernary on the team? That's Wondergirl? That's Superboy? I predict this title reveal is going to cause the most backlash.

four of those five title reveals include some of my favorite characters in all of comics (the Legion, Teen Titans, and Hawk and Dove) and of all of those, I'm just cautiously optimistic about the Legion titles and depressed about the rest. At least they didn't seem to reboot the Legion yet again, after all that hoopla to bring it back.

Is that a trio of incredibly small bumble bees, or is that some weird perspective, or is that an action sequence where one character is growing or something with two after-images?

edited to add: I finally went through the rest of the new title announcements. Voodoo from WildC.A.T.S. is one of the 52 series? Batwing? Winnick writing multiple titles? And a lot of what seems to me to be artists becoming first-time writers on books. A lot of these series seem to be premises that would have gotten canceled within 6 months if launched before, lets see if this line-wide thing helps them. And I'll admit, I'm intrigued by Simone still writing Babs.

Also, I guess those are after-image effects of Kid Flash (though it's weird that there are none next to him since he's running around Conner) and that most think that the little Superman paper pasted on Superboy's back is from Kid Flash. I don't get that at all from the art, but it does make that a little less dumb of a costume design.

kgrogers1979

That was dashed to pieces the minute they announced Babs returning as Batgirl.

Stephanie's stint as Batgirl was only slightly longer than her stint as Robin. Now with Tim apparently no longer in the Batverse, I wonder if Stephanie will just disappear into oblivion.

madcougar

Ok, I get that Tim Drake is not in an official Batman title in the relaunch. I'm not understanding how everyone seems to KNOW that he is no longer part of the Batman mythos? People seem to be reading A LOT into that description of the new title. The guy is dressed like a ROBIN for goodness sake! With wings to boot!

I'll reserve judgement on what is staying and what is going until I get confirmation.

Travis McClain

(sigh) You know, just because you can doesn't mean you should, DC...

Patman

I'm just going to focus in on creative teams on this new revamp of DCNu. If it sounding sort of interesting, I'll give it a shot, but I suspect my weekly comic title purchases will be dwindling as well. I am only following the main Flashpoint mini-series, and am not picking up the buttloads of Flashpoint tie-in mini's, so thanks to DC, my comic buying is on the down trend. I don't buy any Marvel title that's $3.99, so I'm pretty much done with Marvel, unless I buy them in the dollar bins later on. Might be doing the same with these new DC titles come next winter/spring.

fujishig

So they got Liefeld back on Hawk and Dove because that's where he got his start (or blew up). A reminder of how awesome he was during the mini-series:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources...s-revealed-36/

JasonF

That's more of a reminder of how awesome Karl Kesel's inks are -- all reports are that he took an extremely heavy hand to Liefeld's pencils.

Super X

Thankfully, for as bad as Teen Titans and Hawk and Dove sound, at least it looks like the Legion is escaping the relaunch relatively unscathed, though I'm wary of the Legion Lost spin-off being written by Fabien Nicieza.

Josh-da-man

So twenty-first century DC Comics is going to look like 1993 Image? Take away the Superman logo and it looks like a generic Homage Studio title.

Travis McClain

Brilliant! Appeal to my generation of reader's nostalgia for the very stupidity that made us lose our interest in the medium! I only hope these 52 #1s each have 52 variant covers.

Timber

I also find it hilarious that they're basing a good portion of this relaunch on artists who are known not to be able to make deadlines. Fill in artists by issue 4 and a completely new artist by issue 9 is my guess.