Bleeding Cool is reporting a rumor that DC Comics’ big September event will result in 16 titles being eliminated with four weekly titles which will feature the four main company “families.” Speculation is sure to run rampant in the upcoming months about which titles will get the axe, but this article is not meant to speculate. It is meant to poke DC Comics in the ribs a few times and maybe cause them to wake the [Censored] up and smell the [Censored] coffee.
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WTF is DC Comics Doing Now?
According to the rumors in the report, the sixteen titles will be replaced by four weekly titles with one each revolving around the families in the Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Justice League lines. The issues will have revolving creative casts. To make room, DC Comics will eliminate 16 titles, mostly from the bottom of the barrel and some (potentially) from the middle of the barrel.
Let’s Do Math
If DC Comics is going to eliminate 16 titles and replace them with four weekly titles, what the Hell are we gonna call it? The Newer 40? Note we are subtracting 16 from 52 to equal 36. When we add 4 more titles, we arrive at 40. Some company execs might be reading this and execs often prove they don’t know [Censored] about math.
Gravitational Pull
Does DC Comics honestly believe people are going to want to fill their pulls with weekly comics? The story style and artwork will be different with each issue, so there is little for fans to latch onto outside of the characters involved. Comic book readers gravitate towards comics which have creators they like and have become familiar with. This was proven years ago by such teams as Stan Lee and Jack [Censored] Kirby! One week, a strong team might be placed on the comic and a horrible one the next.
Market Stability
You cannot secure a place in the market if your purchase rate is going to go up and down week after week. Wake up! The market needs stability right now – not more ups and downs. DC Comics (Marvel you should listen up too), do you remember the up and down spikes in the 1990s? What happened to the [Censored] market when people got tired of the purchasing spikes? I kinda remember a market which got inundated with [Censored] and schlock which can’t even sell in $0.25 boxes today. Don’t do that to the market again.
What DC Needs to Do
Instead of simply axing sixteen comics, figure the[Censored] out why those comics are failing and breathe new life into them. National Allied Publications was founded in 1934 and was later rebranded as DC Comics. In almost 80 [Censored] years, the company has not learned how to resurrect a comic? Instead of shifting around the lines, DC should be focusing on getting readers involved again in their comics. I spent my entire life as a Marvelite, but the New 52 has won me over with most of my weekly pulls coming from DC instead of Marvel. Hey DC, if you can win me over, you can win over anyone if you just [Censored] try hard enough.
My Hope
I hope the elimination of titles and the introduction of weekly revolving comics is a rumor. Of course, nothing has come out from DC as contradicting it, so I am stuck being [Censored] [Censored] off about DC Comics going in the wrong direction. I just hope the rumors are wrong and DC Comics does not drop the [Censored] ball again.
