DC Comics: Rebirth

[Kai "the spy"]

Well, "Batman & the Outsiders", "Batgirl", and "Justice League Odyssey" are ending in October, and the new November solicits sees the end of "Hawkman", "John Constantine: Hellblazer", "Suicide Squad", "Teen Titans" and "Young Justice". Those last three are actually shocking. "Suicide Squad" ends with issue #11, meaning they don't even get to finish a year, and that on a high profile book like that. Well, I guess we'll see another book for them once the James Gunn movie gets close to release. But both "Teen Titans" and "Young Justice"?! I was kinda expecting "Teen Titans", since they got the competition in the teenage legacy heroes department with YJ and the characters are kinda drifting apart, anyway, but I thought YJ as a Bendis book was safe. Well, I guess not.

In any event, that's seven books ending in two months (not counting mini-series ending on schedule). Some of them high profile, too. Yeah, there are new books launching, but those are Black Label books, and only one with ties to the DC Universe.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Hawkman is always on borrowed time, so that's not surprising (though I LOVE what Vendetti has been doing, even when forced into the crappy Batman Who Laughs garbage, he spun gold).

YJ means Bendis no longer has the power he once had, which makes me sad for any continuation of Naomi in another volume.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

DC has new Editors-in-Chief in Marie Javins and Michele Wells. Also, Jim Lee will remain both Publisher and Chief Creative Officer for the time being. The article has some quotes from Lee with a lot of PR speak like "they (big heads at Warner Media) have some very ambitious goals for DC", but also confirmed there would be a new position of "General Manager" at DC.

He also suggested that the publishing numbers may be cut by 20-25 percent, specifically the "bottom 20 percent, 25 percent of the line that wasn't breaking even or was losing money".

 

[JD]

Their plans can't be to ambitious since they're cutting down on the number of staff members and books they publish.

 

[Relayer1]

I hope not - I've only just used Convergence as a jumping on point for DC (Superman titles mainly) and thought I was reboot proof for a while...

Bah, failed. I've run out of steam and can't get going on the Bendis run.

Tried to get into a few other titles, but truth be told ? I'm heading back to the competition.

 

[kirk55555]

It sucks that Hawkman was cancelled, but I figured it would be one of the first to go. Its basically the only book whose quality survived being "Infected" by Snyder's shitty Justice League event from several months ago. So, once its gone, I'll be down to just three monthly DC comics: Flash, Shazam and Metal Men (and Metal Men was planned from the beginning as a 12 issue "maxi" series, and only has a few issues left).

Bah, failed. I've run out of steam and can't get going on the Bendis run.

I was enjoying Superman post Convergence a lot (outside of one horrible story with a psycho killer version of Mr. Mxyzptlk), but the second Bendis took over he just ruined it by basically throwing everything out and doing a mini-reboot (aging Jon up for no reason, bringing back Jor-El, etc).

 

[Kai "the spy"]

It sucks that Hawkman was cancelled, but I figured it would be one of the first to go. Its basically the only book whose quality survived being "Infected" by Snyder's shitty Justice League event from several months ago. So, once its gone, I'll be down to just three monthly DC comics: Flash, Shazam and Metal Men (and Metal Men was planned from the beginning as a 12 issue "maxi" series, and only has a few issues left).

SHAZAM! ends with #15 on September 22. You're down to just Flash.

 

[kirk55555]

SHAZAM! ends with #15 on September 22. You're down to just Flash.

Oh, I hadn't noticed that, although I'm not surprised. Luckily I have a backlog of various older DC stuff (for example, I just got the last TPB I needed of the original 52 weekly series, and have been meaning to do a reread) to get my DC Comics fix. Still, as someone who can't stand the work of DC's most "powerful/prolific" writers, aka Tom King and Scott Snyder, it feels like 90% of the DC catalog that isn't getting cancelled is just really bad.

Honestly, The Flash is mostly just ok at best, but I'm not going to go to zero new DC comics, so it looks like I'll be sticking with it for the foreseeable future, unless it also gets cancelled.

 

[theenglish]

The sad thing about sweeping cancellations like this is that it is often the really creative titles that get cut. That's just a general statement as I don't know much about the majority of these titles although I find it hard to believe that Suicide Squad was not popular. For me, I am reading JLO--but expected that to be cancelled as it has always been written as a limited story-- and Hawkman, which I'm sad to see cancelled because it has been exceptionally well done and finally does a satisfying job of placing both Carter Hall and Katar Hol in the DCU.

 

[JD]

Sadly, as a general rule when it comes to the big companies like Marvel or DC, it seems like the most unique stuff tends to be the least popular, so it's always the first to go in these situation.

 

[theenglish]

Sadly, as a general rule when it comes to the big companies like Marvel or DC, it seems like the most unique stuff tends to be the least popular, so it's always the first to go in these situation.

Yep--remember after Infinite Crisis when DC tried to implement its first version of "5G" and offer greater diversity among its heroes? We had new Blue Beetle, Atom, Batwoman and some others that slip my mind right now. None of those titles really lasted (maybe Batwoman?).

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

We had new Blue Beetle, Atom, Batwoman and some others that slip my mind right now. None of those titles really lasted (maybe Batwoman?).

AFAIK, Choi never got his own title at all, Batwoman got a one-shot and "borrowed" Detective Comics for while during that era, her first solo title wasn't until Nu52. The most successful of the three during the IC-FP era would be Blue Beetle with a 36 issue solo series, although Batwoman wins in the Nu52 and Rebirth eras with about five years worth of solos to BB's three between 2011 and 2018.

 

[Mike Farley]

Choi's Atom had his own book. The first few issues were drawn by John Byrne.

 

[The Realist]

collections of classic comics will be licenced out to other publishers.

This may not be altogether bad news. DC often did an inconsistent and/or incompetent job of this. (I'm still bitter about the Bronze Age "Supergirl" omnibus that was announced a few years ago, then canceled before publication, and that's just one example among many.) Boutique publishers tend to have more commitment and better quality control.

 

[kirk55555]

This may not be altogether bad news. DC often did an inconsistent and/or incompetent job of this. (I'm still bitter about the Bronze Age "Supergirl" omnibus that was announced a few years ago, then canceled before publication, and that's just one example among many.) Boutique publishers tend to have more commitment and better quality control.

When it comes to collected editions of comics, I still really miss DC's Showcase Presents line. A bunch of Silver to Bronze Age comics in huge phonebook sized collections, all for cheap because they were in Black & White and the paper quality wasn't fancy. DC used this format for a few years longer then Marvel, but they still stopped eventually, even though there was so much more they could have collected, especially stuff that probably wouldn't justify an expensive omnibus. Getting to read things like Len Wein's complete run on Blue Beetle or the awesome 70s Spectre comics for barely more then the price of some 5-6 issue TPBs of modern comics was amazing. Marvel also had a similar line (Marvel Essentials), and it was also great, for the same reasons.

 

[The Realist]

^ The B&W thing put me off on those. I don't have any problem when it's comics that were never intended to be in color -- I have the Superman daily newspaper strip collections, and I read manga for years -- but I feel like comics that were originally published in color should be read that way.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I actually have a thing for B&W comics. At last year's Comic-Con in Stuttgart, I found a couple of Titan Books B&W editions of Neal Adams' Batman comics, which were pretty cool. B&W shows off the art in a better way. I'm a bit pissed I didn't get the Marvel Essential Conan volume before it got to ridiculously high prices, because Barry Smith's Conan in B&W is awesome.

 

[JD]

^ The B&W thing put me off on those. I don't have any problem when it's comics that were never intended to be in color -- I have the Superman daily newspaper strip collections, and I read manga for years -- but I feel like comics that were originally published in color should be read that way.

Yeah, that would bug me. If possible I always try and experience something the way it was originally intended to be seen.

 

[kirk55555]

Personally, I like both B&W and color. For the Silver and Bronze age comics that were printed in the Showcase/Essential format, the art styles generally fit really well with B&W, since they're drawn a lot "cleaner" then a lot of modern stuff. The only time it was ever a problem for me is with the silver age Green Lantern Showcase, since sometimes the lack of color can be confusing, but it wasn't that big a deal. For me, while color is always nice, outside of that very specific example my enjoyment of the material was never hurt by the B&W. I don't really care what was "intended", I just like having a lot of comics without the price gouging of the various Omnibuses and stuff like Marvel's terrible Epic Collections, and the fact that the material, in my opinion, works well in B&W is a bonus.

One of the Marvel Essentials (Essential Tales of the Zombie) was actually reprinting comics that were originally B&W anyway, which was pretty cool.

 

[JD]

I have to admit, I sometimes have trouble reading translated stuff, because the translator often makes changes in the translation. I understand why they have to do it, but it just bugs knowing that it might not be exactly what the original writer wrote.