Well, here we are 2 weeks into the new year. Many of us feel the freshness of the new year as a time for making changes in our lives. When I look at the comic book industry I feel the same way about the new year as I felt about the old - apathetic.
I am mainly a DC fan. I have nothing against Marvel (Spider-Man & Daredevil are 2 of my Top 10 characters) but I've always had a greater affinity for DC. Maybe that's why my disappointment with them stings so badly. I am also a retailer so I see the sales of these books and get feedback from fans on a daily basis. Over the last few years I have watched DC squander opportunities, waste the talents of good creators, ineptly launch new titles and try their hardest to sabotage their good titles. Let's go 1 issue at a time:
1.) Squandered Opportunities - Remember 52? Final Crisis? These were "Events" that captured the attention of people who maybe wouldn't normally care about the characters involved. Now normally a company will take advantage of that attention to spin some of the characters off into their own books. DC's approach? Let's take 52 for example. They hit the mark by giving an ongoing series to Booster Gold, one of the series' biggest stars. What else? Infinity Inc. An ongoing series starring a secondary character from 52 and a bunch of background characters with a title from an old ongoing it has nothing to do with. Result? Cancelled after 12 issues. Meanwhile (almost as if they saw the errors of their ways) they launch a mini-series (Countdown To Adventure) starring Adam Strange, Animal Man & Starfire - three other stars of 52. The problem? It was 5 months after 52, and the series tied into Countdown, the next DC Weekly Event (don't even get me started on this one)!
Final Crisis on the other hand yielded us Aftermath: Run, Dance, Ink, & Escape. The problem here? They came out 6 months after Final Crisis wrapped up! Talk about striking while the iron is hot! The end result? These series sold poorly and have not yielded any interest in new characters for DC. And meanwhile sales on Booster Gold are sluggish.
2.) Wasted Creators - Remember the buzz when DC stole the Kubert Brothers away from Marvel? Now can you tell me their "legacy" at DC? I mean at Marvel Adam was well known for his lengthy runs on X-Men & Wolverine. Andy, his runs on Captain America, Thor & Ka-Zar to name a few. DC? Well Adam worked on Action Comics for a little.... But then Andy penciled Grant Morrison's first arc on Batman.....and 2 issues with Neil Gaiman....and a few covers........but he's working on Flashpoint which is starting.....eventually. Now I don't mean to pick on the Kuberts. From what I understand we haven't seen anything from Andy because he's been working on Flashpoint for a while. But theirs is the first case of DC having talented creators and not being able to turn that talent into sustained profit. These are 2 talented artists with a history of working on books for a long time and all DC is able to get out of them is equivalent to a few short arcs? Over the course of 2 - 3 years?
Next, lets take Dale Eaglesham. He rode a bullet to notoriety with his run on Geoff Johns' relaunch of Justice Society. What does he do to follow up? Signs exclusive with Marvel. DC doesn't take this fresh new talent that they developed over the course of a few years and put him on another book to increase sales. They let him get away.
How about Mark Bagley? An artist often overlooked in some Top 10 lists but a talented guy who can put a book out on time. Well he did Trinity, the third DC weekly event book in which he got to draw most of the DCU...but now probably doesn't count and is mostly forgotten. Ok, hey how about that great little run he had on Batman with Judd Winick. You know the one with the dangling plotline about Dick Grayson's parents...but since Winick got taken off the book it probably now doesn't count and is mostly forgotten. Yeah but then he got to work on the Justice League! Oh wait...it's not the real Justice League? Congorilla? Third string Starman? Really?!?! Can you blame the poor guy for hightailing it back to Marvel? To the EXACT SAME TITLE HE LEFT! (Ultimate Spider-Man for those of you who don't know) More on my problems with JLA in a future post....
Now I know artists can be a dime a dozen. I've seen the droves of aspiring comic artists at conventions waiting to be discovered. So there's no shortage of people who can draw these books. But my frustration lies with DC willing to settle for that when they let talented artists who can increase sales on books just get away.
3.) Ineptly Launched New Titles (& Revamped Characters) - Most companies go through periods of launching scores of new titles in a short time. Some stick around, others not so much. But DC was able to launch several new titles for major characters & fail at all of them! They replaced Wally West with Bart Allen as the Flash. Result - Cancelled after 12 issues ending with the Death of Bart Allen & the return of Wally West. Shazam? Oh he was replaced by Captain Marvel Jr. in a 12 issue maxi-series that changed artists part of the way through and was late. Result - we've seen the "new" Shazam in very limited appearances over the last 3 - 4 years culminating in his embarrassing inclusion in the JLA: Cry For Justice mini (oh wait that was supposed to be a 2nd ongoing JLA book. So this launch failed before it even left the runway). Speaking of the JLA, remember all the excitement surrounding Brad Metzler's launch of the new book? The speculation over which Titan would graduate? Well that became DC's schizophrenic spotlight on inconsistency. From changing membership to different creators to DC using it as a vehicle to draw your attention to other events (Salvation Run, Tangent, Milestone; hmmm more failed launches - see a trend?) Result - more on my problems with JLA in a future installment. By the way, how did the whole graduation work out for that mystery Titan? Then there's Wonder Woman. Launched with Allen Heinberg & Terry Dodson. It faced long delays in its first few issues. To the point where DC had to finish the opening arc in an annual! Result - Dodson left for Marvel shortly after and Wonder Woman has seen sales pretty similar to what she was selling before the relaunch.
Remember what we got coming out of Infinite Crisis? 1 Year Later. A clean slate so to speak. Some titles picking up a year after we'd last read them with some interesting questions about what happened in the lost year. We also got treated to DC's formula in an effort to create interest. It's called "Let’s Take a Character Name, Give It To Somebody New, Not Really Change Much Else & See What Happens." Examples?
Atom - Collage professor Ray Palmer lives in Ivy Town, teaches at Ivy University & fights crime as the size changing Atom.
Atom - Collage professor Ryan Choi lives in Ivy Town, teaches at Ivy University & fights crime as the size changing Atom.
Aquaman - Arthur Curry can swim indefinitely underwater, can communicate with sea life, has superstrength & defends the citizens of Atlantis.
Aquaman - Arthur Joseph Curry can swim indefinitely underwater, can communicate with sea life, has superstrength & defends the citizens of Atlantis.
Firestorm - College student Ronnie Raymond merges with Professor Martin Stein to form Firestorm a duel personality superhero with matter altering abilities.
Firestorm - College student Jason Rusch merges with (insert who you think might stick this month) to form Firestorm a duel personality superhero with matter altering abilities.
The result? Cancelled books.
And so on...The Question doesn't sell any more now that they replaced Vic Sage with Renee Montoya. If Ted Kord could have unlocked the secrets of the scarab would he be faring the same as Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle? It takes more than just putting someone new in the spandex to increase sales & interest on a book! If you stay true to the format that made the character popular you'll be fine. Just tell good stories! Look at the success of Hal Jordan returning as Green Lantern. Other than the increase of 2 Lanterns per space sector and the ability to overcome the ring's yellow impurity Geoff Johns did not change Green Lantern. He just tells good stories month in and month out. And look at how DC has benefitted: a new franchise spawning 3 ongoing series and 1 huge crossover event! Gee now that wasn't so hard
4.) Trying To Sabotage Good Titles - Now I'm not saying DC is actually trying to make some of their titles fail. But it sure seems like it with some of the decisions they make! Take the JSA. Geoff Johns has said an achievement in his career he is proud of is the fact that the JSA will never go away again. But damn if DC won't try to prove him wrong! I spoke to Peter Tomasi at the Baltimore Comic Con in 2009. He spoke of the challenge of following Geoff Johns on a title. I understand his point with trying to follow someone on a title that they left their stamp on. But that doesn't mean it can't be done! Like my point in the previous paragraph - stay true to the book and just tell good stories! I gave Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges an arc on JSA - it was horrible! The book had an entirely different feel to it. It was as if they had never read it before! Now I don't know if this comes from the creators or DC editorial but there is almost the sentiment that "I can never be as good as Geoff Johns so I have to do something COMPLETELY different with this book!" NO! Tell the best stories you can but follow the formula that made the book great to begin with! The best example of this - Daredevil. Matt Murdock is a lawyer by day, swashbuckling crime fighter by night. Courtroom lawyer drama with martial arts action. Think Law & Order with spandex! Every time Marvel deviates from that formula Daredevil is terrible and I stop buying it. And DC makes the same mistake time & time again. The Wally West Flash series was cancelled twice after Johns departure! DC must shoulder the blame because ultimately they choose the creators to take over these books. Why choose Willingham & Sturges when you had Kurt Busiek? Have you read his run on Avengers? It was awesome! Imagine his insight on a team with a longer history than the Avengers! And at the same time Johns was leaving this book, Dale Eaglesham (as previously mentioned) was departing for Marvel. And instead of replacing him with an established, popular artist they went with someone unfamiliar. I am not commenting on Jesus Merino's skills as an artist. But an artist with more recognition could use their notoriety to bring fans to the book to keep its momentum going. DC couldn't do that. The result? Sales dropping on JSA, a former Top 10 book.
And that's just one example! I would give more but I fear my hold on your attention waning. My point in all this is my apathy comes from DC's track record. They've failed to hold my attention and excite me - and that's their job! How am I supposed to sell their books when I can't get excited about them myself? And there is nothing to indicate they have any intention of changing how they operate!
In closing let me thank you for your time reading just one person's opinion. I hope you will have as much fun reading these blogs as I do writing them. And if ever you find yourself in Whitehall, Pennsylvania come look us up at Comic Masters in the Whitehall Mall.
I'll be the beautiful man behind the counter...
No comments:
Post a Comment