New 52 actually sold quite well and to this day has a lot of fans. I overall don't like that era (I left comics because of it and only returned when they announced Rebirth), but there's a lot of great runs that came from it. Despite my misgivings, it's disingenuous to say nobody liked the New 52. It was relatively successful by quite a few margins, just mismanaged. Severely mismanaged.
Severely mismanaged.
But everyone ignores the fact that this pulled the whole industry out of a years-long nose dive, outsold Marvel for at least six months, and featured not just the biggest names but tons of secondary characters in starring roles, many of whom were PoC, female, and/or sexual minorities.
It was horribly mismanaged. So mismanaged it might be the worst era ever for DC, from an administrative standpoint, and it was so heavily micro-managed it drove tons of quality talent away.
But pretending it was a failure is not just twisting facts, it's ignoring them. The New52 was a very mixed bag with tons of crap in it. But there was gold in there too.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
True. When I mean no one liked it. I mean certain backlashes. Like the sex pirates, changing the sexual orientation to then kill the partner. The race change This was slowly a downfall. I let my personal bias really affected me. I'm sorry. It's just the sex pirate thing really bothered me. I loved Hera and Diana.
Agreeing!
Eh, it's Bleeding Cool. Take what they say with a grain of salt. Sometimes they're right, and maybe this is one of those times. But they're not what I'd call a reliable source.
I mean, this is the kind of ass backwards thing I could see Didio trying to do so. But if the rumor is correct I'm not sure how DC expects it to actually be successful.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
I have seen more and more black labels. So maybe it's true.
I notice that in some Greek myths Athena does have a son in a sense. Could he ever be anything interesting in Wonder Woman?
>shrug< Maybe. Who knows what they're thinking?
Hell, here's a crazy conspiracy theory for you. I don't buy this but it's a funny thought in a paranoid kinda way. And I'm super tired so I might not explain this very well.
So, it's interesting that DC might be pushing unknown, unproven characters in the main publishing line, repeating failed gimmicks we've seen as recently as DCYOU (and arguably Marvel Now 2.0), while putting their tried and true, successful characters into the Black Label imprint. When that imprint is the only place to find Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne in their proper roles, what is that gonna do to the markets comics operate in?
Black Label is usually higher quality, higher production value, and has more creative freedom and a more forgiving production schedule than floppies, yeah? You get a mini, and then a while later you get another mini. And I hear it does pretty well outside the hobby shops. Right?
Now, everyone says publishers need to get out of the diamond deal and direct market, and find new readers in other places than the LCS. But us fans refuse to leave. Digital does okay but has kinda plateaued, and trade sales continue to rise, but not well enough for DC to leave the direct market completely. The bulk of the readership are still Wednesday Warriors and stubbornly refuse to change our habits.
Let's say DC shifts their main line to 5G replacements like the rumors say, and the characters we actually want to read about are put in Black Label. A lot of fans aren't gonna follow the replacements stuff but will grab Black Label. So....if Black Label is a imprint that (I guess?) has legs (or at least potential) outside the direct market and has a more "tv season" or "trade wait" style production schedule, and DC is putting the characters we want to read about in Black Label......is this DC trying to ween us off monthly floppies, nudging us towards those other distributions? If DC can't find an audience in digital or trade to replace us, are they trying to slowly drag us there with them? Might we see Black Label mini's become OGN's, and get us off the monthly format?
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
Dc no longer knows what they want. So far the other classical stuff have been selling more. So that’s something they have to think about. I honestly think this is a gimmick
As much as I like the Perez run, the Amazons destroying their weapons after forgiving Heracles was a dumb move.
I kind of think the only involvement Wonder Woman should have directly in Clark's personal life is training The Metropolis Kid.
I think I'd rather she train Kara and not Kon.
I actually like the idea that she taught Clark a little, though, in the early days. He had all that strength and power, but no particular fighting prowess because he never needed to learn to fight. But I'm also totally okay with the idea he learned on his own, just through experience. They could spar together, though.
I'm okay with Diana being personal friends with Clark - no romance. Similarly Clark and Bruce can be friends. But I'm not okay with Bruce and Diana being friends without her being friends with Clark. I think Clark should be the personal link between the three, if there is one.
Yeah, I view at least the early stages of Bruce and Diana's friendship being similar to George and Elaine in early Seinfeld, where they didn't really know how to hang out with each other without Clark/Jerry around. He was the common link. I think Diana and Bruce should get much closer later on, to the point they have a closeness of their own, but definitely no romance.
Jimmy is obviously Kramer in this scenario.
Why can't we have nice stuff? Almost every time a creator comes up with something new, creative or too fantastic there's a backlash and it's erased. I'm speaking specifically of the floating Themyscira and the Wonder Dome but it's happened in other instances too, like with Rucka's version of the gods and Chiang's re-imagining of their designs. We don't give things a chance to catch on and we're often wrong. The first time the Golden Eagle Armor appeared in Wonder Woman's actual book it was dubbed "The Screaming Chicken Armor" in an attempt to discredit and make fun of it, yet years later it's become a celebrated part of Wonder Woman 1984 that most people like. The floating Themyscira was beautiful but labeled too fairy tale like and unrealistic so Rucka had Hera kick it into the sea. Can you imagine how it would appear in live action?
PARADISE.jpg
Meanwhile Superman gets to usurp the Bermuda Triangle once home of Paradise Island for something like this...
Fortress-of-Solitude.jpg