October 2019 sales

[Godlike13]

I think 5G is just a buffer for another soft reboot. Like DC You was to Rebirth.

[shadow6743]

I agree I don't think 5G is something that is going to make or break the DC Comics in the early 2020s but its sales could decide if Dan Dido says in charge. 5G is not something that I think is a bad idea but, I don't understand why they are choosing certain characters in this lineup. Like Luke Fox is not a bad character but when is the last time he appeared in a Batman comic or a comic in general? Jon Kent is still a new character that still has loads of story potential not only in the main Superman title but with other titles like Super Sons. Not to mention this makes other characters like Conner redundant. What is the point of bringing back Conner Kent if you are going to age Superman's 10-year-old son to a teenager for no reason? There are decisions involved with that confuse me not only from a storytelling point of view but also marketing Conner just came back in the comics in Young Justice and is the Superboy on Titans live-action show and in the Young Justice animated show.

I would focus on making sure that fans of that character know he is back in a big way by putting him as Superman in 5G. A lot of decisions involved in this are just strange to me and I think if anything will be a consequence of 5G is a change in leadership at the top of DC Comics. It is about time this happened.

[9th.]

DC is in serious trouble. If G5 bombs I can see them (comic book division) shuttering.

I think they'll be ok, they'll just double down on the safe if it does bomb.

[Frontier]

5G is the next major DC initiative, and it seems like it might even be the most radical one yet.

With that in mind, the marketing is going to need to be very strong and things very locked in to get people to buy into it past the fresh, new, #1's in my opinion.

[PennyDreadful]

The last thing DC needs is new characters. Nobody was interested in New Age of Heroes because fan favorite characters ain't showing up or getting any good treatment. If they dont show up fans ain't buying anything. Comic fans are picky as hell and honestly I dont blame them.

The X-Men back on top is something though.

DC has been awful with new characters for the most part. Does Starling ring a bell? Bunker?

Where is Simon Baz these days?

If it ain't Bat-related, DC ain't interested. That is what hobbles the company. They put their eggs in one Bat-basket.

[Celgress]

I think they'll be ok, they'll just double down on the safe if it does bomb.

I'm not so sure as their sales have slipped a great deal over the past couple of years. We'll see, one way or the other.

[PennyDreadful]

For a new Flash, Owen Mercer is rumored as a replacement. Why not Avery Ho? Or Meena?

[lucius121]

Not sure why the discussion turned into the issues with 5G, if anything these sales show the reason why 5G is necessary, clearly Clark, Bruce, Diana etc aren’t attracting new readers and existing readers are turning away. Going back to basics isn’t really a fix. Creating new heroes isn’t a fix so what is?

Do you really think if the classic heroes we’re selling at an acceptable rate DC would even be considering 5G?

[Vordan]

Great point. It seems to me that DC does not know how to capitalize on their roster. DeConnick and Fraction need to write A list books.

You’re misunderstanding the relationship between those two and DC. They’re at DC because Bendis convinced them to join, and got them books that they wanted to be on. If you take Jimmy Olsen away from Fraction and try to force him on GL or whoever, and he doesn’t want that book? He’ll just leave, he and KSD have Hollywood jobs that can support their indie work, they don’t NEED the Big 2 anymore.

[Vordan]

Not sure why the discussion turned into the issues with 5G, if anything these sales show the reason why 5G is necessary, clearly Clark, Bruce, Diana etc aren’t attracting new readers and existing readers are turning away. Going back to basics isn’t really a fix. Creating new heroes isn’t a fix so what is?

Do you really think if the classic heroes we’re selling at an acceptable rate DC would even be considering 5G?

One could make the argument that the quality of the stories DC is putting out have more to do with why they’re doing so bad, not the characters. This Ric nonsense is terrible but it doesn’t mean readers don’t care about Dick Grayson. King’s Batman has been very controversial but trying to say people don’t care about Bruce Wayne doesn’t seem true to me at all.

These sales to me say that the people at the top don’t have a good handle on their market. Bendis should probably not be writing a 1/3 of their line including BOTH YJ and LOSH. I say that as someone who enjoys Bendis Superman. DC needs new blood creatively more than it needs new characters imo.

[PennyDreadful]

Not sure why the discussion turned into the issues with 5G, if anything these sales show the reason why 5G is necessary, clearly Clark, Bruce, Diana etc aren’t attracting new readers and existing readers are turning away. Going back to basics isn’t really a fix. Creating new heroes isn’t a fix so what is?

Do you really think if the classic heroes we’re selling at an acceptable rate DC would even be considering 5G?

Outside of Batman, DC does very little to capitalize on movies/TV shows in their comic division. Wonder Woman should have gotten a huge push after the movie was a hit. Green Arrow and Flash should have gotten pushes with the Arrowverse success. Ditto Batwoman and Black Lightning. It's as if the comics division cares only about the Bat-characters: specifically, Joker, Harley, and Batsy himself. The limited publishing program is the problem.

[PennyDreadful]

One could make the argument that the quality of the stories DC is putting out have more to do with why they’re doing so bad, not the characters. This Ric nonsense is terrible but it doesn’t mean readers don’t care about Dick Grayson. King’s Batman has been very controversial but trying to say people don’t care about Bruce Wayne doesn’t seem true to me at all.

These sales to me say that the people at the top don’t have a good handle on their market. Bendis should probably not be writing a 1/3 of their line including BOTH YJ and LOSH. I say that as someone who enjoys Bendis Superman. DC needs new blood creatively more than it needs new characters imo.

IIRC, Didio admitted at SDCC, "I'm not sure what this business is about anymore." He more recently admitted that when they did the new 52, "we didn't know which stories still mattered." It's been obvious for years that they don't run a tight ship over there.

[LP22]

I think 5G is just a buffer for another soft reboot. Like DC You was to Rebirth.

Thing is Rbirth was a last ditch effort to make DC comics sell since DCYou was a huge failure and I still can't understand why they ended the rebirth direction and went with the same heroes can't be happy phase like superman has his kid age up and sent away while he lives separately from his wife,Batman's wedding not happening,ric grayson,couples being separated like Barry and iris,Arthur and mera,diana and Steve and the biggest insult of all the heroes in crisis cluster you know what and what happened to Wally west,DC feels really depressing the complete opposite of what rebirth represented which was hope.

[Vordan]

Say what you will of Identity Crisis: It was a critical and commercial success. Heroes in Crisis was not and it really broke the DCU momentum. Now obviously the heroes can’t just live perfect happy lives forever, there was always going to changes creatively in the direction of the line, and that’s fine. But HiC was just so stupid and edgy and it sold poorly for an event that it’s pretty much picture proof DC needs shake ups at the top. Someone should’ve either vetoed the event or ordered story changes because it’s mindbogging to me that they thought it was a good idea to print.

Didio keeps trying the same tricks over and over at this point and they’ve clearly stopped working. For the good of the line he needs to be replaced. Marvel has gone through 3 EiC in the last 17 years while Didio, Lee, and Harras have pretty much held onto their spots no matter what. That’s bad. It’s indicative of the good ol’ boys club/nepotism running DC where people who have presided over some very tumultuous eras of DC get to keep their jobs no matter how well they perform.

[Tzigone]

Thing is Rbirth was a last ditch effort to make DC comics sell since DCYou was a huge failure and I still can't understand why they ended the rebirth direction and went with the same heroes can't be happy phase like superman has his kid age up and sent away while he lives separately from his wife,Batman's wedding not happening,ric grayson,couples being separated like Barry and iris,Arthur and mera,diana and Steve and the biggest insult of all the heroes in crisis cluster you know what and what happened to Wally west,DC feels really depressing the complete opposite of what rebirth represented which was hope.

Sounds like you'd have liked comics in a similar direction to me. Less misery would be fantastic. Of course characters have to have difficulties and sad times occasionally, but somewhere along the line it seems like someone decided that "depressing = good" and "dark = good" and that nothing upbeat or optimistic can be truly of good quality. It's not just publishers, though, it's fans too. Happy things just don't evoke the same response for some reason I just don't get - how many stories that are called "great" now are untainted victories or lack significant deaths or end with happy heroes? Those are the stories I like, but they are, it seems, not generally well-received. It seems like it's misery at least half the time for the characters now. I think that'd be more alienating for children (less likely to want to be the hero when the hero is always miserable), but might play well with the teen and 20s set. Maybe less with the 30s and 40s? The older I get, the less patience I have with continuing angst and something horrible happening in their personal lives every other storyline.

I do think this ties in to more events - those have to have either important characters die or mass destruction has to occur or heroes have to behave unheroically for the "shock factor". And I would like fewer events, particularly if they derail stories being told in regular titles. But it's definitely not just events where the heavy-on-angst storylines happen. And I do acknowledge that events seem to sell, so there's a business reason for so many of them, even if I find it tiring (and really, this goes back to the 80s, at least).