Layoffs at DC?

[CellarDweller]

I'm hoping we hear something about this at Fandome, but I'm not holding my breath. Still, while Naomi might disappear and be forgotten in the wake of all these changes, it could just as easily still happen. I wouldn't start worrying about Naomi's future until we know more about what's going down at DC and what happens with Bendis.

I'm not too concerned about Impulse, Wonder Girl, Superboy or even Drake. I'm sure they'll show up somewhere.

The Wonder Twins have been appearing sporadically in Superman and Action, so there seems to be an effort to have them involved somewhat in DCU.

I wonder more about Teen Lantern, Naomi, and Jinny Hex. I thought all three of those characters had great potential, and I was hoping to see more of them.

[Artemisfanboy]

Some interesting ideas in that jim lee interview. A few things stood out

1. Books for 12 to 45 year olds. Currently the books are 13+. Does going to 12 affect the content? Ie the legal guidelines for what they can do in the books. (Personally i think all of dcs books are entirely suitable for 11+ or even below but thats another topic)

2. Regional content produced in that region. Ok thats interesting but
A. I can guarantee any regional content produced in UK will totally take the piss. Britain has zero history of superheroes beyond creating obnoxious dicks like zenith, paradax etc. 2000ad recently had a story where superheroes were disembowelled so if they are thinking they are going to green lantern in a bowler hat drinking tea
.. then no... no you wont.

B. What do you do in say yr Eire office when someone writes about IRA creating an uberman to attack uk (or vice versa ) or in korea if someone creates a japanese war crimes hunter or in nigeria someone takes a sideswipe at sharia... etc etc. This seems a potentially very inflammatory idea no matter how laudable it also seems.

C. International = digital seems to be the message there. With dcs temporary international distro deal with diamond running out in December (i think?) And i cant see how its economically viable for anyone else to do it then are we seeing the end of monthly physical books outside the usa?

I believe 13+ is when you can put in bloody violence and sexy times like partial nudity and making out.

for kids you can put cartoon violence but no blood and no swears

1. "12-45" is rough age category they're aiming for. Just like PG-13 means "parental guidance for those under thirteen" it's safe to assume there are preteens whose parents are going to be ok with them reading something rated teen.

2. Ratings systems in the USA are private systems, not government ran unlike oh say the UK or Australia. The MPAA is not a government ran bureau to rate movies, but set up by the american motion picture industry itself. The same with the old Comics Code Authority. Both DC and Marvel when they broke with the CCA established their own personal rating systems(which I'm doubting people pay attention to). Because they're privately ran, they get to set their own standards for what they feel is appropriate for each rating more or less, with the main mitigating factor being what society in general thinks.

3.DC's current rating system is
https://www.dccomics.com/ratings

E - EVERYONE
Appropriate for readers of all ages. May contain cartoon violence and/or some comic mischief.

T - TEEN
Appropriate for readers age 12 and older. May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes.

T+ - TEEN PLUS
Appropriate for readers age 15 and older. May contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes.

M - MATURE
Appropriate for readers age 17 and older. May contain intense violence, extensive profanity, nudity, sexual themes and other content suitable only for older readers.

So as we can see "12-45" is equivalent to their existing "Teen" rating. So at worst we might be losing the "Teen+" (15 and up) and "Mature" rated stuff.

[Myskin]

Thats what one regional trend looks like. Its not very compatible with todays DC. Ok so just create ones that are compatible? Then they are no longer regional characters tho - just reskins of american ones.

Well... That's not entirely true. I mean, it depends on what they are going to do and how much freedom the "regional" creators will have. Creatively speaking and if we want to be optimistic, it could be the best move DC has ever done in decades.
I can't find the source in which this "production of regional material" is mentioned, so I have no idea of what the plans are or what they are going to do; and yes, in general superheroes are a strictly American genre. However, it's not that regional material based on American properties necessarily becomes TOO regional and barely understandable to American readers, or even not compatible with today's DC. Let's forget trite (and vaguely offensive) stereotypes like "Captain Spaghetti" and let's see what has happened in reality. In Italy, Disney has been producing regional material based on its characters since the 1950s, and it is still insanely popular. There are like, I don't know, 5 or 6 different Mickey or Donald series? In 50+ years hundreds of characters have been created by Italian writers and artists - I've read somewhere that today Italy produces 75% of ALL the Disney comic book material in the world. Even if from time to time there are references to Italian celebrities, 90% of such material is perfectly understandable to an American audience. Most of the Disney stories which are currently printed in the US are - in fact - translated Italian stories.
Something similar (not on the same scale though) has happened in Brazil. And let's not forget that Don Rosa created the definitive Uncle Scrooge story for a Danish publisher. Without Egmont, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck would have never seen the light.

Disney is not the only example. There are also stories which belong to strictly American genres which are entirely created by non-American creators. I mean, French Valérian and Laureline is pure space opera. Tex, published uninterruptedly by Sergio Bonelli Editore since 1964, is basically the definitive Western comic book and still sells a lot (200'000 monthly copies in Italy). There have been special issues drawn by people like Joe Kubert or Enrique Breccia. Nothing about its content is "regional" - it's basically John Ford Western, even if the directions are unusual from time to time. By the way, Sergio Bonelli Editore is about to publish some crossover books in which DC superheroes meet characters created by Italian writers (https://shop.sergiobonelli.it/dylan-...atman-1007464/ ), so I guess that something is already happening behind the scenes.

Between the two extremes "just reskins of American characters" and "too regional to be compatible with DC" there are a LOT of different possibilities. The best comparison which comes to my mind is Spaghetti western. I am oversimplifying here, but after John Ford and the "mythical" atmosphere of his Western movies we had Sergio Leone; in his Dollars Trilogy he created an approach to Western which nobody had never seen before, but has become hugely popular ever since (think of Read Dead Redemption 2).
And - just to be clear - without the British Invasion of the 1980s, very few DC things released in the latest decades would be worth reading.

It's not impossible to imagine Franco-Belgian comics focused on sci-fi characters like Superman. Heck, I would be more interested in a Humanoids-style Superman series than everything produced by US DC in 30+ years. Or even a Superman story by Yukito Kishiro, even if I can't think of one single reason for manga creators to be interested in US superhero comic books.

[Zaresh]

Well... That's not entirely true. I mean, it depends on what they are going to do and how much freedom the "regional" creators will have. Creatively speaking and if we want to be optimistic, it could be the best move DC has ever done in decades.
I can't find the source in which this "production of regional material" is mentioned, so I have no idea of what the plans are or what they are going to do; and yes, in general superheroes are a strictly American genre. However, it's not that regional material based on American properties necessarily becomes TOO regional and barely understandable to American readers, or even not compatible with today's DC. Let's forget trite (and vaguely offensive) stereotypes like "Captain Spaghetti" and let's see what has happened in reality. In Italy, Disney has been producing regional material based on its characters since the 1950s, and it is still insanely popular. There are like, I don't know, 5 or 6 different Mickey or Donald series? In 50+ years hundreds of characters have been created by Italian writers and artists - I've read somewhere that today Italy produces 75% of ALL the Disney comic book material in the world. Even if from time to time there are references to Italian celebrities, 90% of such material is perfectly understandable to an American audience. Most of the Disney stories which are currently printed in the US are - in fact - translated Italian stories.
Something similar (not on the same scale though) has happened in Brazil. And let's not forget that Don Rosa created the definitive Uncle Scrooge story for a Danish publisher. Without Egmont, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck would have never seen the light.

Disney is not the only example. There are also stories which belong to strictly American genres which are entirely created by non-American creators. I mean, French Valérian and Laureline is pure space opera. Tex, published uninterruptedly by Sergio Bonelli Editore since 1964, is basically the definitive Western comic book and still sells a lot (200'000 monthly copies in Italy). There have been special issues drawn by people like Joe Kubert or Enrique Breccia. Nothing about its content is "regional" - it's basically John Ford Western, even if the directions are unusual from time to time. By the way, Sergio Bonelli Editore is about to publish some crossover books in which DC superheroes meet characters created by Italian writers (https://shop.sergiobonelli.it/dylan-...atman-1007464/ ), so I guess that something is already happening behind the scenes.

Between the two extremes "just reskins of American characters" and "too regional to be compatible with DC" there are a LOT of different possibilities. The best comparison which comes to my mind is Spaghetti western. I am oversimplifying here, but after John Ford and the "mythical" atmosphere of his Western movies we had Sergio Leone; in his Dollars Trilogy he created an approach to Western which nobody had never seen before, but has become hugely popular ever since (think of Read Dead Redemption 2).
And - just to be clear - without the British Invasion of the 1980s, very few DC things released in the latest decades would be worth reading.

It's not impossible to imagine Franco-Belgian comics focused on sci-fi characters like Superman. Heck, I would be more interested in a Humanoids-style Superman series than everything produced by US DC in 30+ years. Or even a Superman story by Yukito Kishiro, even if I can't think of one single reason for manga creators to be interested in US superhero comic books.

The mangaka for one-Punch Man, the guy who redraws the webcomic, Yusuke Murata, is a well known american superhero comic fan. There're a few others besides him.

Also, I've heard a few Spanish authors worked as writers for american comics back in the day. Spanish as in from Spain, Europe, but also american Spanish. They don't do it much anymore, I guess because they need a cowriter or some editor work for the English to sound fine and natural, but I bet some would love to write for them even these days.

So DC is now approaching the market like Netflix does, eh? Interesting.

[kjn]

I cut your post down just to save space, but yeah I agree with your assessment. Lee didn't talk much about trades here, and those initial reports didn't talk about them a ton either, but both mention digital several times. So looks like a main focus on digital, the direct market gets cut back (Lee said what, 20-25%?) and instead of every comic getting a trade run for every six issues, they'll cut that back to more important story lines and digital books that perform well will be adapted into print. So far I feel like you and I are doing pretty well at guessing the strategy. >bro fist!<

I think we might need to differ between the "trades omnibuses" and the "trade OGNs" when looking at DC's output. The trade omnibuses are rather cheap to make, especially if they cut down on the amount of bonus materials in them (which I think they will do, given that there won't be a specific department within DC that will be responsible for them anymore).

But I think no-one really has figured out digital comics yet, while the trade OGNs are pretty much a solved problem marketing-wise. That's why they talk a lot more about digital.

Disney and AT&T will lobby to extend the law, just like they have several times before. Every time Mickey Mouse and Superman are approaching the public domain deadline, the companies bribe congress into changing the law so it doesn't happen. They are not going to let those IP's hit public domain.

I'm not sure it will happen. The first extension to 70 years was spearheaded by Germany due to some obscure reading of the copyright of Mein Kampf, but it received a lot of pushback after the fact, and those alliances for copyright reforms and limitations have only gotten stronger.

And what if the earliest Mickey Mouse stories become public domain? It only matters to those particular stories. The rest of the—more modern and valuable—stories will still be copyrighted, and Mickey Mouse will still be trademarked out the wazoo.

Disney is not the only example. There are also stories which belong to strictly American genres which are entirely created by non-American creators. I mean, French Valérian and Laureline is pure space opera.

While Valérian and Laureline are space opera, space opera and science fiction aren't strictly American genres. A lot of the early development of the genre happened in Europe, with authors like HG Well, Jules Verne, J.-H. Rosny aîné, or Olaf Stapledon. Or TV series like the German "Raumpatrouille".

[Myskin]

While Valérian and Laureline are space opera, space opera and science fiction aren't strictly American genres. A lot of the early development of the genre happened in Europe, with authors like HG Well, Jules Verne, J.-H. Rosny aîné, or Olaf Stapledon. Or TV series like the German "Raumpatrouille".

Of course.
The wider a genre is, the easier it is to find a "regional" version of it. And all of the versions are not mutually exclusive. If anything, influences from other countries are what enriches the genre, not what weakens it. Would the visuals of Blade Runner exist without Métal Hurlant?

[iron chimp]

1. "12-45" is rough age category they're aiming for. Just like PG-13 means "parental guidance for those under thirteen" it's safe to assume there are preteens whose parents are going to be ok with them reading something rated teen.

2. Ratings systems in the USA are private systems, not government ran unlike oh say the UK or Australia. The MPAA is not a government ran bureau to rate movies, but set up by the american motion picture industry itself. The same with the old Comics Code Authority. Both DC and Marvel when they broke with the CCA established their own personal rating systems(which I'm doubting people pay attention to). Because they're privately ran, they get to set their own standards for what they feel is appropriate for each rating more or less, with the main mitigating factor being what society in general thinks.

3.DC's current rating system is
https://www.dccomics.com/ratings



So as we can see "12-45" is equivalent to their existing "Teen" rating. So at worst we might be losing the "Teen+" (15 and up) and "Mature" rated stuff.

Well rating system in usa is just government by proxy; government told comics, music, computer games, and film to get their house in order or else....

Well yes thats my point; the books are moving from teen+ to teen. I didnt realise teen+ was 15+, I thought it was 13+

So thats a definite change - main universe books tone and content will be changed and the rating changed.

What on earth there is in DC comics now that a 10 year old cant read i have no idea but...

[ohfellow]

.

3.DC's current rating system is
https://www.dccomics.com/ratings

So as we can see "12-45" is equivalent to their existing "Teen" rating. So at worst we might be losing the "Teen+" (15 and up) and "Mature" rated stuff.

That page is kind of obsolete. I think Jim Lee was speaking in general, not literal, terms.

In the old DC ratings,

Teen meant 12+
Teen Plus meant 15+

And DC covers all used to be marked Teen or Teen Plus.

They announced a change maybe 1.5 years ago, but it took time to filter down to things like comic covers. The covers were still saying Teen and Teen Plus even a few months ago, but not anymore.

The current system has been described on the first page of DC Previews (now called DC Connect) for a long time. That system is:

DC Graphic Novels for Kids - Intended for readers ages 8-12
DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults - Intended for Readers ages 13+
DC - Intended for readers ages 13+
Black Label - Intended for readers ages 17+

("DC" refers to the monthly printed comics.)

And finally, DC comics do now all say 13+ on the covers.

You can see the ratings in the current DC Connect #3 located at:

https://www.dccomics.com/sites/defau...Oct_comics.pdf

By the way, before the line renames, DC Zoom was rated 8-12, while DC Ink was rated 13-18. So the only change is the Young Adults are now rated 13+.

I never noticed whether individual comic issues were labelled Teen vs. Teen Plus, or if it was just applied as a blanket to a particular title. Presumably writers were given guidelines of some kind, or the books were rated afterwards by the editors or other in-house experts.

So in theory by setting all comics at 13+, the formerly Teen (12+) comics are more mature, while the formerly Teen Plus comics (15+) have been made less mature? I haven't actually noticed any change.

The justification for the change in definitions was to align their age ratings with the MPAA ratings system.

In practice there probably isn't a real change. Unless they do very non-obvious things like apply some different limits to the number of panels with blood or other kinds of violence, and have altered the allowed counts slightly. (That's the sort of thing the MPAA does, though I think the exact criteria they use remains a secret.)

It is interesting that DC and DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults have the same 13+ rating. The YA books actually often deal with more mature, or at least more charged, themes, applicable to young adults. And many of them have explicit language that you will never see in a "DC" labelled comic (where such words are replaced with the usual $%^&$# kind of stuff).

Some books still don't quite fit, like Superman Smashes the Klan, which originally appeared in 3 little books rather than one YA book, rated E for Everyone. DC still does put out some E books from time to time. So, while they definitely DO have this current system, there are still exceptions - which I'd guess are mostly books written before this system was established. I think their intention was to eventually transition everything to this rating scheme.

But now, who knows. DC barely gets one set of standards in place before it is already switching to another.

BTW if you've ever wondered if it was your imagination that at least some Marvel was written for a younger audience, consider that their T rating means:

T – Appropriate for most readers, but parents are advised that they might want to read before or with younger children.

Spider-Gwen / Ghost-Spider is rated T, so if you ever read that title and wondered why it seemed kind of .... young, now you know why!

[Digifiend]

What were the sales of these axed books?

Fused	Unit	Dollar	Comic-book Title	Issue	Price	On sale	Publisher	Est. units
85	86	87	Suicide Squad	4	$3.99	03/25/20	DC	20,454
86	87	91	Young Justice	14	$3.99	03/11/20	DC	19,833
104	105	108	Teen Titans	40	$3.99	03/18/20	DC	16,622
107	108	110	John Constantine Hellblazer	5	$3.99	03/25/20	DC	16,419

https://comichron.com/monthlycomicss...0/2020-03.html

2. Regional content produced in that region. Ok thats interesting but
A. I can guarantee any regional content produced in UK will totally take the piss. Britain has zero history of superheroes beyond creating obnoxious dicks like zenith, paradax etc. 2000ad recently had a story where superheroes were disembowelled so if they are thinking they are going to green lantern in a bowler hat drinking tea
.. then no... no you wont.

Zero history? WRONG! Do any of these names mean anything to you? Bananaman, The Amazing Mr X, Billy the Cat, the Leopard from Lime Street, Captain Britain.

Bananaman is an affectionate parody of Superman, Batman and Shazam, who had a TV show in the 80s and has appeared in the Nutty, Dandy and Beano comics. The Amazing Mr X was a 1940s Superman type (leaps tall buildings in a single bound, has super strength), also from The Dandy. Billy the Cat and the Leopard were two cat themed teenage superheroes inspired by Spider-Man. They appeared in The Beano and Buster respectively in the 1970s (Billy started in the late 60s). Captain Britain, of course, is a Marvel UK character. British superheroes are more than just 2000AD.

In fact, Marvelman is British as well - he was originally created to replace the Captain Marvel (Shazam) reprints in the 1950s when they ran out.

Well that depends on where you live.

Look up the original versions of Sailor Moon, Voltron, Robotech, Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets, Power Rangers, Star Blazers and even Pokemon.

Sailor Mar's grandfather had to be toned down for the US.
Gatchaman was ULTRA violent and you saw folks get killed and Keyop swore like a Sailor.

Sailor Moon - two of the later additions were lesbians. Censored as cousins.

Pokemon - a season 1 episode set in the Safari Zone got banned for showing real guns, meaning English-language viewers missed Ash catching his 30 Tauros. Early episodes starring Jinx were banned because she looks like she's in blackface (they recoloured Jinx to be purple instead of black later on). Porygon is banned because it's debut episode caused epileptic fits - never mind that it was actually Pikachu's fault. That episode is banned too.

Power Rangers/Super Sentai - this one's more of a cultural dissonance thing. Some stuff gets cut just because it wouldn't make sense in America. The main villain of Samurai regularly drank medicine, to cure migraines. A reference to Rita Repulsa always complaining of a headache in Mighty Morphin? Maybe. But the real reason was to censor that he was drinking alcohol, specifically sake. The blue ranger in the same season was an Olympic swimmer. In Shinkenger which it was based on, he was a kabuki theater actor - the other rangers had the same backstories as their Japanese counterparts. They also edited out the stagehands who raised the banner behind the rangers during roll calls, as that's also kabuki related.

Using britain as an example
James bond - blunt instrument of British establishment
Judge dredd - blunt instrument of a police state
Rogue Trooper - who ever knew if he was fighting on side of good or not ? or even if there was a side
Strontium dog - mutants, not xmen supermodel mutants, but genuine mangled freaks.

Three of those are from the same source - 2000AD.

[ohfellow]

I didnt realise teen+ was 15+, I thought it was 13+

It was indeed 15+ but is an obsolete term, so your present understanding that DC is 13+ turns out to be right.

And I really think Jim meant 13+, not literally 12-45. After all the work DC put into changing the ratings to match MPAA, it seems unlikely they are going to go back to age 12.

(Though frankly, I think they could slap a rating of All Ages on most of the daily Digital Firsts. Not the DCeased, Injustice or Harley Black + White titles, but the daily Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash etc. You know, the repurposed Walmart stuff that is still being produced as if for that market. I think most 8 year olds would be just fine reading them. But Comixology seems to be putting 12+ on virtually all DC books - the regular titles, and the digital firsts. Since in print the same stories are rated 13+ - clearly there is less to this than meets the eye.)

[iron chimp]

Well... That's not entirely true. I mean, it depends on what they are going to do and how much freedom the "regional" creators will have. Creatively speaking and if we want to be optimistic, it could be the best move DC has ever done in decades.
I can't find the source in which this "production of regional material" is mentioned, so I have no idea of what the plans are or what they are going to do; and yes, in general superheroes are a strictly American genre. However, it's not that regional material based on American properties necessarily becomes TOO regional and barely understandable to American readers, or even not compatible with today's DC. Let's forget trite (and vaguely offensive) stereotypes like "Captain Spaghetti" and let's see what has happened in reality. In Italy, Disney has been producing regional material based on its characters since the 1950s, and it is still insanely popular. There are like, I don't know, 5 or 6 different Mickey or Donald series? In 50+ years hundreds of characters have been created by Italian writers and artists - I've read somewhere that today Italy produces 75% of ALL the Disney comic book material in the world. Even if from time to time there are references to Italian celebrities, 90% of such material is perfectly understandable to an American audience. Most of the Disney stories which are currently printed in the US are - in fact - translated Italian stories.
Something similar (not on the same scale though) has happened in Brazil. And let's not forget that Don Rosa created the definitive Uncle Scrooge story for a Danish publisher. Without Egmont, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck would have never seen the light.

Disney is not the only example. There are also stories which belong to strictly American genres which are entirely created by non-American creators. I mean, French Valérian and Laureline is pure space opera. Tex, published uninterruptedly by Sergio Bonelli Editore since 1964, is basically the definitive Western comic book and still sells a lot (200'000 monthly copies in Italy). There have been special issues drawn by people like Joe Kubert or Enrique Breccia. Nothing about its content is "regional" - it's basically John Ford Western, even if the directions are unusual from time to time. By the way, Sergio Bonelli Editore is about to publish some crossover books in which DC superheroes meet characters created by Italian writers (https://shop.sergiobonelli.it/dylan-...atman-1007464/ ), so I guess that something is already happening behind the scenes.

Between the two extremes "just reskins of American characters" and "too regional to be compatible with DC" there are a LOT of different possibilities. The best comparison which comes to my mind is Spaghetti western. I am oversimplifying here, but after John Ford and the "mythical" atmosphere of his Western movies we had Sergio Leone; in his Dollars Trilogy he created an approach to Western which nobody had never seen before, but has become hugely popular ever since (think of Read Dead Redemption 2).
And - just to be clear - without the British Invasion of the 1980s, very few DC things released in the latest decades would be worth reading.

It's not impossible to imagine Franco-Belgian comics focused on sci-fi characters like Superman. Heck, I would be more interested in a Humanoids-style Superman series than everything produced by US DC in 30+ years. Or even a Superman story by Yukito Kishiro, even if I can't think of one single reason for manga creators to be interested in US superhero comic books.

No question usa comics have had a massive influence in europe but not superheroes; flash gordon, westerns, war comics, robert crumb and 'comix' etc are far more influential in euro land than say kirby and lee. Obviously people have massive respect for kirby but those are 'american comics'

In the UK we have no vigilantes or costumes or powers. Usa's biggest character today is batman, UKs biggest selling regional comic is a man who carries his gonads around in a wheelbarrow....

We dont have vigilantes in uk. Our characters are anti hero tools of the state (bond, dredd) or pawns / victims of the state (rogue trooper, strontium dog).

I dont mean the content would be incomprehensible - Americans already showed they could take on the most obscure random regional crap the UK could throw at them and enjoy decoding it and having a laugh with it.

I mean at an ideological level in todays corporate comics. If you look at superheroes created in uk outside of usa funding they all very few and far between and universally awful people - paradax, zenith, the patriot (? I think that was one).

Go to.uk for regional heroes and this is what you will get back. Who remembers Marvel UKs characters? No one. They ran a very tight ship in uk compared to DC and got nothing really memorable back apart from alan moores captain britain - which surprise surprise was far closer to DC UK - druggy, surreal, with a lead character permanently bemused about all the nonsense going on around him.

Id very surprised if top boys in france are going to be any different in attitude. 'Heroes' as a concept means nothing here

[iron chimp]

It was indeed 15+ but is an obsolete term, so your present understanding that DC is 13+ turns out to be right.

And I really think Jim meant 13+, not literally 12-45. After all the work DC put into changing the ratings to match MPAA, it seems unlikely they are going to go back to age 12.

(Though frankly, I think they could slap a rating of All Ages on most of the daily Digital Firsts. Not the DCeased, Injustice or Harley Black + White titles, but the daily Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash etc. You know, the repurposed Walmart stuff that is still being produced as if for that market. I think most 8 year olds would be just fine reading them. But Comixology seems to be putting 12+ on virtually all DC books - the regular titles, and the digital firsts. Since in print the same stories are rated 13+ - clearly there is less to this than meets the eye.)

Thats interesting.

Just looking at comixologys ratings their 12+ is very similar to DCs 15+ (teen plus) and comixologys 15+ is DCs mature.

So more likely is DCs own rating system on its website is out of date and the age ranges jim lee is using are comixologys more 'liberal' ratings.

So actually a good thing.

[iron chimp]

Fused	Unit	Dollar	Comic-book Title	Issue	Price	On sale	Publisher	Est. units
85	86	87	Suicide Squad	4	$3.99	03/25/20	DC	20,454
86	87	91	Young Justice	14	$3.99	03/11/20	DC	19,833
104	105	108	Teen Titans	40	$3.99	03/18/20	DC	16,622
107	108	110	John Constantine Hellblazer	5	$3.99	03/25/20	DC	16,419

https://comichron.com/monthlycomicss...0/2020-03.html
Zero history? WRONG! Do any of these names mean anything to you? Bananaman, The Amazing Mr X, Billy the Cat, the Leopard from Lime Street, Captain Britain.

Bananaman is an affectionate parody of Superman, Batman and Shazam, who had a TV show in the 80s and has appeared in the Nutty, Dandy and Beano comics. The Amazing Mr X was a 1940s Superman type (leaps tall buildings in a single bound, has super strength), also from The Dandy. Billy the Cat and the Leopard were two cat themed teenage superheroes inspired by Spider-Man. They appeared in The Beano and Buster respectively in the 1970s (Billy started in the late 60s). Captain Britain, of course, is a Marvel UK character. British superheroes are more than just 2000AD.

In fact, Marvelman is British as well - he was originally created to replace the Captain Marvel (Shazam) reprints in the 1950s when they ran out.

Sailor Moon - two of the later additions were lesbians. Censored as cousins.

Pokemon - a season 1 episode set in the Safari Zone got banned for showing real guns, meaning English-language viewers missed Ash catching his 30 Tauros. Early episodes starring Jinx were banned because she looks like she's in blackface (they recoloured Jinx to be purple instead of black later on). Porygon is banned because it's debut episode caused epileptic fits - never mind that it was actually Pikachu's fault. That episode is banned too.

Power Rangers/Super Sentai - this one's more of a cultural dissonance thing. Some stuff gets cut just because it wouldn't make sense in America. The main villain of Samurai regularly drank medicine, to cure migraines. A reference to Rita Repulsa always complaining of a headache in Mighty Morphin? Maybe. But the real reason was to censor that he was drinking alcohol, specifically sake. The blue ranger in the same season was an Olympic swimmer. In Shinkenger which it was based on, he was a kabuki theater actor - the other rangers had the same backstories as their Japanese counterparts. They also edited out the stagehands who raised the banner behind the rangers during roll calls, as that's also kabuki related.

Three of those are from the same source - 2000AD.

Captain britain was created by marvel usa for the uk market. He was not a uk character.

Leopard of lime street hasnt been published for 40 years.

Bananaman is kid friendly parody of the genre like zenith and paradax.

Marvelman ran out in early 60s before alans brutal deconstruction and was just a continuation of the popular american book. Again not a uk creation.

Yes they are from the same source as they are uks biggest comic book action / adventure ongoings of the last 40 years. Could probably throw tank girl in there too.

[Korath]

I took it to mean that they were basically just going to be "Batman the Manga" again, honestly. Nothing more well thought out or designed than that. Take Bruce Wayne, add in whatever troupes are common in manga, stir until blended.

I'd be hard pressed to see how it'd work in practice with Franco-Belgian B.D really.

But if they do create "Europeans" Comics, i just hope that they'll avoid the pitfalls of : guns everywhere, U.S. vision of vigilantism and all-Europe teams for the sake of teams. We are a very divided continent and in recent years the EU did next to nothing to mend those divisions (I'd say it has exacerbated them even). It needs to be reflected in the comics.

[Myskin]

I mean at an ideological level in todays corporate comics. If you look at superheroes created in uk outside of usa funding they all very few and far between and universally awful people - paradax, zenith, the patriot (? I think that was one).

Go to.uk for regional heroes and this is what you will get back. Who remembers Marvel UKs characters? No one. They ran a very tight ship in uk compared to DC and got nothing really memorable back apart from alan moores captain britain - which surprise surprise was far closer to DC UK - druggy, surreal, with a lead character permanently bemused about all the nonsense going on around him.

Id very surprised if top boys in france are going to be any different in attitude. 'Heroes' as a concept means nothing here

Personally speaking, I have zero problems with different approaches to the concept of hero or antihero. Even, or especially, when some of the most disturbing aspect of heroical personalities are shown. However, I don't think that we'll see new, original characters created by European creators interacting with classic DCU heroes, but rather original interpretations of classic characters. Like All-Star Superman or Black Orchid.