Is Anyone Just Not Interested in New Comics?

[Mike]

When the monthys don't seem attractive there's always the back catalog they keep releasing as TPB and HCs and back issues in comic shops.

This is where I am putting my money these days. Filling in the gaps for what I missed in the 70's, 80's and 90's.
I am now working on the 70's Flash, that I missed the first time around.
A more enjoyable read and less money. Sometimes.

[Waterfall]

I'm not interested in the current phase but I'm definitely looking forward to where the industry is heading. Ripping off the band-aid and destroying continuity/mandated shared universe will free the creativity of comics. Rather than monthlies, having OGNs will help me save time and money for the long run. Otherwise we've reached the limit of what "the classic" floppies can do at this point, I'm afraid.

[FFJamie94]

The key is to forget about continuity. Do you think stories like Dark Nights Metal and Death Metal, JLNo Justice, Drowned Earrh are canon? Of course not, they feel like videogames and it's great the authors have that kind of freedom to explore and create something different, eventually something good can come out of it. (The stories mentioned above are not my cup of tea but even so i reconized the importance of having that kind of creativity freedom)

More up to my alley now there's the Black Label releases for those who like more serious, dark stuff. And i was excited about those facsimile reprints but it seems their release have slowed down a bit, 1 or 2 a month would be ok for me and for normies i think, they don't need to coincide with movie releases and stuff.

When the monthys don't seem attractive there's always the back catalog they keep releasing as TPB and HCs and back issues in comic shops.

I've always liked comics for their continuity, like if I started reading comics today, there's a history of 60 years worth of backstory building up to that moment.

At the same time, I can understand how hostile that is for new readers. The problem to me isn't that continuity is an issue, it's that new readers don't know where to start.

I always say pick a character and start with a run, so Batman would be Snyder, it's 51 issues and tells you everything you need to know about the character.
I keep seeing People say that comics are dying, first, I don't believe that, the sales figures are not entirely awful. But also both Marvel and DC need to do more to promote their comics. Before Covid hit, when everyone would watch the latest Avengers in Cinemas, couldn't Disney work out a deal to open up a stall in those Cinemas to sell a handful of comics. Maybe if someone came out the film and saw an Avengers comic, they might pick it up.

Was there any reason they couldn't sell Infinity Gauntlet when Infinity War was in Cinema?
What if we got Aqua Man's origin when we went to see that film?

[Lee Stone]

Not really.

A lot of what we’ve had since 2011 has felt like ‘second-hand’ or ‘imitation’ versions of the DC characters I liked.

Combine that with the reality that older comics are cheaper (and I may already have many of them) and new comics have to really be good to get me to check them out.

[Timothy Hunter]

I'm not interested in the current phase but I'm definitely looking forward to where the industry is heading. Ripping off the band-aid and destroying continuity/mandated shared universe will free the creativity of comics. Rather than monthlies, having OGNs will help me save time and money for the long run. Otherwise we've reached the limit of what "the classic" floppies can do at this point, I'm afraid.

I agree with this sentiment. I've sobered to the notion that the pre-Flashpoint continuity won't be restored. I think the best course of action would be more of a focus on stand-alone stories such as White Knight.

[Lightning Rider]

Barely. I wasn't a fan of the New 52 project, though there were some obviously great runs in there I later read. I started reading a lot of Rebirth titles, then narrowed down. Titans, Mr. Miracle, Aquaman, Deathstroke, Hawkman, Flash. Once I realized that the promise of Rebirth (specifically Wally returning as a prominent figure) was largely hollow, I started losing interest in the broader universe. Doomsday Clock was an interesting story but led to nothing.

I wasn't naive enough to think we were going to just erase everything since 2011 and go back to pre-Flashpoint continuity, but I was hoping for a best of both worlds in which key relationships and events were reestablished while recent events were still valid. But it's been too long, and now I'm just waiting things out while catching up on selective runs and reading old classic trades. They haven't been able to sort it out, and I'm confused as to why they keep trying to fix it with convoluted in-story crisis plots (though there doesn't have to be a complex answer beyond profits).

[Buried Alien]

My policy remains the same as it was when I was a five-year-old child picking up a comic book for the first time in 1977: issue-by-issue basis depending on whether I like what I see.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[docmidnite]

I actually am interested in new comics. It's old comics I'm not interested in.

Sure, right now everything is up in the air and continuity is more of a clusterfuck than it ever was, and these things need to be fixed, but there's a sort of energy in the air that tells me that DC is about to try things that are actually new. Don't get me wrong, I have preferences as much as anyone. But as long as DC is moving forward and trying new things, I'll give it a shot.

It's way better than someone 20 years older than I trying to recreate their childhood.

DC ISN'T doing anything "new" though. They're using 80 year old concepts and old ideas that were created for other older versions of the character.


Superman is still some white male from another planet with a wide variety of super attributes.

Batman is some white dude dressed up like a bat who fights crime with an assortment of gadgets.

The Flash is still some white guy dressed in red & yellow who runs really fast.

Green Lantern is still some dude who uses their willpower to manipulate the energy of a power ring.

If they REALLY were doing something new Superman would be a Minority character from somewhere on Earth with some superhuman abilities but with no weird alien powers like flight or heat vision, Batman would be a person who can't control becoming a Bat-like creature after having a curse placed on them, The Flash would be someone who could "flash" from point to point with a simple thought and maybe also have the ability to "flash bomb" people in order to momentarily blind people for a couple of minutes, Green Lantern would actually use the powers of a magic green lantern instead of a power ring, etc.

DC & Marvel never actually do anything "new". They just do the same stuff they've always done wrapped up in a different package/character. So this whole thing is a pass for me as it really isn't anything really new like the Tangent versions were.

[Sacred Knight]

The closest example I can think of something like this being done was when they revamped the Flash and GL mythoi in the the fabled birth of the Silver Age, though even then I'm not sure if even those changes were as extreme as posited above. But it bears mentioning that almost everything else remained familiar. Doing something genuinely new, on a wholesale level, has a ton of risks in its own right.

[Tzigone]

If they REALLY were doing something new Superman would be a Minority character from somewhere on Earth with some superhuman abilities but weird alien powers like flight or heat vision, Batman would be a person who can't control becoming a Bat-like creature after having a curse placed on them, The Flash would be someone who could "flash" from point to point with a simple thought and maybe also have the ability to "flash bomb" people in order to momentarily blind people for a couple of minutes, Green Lantern would actually use the powers of a magic green lantern instead of a power ring, etc.

No, if they REALLY wanted to something new, they would be using entirely new mantles and characters. Which I'm not opposed to, I just want the old ones, too. But using new characters riding on the coattails of older characters' fame is a shortcut to avoid having to build up new characters/names, it feels like cheating, and yes like stealing from the original characters to prop up new ones. Which will, understandably, alienate many of their fans. Now, I'm sure DC would be fine with this, if they could get more new fans to compensate for the loss - that's good business. But they haven't manged it.

[docmidnite]

No, if they REALLY wanted to something new, they would be using entirely new mantles and characters. Which I'm not opposed to, I just want the old ones, too. But using new characters riding on the coattails of older characters' fame is a shortcut to avoid having to build up new characters/names, it feels like cheating, and yes like stealing from the original characters to prop up new ones. Which will, understandably, alienate many of their fans. Now, I'm sure DC would be fine with this, if they could get more new fans to compensate for the loss - that's good business. But they haven't manged it.

What I meant by "new" was DC & Marvel totally re-conceptualizing all of their IP's into something completely new both conceptually & character wise instead of new or different characters wrapped up in another character's hand me downs.

I'd rather have companies go big or go home instead of constantly trying have their cake and eat it too. With DC they've been doing that since CoIE and their continuity has been a mess ever since.

They kept picking at their continuity like a bad scab with things like Zero Hour, Kingdom Come/Hypertime, Birthright, Byrne & Claremont's Doom Patrol, IC, Final Crisis, etc. I just don't care anymore

[Crazy Diamond]

No, if they REALLY wanted to something new, they would be using entirely new mantles and characters. Which I'm not opposed to, I just want the old ones, too. But using new characters riding on the coattails of older characters' fame is a shortcut to avoid having to build up new characters/names, it feels like cheating, and yes like stealing from the original characters to prop up new ones. Which will, understandably, alienate many of their fans. Now, I'm sure DC would be fine with this, if they could get more new fans to compensate for the loss - that's good business. But they haven't manged it.

So what about the Silver Age characters?

Even Batman took cues from Zorro and The Shadow to the point that some of the panels in the early issues were traced from other comics.

[Crazy Diamond]

What I meant by "new" was DC & Marvel totally re-conceptualizing all of their IP's into something completely new both conceptually & character wise instead of new or different characters wrapped up in another character's hand me downs.

I'd rather have companies go big or go home instead of constantly trying have their cake and eat it too. With DC they've been doing that since CoIE and their continuity has been a mess ever since.

They kept picking at their continuity like a bad scab with things like Zero Hour, Kingdom Come/Hypertime, Birthright, Byrne & Claremont's Doom Patrol, IC, Final Crisis, etc. I just don't care anymore

I don't see that being possible so long as DC doesn't want to support original creator owned works anymore. That's why they shouldn't have let Vertigo fall apart.

It was cool when DC put out books like Major Bummer, Bloodhound, and Hitman but that pretty much died off by the mid 2000s and even back then most people either didn't know about them or didn't buy them.

As far as current DC goes I dunno. Might give GL another shot with the recent announcement and it looks like Future State may not be a crossover mess but other than stuff like Batman: White Knight what else is there?

[Customizer]

Month after month and virtually year after year i want to give the Big 2 money and every month i end up putting my money back into my wallet 99% of the time. So, no, i'm not interested in the vast majority of comics coming from the Big 2.

I *am* interested in what is being produced independently and showcased on kickstarter often.


As someone that is interested in the comics industry, creates product and checks the forums relatively often for updates i'm constantly let down. *Constantly*

Where are the mech centered comics? Sci fi military comics that *aren't* Star Wars related? Why haven't writing directions changed for characters steeped in potential but who are constantly shafted in the comics medium (I'm looking at you Cyborg)? Where are the expanded universe pockets of creativity that aren't held down by editors with outdated perspectives?

Every . Single. Month. I want to give DC or Marvel money and virtually EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH. that money is spent on other products because they can't seem to do the obvious.

When it comes to the superhero / capes genre give the people what they want and stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Great art. Engaging story telling. Robots. Good guys punching bad guys. Make every hero character shine because every character is some fans favorite. FFS it's not difficult.

I really enjoyed "DMZ" , "The Black Monday Murders" , "Northlanders" , "Scalped" and countless other non cape titles. I don't want those types of comics mixed in with my "power fantasy super hero comics". Make every hero shine and stop force feeding fans selected heroes who are placed on a pedestal.

I'm thankful for independent creators. I'd have near zero interest in comics if not for them.

[skyvolt2000]

I don't see that being possible so long as DC doesn't want to support original creator owned works anymore. That's why they shouldn't have let Vertigo fall apart.

It was cool when DC put out books like Major Bummer, Bloodhound, and Hitman but that pretty much died off by the mid 2000s and even back then most people either didn't know about them or didn't buy them.

As far as current DC goes I dunno. Might give GL another shot with the recent announcement and it looks like Future State may not be a crossover mess but other than stuff like Batman: White Knight what else is there?

Hitman ended on its own.

Bloodhound now belongs to his creator and not DC.

The problem to me isn't that continuity is an issue, it's that new readers don't know where to start.

That is an excuse. Many of the 80s-90 fans did not have the first issue of Spider-Man and others to read.

My first Fantastic Four issue was 286.

No, if they REALLY wanted to something new, they would be using entirely new mantles and characters. Which I'm not opposed to, I just want the old ones, too. But using new characters riding on the coattails of older characters' fame is a shortcut to avoid having to build up new characters/names, it feels like cheating, and yes like stealing from the original characters to prop up new ones. Which will, understandably, alienate many of their fans. Now, I'm sure DC would be fine with this, if they could get more new fans to compensate for the loss - that's good business. But they haven't manged it.

Because they find a way to screw it up-see Green Lantern. See Firestorm or the Robins.

They rather have fans wars as seen the last 24 hours with Green Lantern. That did NOT start with Redjack but a newly hired DC employee hashtagging John Stewart.

The folks who have gotten everything are throwing fits at the ones who don't. Batman has over 1000 issues-a black Batman is not going to have me panicking.

Miles Morales has held ONE book-he has taken anything away from Peter.