DC Comics March 2021 Titles

[Goldrake]

I thought we already knew that Bendis was returning to Legion. Maybe I imagined it. As for JSA and Aquaman, there are more titles coming as mentioned in various articles, in coming months or late this year or next, so who knows.

Bleeding cool confirmed that DC for Aquaman has no plans for it for the immediate future.

[Sodam Yat]

Guess it’s official, DC no longer gives a damn about Jaime Reyes. He’s absent in everything now and Ted has been popping up more than him in recent comics too. He’s not even mentioned in Titans academy, instead we get even more lame new additions that’ll fade in obscurity after the run.

What sucks even more is that Jessica and Kyle look to be in limbo too, so DC doesn’t have a single Latino character present anywhere. No Jaime, Jessica or Kyle

I understand your frustration, but let's not lose all hope, because I think Williamson said there's more titles that are unannounced. I'm pretty surprised that Ted is popping up more than Jaime Reyes. Throughout the years, DC has been pushing for the character during the New 52 era and when his early appearance began in Infinite Crisis. Despite his series being cancelled, they still gave him more changes, which is good. I don't think DC should give up on the character. And I don't think they will.

I'm more than sure know Jessica is going to appear somewhere given the many pushes they gave her for both media and comic adaptions. And seeing how she's making an appearance in Future State, I think DC has more plans for her afterwards.

I think DC doesn't know what to do with Kyle, to be honest. As I said in the Kyle Rayner thread, the more Green Lanterns DC creates, the more consequences fans have to deal with.

[Sodam Yat]

I think you mean the New 52 Huntress costume .

Seems like every human GL is getting benched for John until we see more of what entails Geoffrey Thorne's Green Lantern or if they end up in other books.

Guy, Jess, and Hal are appearing in Future State, though. I don't think DC would do that if they don't have plans for those characters.

[Claude]

Guess it’s official, DC no longer gives a damn about Jaime Reyes. He’s absent in everything now and Ted has been popping up more than him in recent comics too. He’s not even mentioned in Titans academy, instead we get even more lame new additions that’ll fade in obscurity after the run.

What sucks even more is that Jessica and Kyle look to be in limbo too, so DC doesn’t have a single Latino character present anywhere. No Jaime, Jessica or Kyle

Love Jaime Reyes, that Giffen/Rogers run is one of my favourite in comics.... but I can't find it in my heart to really blame DC here. They tried, and he never really broke through.

I think the best that can be hoped for is for a Jaime back-up strip in a Ted/Booster series if they do one.

[Frontier]

Does anyone have any idea who the new Swamp Thing is? I'm not sure I know who it's supposed to be.

Guy, Jess, and Hal are appearing in Future State, though. I don't think DC would do that if they don't have plans for those characters.

Fair point. Maybe they'll get backups in Thorne's GL book.

[vasir12]

Just noticing that the diversity in DC took a hit here. I think the only POC with a solo is John and that's in April. The amount of female solos are only a little better.

[Badou]

Guess it’s official, DC no longer gives a damn about Jaime Reyes. He’s absent in everything now and Ted has been popping up more than him in recent comics too. He’s not even mentioned in Titans academy, instead we get even more lame new additions that’ll fade in obscurity after the run.

What sucks even more is that Jessica and Kyle look to be in limbo too, so DC doesn’t have a single Latino character present anywhere. No Jaime, Jessica or Kyle

I'm no fan of the Titans Academy pitch, but it really doesn't make a lot of sense to not use more characters like Jaime Reyes in a book like that. It should be used to build up these younger characters that have some wider awareness in the general public over throwing in a bunch of new original characters that will fall into limbo once this run is over like always. I get why writers always want to create new characters and use them, since they then can make money off them if they get used in other media adaptations, but it rarely ever happens and franchises are left with a bloat of unusable characters after years and years.

[Robanker]

I really hate the "argument of extremes" that people use with this topic. Yes, the industry is dying, but the "sky is falling!" comments really skew and distort the situation. In my semi-educated opinion, anyway.

Sales are, overall, falling and have been for decades. We get bumps here and there, maybe a couple years of growth, but the direct market is in the decline stage of the product/industry life cycle. That cycle can take years and years to complete, which is the case here, and we're past the point where sustained growth is realistically possible. We're likely among the last of the Wednesday Warriors, and eventually shall pass into myth.

But your LCS isn't going to be driven out of business next week. DC is not going to shut its doors next summer. Floppy comics are *dying* but they're not *dead* and there's probably many years left before the decline reaches the point where we'll *really* be able to notice it in our own towns and LCS. The market is doomed unless something drastic and/or miraculous happens, but it's not mere moments from expiring.

It's likely best for DC and other publishers to start pushing into other markets now, and establish strong footholds there while the direct market is still healthy enough to support them during the transition. But we've got years of LCS-based floppy comics in front of us still.

It's no secret the industry is struggling, but dying? I've heard that over 30 years. I'm not going to say it can't die, either, but it's in a transition period that it had to embrace at some point no matter how successful. No entertainment industry from 30 years ago is the exact same. Even book stores have morphed into cafes where you can purchase books and other media (toys, movies, music, etc). Yet the comic industry has planted its feet and now is getting hit pretty hard with the "ADAPT TO THE TIMES" wall every industry MUST face.

There are other forms of entertainment that are just genuinely more accessible/affordable for parents to give their children now. There are tons of variables which make comics not the de facto children's entertainment that hooks them and makes lifetime readers. That won't change. It can get better than the present, absolutely, but these "the industry is dying" arguments remind mostly of the same gator losers who want to be able to pin it on the books not being exactly what they want to be reading.

I agree, the Wednesday Warriors will one day expire and we may be the last of them. I will die on this hill with many brothers and sisters, but at the end of the day the industry does need to move beyond us and our passion for the printed page because the current model is not particularly sustainable. Print may only exist as a premium, perhaps one you need to buy copies as they're printed at a premium. We don't know. But comics aren't going to die. They may go all digital and the C list may get relegated to guest appearances only, but you'll keep seeing the big names because they print money elsewhere.

You say it's doomed, and I agree given the concept it doesn't adapt at all, but there's too much money on the table not to. "The comic industry is dying" is only true if we're being pedantic and saying "the iteration of the industry I care about is dying," well yes. Welcome to the concept of time and an ever-changing market. I don't have a business degree and even I get that. Look at music. It's not 8-Trax, cassette or CDs anymore. Vinyl is a premium for collectors. Everything else is digital, and most don't even buy music anymore, but pay to stream it from a service. The music industry isn't dead, though. It changed. Revenue has been generated in different ways, artists rise through different platforms and concerts (not counting COVID of course) are still the mecca of youth in rebellion.

TV had to deal with the advent of streaming. Home media with VHS->DVD->Blu-Ray/HD DVD (lol)->3D/4k/Ultra HD and those are now, like music, getting curtailed by digital and services that provide streaming except for collectors.

Film is now finding alternatives to theatres because 9 months flipped the script.

Comics were supposed to be different? Seriously? That's why I don't take this **** seriously. It's putting one's head in the sand and declaring "but it was working fine in 1993!"

Comics will absolutely die if unchanged. I'm pretty sure heads will roll before that is allowed to happen. Will it be ugly? Will it chase long-time fans away? Probably. Sweeping changes are rarely elegant. But they change and the market supports what it finds most appealing/beneficial to them, so the product will morph into something healthy eventually. Enough IP has been generated (and not just from the big two) against the cost of production that it benefits mega corps to keep injecting life into it until it finds a sustainable model. It just has to change, as do all things living.

one problem we tend to forget is the pirate sites that practically hours after books are for sale, they upload books. Many are resorting to those sites, people find it convenient its free, its online, at the tip of your fingertips you can read any comic you want anytime.
It has an impact on sales and its a dangerous trend. Its killing the sales but also the pleasure to go to the LCS take a look at what's out and that you might pick up. God knows how many times I went to buy a book or two and ended buying another three.

I don't see how a collection of jpeg files isn't going to get pirated very easily. Comics are just pictures with words. It's literally the easiest thing on the net to pirate. You cannot stop or stem this with some kind of software. The only way to combat piracy is generate value in the product itself. Make people want to own it or support it. Those sites are also riddled with ads and likely malware. As long as the cost isn't prohibitive, people don't mind paying and supporting the things they enjoy. It's a value proposition. People who would pirate an affordable book would pirate it if it was near-free, especially when the damn thing is just jpegs they can view in their browser. The strongest defense against digital piracy is that someone has to pull two staples out of the comic and then place them on a scanner for 5 minutes. That's it. You can't make it harder without glue-bound books which have a shorter shelf life and don't appeal to collectors who are the primary market for the physical book. So why spend any more thought about how you can stop the piracy sites?

Just noticing that the diversity in DC took a hit here. I think the only POC with a solo is John and that's in April. The amount of female solos are only a little better.

When the line is essentially Trinity + Nightwing and a team book, that's going to happen. Sucks, but hopefully April is better. I'm only getting that three-part Batman series for the Outsiders backup. Love Jeff and Tatsu.

[MajorHoy]

. . . I get why writers always want to create new characters and use them, since they then can make money off them if they get used in other media adaptations, but it rarely ever happens and franchises are left with a bloat of unusable characters after years and years.

They're not "unusable".

DC always needs cannon fodder for those big mega-EVENTS!
(How many rarely-used characters did Geoff Johns get rid of in Infinite Crisis?)

[BatmanJones]

All those books (I believe) have back up stories so it's unlikely the price tag will change anytime soon.

I'm totally okay with that on account of the backup stories and the fact that there are less comics I feel compelled to buy. The monthly vs. biweekly thing is going to save me money too.

[Swamp Thing 2099]

The Huntress Rebirth costume is the best. Bar none. I thought she was supposed to be Italian though, just with a darker complexion than before (as some Italians have). Was it ever stated otherwise?

I forget if it was Seeley or King, when Grayson was being published, who said that Huntress was Sicilian, hence the complexion. My ex was Sicilian and had the exact same skin tone. Likewise, she was mistaken for any number of ethnicities on a regular basis.

[BatmanJones]

I'd love to jump on board with these, but the price tag is too high. Even $3.99 is too much for 32 pages, tbh.

Plus, I hate the idea of the backup stories, especially with Damian. If I just want to read a good Damian story (I love Gleb's art!) then I'd have to buy Batman AND Detective Comics and spend $10 for what will probably amount to less than a full comics worth of story.

Print media is dying....maybe it deserves to die.

It seems to me that the backups are a workaround for the WB edict to shrink the line in general. If the backups are popular, they might well become ongoings. We also don't know for sure about the permanency of the price hike and we definitely don't know what else might be coming down the pike, except that something will.

And, of course, print media is dying absolutely everywhere. It's taken longer for that to affect comics than probably any other print media. It's a drag that comics are trending toward digital, but everything that used to be in print is digital now. Newspapers and magazines still print copies but their real business is in digital.

[BatmanJones]

Mark Russell is also M.I.A.
He is the best new writer to my taste. Hope he gets an ongoing.
I would love to see Matt Fraction writing another book for DC, this time a major title. Jimmy Olsen was fantastic and am sure will get tons of Eisner.

Mark Russell will be back. Bank it.

[BatmanJones]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalk...h=341681dc4d68

That is a good article from last year that talks about how the comic book/graphic novel market is doing very well, but the traditional superhero market from the Big 2 publishers is falling.

Superhero comics have died off at least twice--around WWII and again around the DC Implosion. Even Justice League was almost canceled in the mid-70s. (Can you tell I've been reading the oral history book about the DC Implosion? Because I have.)

[lemonpeace]

...I don't see how a collection of jpeg files isn't going to get pirated very easily. Comics are just pictures with words. It's literally the easiest thing on the net to pirate. You cannot stop or stem this with some kind of software. The only way to combat piracy is generate value in the product itself. Make people want to own it or support it. Those sites are also riddled with adds and likely malware. As long as the cost isn't prohibitive, people don't mind paying and supporting the things they enjoy. It's a value proposition. People who would pirate an affordable book would pirate it if it was near-free, especially when the damn thing is just jpegs they can view in their browser. The strongest defense against digital piracy is that someone has to pull two staples out of the comic and then place them on a scanner for 5 minutes. That's it. You can't make it harder without glue-bound books which have a shorter shelf life and don't appeal to collectors who are the primary market for the physical book. So why spend any more thought about how you can stop the piracy sites?

Exactly. As a kid who didn't have money or access to physical books, i used to read manga online on pirated sites for years (still do from time to time honestly) but I still buy volumes because i like having the book to own and show my support now that i have the money and access to do so. in fact, reading them digitally makes shopping way easier because i can buy all the stories i want to read and all the merch i want to get as a fan who's invested in the brand. Manga has been far more accessible online than comics are, for far longer than comics were, but manga and manga properties have only gotten more profitable and popular in the public consciousness. The amount of friends i can chop it up with about deep manga or anime lore (who have the books, merch, etc) vs the people i can discuss comic lore with to a similar degree is extremely lopsided in favor of manga. DC is getting the idea and taking a step in the right direction (imo) with all these anthologies, digital-first series, limited issue stories, and back-ups; make dynamic, quality, easy to digest content that will can be made easily accessible, and build that engagement. the problem that has been "killing" comics has been the industry either catering or caving to the (frankly, aging/out of touch) gatekeepers and not adapting to the sensibilities of contemporary content consumption. music, manga, and youtubers man; music, manga, and youtubers.