Post-March 2021 DC Titles

[protege]

Thank you very much.

Teen Titan Academy is a new concept. So, DC is trying to experiment. Also, I suspect they want the popularity of Strange Academy.

In the case of Nightwing, they also put Barbara in the comic (it seems the only comic where she is Batgirl). So I guess they really expect the sales will be better.

Is strange academy selling well?

[Digifiend]

Well the good news, is i think we will not have new series Bat-related for May. Maybe 1 or 2 titles but it's all. Because i think DC keep the surprise for some titles after Infinite Frontier #0 is in comic-shop.

After i think we need to be patient to see more new series other than Batman. Many creators (Williamson, Lemire, Venditti, Jones ...) work on series we don't know. Maybe is the series we wait.

Yeah, I'm sure more new books are coming in May and June. By the time of the June solicits, we'll have read the Infinite Frontier one-shot.

Also, digital books don't get solicited... i.e. Milestone, which is due next month.

[Konja7]

Is strange academy selling well?

Yeah. It has been a surprisingy good seller, especially as the protagonists are new characters.

[cranger]

Is strange academy selling well?

Yeah. It has been a surprisingy good seller, especially as the protagonists are new characters.

I know it has some speculation heat (I mean, A LOT of spec heat), but we don't really know how anything sells these days. Comichron is winging it and I think they are way too invested in this project to admit they are in over their heads.

[Goldrake]

I don't think DC did a great effort with any comic in the last two years, which is a shame.

I I havent't been reading Aquaman since Johns left, but i thought the last run was well received. With Andy being Aquawoman of Future State, i had the impression that people liked. They didn't?

Well I liked it, but the book lost over half of the readership if you take it from when Abnett left.
Problem was that fans did not like the extended Arthur and Mera separation which lasted two years, but the point of no return was when it was revealed that Mera had killed Arthur. Honestly despite I liked the run, it was really dumb. Mera wasn't seen also for a good number of issues.

From that point onwards the book went into declining sales. To add further woes to declining sales in the last year from 11issues(excluding Endless winter) we got 3 fillers(1 in January, August and September, the last two with Jackson that completely sank the book). Yes The run gave us Andy and the wedding but they came too late, readers had dropped by then.
I loved this run but those sales tell that others did not.

[Vordan]

Personally, I don't want DC to introduce a new JSA title until they straighten out what is and what isn't still part of the continuity; they have a good direction for the team they can stick with; and until they get a good writer and artist for the book.

We saw what happened when DC pretended they were bringing back the JSA during the New52 and we wound up with that Earth 2 mess.
I wonder if DC even knows how to put together a good Justice Society book these days.

You’re never going to get a JSA book then. If I was in charge, I’d launch a new JSA book telling the story of how the team formed during the Great Depression/WW2 for the first couple arcs, and then skip to the present day.

[Restingvoice]

Personally, I don't want DC to introduce a new JSA title until they straighten out what is and what isn't still part of the continuity; they have a good direction for the team they can stick with; and until they get a good writer and artist for the book.

We saw what happened when DC pretended they were bringing back the JSA during the New52 and we wound up with that Earth 2 mess.
I wonder if DC even knows how to put together a good Justice Society book these days.

What's in is what they already wrote in their appearances in Rebirth, counting the latest changes and retcons.
The rest are past memory until confirmed otherwise
Of course they can still change it in the future but the future hasn't happened yet

[Goldrake]

This all started with the claim that Aquaman was one of the sure sellers that DC just bafflingly left off the solicits.

Fact is, Aquaman is not a sure seller. Fact is, there really aren't any sure sellers except Batman so it is moot.

Can Aquaman sell? Yes. Was it? No. So let's let the title take a break so they can find the right team for the right pitch and launch it at the right time, yeah?

Aquaman is not a big seller but a decent one, it makes a small/medium profit usually, useless bring in a team and not supporting it. The last run was approved by Dc but they knew it could be a risky one. The message DC is sending is sort of, whatever we publish like it or not you have to buy it, otherwise we cancel. Instead of taking a look at sales in last Aquaman they did not listen to the message from readers "we are not liking it we aren't buying" they went straight ahead. People did not stop loving the characters but the stories that they are given! and that applies to all titles that underperform.

[MajorHoy]

You’re never going to get a JSA book then.

Unfortunately, no Justice Society of America book is, unfortunately, better than a crappy Justice Society of America book.

What's in is what they already wrote in their appearances in Rebirth, counting the latest changes and retcons.
The rest are past memory until confirmed otherwise
Of course they can still change it in the future but the future hasn't happened yet

Didn't buy/read the JSA appearance in Justice League. Didn't trust the writing, and was afraid the JSA itself would get lost in that over-reaching story arc.

[Drako]

Well I liked it, but the book lost over half of the readership if you take it from when Abnett left.
Problem was that fans did not like the extended Arthur and Mera separation which lasted two years, but the point of no return was when it was revealed that Mera had killed Arthur. Honestly despite I liked the run, it was really dumb. Mera wasn't seen also for a good number of issues.

From that point onwards the book went into declining sales. To add further woes to declining sales in the last year from 11issues(excluding Endless winter) we got 3 fillers(1 in January, August and September, the last two with Jackson that completely sank the book). Yes The run gave us Andy and the wedding but they came too late, readers had dropped by then.
I loved this run but those sales tell that others did not.

Interesting. The little i saw about that run browsing the internet i found interesting, especially Andy. And i liked her a lot in Future State Justice League.

I would read Aquaman if they incorporated Garth a little more, he is really forgotten by the writers.

[Goldrake]

Interesting. The little i saw about that run browsing the internet i found interesting, especially Andy. And i liked her a lot in Future State Justice League.

I would read Aquaman if they incorporated Garth a little more, he is really forgotten by the writers.

Andy in Aquaman is a toddler, an adorable one, she is already a fan favorite, but a toddler. In FS Justice League she made an impact from what I read on social media. She could be big but I am not seeing DC pushing her as Yara for example.
As for Garth, I know that and feel the same. He has been sidelined for too long and now even more to make space for Jackson. However with Arthur, Mera and now Andy, both will have less space. It would be too crowded. One of the criticism KSD received was that she put too much characters on the plate taking of panel space even to the two main characters, Arthur and Mera.

[Robanker]

Unfortunately, no Justice Society of America book is, unfortunately, better than a crappy Justice Society of America book.

Didn't buy/read the JSA appearance in Justice League. Didn't trust the writing, and was afraid the JSA itself would get lost in that over-reaching story arc.

Major, unfortunately you have a very particular demand for what the Justice Society of America book should be and I don't think it's ever going to be exactly what you're asking for. At most, I think you either have to make peace with that or compromise on the vision of the team.

At best, we'll get a JSA book set in the past with Wonder Woman leading it or one set in the present (possibly with Wonder Woman) akin more to the Johns JSA/Justice Society of America run with a mix of young and old heroes. In both cases, Alan will be a gay man and we'll have more POC/LGBTQ+ representation as part of the roster and storylines being told. I'm not saying you're against any of that per se, but these are the two most likely options.

But a classic take like the Roy Thomas stuff is just not in the cards. I'm sorry, I know that's frustrating, but that's where the industry has moved.

Any of the above takes can still be good if you're willing to try them out, but if you plant your feet and demand it adhere to the way you remember it, well it's not happening. No comics today are the same as they were a decade ago. That's the same for every decade that's passed. I know you don't buy a lot of modern comics (or at least from DC) as a result, but that's just the nature of the industry.

[BatmanJones]

So we'll never get another JSA book lol.
DC are not going to straighten out their continuity any time soon. The whole "everything is remembered" thing will only confuse things even more, IMO.

This post reminds me of Grant Morrison's objections to Crisis on Infinite Earths. During Fandome, in a group chat about the multiverse, he asked other creators and editors if the earths really needed to be mashed together and if anyone really had trouble understanding the multiverse as a kid. He said he didn't have any trouble with that as a kid and I didn't either. The suggestion was that DC had underestimated kids and that only adults had problems using their imaginations in that way.

As for continuity and "what counts" and what "really happened," it's always all counted and none of it really happened. For me, these concerns bring to mind the irony of calling Elseworlds-style stories from the 50s and 60s "imaginary stories," when they're all imaginary stories. Who's going to be confused? The characters? They aren't real.

I just want good comics and I couldn't care less what's canon and what isn't. CoIE was a Pandora's box that, having introduced the concept of the reboot, demanded constant reboots from there on. Before that series, it was all canon except for "imaginary stories." And imaginary stories or Elsewords or whatever often become canon if they're good enough. The Killing Joke, for just one example, wasn't "in continuity," it wasn't canon until it was, so I guess it "didn't count" until it did.

So why does it matter what's continuity and what isn't? There's a lot that's a drag about DC lately, like the shrinking number of titles, but to me confusion over continuity isn't one of them. It's only confusing if clarity is what you look for in a comic book. Personally I'm quite excited that creators are no longer held back by continuity and I can't wait to see the comics that are engendered by that particular liberty.

[Robotman]

As the release date for the Black Adam movie gets closer the chances of a new JSA book definitely increase. Peacemaker is front and center in the Suicide Squad book and I think Bloodsport will be following. So there is still some desire to have cohesion between the movies and comics. Or DC trying to get a sales bump from the mainstream promotion of the properties.

[BatmanJones]

Unfortunately, no Justice Society of America book is, unfortunately, better than a crappy Justice Society of America book.

And yet you continually call for a collection of the 1992 series which was probably the crappiest JSA run of all time.