Is DC struggling to sell comics?

[iron chimp]

Have to admit im not convinced there is a plan here at all.

Its a relaunch based on what seems to be a totally different aborted relaunch repackaged as elseworlds style books and a ton of batman.

Theres zero hook here for new readers and for current readers.. it just looks like a few creator changes and a load of cancelled books.

[cranger]

If I get asked at school to recommend a black lead book (trade)-
DC-Naomi, Signal, Cyborg, Michael Cray, Batwing, Far Sector, Black Lightning Cold Hands, Mr Terrific, & Aqualad OGN. 15 trades?
Marvel-Moon Girl, Falcon, Luke Cage, Miles Morales, Black Panther, Mosaic, Shuri, Riri, Prowler, Nick Fury, World of Wakanda, BP & The Crew, BP Rise and All New Inhumans vol 2 (Flint). Moon Girl by herself is 9 trades. 20+ trades.

Do not recommend New 52 Mr Terrific. I thought Static Shock was better despite the behind the scenes drama that sabotaged it.

But I would recommend The Terrifics and Silencer. How close of a lead was Black Lightning in the recent Outsiders book with that Batguy?

[Rise]

I personally don't think DC has a plan and they seem to be just reacting.

To be fair to them though, it's hard to make a plan in the current situation and it's not really exclusive to just DC/AT&T.

[Celgress]

I don't think DC has a plan either beyond simple knee-jerk reactions to what is happening: in summation, they are reactive, not proactive in their current approach.

[SJNeal]

I don't think DC has a plan either beyond simple knee-jerk reactions to what is happening: in summation, they are reactive, not proactive in their current approach.

Their "current approach" being about 20 yrs old, unfortunately...

[Somecrazyaussie]

All publishers are having a hard time selling books right now. DC is a weird one because it is currently switching up its business model. However, DC hasn't done enough to grow its entire line. It's has relied far too heavily on Batman for a decade now. With the increased media presence, Aquaman and Wonder Woman should be receiving massive pushes. Nope. Let's just keep milking Batman and The joker.

Another problem is they don't have someone at the top with a clear vision. The EiC' s at Marvel each had their own "view" on what the line should look like. Didio seemed like he was suffering from ADHD. He was also in charge 5 - 6 years too long. You can't establish a clear tone when you upend everything on a panicked whim once sales start dropping.

[Lee Stone]

All publishers are having a hard time selling books right now. DC is a weird one because it is currently switching up its business model. However, DC hasn't done enough to grow its entire line. It's has relied far too heavily on Batman for a decade now. With the increased media presence, Aquaman and Wonder Woman should be receiving massive pushes. Nope. Let's just keep milking Batman and The joker.

Another problem is they don't have someone at the top with a clear vision. The EiC' s at Marvel each had their own "view" on what the line should look like. Didio seemed like he was suffering from ADHD. He was also in charge 5 - 6 years too long. You can't establish a clear tone when you upend everything on a panicked whim once sales start dropping.

They've relied on Batman since the film came out in '89.
I agree with everything you said, btw.

They don't spend time with characters because they don't have the pressure that they 'must' make them work.
If they don't work, they just cancel them and launch something else.
Unless it's Batman.

I think Doom Patrol is a good example of them doing it right. Lightle left after the first story and sales tanked (something that's sure to do when a creator bails before the first year). They brought in Larsen. That didn't work.
Today, that book would've been cancelled.
Instead, it was given to Grant Morrison and it went from almost being cancelled at #18 to lasting 87 issues.

[Goldrake]

All publishers are having a hard time selling books right now. DC is a weird one because it is currently switching up its business model. However, DC hasn't done enough to grow its entire line. It's has relied far too heavily on Batman for a decade now. With the increased media presence, Aquaman and Wonder Woman should be receiving massive pushes. Nope. Let's just keep milking Batman and The joker.

Another problem is they don't have someone at the top with a clear vision. The EiC' s at Marvel each had their own "view" on what the line should look like. Didio seemed like he was suffering from ADHD. He was also in charge 5 - 6 years too long. You can't establish a clear tone when you upend everything on a panicked whim once sales start dropping.

Actually they have relied on Batman for more than a decade. Batman is a sure seller no doubts in that. However I am worried that all these batman books will eventually translated into over saturation. That won't happen overnight but it will at some point. As with everything in life there is a rise to a peak and a decline.

Honestly when did we see DC ever pushing other characters? I agree with what You say about Wonder Woman and Aquaman, but especially the later, have we seen any really drive to exploit the movie? Ok they will have an animation, God knows when it will be released and thats that.
Other characters fare even worse. I never tire to repeat it, the latest Hawkman run was probably the best book DC had, yet it never got from them any push to market it. It was left to limp by itself. End result it never got attention and Hawkfans alone could not keep it afloat.

No they have no strategy, just staying in the comfort zone Batman provides. Luckily for them At&T hasn't the interest to force them to get out from that comfort zone. At DC They are so accustomed to that comfort zone that they have become complacent with no real desire to even try and do something. Why bother about doing it, that must be their reasoning.

[NaVi]

the difference between marvel and dc, is that marvel is a shared universe, dc is the universe of batman. I'm not saying this because I'm a fan of superman and I hate batman, because before batman they did the same with superman. dc takes his star character, uses him until he can't take it anymore, the last time the dc heroes weren't the most popular but they were the heroes par excellence, he had the opportunity to start over, but cinema is changing things, for not to mention the manga, nowadays dc is a second-rate universe, it won't have another chance, so either things change a lot or as soon as batman goes down a bit, dc will say goodbye.

[cranger]

the difference between marvel and dc, is that marvel is a shared universe, dc is the universe of batman. I'm not saying this because I'm a fan of superman and I hate batman, because before batman they did the same with superman. dc takes his star character, uses him until he can't take it anymore, the last time the dc heroes weren't the most popular but they were the heroes par excellence, he had the opportunity to start over, but cinema is changing things, for not to mention the manga, nowadays dc is a second-rate universe, it won't have another chance, so either things change a lot or as soon as batman goes down a bit, dc will say goodbye.

I get what you are going with here. I think Marvel just has so many more books that it feels bigger, and DC certainly seems smaller these days. To me I don't think Batman drives the universe although the two biggest events in the last few years definitely screamed Batman, and even in non Batman events they can't help but make him portrayed as some sort of demigod. But go back a decade now and when was the DC universe reliant on Batman to set the narrative? It was basically Dark Nights Metal that kicked that off, and the success of that event overshadowed everything else in recent memory.

I do feel that if the DC Universe wants to grow they need to keep Batman out of everyone else's books though, or they at least need to vary the use of guest characters to downplay Batman when he does show up somewhere.

[LAWtoyoto 432]

Actually they have relied on Batman for more than a decade. Batman is a sure seller no doubts in that. However I am worried that all these batman books will eventually translated into over saturation. That won't happen overnight but it will at some point. As with everything in life there is a rise to a peak and a decline.

Honestly when did we see DC ever pushing other characters? I agree with what You say about Wonder Woman and Aquaman, but especially the later, have we seen any really drive to exploit the movie? Ok they will have an animation, God knows when it will be released and thats that.
Other characters fare even worse. I never tire to repeat it, the latest Hawkman run was probably the best book DC had, yet it never got from them any push to market it. It was left to limp by itself. End result it never got attention and Hawkfans alone could not keep it afloat.

No they have no strategy, just staying in the comfort zone Batman provides. Luckily for them At&T hasn't the interest to force them to get out from that comfort zone. At DC They are so accustomed to that comfort zone that they have become complacent with no real desire to even try and do something. Why bother about doing it, that must be their reasoning.

You are right, in other words Marvel took the risk while DC play safe all the time along.

[skyvolt2000]

Actually they have relied on Batman for more than a decade. Batman is a sure seller no doubts in that. However I am worried that all these batman books will eventually translated into over saturation. That won't happen overnight but it will at some point. As with everything in life there is a rise to a peak and a decline.

No they have no strategy, just staying in the comfort zone Batman provides. Luckily for them At&T hasn't the interest to force them to get out from that comfort zone. At DC They are so accustomed to that comfort zone that they have become complacent with no real desire to even try and do something. Why bother about doing it, that must be their reasoning.

We are PAST that point. WAY past it.

SO while Batman sells-he like Sopranos, X-MEN, Friends, Games of Thrones and others leave a LOT of unsold stuff behind. That nobody wants and we have all seen it. A bin or clearance section filled with a "top" seller. How many of us have bought a grab bag of comics and it was nothing but Batman? I have paid $12 for 25 DC books and half of it was Batman-that totaled $30 based on the cover price.

Quantity control seems to be this demon that so many folks take issue with when we talk Batman. 50 Batman books might look good on a sale chart but how does that help Wonder Woman or Hawkman?

Like Cranger said go back a decade (or two) and DC was not worshipping Batman like this.

Waverider had events starring him. Books were not tossing Batman into every book to boost sales.

It just recently got out of control. Death Metal-yeah I see those figures in stores. COLLECTING DUST. Another issue DC has. Nobody wants their toys. That look HORRIBLE for the 5th straight Christmas walking down a toy isle and Marvel, TMNT, Power Rangers, WWE and most of Star Wars GONE and only DC stuff left-mainly Batman.

All publishers are having a hard time selling books right now.

Other companies are not as they have their books in other places with a few exceptions.
Look at Boom Studios-orders have gone up for some of their books. In terms of trades many of those books have not had an issue beating DC.

Why? Because they offer variety and have ZERO issues promoting them.

[GeekSlop]

Given the numbers from Diamond, it seems to me that Marvel only started really pulling ahead of DC a few years ago - about the time the MCU started accelerating. They jumped into cinematics a lot deeper than DC and knocked it out of the park. I think DC sees their mistake though and could turn things around. Death Metal, Future State, and Infinite Frontier hint to me that DC is about to shake things up rather than relying so much on their classic, old-school characters. They're going to have to think ahead of Marvel though instead of always playing catchup.

[Restingvoice]

Have to admit im not convinced there is a plan here at all.

Its a relaunch based on what seems to be a totally different aborted relaunch repackaged as elseworlds style books and a ton of batman.

Theres zero hook here for new readers and for current readers.. it just looks like a few creator changes and a load of cancelled books.

The hooks I saw are very specific
Yara Flor for the massive Brazilian DC fandom
Wally maybe as The Flash in Flash for Wally fans
Nightwing for Post-Ric palate cleansing
Robin for rectifying Damian's character assassination
Nubia fans
Teen Lantern fans
Naomi fans

Btw how's DC recent sales compared to how the used to be?

[cranger]

Btw how's DC recent sales compared to how the used to be?

We have not gotten sales numbers (units/dollars) since DC left Diamond, and even Diamond stopped giving market numbers and just a ranked list of books.

Book store numbers are probably the only things we can look at for what that may be worth.