What's going to happen to DC comics after Warner Bros goes Discovery?

[achilles]

I assume then that Batman will be part of Shark Week and demonstrate his Bat shark repellent as part of it. And they might even persuade Mackerel Man to stop being bro of the ocean for long enough to get him to piss off a great white shark. Just to show what happens.

All this will come to pass...

[Aahz]

I doubt that they are going to sell DC, they want the IP for movies, TV Shows ect.

What might happen is that they license out the rights for comics or games instead of doing it in house. But even that seems unlikely to me. The games have been quite successfully and if they license out the comics they are not creating new IP for them.

[Lightning63]

I doubt that they are going to sell DC, they want the IP for movies, TV Shows ect.

What might happen is that they license out the rights for comics or games instead of doing it in house. But even that seems unlikely to me. The games have been quite successfully and if they license out the comics they are not creating new IP for them.

They could possibly lease out smaller characters to independent comic companies but the big 5 is definitely not going anywhere.

[HsssH]

vertigo - obviously that was before at&t but its indicative of an ever shrinking publishing company. I dont think black label (which i like) is a similar replacement and during a boom in OG graphic novel / collected issues in industry to have to close one of the oldest continuing companies in that field was indicative of some hopeless mismanagement.

So it has nothing to do with the topic? Thanks.

[Sacred Knight]

Disney?? Dear god no. They don't need a near monopoly on entertainment IPs.

[Aahz]

They could possibly lease out smaller characters to independent comic companies but the big 5 is definitely not going anywhere.

I don't think that this would make much sense for an independent comic companie, since most of the smaller characters don't really have an inbuild audience, they are likely better of creating their own characters than using some unknown character from DC.

[abetterday]

I wonder why comic book characters are not more popular as video games. In my opinion a good video game would probably do more for a comic book character and their world than the movies because gamers play games over and over again. DC or whoever their parent company is/will be would be a fool to sell their IPs because they are potentially more valuable than Marvel's when you combine all off DC's properties together. The Legion of Superheroes would make a great game because they have a lot of characters with powers that are distinctive from one another-like The Bouncing Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn girl, Starboy, Ultra Man, Sunboy Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid etc.. It would make a great multi-player game. Cybernetics is still popular in the gamer community. Cyborg and Batgirl would make a great combo in a cybernetic world. The possibilities are still endless but the stigma of it being comic book characters probably still turn a lot of gamers off.

[skyvolt2000]

I don't think that this would make much sense for an independent comic companie, since most of the smaller characters don't really have an inbuild audience, they are likely better of creating their own characters than using some unknown character from DC.

Some do.

Lets take Dynamite. I mean Red Sonja does 11K-18K and is the top dog there.

Someone like say Power Girl or JSA or Vixen could not beat that?

Along with being free of the drama of being held hostage by Bat Events and whatever else DC does (unless they are needed).

I mean if I am free to let Vixen, Bumblebee, Power Girl, Traci 13 and Bombshell do crossovers with Vampi, Sonja and Jungle Girl-why not?

I wonder why comic book characters are not more popular as video games.

The possibilities are still endless but the stigma of it being comic book characters probably still turn a lot of gamers off.

Miles Morales and his game seems to say otherwise as did Peter Parker.

Folks don't mind the games but want rosters beyond Batman and his entitled friends. We got denied a Static game and him in another one.

[iron chimp]

So it has nothing to do with the topic? Thanks.

A contracting publishing business that could not use one of the most prestigious imprints in comics to exploit the growing OG graphic novel market, ran by a man who complained readers preferred the old stuff over what he was doing and a list of failed relaunches, imprints and wasted cash which was bought by a parent company in desparate need of dollars.

sounds to me very much like a recipe for a discussion on the whole future of the company just as it was before crisis in the 80s

you're welcome

[Holt]

I dont know - quite a lot happened for me

(my time line could be screwed though as I havent followed it all closely)

ditched 5g
culled the office
started another relaunch while contracting the line
changed distro
then were sold again

Obviously not all of that was At&T, im sure some happened before, and covid will have done some of it, some of it seems to be office power struggle etc but what a mess.

I dont know... maybe EVS was clsoer to truth than we will know for a long while. The last few years has all the hallmarks of the 70s dc implosion followed by discussions to license things out to Marvel before trying to relaunch it all which turned out to be a huge success. DCs wasted a ton of money on failed relaunches, had to close its prestige original content adult graphic novel / comics line, hugely contracted its line and staff - personally I wouldnt be surprised if one of the options on the table while the head company was scrabbling for cash was to shut it down and license publishing out. Certianly wouldnt be the first time its been discussed.

As you just said, a lot of that had been in the works for a while. The most significant was the contracting of the publishing line, and even it wasn't the drastic doomsday scenario I recall fans panicking over when the buy-out first happened.

And I'm not putting stock in anything a shithead like EVS says, thank you very much.

[BatmanJones]

I don’t know... maybe EVS was clsoer to truth than we will know for a long while.

EVS has been clear in his prediction that DC would go out of business specifically because it was too “woke” and that readers would stop buying DC because of that. Every prediction he’s made since then has been predicated on that idea, even if he’s piggybacking other news to do it.

Cosmic Book News worships him and runs his rumors as facts, for the same “woke” reason. Whenever there’s gossip that site posts a new story about how his sources, which are only EVS, are proving to be right.

This is the same site that reported that HBO’s Watchmen had been a flop because, you guessed it, it was too woke, and that it had been ‘canceled’ because fans hated its wokeness, lol.

This is also the site that’s been responsible for most of these alarmist threads.

If DC does indeed go out of business, it won’t have anything to do with DC being woke, and EVS will have been wrong as to the reason, which is the whole point of his predictions: his hatred of DEI and his poor me, I’m a cis white man and I’m suffering from reverse racism BS.

So, unless DC does shut down because of low sales because of wokeness, he will have been entirely wrong. I’m pretty positive that he’s one of those nuts that thinks Trump won the election in a landslide and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn he believes in QAnon too.

EVS has never been right, about any of this.

[iron chimp]

As you just said, a lot of that had been in the works for a while. The most significant was the contracting of the publishing line, and even it wasn't the drastic doomsday scenario I recall fans panicking over when the buy-out first happened.

And I'm not putting stock in anything a shithead like EVS says, thank you very much.

if you ignore who is saying it, you can create a decent argument by a upper echelon exec why dc comics publishing arm is directionless and why its a pointless money pit with little growth potential when it comes to high level strategy meeting. you can also create a decent argument for someone else to say its possible to turn this all round using whats in place. or someone else to say dc publishing can be turned around but the current strategy isnt going to work and it needs another management reorganisation and yet another change in direction.

realistically nothing is off the table after two buyouts. Its not the first time this has all be said.

[iron chimp]

EVS has been clear in his prediction that DC would go out of business specifically because it was too “woke” and that readers would stop buying DC because of that. Every prediction he’s made since then has been predicated on that idea, even if he’s piggybacking other news to do it.

Cosmic Book News worships him and runs his rumors as facts, for the same “woke” reason. Whenever there’s gossip that site posts a new story about how his sources, which are only EVS, are proving to be right.

This is the same site that reported that HBO’s Watchmen had been a flop because, you guessed it, it was too woke, and that it had been ‘canceled’ because fans hated its wokeness, lol.

This is also the site that’s been responsible for most of these alarmist threads.

If DC does indeed go out of business, it won’t have anything to do with DC being woke, and EVS will have been wrong as to the reason, which is the whole point of his predictions: his hatred of DEI and his poor me, I’m a cis white man and I’m suffering from reverse racism BS.

So, unless DC does shut down because of low sales because of wokeness, he will have been entirely wrong. I’m pretty positive that he’s one of those nuts that thinks Trump won the election in a landslide and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn he believes in QAnon too.

EVS has never been right, about any of this.

yeah i dont follow EVS - i stay away from comicsgate etc but yes that's an excellent point from my limited understanding - his "reasons" for why DC might close never had anything to do with buyouts, covid, market conditions, broken synergy with the film studios, internal fighting, leverages, return on investments or any other possible reasons why one could create some narrative for a big exec to argue to close the publishing arm. It was all just based on his own mindgarden reasons.

when you see a disney subsidiary making Y the last man i just can help but dispair for Warners tho... disney are literally filming things you actually published... its the most disjointed mess.

[Holt]

if you ignore who is saying it, you can create a decent argument by a upper echelon exec why dc comics publishing arm is directionless and why its a pointless money pit with little growth potential when it comes to high level strategy meeting. you can also create a decent argument for someone else to say its possible to turn this all round using whats in place. or someone else to say dc publishing can be turned around but the current strategy isnt going to work and it needs another management reorganisation and yet another change in direction.

realistically nothing is off the table after two buyouts. Its not the first time this has all be said.

And if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bicycle. Fact is, his prediction did not come to pass and ultimately nothing catastrophic happened to the comics division. Anything else here is just trying to move the goalpost. I'm not sure why you're trying to back up EVS' bogus claims, but I've got zero reason to put any stock in anything he says.

[John Venus]

The problems with DC at the moment is due to a combination of poor leadership the last two decades and all the stuff going on with it's parent company. But folks really want to believe that diversity will cause any ship to sink that they think repeating it an infinite amount of times will make it come true.