WHAT IF DC only publish Batbooks related content only?

[Captain Nostalgia]

And meanwhile at Marvel side, altought Spider-Man and X-books are among the top 10 list. There is also "Immortal Hulk", "Moon Knight","Daredevil" and "Dark Ages". Well it does all comes down to sales but Marvel variety is still stronger than the main DCU line-ups.


https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-10.html

The top 10 of Marvel's top selling comics. Even Wolverine. the most popular X-Men has lost its momentum of the sales.

Yes traditionally Marvel's line up has outperformed DC's as a whole, but I don't think it all boils comes down to character popularity.

Personally I don't think DC has been run very good as a business (Part of it has to do with AT&T/Warner Bros) but...

over the decades I've seen them squander the popularity of profitable characters and super teams over and over again.

[The True Detective]

Oh good, another not so subtle "DC only cares about Batman thread" I was worried we wouldn't get one this week.

[Captain Nostalgia]

As I have time on my hands, I decided to look at this weeks DC comic releases.

Interestingly only 2 of the 12 are non related bat titles.

1. Batman Scooby Doo Mysteries
2. The Joker
3. Batgirls
4. Batman Urban Legends
5. Detective Comics
6. Future State Gotham
7. I am Batman
8. Pennyworth
9. Robin & Batman
10. Robins

1) Titans United
2) Justice League vs Legion of Super Heroes (Bendis Legion yucky!)

[Bruce Wayne]

Personally I don't think DC has been run very good as a business (Part of it has to do with AT&T/Warner Bros) but...

I don't agree. Chasing Bat dollars seems to the most purely business driven decision we have seen from them in awhile. Compare that to the previous regime and them sabotaging books to make DC resemble when they had read comics as kids and pushing unpopular reboots to the point of forcing people out of the company and then themselves losing their jobs over it.

[Captain Nostalgia]

I don't agree. Chasing Bat dollars seems to the most purely business driven decision we have seen from them in awhile. Compare that to the previous regime and them sabotaging books to make DC resemble when they had read comics as kids and pushing unpopular reboots to the point of forcing people out of the company and then themselves losing their jobs over it.

I agree that the Bat titles are mostly profit driven, you can't fault them on that.

I'm concerned with the collapse of popularity of non bat titles, which I believe is the result of mismanagement of popular characters and teams over the decades, going all the way back to the Teen Titans and Legion of Super Heroes which use to be two of the most popular comics on the shelf.

[Aahz]

That would be an interesting experiment, but it would never happen because Superman is still one of the most profitable superhero trademarks, despite the decline in Superman titles over the last few decades.

I am generally concerned that only Batman related comics seem to move sales today, and that the rest of the DCU is getting crowded out.

In a previous post I wrote....

Sales numbers have really massively shifted towards Batman in the last few years.
Nightwing, Robin and Catwoman all selling better than Superman and the rest of the JL (and in case of Nightwing and Robin apparently significantly better) that you would have expected to see 2 years ago.

[Lal]

I agree that the Bat titles are mostly profit driven, you can't fault them on that.

I'm concerned with the collapse of popularity of non bat titles, which I believe is the result of mismanagement of popular characters and teams over the decades, going all the way back to the Teen Titans and Legion of Super Heroes which use to be two of the most popular comics on the shelf.

Overall team books are supposed to be a good way to keep some of the lesser-known characters and give them more exposure.
Titans and YJ both debuted with nice numbers but lost almost all readers shortly after (due to bad writing or other reasons). Both franchises are also familiar to the general public (Teen Titans / Titans probably significantly more).
Both teams are led by bat-characters but are still DCU teams, rather than bat teams.
Giving one of those teams to a competent writer could probably help salvage them. Taylor, for example, could probably write a pretty good Titans book that could lift the title back a bit.

[Ascended]

I don't agree. Chasing Bat dollars seems to the most purely business driven decision we have seen from them in awhile. Compare that to the previous regime and them sabotaging books to make DC resemble when they had read comics as kids and pushing unpopular reboots to the point of forcing people out of the company and then themselves losing their jobs over it.

Without access to the accounts and memos and meeting minutes, obviously we can't say for certain but I very much suspect that prior regimes pushed the Bat *at the expense of other IP* and that is very bad business.

It's one thing to provide the supply to match the demand. Batman is super popular and DC is correct to produce as much Bat content as the market will soak up. But they've done it in such a way that other properties are made to look bad. It'd be like if Pepsi ran ads saying "By Pepsi! Don't buy Mountain Dew, it sucks! We make Dew with sewer water and the blood of leprechauns, but Pepsi is made with magic chocolate and love!" All you're doing is making sure your other products don't sell.

It's not wrong to push your top asset and rake in as much revenue as you can from it. If it were me I'd publish as much Bat content as the market could possibly swallow. But where I think they went wrong is by keeping Bruce on that pedestal by pushing down and devaluing everything else. Remember that scene in Snyder's Bat run where Bruce defeats Superman by spitting on him? That's basically what the company has done to all the non-Bat brands. If the company itself doesn't seem to give a sh*t about other characters, then why should consumers?

In business you should never put all your eggs in one basket but that's what DC did (by throwing their other eggs in the trash, as often as not). And it might be the death of them, if Bruce's popularity drops.