Originally Posted by
kcekada
A lot of popular DC books from the 80s eventually fell into disfavor. A lot of that had to do with the creative teams. Titans was on a long decline after Perez left. It's doubtful it ever would have achieved big number with him. Giffen departing Legion probably wouldn't have been as big a deal since he changed to a blocky, flat style of art towards the end of his run -- and his replacement Steve Lightle was liked right out of the gate. But Lightle was a slow artist (as was Cockrum in his day), and he left the title to be replace by capable Greg Laroque who was never really a fan favorite. When Maguire left Justice League, the book continued to sell and even thrive due to his replacement being Adam Hughes. But when Hughes left, the book also went into decline. Also happened on books like Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman, and even Superman. Batman apparently became immune to decline ever since the Michael Keaton movie. Prior to that, Batman books weren't selling that well -- same case for Superman books.
Even X-Men has had peaks and valleys, but that series attracts the upper echelon of talent -- especially artists -- that benefits sales.
But let's face it -- rebooting is not good for a franchise that was once popular. Maybe you can do it with a book that was never popular --- or you can do it organically like All-New X-Men did by keeping a couple of core characters and bringing in new blood. Legion reboots really only attracted decent numbers for the launch, so it's beyond me why DC went back to that well so often. Frankly, I credit it to ineptitude.