Viability of Batbook expansion Poll

[godisawesome]

Okay, I earlier made a thread about how many people would want to see more Batbooks.

This thread is about how many more monthly Batbooks you guys think could hypothetically be launched in the next few months and remain viable for at least two or three years. So, I'm not really asking for your opinion on whether or not there should be more books; rather, I'm asking what strength potential spin offs would have under the current editorial control and why.

For instance, I figure the market could easily sustain 3-4 more Gotham books thanks to the market potential of Birds of Prey and Gotham Knights as team books, and Red Robin, Spoiler, Azrael, Red Hood and Black Bat as solos, and the ever present threat of Batman himself expanding to another one or two books. I'd fully expect a few failures, but I honestly do believe there's enough interest and faith in current editorial methods in the Bat-office that a significant amount of us would be picking up these books. And I also think the continued financial success of the Eternal weeklies demonstrate the same thing; they're basically old school crossovers but under one banner.

[Rac7d*]

Birds of prey spinoff from batgirl seems imminent. It also fulfill dc reach to a female audience and gives a place to the recent slew of female vigilantes who idolize Barbra

Maps,steph,harper,cass,tiffany,Julia,riko

[joybeans]

It ultimately comes down to how well you can sell the book outside of just the characters. What's the book's creative direction and art style? Who's the creative team? Who's drawing the covers? What makes this book different from the other Batbooks? How do you sell it to someone who doesn't know the character, or hasn't been reading Eternal? Will the comics press cover these books? These are the questions to be asked.

Of course, it could all still be moot, as retailers might just place more emphasis on the title of the book, the starting issue #, the variety of variant covers, and whether or not the book spins off from a major event. These books may have a sizable cushion from being under the umbrella of DC's premier book, but even then, books that did everything right like Gotham by Midnight and Catwoman still struggled to get notice.

[HsssH]

Yeah, I don't think that something like Birds of Prey can really sustain itself on name alone and you need good creative team/vision behind it so its tricky question that I don't think that you can put an exact number to.

[Batmil]

I really need a Red Robin book in my life.

[MajorHoy]

Can't answer . . . it's not a question of "how many?" without first answering "which characters" / "what theme" / "who are the creative teams"?
The market could support multiple strong Bat-connected books, but they might get pissed if you add three lousy books with lame writers and incompetent artists.

[jules]

Add one, subtract one, I reckon. In broad terms, anyway. Titles will always drop in circulation numbers to the point where they become unsustainable... so you make sure you have something fresh and compelling waiting in the wings to replace them. Eternal could be replaced by four monthlies, or a couple of titles double shipping, or if they want to keep a weekly - since it sells moderately well and gives the Bat books events and crossovers without wrecking the ongoing titles - then give it breathing space by using those slots for minis to trial a few ideas between "seasons".

I don't think the Bat titles need any more books, because that could be self defeating. At the moment it's just about possible to buy all of the related titles, just as it is with smaller universes like Valiant, so some people do. Add too many additional titles, and the number of people who pick and choose will go up. And if they're already picking and choosing, they might then buy less titles in total.

No title should be launched without a compelling reason for existing, of course. Every title launched needs its own critical combination of good underlying theme, interesting characters, and good and enthusiastic creative team. Some will fail anyway, sadly, because for some reason they didn't engage the interest of the retailers ordering them for their shelves, but you have to at least give it a fair shot by not just chucking out any old lacklustre material to fill a slot.

[The Whovian]

I could see a Cass Cain book spinning out of BRE

[heyevaxx]

I too want a book with Cass Cain. But I hope DC doesn't just make a single all female book with Cass, Steph, Harp, etc.

Spreading these characters over maybe 2 books with some being on/off guests, would be better. Just having Catwoman, Batgirl, and using Birds of Prey (i.e. everyone else) as a female toon catch all would be sub-optimal.

Speaking of Catwoman, maybe dumping Tesla and having Steph be a regular would work. Getting rid of anything Nocenti is a plus and Steph has already worked with Selina.

And if the production costs for digital only books are substantially lower, I'm more than fine going that route if it results in less sales pressure for the titles.

[Cowtools]

That actual number of books is really irrelevant. There should be as many books as there are characters that can sustain them. And limit Bruce to two books at most.

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: This thread was started back in January 2016.
That was six years ago!

The poll results, with 13 people having previously voted on this, were:

* 1-2: A bit of an increase would work = 6 votes
* None: we're at equilibrium = 3 votes
* Fewer than present: it will almost certainly retract = 2 votes
* 3-4: we have some serious potential here = 1 vote
* 5+: go ahead and make this a separate brand = 1 vote

But, remember, this thread was started back in January 2016.
That was six years ago!

And if anybody did vote on this poll way back when, how would you vote today?

[millernumber1]

NOTE: This thread was started back in January 2016.
That was six years ago!

The poll results, with 13 people having previously voted on this, were:

* 1-2: A bit of an increase would work = 6 votes
* None: we're at equilibrium = 3 votes
* Fewer than present: it will almost certainly retract = 2 votes
* 3-4: we have some serious potential here = 1 vote
* 5+: go ahead and make this a separate brand = 1 vote

But, remember, this thread was started back in January 2016.
That was six years ago!

And if anybody did vote on this poll way back when, how would you vote today?

Lolity lol. The Batbooks have been dominant since the n52, but this poll does seem quite quaint today.

[Restingvoice]

Wait I didn't check the date. What happened in 2016? Rebirth?
So the books were Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Red Hood, Birds of Prey...
The book people miss was Catwoman, it was before King revealed Catwoman in his book...
Damian was going to be in Teen Titans and Super Sons but it was delayed
Did I miss anything?

[MajorHoy]

Wait I didn't check the date. What happened in 2016? Rebirth?
So the books were Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Red Hood, Birds of Prey...
The book people miss was Catwoman, it was before King revealed Catwoman in his book...
Damian was going to be in Teen Titans and Super Sons but it was delayed
Did I miss anything?

Actually, you missed the date of the original post: 01-19-2016.

In January of 2016 DC was still doing the New52/DCYou.

Rebirth didn't begin until after DC Universe: Rebirth #1 was released May 25, 2016.

[Restingvoice]

Okay so Batman, Detective Comics, Grayson, Robin Son of Batman, Batgirl of Burnside, Harley Quinn, Harley Quinn and friends or whatever it's called, Red Hood Arsenal, We Are Robin...

Did Catwoman and Batwoman still has a book at this point?