Jim Lee Talks "Omega Men," Says DC Comics "Can Admit When We're Wrong"

[CBR News]

Lee says the recently canceled cosmic series was swiftly resurrected due to overwhelming fan response.


Full article here.

[Andrew]

It's awesome to see a book people like be given a chance, even for just a little longer. I really like Pres, and I'm upset it is only getting six issues rather than twelve, but I'll be along for the ride. For all the stuff DC gets about New 52 or whatever, they really are a great publisher with some awesome creators, and I really do love a lot of their series. Hopefully more people actually check out Omega Men. I haven't read it yet, but I'll give it a try!

[FHIZ]

It's awesome to see a book people like be given a chance, even for just a little longer. I really like Pres, and I'm upset it is only getting six issues rather than twelve, but I'll be along for the ride. For all the stuff DC gets about New 52 or whatever, they really are a great publisher with some awesome creators, and I really do love a lot of their series. Hopefully more people actually check out Omega Men. I haven't read it yet, but I'll give it a try!

Prez is still 12 issues, just treated as two mini series. https://twitter.com/dandidio1/status/621036399534342148

[joybeans]

Prez is still 12 issues, just treated as two mini series. https://twitter.com/dandidio1/status/621036399534342148

I hope so, but that's an old tweet, before the rumors of DC rescinding the 12-issue commitment for ongoings. I hope that Prez is just taking a break, but I wouldn't be shocked if DC just axed the second mini due to Prez's really low sales. It seems that Omega Men was just a unique case since it had other creators (I'm guessing Scott Snyder) and editors lobbying for it.

[Azraelsos]

Too little too late DC. Fool me once shame on you, fool me a couple dozen times shame on me. It's too bad because I really enjoy King's writing, and the OM title especially since they have Kyle in the book but I can't play the game of will they won't they anymore.

[Flash Gordon]

Too little too late DC. Fool me once shame on you, fool me a couple dozen times shame on me. It's too bad because I really enjoy King's writing, and the OM title especially since they have Kyle in the book but I can't play the game of will they won't they anymore.

But the book is no longer canceled, seems silly to give up on it.

[GreenLanternRanger]

Glad DC can admit when they were wrong, Omega Men desrves its full 12 issue run and then some. Now if only they would give GL: Lost Army 12 issues as well...

[JasonTodd428]

Glad DC can admit when they were wrong, Omega Men desrves its full 12 issue run and then some. Now if only they would give GL: Lost Army 12 issues as well...

I agree. Omega Men certainly deserves the full 12 issues that were promised but I also think that Green Lantern: Lost Army should have also been given the 12 issues as well. As far as I can remember all the DC You books were promised 12 issues so as to allow them to have a completed story so to give one that chance back after cancelling it without offering the same to the rest makes this a bit of a hollow victory to me. DC is still in the wrong at least as far as I'm concerned. They'd have been better off not making such a promise in the first place if they were not sure they would be able to follow through on it.

[K. Jones]

I'm a big fan of their decision to reverse the cancellation on Omega Men, but I'm not like hand-shakingly, congratulatory about it. I think it was a shrewd move. Obviously they did hype the book as a 12 part mini, and had Tom King get out there for some preliminary press where he talked about the structure being important and being inspired by late 80s books like Watchmen and so forth. So there was a built-in clock on the thing and cancelling it prematurely was rather pointless.

But moreover, this is a case of mitigation. King is a rising star. Bagenda is doing critically lauded work, and even if he's not a hot draw yet, he seems like he's at least on track to be down the road and a complete King/Bagenda GN for people interested in "earlier work" to go back and purchase is the sort of thing you stake a reputation for "smart decisions" on down the road when people ask you for examples of "really good comics in the last decade or so". What's more, I'm sure King while fine-tuning had more or less already had loads of script work for 8-12 done, and Bagenda probably had concept art for things introduced then. The work was likely already started. And it's not like there was another place at the exact moment Bagenda needed to be.

This was a lot of positive press for a really, really minor investment and a quick mea culpa. Very shrewd. And it also had the benefit of coming at a really good time, when Marvel's PR has been taking a hit here and there, and it has the tangential effect of making DC look a little less stodgy than their competitor.

[Joe Kalicki]

Too little too late DC. Fool me once shame on you, fool me a couple dozen times shame on me. It's too bad because I really enjoy King's writing, and the OM title especially since they have Kyle in the book but I can't play the game of will they won't they anymore.

So if you enjoy the writer and the book, why wouldn't you want to read more issues? Wouldn't it be better to get 12 issues of a series you like than 0 issues? You don't make a lick of sense.

[joybeans]

I'm a big fan of their decision to reverse the cancellation on Omega Men, but I'm not like hand-shakingly, congratulatory about it. I think it was a shrewd move. Obviously they did hype the book as a 12 part mini, and had Tom King get out there for some preliminary press where he talked about the structure being important and being inspired by late 80s books like Watchmen and so forth. So there was a built-in clock on the thing and cancelling it prematurely was rather pointless.

But moreover, this is a case of mitigation. King is a rising star. Bagenda is doing critically lauded work, and even if he's not a hot draw yet, he seems like he's at least on track to be down the road and a complete King/Bagenda GN for people interested in "earlier work" to go back and purchase is the sort of thing you stake a reputation for "smart decisions" on down the road when people ask you for examples of "really good comics in the last decade or so". What's more, I'm sure King while fine-tuning had more or less already had loads of script work for 8-12 done, and Bagenda probably had concept art for things introduced then. The work was likely already started. And it's not like there was another place at the exact moment Bagenda needed to be.

This was a lot of positive press for a really, really minor investment and a quick mea culpa. Very shrewd. And it also had the benefit of coming at a really good time, when Marvel's PR has been taking a hit here and there, and it has the tangential effect of making DC look a little less stodgy than their competitor.

Oh, they certainly bought a lot of public goodwill during a time when they could really use it. And having creators like Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire publicly praise the title helped, too.

[nightrider]

I'm surprised.
The book isn't even selling more than 15k. Its a loss making book.

[Avi]

I think they made the right decision with the book. While they should certainly as a company look at what ultimately sells, it's never a dump idea to hold a critically acclaimed comic away from cancellation. They also seem to trust King even though he is such a young writer and they probably even tried to hold him away from Marvel now that he will be writing Vision.

I also think that Green Lantern: Lost Army should have also been given the 12 issues as well.

Lost Army is a DC Mini, which explains why it ends in November with the other minis and does not get the 12 Issues.

[JasonTodd428]

Lost Army is a DC Mini, which explains why it ends in November with the other minis and does not get the 12 Issues.

Yeah, about that. If it was a mini then why not advertise it as such from the get go and why the stealth cancellation? DC had no problem at all with actually advertising both Bizzaro and Bat-Mite as minis. If Lost Army was also intended to be a mini then they should have said that from the start but they didn't do so. I don't believe for one moment that is was originally intended as a mini myself. Personally, I think what happened is that the Green Lantern franchise is one of those that DC is returning to a "Meat and Potatoes" and therefore more traditional status quo and they can't have most of the Green Lanterns lost somewhere in space if they are going to do that hence the cancellation of Lost Army. In other words I think editorial had something to do with it and not that it was a mini originally.

[danielthomasandrewdaly]

Dear DC. In case you are listening, I think a heck of a lot of the time there are series you start which attract just a small tiny core of readers who will probably commit, and keep on committing, to buying each issue of the series. It might just initially have a tiny audience, which may only grow slowly. Maybe a step at a time. Something like the new Lobo, for example, which is up for cancellation (which I have every issue of so far), is a brilliant comic, but hasn't been able to get the kind of numbers DC wants for permanent ongoing release. I don't know - you guys are the comic company, and generally know how to run the show. And I know the comic store itself can usually only house so many comics. But sometimes I feel you should take a risk, and wait a heck of a lot longer on some series, just like the new Lobo, and the new Omega Men, and wait and see if that tiny initial audience, which is usually the case for many new comics, doesn't work out how great a product they have and gradually, even slowly, grow, and perhaps, after 5 or 6 years of small sales, starts really catching on. Sometimes things just take some time, you know.