What If Rebirth Fails?

[Ascended]

Riddle me this:

If New 52 and DCYou are so successful, why change up everything after only 5 years? That not a great business model to change what's not broken. You can have a big event to increase readership without having a rebirth or reboot IF your original product is successful.

Well, DCYOU was far from a success; that initiative drove sales back down near pre-reboot numbers for the first time since 2011. There have been a lot of well received series from DCYOU, but glowing reviews dont pay the bills.

But it seems like this sort of re-branding is becoming the norm; Marvel's been doing it since 2012 with all their All NOW New & Different stuff, and the hype, not to mention the new #1's every 18 months, appears to be keeping sales at an inflated level. Once things begin to level out, a new re-branding event comes out and the process repeats. DC is just getting on that train.

So, to answer your riddle, because it sells.

Normally.

[Bukdiah]

Well, DCYOU was far from a success; that initiative drove sales back down near pre-reboot numbers for the first time since 2011. There have been a lot of well received series from DCYOU, but glowing reviews dont pay the bills.

But it seems like this sort of re-branding is becoming the norm; Marvel's been doing it since 2012 with all their All NOW New & Different stuff, and the hype, not to mention the new #1's every 18 months, appears to be keeping sales at an inflated level. Once things begin to level out, a new re-branding event comes out and the process repeats. DC is just getting on that train.

So, to answer your riddle, because it sells.

Normally.

Wow, I completely forgot about DCYOU. What the hell was it suppose to even be? I just remember We are Robins being one of the byproducts of it, right?

[Atlanta96]

Well, DCYOU was far from a success; that initiative drove sales back down near pre-reboot numbers for the first time since 2011. There have been a lot of well received series from DCYOU, but glowing reviews dont pay the bills.

But it seems like this sort of re-branding is becoming the norm; Marvel's been doing it since 2012 with all their All NOW New & Different stuff, and the hype, not to mention the new #1's every 18 months, appears to be keeping sales at an inflated level. Once things begin to level out, a new re-branding event comes out and the process repeats. DC is just getting on that train.

So, to answer your riddle, because it sells.

Normally.

The constant re-brandings and relaunches are starting to hurt Marvel as well. Their Avengers and X-Men books don't sell nearly as well as they did during Marvel Now. The constant relaunches appear to be a phase that we're slowly growing out of, fortunately.

[Tayswift]

The constant re-brandings and relaunches are starting to hurt Marvel as well. Their Avengers and X-Men books don't sell nearly as well as they did during Marvel Now. The constant relaunches appear to be a phase that we're slowly growing out of, fortunately.

yeah, both dc and marvel re-started too much their comics series on the last year and it become tiresome collect/read. some readers will just buy trades or just jump out

so shelly bond was fired from Vertigo, but didio and Lee keep their jobs. Maybe if rebirth fails these two will be the next

[Lightning Rider]

It would be disastrous if it did. I don't think it will though.

But I'm not gonna lie, reading through the rebirth preview, I got pretty excited. I didn't expect to, even though I knew they were bringing back themes I really liked. But just flipping through the pages, I felt like my favorites (most of them) were becoming recognizable again, and the stories feel like actual fun stories that don't necessarily have some life-changing meaning, but still have important questions. I'll have to re-read it to draw out specifics.

[mr_crisp]

1) If Rebirth fails then Jim Lee has a great future in the fashion industry as a clothing designer.

2) Geoff Johns will stand by the side of the road with a sign that says 'Will Retcon Your Life for Food'.
'

[skyvolt2000]

Bleedingcool did a story on a comic book stores and Rebirth orders.

If that store in Dublin (mind you) is any indication of what to expect-

Batman will be fine. More folks was interested in HIM than the Rebirth mini series.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/04/...ng-dc-rebirth/

1 - Batman
2 - DC Universe
3 - Flash

The least ordered Rebirth One-shots were:
1 - Cyborg
2 - Blue Beetle
3 - Red Hood & The Outlaws

The least ordered ongoing series featuring a new character is SUPERWOMAN. 9% of customers ordered that.
The least ordered series is (no surprise) CYBORG.

If that is the common trend everywhere...

[colonyofcells]

Titles with ethnic characters tend to get cancelled pretty early.

[skyvolt2000]

Titles with ethnic characters tend to get cancelled pretty early.

Not all the time.

Now just because DC has done a piss poor job since 2011 does not mean everyone else does.

The point of my post was look at what a mess Cyborg is. Folks can't get excited about a book that they know nothing about.

A chracter who has been a joke since 2011. And no matter how hard they try to bury John Stewart and others-nobody cares about him. Especially since DC has yet to give you a reason beside the whoa is me, my Daddy hates me and I'm a freak.

[AlexanderLuthor]

Bleedingcool did a story on a comic book stores and Rebirth orders.

If that store in Dublin (mind you) is any indication of what to expect-

Batman will be fine. More folks was interested in HIM than the Rebirth mini series.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/04/...ng-dc-rebirth/








If that is the common trend everywhere...

Bleeding Cool's anecdotal, one-off comic shop sales are usually wildly off. That said, I could certainly see those 3 titles being the least ordered from Rebirth. But honestly, that points more to the problems in the direct model comic set-up. For all we know Cyborg and Blue Beetle are going to be the best books of Rebirth, but if the direct guys only order 1 for every 10 copies of Batman it really won't matter. The continued move to digital is such a positive for diversity - that's how a book like Omega Men gets enough support to get a full story

[Tayswift]

Not all the time.

Now just because DC has done a piss poor job since 2011 does not mean everyone else does.

The point of my post was look at what a mess Cyborg is. Folks can't get excited about a book that they know nothing about.

A chracter who has been a joke since 2011. And no matter how hard they try to bury John Stewart and others-nobody cares about him. Especially since DC has yet to give you a reason beside the whoa is me, my Daddy hates me and I'm a freak.

Cyborg problem is Johns put him on JL, and then just left him there on computers and opening boom tubes. why would I read his solo series?

I think that a titans book could be better to develop him and get people interested on solo

[Ascended]

Wow, I completely forgot about DCYOU. What the hell was it suppose to even be? I just remember We are Robins being one of the byproducts of it, right?

Well, aside from a hyped re-branding, it was supposed to be two things.

1- an extension of the "indie flavor" success found by Batgirl of Burnside and, in lesser indie ways, Harley Quinn. DC's idea was to expand beyond traditional spandex and capes and solidify their hold on the demographics that lean towards publishers like Image more than the superhero-heavy Big 2.

2- a shakeup of the major names similar to what we saw in the early-mid 90's. So things like Truth Superman, Gordan-Batman, Aquaman as an Atlantean outlaw and so on, which mirrored things like Knightfall, Superman's Death-Return, and Hal being replaced by Kyle in that they were big, shock value gimmicks with little long-term application or appeal.

The problem with the whole thing, I think, was trying to do both at once. I think DC could have gotten away with a bunch of non-traditional books like Omega Men, Black Canary, and Prez, but not at the same time they were shaking up their core roster of characters. While there were lots of great books in the DCYOU, there was nothing for fans with a more traditional taste to grab onto. The new books were all "weird" and the stuff happening in the main characters' books outside of Justice League weren't close enough to a recognizable status quo.

And of course, Marvel's one-two combo of Secret Wars and Star Wars really pulled a chunk of the market, which would have happened no matter what.

[Atlanta96]

Bleeding Cool's anecdotal, one-off comic shop sales are usually wildly off. That said, I could certainly see those 3 titles being the least ordered from Rebirth. But honestly, that points more to the problems in the direct model comic set-up. For all we know Cyborg and Blue Beetle are going to be the best books of Rebirth, but if the direct guys only order 1 for every 10 copies of Batman it really won't matter. The continued move to digital is such a positive for diversity - that's how a book like Omega Men gets enough support to get a full story

Yeah, I don't consider that stores figures to be representative of Rebirth pre-orders at all. I remember another BC article posting a statement from a store saying its most anticipated DC books were Swamp Thing & Lois and Clark like it was a sign those series would sell well. As we know, they didn't. BC is fine, IMO, as long as you know to take their claims with a grain of salt.

[Bukdiah]

Thanks for the summary. I remember reading about it a while back and then never followed up on it.

[Ascended]

Thanks for the summary. I remember reading about it a while back and then never followed up on it.

Anytime.

Despite the low sales, there were some great books in there. You find yourself with some extra cash to burn and an itch for a new comic, check out some of the DCYOU stuff, they tried to have a little something for everyone (which, I think, was also a contributing factor in it failing).