Comments on Again With the Comics: DC is Losing Me.

"I like the DC Comics characters, but lately,...

2012-01-08T13:48:23.716-07:00

"I like the DC Comics characters, but lately, I don't like the DC Comics so much."

This has always been my primary issue with DC. I like DC heroes more than pretty much any Marvel heroes, but DC storylines and villains often give me migraines.

Oddly, I've finding myself more drawn to DC an...

2011-04-12T17:17:50.246-06:00

Oddly, I've finding myself more drawn to DC and less enchanted with Marvel. Maybe part of it is DC's acknowledgement of the whole 2.99 price point deal, but in general I'm just happier with how they're developing their characters and telling their stories. I am wary of Flashpoint, and pretty sure it could lead to either a short DC vacation or a reexamination of what I read on a regular basis. Loving Brightest Day, and meanwhile kinda dreading/avoiding Fear Itself.

I just gave up on comics. Besides the secret six t...

2011-04-05T01:11:17.026-06:00

I just gave up on comics. Besides the secret six trades or whatever trades I happen to see that has great art I just dont care. Prices are too high and I hate looking like a tool explaining character continuity.

It really is a shame, at one point in my life I wa...

2011-04-03T16:24:28.364-06:00

It really is a shame, at one point in my life I was buying 30-35 DCU titles a month, with this latest wave of cancellations I'm buying 2 - Secret Six & whatever Batman book Grant Morrison is writing. Oh, and Jonah Hex too, does that count as a DCU book? So 3. Still more then Marvel I guess, which is at zero. I don't even buy JLA anymore, which I have been buying faithfully since 1977- the last renumbering was my jumping off point. 3 more books and I'm gone forever DC Universe!

One of the things I hate is that DC tries to have ...

2011-04-02T04:09:41.746-06:00

One of the things I hate is that DC tries to have it both ways: As continuity heavy as Marvel yet free to disrupt continuity every couple of years for a spike in sales. Anyone able to actually describe DC's continuity? Of course, FlashPoint's gonna be another reboot. (That said, if it gets rid of Superman's idiotic marriage, I'm for this ripping up of the past!)

Read THUNDER--best DC book right now, up there wit...

2011-03-30T17:57:21.189-06:00

Read THUNDER--best DC book right now, up there with the Paul Cornel Luthor story.

Well, I liked what JMS did with Superman, but I do...

2011-03-30T16:54:12.472-06:00

Well, I liked what JMS did with Superman, but I don't pay any attention to cataclysmic event storylines.
Very sad to see Doom Patrol go. Again. Giffen's snark gets kind of old, but except for the John Byrne run, which bored me to tears, I've always looked to DP for a challenging, genuinely weird fun read.

Yeah, DC is really driving my business away. Just ...

2011-03-30T14:58:42.426-06:00

Yeah, DC is really driving my business away. Just about a year ago I actually had more DC titles on my pull list than I had Marvel. Now it's back to overwhelmingly Marvel.

Supergirl's book just became dead to me after the creative team switch. (It really helped inform me to drop the book when their next writer announces his departure after the first issue.)

The entire Superman line was just battered when JMS tried to mess with it. It's since improved with the new fill-in writer. And I love Paul Cornel's Lex Luthor -- but I also want Superman back in his own book. These two titles, with Superman coming back to Action Comics, and the vastly improved Grounded issues - they just barely escaped a cut on my pull list.

JSA has been on the fence too (Even though I even got my letter printed in today's issue!) Luckily things are looking better, with the All-Stars being canceled, and a supposedly happier tone coming back to the book. Now all they have to do is remind Scott Kolins that Liberty Belle and Jessie Quick are the same person.

I love Geoff John's Flash, so I'm of course reading the main Flashpoint mini-series. But I'm only trying the Reverse Flash One-Shot, and the Canterbury Cricket one-shot. (That just looks like fun!)

Besides Supergirl those books I mentioned above where merely in danger of getting cut. The same can't be said for Batman & Robin and Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion book, while I love it, has just been annoying me to no end with tie-ins to Adventure Comics, Annuals, and One-Shots. I'm just not interested enough to keep on reading. And Batman and Robin - I loved the book, but I can't stick around waiting forever for the new creative team to get off their butts and actually put out the issues they promised. Paul Cornel's 3 issue fill-in was good, but the White Knight story has felt lacking -- and then we get another fill in team to do a Red Hood story arch, and without any info on wether the supposedly permeant creative team is suppose to come back. Sorry DC, you lost you're chance.

On the Marvel side, the one book over there I'm canceling is Deadpool. Simply too many issues all at once, with stories that are leaving me with less and less content; I always get the feeling the issues are being padded out with full-page silliness just to up the number of Deadpool issues sold each month. Silliness for Deadpool is fine - but those antics have long since become unfunny.

"Basically, it seems like if I like a title, ...

2011-03-30T13:29:12.416-06:00

"Basically, it seems like if I like a title, and it kind of stands off to the side doing its own thing, DC will cancel it."

Or at the least, if you like a title, and it kind of stands off to the side doing its own thing, the sales will be atrocious.

DC's pretty good at giving books enough rope. Enough marketing's another story but if the fanbase (limited as it is in the direct market) only wants to read comics they feel are "important," then DC has a lot more work to do by ways or reducation than just letting REBELS (which was a pretty good book) last more than 25 issues.

Of course, canceling the bottom 1/4 of the line to release 50 Tie-in books to a big event isn't exactly the right signal.

It's either a "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." mentality or at the least. "Well, we made this bed and now if we want market share, we have to sleep in it."

You can't blame DC for axing good books that aren't selling. Except for how you sort of can blame them.

There's no understating how completely underwh...

2011-03-30T11:56:53.430-06:00

There's no understating how completely underwhelming Flashpoint is. It's kind of amazing, really.

But I would say this much: you're still reading Batman because of Morrison's "weaving Batman epic." Which is great, so am I, but I that book is easily just as complicated as anything else DC publishes. It's actually perhaps more tied to continuity.

And let's not pretend that either of the Big Two are doing anything to attract new readers; all they do these days is try to hold on to old ones.

Those of us who jumped off at earlier mega-events ...

2011-03-30T04:35:11.633-06:00

Those of us who jumped off at earlier mega-events have been waiting for you. Don't worry. We have support groups. There's some soft drinks and coffee in the lounge. I think they're running some Fleischer SUPERMAN cartoons later. Feel free to browse the literature about such great stand-alone comics as Terry Moore's ECHO and dozens of other independents.

Not sure really who DC's target audience is anymore. They alienated longtime fans like me so completely that even if I do see a book that interests me it's so deeply convoluted in non-continuity that I can't make heads or tails of it. Kids? I don't think so. New readers wouldn't last five minutes.