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“As I said above, I don’t think this is a failure of a creative team by any means. ”

but it is. Azzarello delivered a good run pretty easy to follow up, and Finches can’t deliver a good story. the pace is awful, art is awful too. This is pure crap and is unnaceptable for a wonder woman book

Why are the Finches still getting work? Who’s buying this fecal matter?

Man, good thing they locked-down talent like this.

[…] Source link […]

Looks like the product of a company that has just given up.

“It resembles something that would have been the standard for the industry in the 1970’s.”

The industry standard in the ’70s looked a helluva lot better than this. Even the second-tier artists like Herb Trimpe, Don Heck and Sal Buscema were above the level of this stuff. This looks like a high school kid’s sketches.

FWIW, Parallax is’t necessarily decades older than modern Hal, although he might be 10 years older. I’m sure the differences between the specific timing of the pre-Flashpoint universe (Parallax is from) and the post-Flashpoint universe (Hal is from) are not something DC wants to get in to. But the main thing is, the effect of having the Parallax entity inside older Hal was that his temples became white.

But it’s probably fair to say that the comic could have explained that in some way.

[…] The Beat – Green Lantern #50 […]

“The comic is written by Geoff Johns (Justice League) with art from Ethan Van Sciver (Green Lantern: Rebirth), Ivan Reis (Aquaman), Gary Frank (Batman: Earth One) and Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman) ”

Doesn’t sound like a fresh start to me….

Superman kills someone. Oh, wait, they already did that in Injustice.
A lone wolf goes on a mass-shooting spree, killing a supporting character.
(Cue the “purple skins” scene from Green Lantern #76.)

Meh. I’m not sure DC can go in another direction with hype like this. The real news is the creative assignments. Admittedly, this big one shot doesn’t sound particularly new or different to me, either. Fingers crossed, and for cryin out loud, let’s see who the creators are already!

It’s Geoff Johns, so I’m gonna take a wild guess and assume someone gets an arm ripped off.

It seems there will be some sort of amalgam of past continuity in DC’s “Rebirth”. With that in mind, I’ve jotted down the top ten possibilities on what that “controversial scene” might be:

#10 – Superman uses his magical eye vision from Superman IV and builds a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

#9 – Bruce Wayne finally comes out of the closet and wears his Rainbow Batman costume from the 1950’s.

#8 – Wonder Woman brings her Lasso of Truth out of mothballs and uses it on candidates in the Presidential debates (all fail.)

#7 – Mighty Isis is detained by airport security for, well — being called Mighty Isis.

#6 – The Vigilante becomes a right-wing radio talk show host.

#5 – The Red Lanterns are discovered to be running a brothel in Amsterdam.

#4 – The Teen Titans are shut down by Child Protective Services,

#3 – A supporting female character from past continuity is NOT revived for the sole purpose of being raped, beaten or shot in the spine.

#2 – In order to complete All Star Batman and Robin — Rip Hunter, the Infinite Man, Clock King, Tick Tock Tyler The Hour-man, Chronos and the Time Trapper lock Jim Lee and Frank Miller into the Legion of Super-Heroes time bubble — give them all the time in the world — and they still can’t finish it.

And finally — the #1 possible “controversial scene” will be —

The Flash’s Mopee is blamed for the New 52.

A return to the pre-flashpoint DCU would be nice. keep what worked from Nu52, but incorporate it into the previous canon. And just bring back the old costumes for characters like Superman. going tacticool LINESLINESLINES and no underwear was cool at first, but it’s gotten old.

They’re going to show us that Uncle Ben is alive and served as an assassin for the Soviet Union.

He’s gonna kill Bruce Wayne, because he is a failure and needs a legacy. Douche.

I know – Max Lord will shoot Blue Beetle in the head.

No wait – Wonder Woman will strangle Max Lord with her magic lasso.

Oh I’ve got it – how about having Dr Light turn out to be a rapist?

Or maybe they can have Superboy beat the Golden Age Superman to death with his bare hands.

I guess to be fair to DC – they were selling a lot more books back when they were pulling cynical stunts like that than they are now, so I can see why they would be looking to recapture the “magic.”

I was very excited for DC Rebirth – it gives me Hope – which I haven’t had since… 2010? I haven’t been excited by a DC Comics announcement since 2010.

But then Dan says something abominably stupid like this. I’m still excited and hopeful, but less so than before this asinine comment.

Let’s hope it doesn’t involve any rape or dismemberment! but the track record suggests otherwise… ugh. :(

As I see it, this is DC attempting to institute brand loyalty off the back of their upcoming films and their fairly successful television shows.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that the only really sustainable business model at the Big Two has to come through characters taking precedent over creators per se. I think this is some of the trouble that Marvel is running into right now with All New, All Different, where just prior to that, they had nobly highlighted creators first and the properties second. But what happens when those creators head over to Image? It’s hard to expect those readers to stick around if Matt Fraction, Rick Remender or Ales Kot were your big selling points.

I personally find that less enticing, but c’est la vie.

For DC’s part, they have to secure the LCS base again first, those very customers they lost during the New 52 era and pivot off the *hopeful success* of their film franchises for new and curious readers. There’s a reason those June launch books are all Batman v Superman characters and CW stars.

I think Kyle raises some good points. As a long time reader, I know you are interested in the creators, Todd, but I wonder how important that is to the majority of DC readers/potential readers/lapsed readers and to the retailers.

I’m a believer that they need to focus on their characters and not the people who are creating them. Put Big Name A on Superman and make a big deal out of it and maybe Big Name A’s fans start reading Superman. When Big Name A leaves, so does the fan. Market to Superman fans and you have a chance at keeping the fan (as long as the comic is good, of course).

Didn’t really see it that way. They said up front that they’re announcing who the creative teams are at WonderCon. Close to home for DC Corporate and in front of more fans than retailers. It’s a month from now and all they’re doing is building hype for their books. Cut them a little slack. Not much, but a little.

Putting Geoff Johns front and center will definitely bring relief to long time readers. He’s about as close as we’ve got to an advocate at DC. If he says trust him, I have no reason not to at this point.

I agree, informed decisions about the product cannot be made without knowing the creative teams. Regarding your issue with the double shipping, books such as Amazing Spider-Man and Extraordinary X-Men have been on an accelerated shipping schedule since they started at $3.99. Ultimate Spider-Man double shipped through most of Mark Bagley’s run. I am not a huge proponent of double shipping, but if I am on a budget the $2.99 price point sounds like the better option. Again, we need to know more about the content before making any real decisions. I also hope DC thinks about the structure of their stories arcs. Everything does not need to be a 6 issue arc. Batgirl does a really good job of done-in-ones with a continuing subplot.

Since I rarely follow creators DC not announcing teams yet does not bother me. I know which properties I like from the list they presented, and I’ll decide based on both the creative teams and title descriptions.

Kyle raises some important points. As I posted in the MMW boards almost a month ago, I’m wondering if upper management (as in *really* upper management, the ones up above Johns, Lee and Didio) have the view that as long as DC editorial carries out management’s edicts, they are in fact doing their job. In other words, maybe upper management places a substantially greater emphasis on having a particular publishing strategy rather than fostering creativity and good storytelling from those folks who are actually working on the books. You need *both* to be a successful comics company. Good creatives without a publishing plan will result in underselling your product just as having a publishing plan without proper attention to creatives will result in low-selling product.

That’s a purely speculative hypothesis on my part, of course, but it might explain why so much of DC feels like they don’t really know what to do with their characters. I started buying a lot more DC during the lead-up into Infinity Crisis and was enjoying the overall DC Universe up through around Final Crisis. But after that, more and more areas of the DCU felt rudderless to me — not just with New52 and DCyou but even before the New 52 launch.

In theory, the new exclusive contracts with creators might be a signal that the pendulum will begin to swing back to something more balanced. But we’ll have to see if DC is able to give their creatives the space to do the kinds of stories that will bring in readers.

Compare this to the launch of DCYou* which had the creators front and centre in the advertising – example:
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2015/06/30/are-you-ready-for-action-comics-greg-pak-and-aaron-kuder

*(DC probably doesn’t want to hear the phrase “compare this to DCYou”)

My suggestion:
Roll out a new title every week (if you need to maintain “52”) or month.
DC PR does everything by clockwork… one week you announce the title, one week you schedule interviews, one week you send out previews, one week you push the sales…

Make the title a miniseries, but don’t tell anyone outside the office.
Let the creative team pitch any idea, in any universe/timeline/whatever.
If sales tank after six issues, end it, solicit the trade, and see how that works.
If it does, restart the series again, and see how it continues.

Everything is completed before publication. All six issues.
If the series is strong, then you renew immediately, getting the creators rescheduled.

If it doesn’t work, you place it in the vault, and maybe someone revisits the property five years from now.

If nothing else, DC gets to test new talent, and let existing talent create something outside the restrictions of editorial.
DC gains some cred for trying new things, battling Image for innovation.

Maybe you get a new Sandman. Maybe you get an All-Star Superman. Maybe you get ‘Mazing Man.
Maybe you find the next Gaiman.

One advantage of just having the titles is that we can imagine any variation on the concept that we like. So obviously the Super-Sons book is going to be based on a trove of Bob Haney scripts discovered during the cross-country move.

When has Dennis Barger ever been at Comics PRO?

My big question (outside of creative teams, of course): Will DC really only be producing 26 issues in June?

That seems to be the case, but then again, there were no final issue notifications in the May solicits. We know Omega Men is ending at #12, because Jim Lee stated so. But what about Midnighter, or Constantine: The Hellblazer, or Justice League of America? etc…I know JLA is getting relaunched in the Fall, but what happens in the meantime?

I’m assuming all New 52 launch books end at 52 and all DC You books end at 12, but 26 sure does seem like a (very welcome) small number of comics for DC to produce.

It was stated over on CBR that they’d be printing 32 monthly (some bi-weekly) titles. A shocking drop from their 52.

I’m wondering just how much of this rebirth will be a huge dropping off point for fans. Every single title is a top tier character book now. They’re all Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman oriented. With the exception of The Titans (Cyborg, Titans, Nightwing, etc.) B and C list characters (Swamp Thing, Midnighter, Martian Manhunter, etc. all gone. Sure those aren’t big draws for many folks, but I’ve always been a niche, weird character fan. I’m just not big into the main tent pole characters. So depending on the creative teams, this might be a big reason to actually pick up fewer DC titles, not more. We shall see…

“I love this world but there’s something missing”
Quality?
Something actually worth reading?
Effort?

I was at a Cpro once, total waste of money. ‘

Love
Dennis

I got a good laugh out of Tom’s comment; he’s harsh, but I agree with the sentiment. Bring back the pre-Flashpoint continuity and tell fresh, exciting stories with those time tested versions of the characters. You might be surprised how many lapsed readers you regain as a result. I think it’s one of the main reasons as a whole Marvel is kicking DC’s ass in sales right now. Continuity.

I will never find the calls by superhero fans for more creativity in their favorite corporate-owned multimedia franchise characters to be nothing short of hilarious.

Focusing on core characters may make sense for comics sales, but if they don’t build up B- and C-list characters how will they launch their catalogue of IP into other media where the real money is?

Thank you for writing this, Heidi. It’s probably the most objective DC thing I’ve read on Comicsbeat and I mean that sincerely. It confirms where DC is going now – not for new readers like me. Long boxes says it all, don’t know anyone with one of those. It’s a good jumping off point for me. I loved DC You and the way the New 52 made DC accessible for me for the first time ever.

Isn’t he stating HIS run is ending with 12? Not necessarily that the series is ending at that point? This article makes it confusing.

ACTION COMICS #957
DETECTIVE COMICS #934

Wait… WHAT?

They’re clearly reverting to the old numbering for Action and Detective so that they can make a big deal of it when those titles hit #1000.
Also, the semi-monthly release schedule of those books will get them there within two years.

ACTION COMICS #957
DETECTIVE COMICS #934

Gah. They’ve totally turned into Joe Quesada’s Marvel comics now. ;) Ugh.

Sigh the Marvel method of dual shipping is good way for me to not want to invest my time or energy and instead just drop the few remaining DC books I do read..

Finally… I hope

“Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Phil Jimenez, and Gary Frank.”

Party like it’s 2006, DC!

Bleeding Cool says Batman bi-weekly for Tom….

OH MY GOD THEY LOCKED DOWN JOHN TIMMS?!?!?!?!

So…does that mean no more Valiant work for Mann? Is King off Vision?

King just stated on twitter that he will be on Vision through issue 12. And yeah, no more Valiant work for Mann in the foreseeable future I assume.

And Rich, that sounds good to me!

“In case you’re wondering, Superman has never dipped below 30K in the modern Diamond-served comics market. The lowest ever recorded sales were 31,504 for issue #697 back in February of 2010.”

superman 29 sold around 33k

Superman 29 $2.99 DC 33,633

“Despite being returnable, I believe there is some sort of restocking fee, plus the time involved in processing the returns—any retailers out there want to verify this?”

DC did NOT charge a restock fee this time (thankfully), and DC structured the program so that, in order to qualify, you had to order either half-of-BATMAN or BATMAN depending on the title — For example, ROBIN SON OF BATMAN was “order BATMAN”, while STARFIRE was “order half of BATMAN” — and you had to order like that on EVERY title, or NONE of them were returnable.

So, basically, they encouraged us to WILDLY over order.

-B

It’s super sad that DC encouraged wild over-ordering on such lame books.
The DC-YOU books were, by and large, just really lame and uncompelling.

You’re not going to shift PREZ copies without a HUGE name writer or artist. Further, someone who is ‘big in novels’ or ‘big in TV’ does not translate as big in comics.

I hear Superman American Alien is good (i’m not buying it) but the house Ads for it were just a picture of Max Landis. I don’t know who Max Landis is, but his picture makes me think i wouldn’t like his stuff (Hipster looking guy) – so, no sale.

I mean jesus, if Jonathan Hickman isn’t announced as a Rebirth Author – i’m f**king scared for DC and MOnthly Floppy comics overall. These are frightening/sad numbers.

There’s really no reason to buy floppies anymore. Why should we pay more for individual issues in which a third of the content is advertisements, when we can wait and pay less for an ad-free slicker bound version?

Floppies are a waste. Time to evolve, DC and Marvel.

Shame about some of those numbers. I’m enjoying Constantine, but I imagine it’s not going to survive whatever shake up is planned for Rebirth.

God, they really need to do something to promote those new Vertigo series. sSomething different thanv stopping the 9.99$ first trade and upping the floppy price to 3.99$ I mean.

Crazy idea. In my admittedly limited view, it’s seemed like DC always had an older audience than Marvel. Or to be more precise, Marvel grabbed a bigger chunk of the young/new reader market from the 1970s on.

Are these numbers fundamentally about the DC reader dying off?

Mike

@Skottie – because we don’t want to wait six months for the trade? And DC doesn’t want to pay writers/artists for six months without getting any revenue?

@Mbunge – dunno about that. Barring the Star Wars books, are the Marvel numbers THAT different?

@Zach: Why shouldn’t the Star Wars titles count? They’re comic books, right?

In terms of absolute numbers, the Marvel figures are a bit more of a mixed bag. But in relative terms there are quite a few Marvel titles that did better than DC’s books in January. The important caveat here is that there are a lot of #1 and #2 issues from Marvel since January was still an important month for their ANAD launch.

Batman #48 was DC’s best-selling title, and it placed #8 for the month at ~101K. There were six (3 SW, 3 super-hero issues) Marvel titles (plus one Image title) that sold better than that. The next highest DC issue came in at #24 on the Diamond countdown and only sold slightly better than half of Batman #48.

DC shipped 74 issues in January. Twenty-one Marvel issues *each* shipped more copies than 97% of DC’s output. Of those twenty-one issues, seventeen were super-hero issues.

DC had only 4 issues in January that shipped more than 45K according to ICv2. Marvel had thirty-one issues that shipped more than 45K and Image had two. So Marvel had thirty-one issues with bigger numbers than 94% of DC’s output.

When comparing DC numbers to Marvel numbers for January, yes, DC’s numbers are very soft relative to Marvel’s, and it isn’t just Star Wars issues.

the international marketing campaign has also been genius. I live in Peru and last week they launched a tv ad mocking one of the candidates running for office in this year’s national elections. deadpool’s been all over the place.

How is it Liefeld’s name has been in the media more for one movie than Kirby has for over a dozen?

prolly because Liefeld is still alive. He can like, be interviewed and stuff.

Maybe this will convince studios that superhero movies don’t have to be PG-13 to be hits. I can’t think of an R-rated movie based on a Marvel or DC property since WATCHMEN in 2009.

Kingsman, george

Liefeld is correct that R-rated action movies used to be common. The early Die Hard and Terminator movies were rated R. And the first Conan movie. So were the Robocop movies, the Rambo movies, the Dirty Harry movies, etc. This continued into the late ’90s with big-budget movies like Face/Off, Air Force One, and The Matrix, all rated R.

But at some point, studios decided that these movies were so expensive, they had to be PG-13 so “everyone” could see them. So we get the ridiculous MAN OF STEEL, where a heavily populated city is devastated but we see no mangled corpses. Because corpses might result in an R.

AGAIN with the Jack Kirby whining??? FFS. There’s always some random idiot complaining that Jack Kirby isn’t getting his due each and every time a Marvel movie comes out. It’s just plain tiresome… Give it a rest already… HE’S DEAD. STOP BEATING ON HIM.

George you hit the nail on the head. I was lamenting the very same thing earlier tonight. Happy to see something tongue in cheek and over the top has injected life into an increasingly tired genre.

More importantly, I’d be interested in seeing more of these films adopt a mid-level budget approach. The need for extravagant productions are why so many of these outings have such similar, world-shaking endings.

This movie strives to be a comic book brought to life. And it mostly succeeds. They have done a lot with such a low budget. More than expected!

If this doesn’t quite make the money WB wants, I’m fascinated to see where they go next. Suicide Squad is basically done, barring post-production, and Wonder Woman is in front of the cameras right now. Those movies are happening no matter what.

Do they just kinda abandon Superman altogether? Beg George Miller to take over Justice League? What becomes the end game? If there’s one at all…

Scott Mendelson wrote up a good article at Forbes regarding this movie possibly being Zack Snyder’s “Batman Returns”, which as a cinephile who is a little fatigued from the Marvel way of doing things, would be welcome news…less so the bean counters at WB. https://t.co/i8OZtwJO3e

At least Suicide Squad is getting decent advance buzz, as opposed to the more uneasy feelings about BvS, (which is more due to the feelings about the earlier Man of Steel than anything else).

The open question which is kept under wraps, is how Wonder Woman plays into the plot of BvS. This could the the aspect which makes or breaks the film. It could be that WW plays the role of teacher, guiding the two title characters into trying to understand each other. At least that’s my hope.

If what I’m hearing about the potential villain of a JLA movie is right, I’m worried about the franchise. Darksied he’s way too similar to Marvel’s Thanos, who’ll feature in the next Avengers movies.

“The open question which is kept under wraps, is how Wonder Woman plays into the plot of BvS.”

I hope she has plenty to do, because she’s the only reason I plan to see this movie.

I wonder if it will end up being a situation kind of like what happened with the Spider-Man movies, where they still made money but weren’t connecting with the audience like they used to so they scrapped them all. No way it doesn’t make money, that’s for sure though. I desperately want BvS to be good but with Snyder at the helm, I don’t have much faith that they will be, so it’s gonna be a nervous few months.

Two words.

Sucker. Punch.

drew mcweeney also said that there would be no jokes in the DC universe. Even just from the trailers of the movies this is clearly wrong.

“there is no Kevin Feige at WB”…The moment I read that,,,the article and the site promoting this BS lost its credibility.

Ofcourse….since the last movie was so divisive among audience and a select audience watching the follow up to that sequel cannot be taken as the final reaction. There’s a huge number of comic book fans and general audience highly anticipating its release. Looks like this angle/rumor is building up from a series of fan hatred towards Snyder’s accomplishment to this date with all his work and the last trailer that had a positive reaction quickly needed an offset treatment from the obvious sources.. Sources trying to relate to Kevin Feige’s creative model as the method to adopt are keeping a biased approach since the latest outings from Marvel didn’t perform money wise as in the expected range.

“I’d guess both of these reports are true enough as far as they go. My entire key to understanding the WB comes from a conversation I had a few years ago at San Diego when I was randomly seated next to a former WB writer who told me ‘The problem is, the studio just doesn’t like or get superheroes.'”

Wasn’t one of the reasons for forming the DC Entertainment division to overcome this very problem?

“since the latest outings from Marvel didn’t perform money wise as in the expected range.”

What does this mean?

“Avengers- Age of Ultron” made over a billion dollars and it wasn’t even a good movie. Also, all the talk of Ant Man’s mediocre box office returns came before it was discovered that the money had legs and continued to make good money long after opening weekend. Its final box office numbers are pretty good- better than Captain America and close to Thor- especially since it was Marvel’s cheapest movie to make.

I don’t doubt that BVS will cross the billion dollar mark, but the final cost for production is ranging from between $200 million and “450 million. If the latter number proves true, BVS could make Avengers-level money and still be not as profitable.

WBs business model seems flawed. Too much money is getting thrown around. I’m pretty sure “Suicide Squad” will be a HUGE (Guardians of the Galaxy-type) success, but nobody I know personally- just random voices online- seems to be excited about Wonder Woman. The idea of having her exist in 2016 feels too dated. Most people I talk to aren’t even that excited about her presence in the BVS movie. My guess is that this will be WBs first big failure.

Then the real panic starts.

Does this mean it’s over and I can start buying DC Comics again?

Let me see if I’ve got this straight: they’re remaking covers from 51 issues ago? Is the ouroboros of nostalgia that tight behind us already? How long before they just start remaking the same comic every month?

My better half says: “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen!”

Boring! Who cares. Another lame idea from the DC management that needs to be replaced ASAP! Is it any wonder that DC is in trouble. I will not be ordering any of these covers for my store. Sheesh!

Is there a “problem” with the Bechdel test? I think it serves a good purpose, but point #2, on its own, doesn’t mean that a show/film is a failure. It’s possible that you can have a couple very good female characters who never meet each other, but they pass #1 and #3

Wow. Can you comment on the reason for this article? I don’t sit around making hashmarks about my personal obsessions when I watch TV. Or read a book, see a movie, etc. The main question I have about my entertainment–is it entertaining? Entertain first. Preach second. Or never. This commentary really belongs on a personal blog, not a comics news site.

How did Age of Ultron pass? The only conversation I can recall are when Black Widow and Mrs. Hawkeye discuss the gender of the baby which was male..

Ultron passes according to this – http://bechdeltest.com/view/6217/avengers:_age_of_ultron/

I think the Madam B/Black Widow scenes would qualify it if you exclude the baby discussion

Vichus – I completely agree that a show/movie can fail this test and still be good. I also don’t think the Bechdel test is the only gauge for how well women are represented in fiction, but it’s a decent and quantitative starting point, with the assumption that there will always be exceptions where the test doesn’t really work (like Gravity). I don’t think that was the case in any of these specific episodes, though.

Oh no! Not the Flash!

Jerry, of course you don’t. If you’ve never felt marginalized, then you’re not going to feel the need to speak out or point out certain things. If two people are out on an extremely hot day and one feels fine while the other does not, whose reaction is valid and whose is not?

Colin, there are more women in the film than that.

Hannah: Yeah, the Bechdel test would also “fail” if the movie only involved one or two people. Good point.

Any time that group stereotypes are reinforced it is a public issue, not simply “a personal obsession”.

I wish that one more point could be added to the Bechdel test:

4. In a scene featuring a female character, is she fully clothed, or is she in a state of undress, or wearing clothing that is overtly revealing in some way?

I love The Flash, but it definitely wouldn’t pass this test, either.

*tveeeeeeeet*

odds are toberoff will appeal and be denied to the supreme court even though just when it looked like at long last the never ending battle for who owns super man once and for all has been over by the courts deciding screw copyright law saying the siegels at least still own the original superman stuff before dc got a hold of it and screwed them out of the billions owned. but also have the rights of their half of superman fully now. for even if the supreme court did in a surprise rare move take the case.and rule for siegels warners would still fully claim super man is there once and for all . as the courts have sadly ruled. for superman sadly will never be back in the hands of his fathers once and for all till in the public domain.

Sad news! I followed the book, and was GLAD that Kory had had some happiness in her life! What DC needs to do is return to the classic design of Kory, massive auburn curls, and solid green eyes – and re-establish her with the classic New Teen Titans!

In their own super-group, of course….

Can I campaign for a Jimmy Olsen series by Palmiotti/Conner?

Arf, what a letdown. Super french talent Elsa Charretier just became its new penciller. Well, now DC has an opportunity to give the Legion to her!

[…] Palmiotti and Conner recently discussed DC’s decision to cancel this story, and apparently they had only been hired to take on these 12 issues. They are just ending things where they were always supposed to. This will still give us a full 12 issue run of Starfire by this brilliant team, to which they have just added the great penciller Elsa Charretier. I was so excited to see what this team would do with such a beautiful and talented character. This title is ending just as a reported big re-launch is supposed to take place in the DC comic universe. There is little information as to the nature of this “rebirth” but who’s to say that won’t include another Starfire solo book, or at least her return to the Teen Titans. I’m curious to see what DC has planed for our Tamareanian princess in the future. Would you want to see Starfire in a book of her own or team up with the Titans once again? What do you think of this decision to cancel a fairly successful book with a strong female lead character? […]

I Want The Present Starfire Comic Series To Continue With All The Same Characters.

Really? Starfire is one of the very few titles from DC in my store that is almost stable and actually sells. The incompetence at DC continues to astound!

This was a great article Mr. Lu! Thank you! And thanks to Marc Tyler Nobleman for a great book!

I do have one question though- I had read about and seen the red costume Kane did for Batman and the profound contributions of Bill Finger waaaaaaaay back in 1999 in an article by Arlen Schumer:

http://www.arlenschumer.com/images/stories/history_pdfs/BATMAN_coverstory.pdf

As far as I know that article was the very first mention of just how significant Bill Finger’s contribution had been to the very look and feel of Batman- and it had this great cover clearly illustrating what Batman would have looked like if not for Bill Finger, and an analysis of the whole thing.

In your article you write as if Mr. Nobleman’s book is the first mention of this in 2012- yet if you read Mr. Nobleman’s book it’s clear he took at least some inspiration from this article; most significantly in the red costume design- indeed it seems like Mr. Schumer’s article served as inspiration for Mr. Nobleman’s book.

So I’m curious why there is no mention of this cover image of the red Batman and this article from 1999? You talk about “Bill the Boy Wonder” as if that was the first mention of this in 2012- but I’d been aware of it more than 12 years prior to that book being published?

I’m curious because…in an odd way…it seems like Mr. Schumer got a bit of the “Bill Finger treatment”- no acknowledgment for a significant contribution to the fact that Bill Finger is now getting a credit in the movies and TV…

So my question is: does Mr. Nobleman have any documentation of the Bill Finger contributions to Batman that pre-date Mr. Schumer’s article from 1999?

If not, then doesn’t Mr. Schumer deserve at least a little credit for bringing the significance of Bill Finger’s contributions, and that illustration and analysis of a red Batman, to light for the public to see leading to the Bill Finger credits in other media?

I”m just curious.

Thanks again- it was a fantastic article!

Also:
DC Super Hero Girls: Finals Crisis by Various
On Sale Date: July 12, 2016 9781401262471, 1401262473 $9.99 USD, $11.99 CAD Trade Paperback

Wonder Woman at Super Hero High (DC Super Hero Girls) by Lisa Yee, Random House (Illustrated by)
On Sale Date: March 1, 2016 9781101940594, 110194059X $13.99 USD, $17.99 CAD Hardcover

Supergirl at Super Hero High (DC Super Hero Girls) by Lisa Yee, Random House (Illustrated by)
On Sale Date: July 5, 2016 9781101940624, 110194062X $13.99 USD, $17.99 CAD Hardcover

Future Quest honestly looks awesome! And that seems to be the overall consensus on the net (from what I’ve seen.) The rest… Hmm.

Scooby Doo is a great idea that’s trying way, way too hard.
Wacky Race Land – I’ve never even heard of this cartoon? How is that possible?!
The Flintstones – again, not sure how I feel about this? Kinda intrigued, depending on who the interior artist ends up being.

Future Quest could work, but I’m betting Dc First Wave all over again. Still good to that DC has some balls left and is willing to draw the Quest team with actual guns. And are keeping true to their orgins , Wish I could say the same for the super heros.
Wacky Races via Mad max reeks of hipster prentious hipster desperation along with Flinstones. There was nothing wrong with Wacky races as is. Heck South PArk proves in their last season its still funny concept that works.
Oh and Alex Ross space Ghost comics, Boom! triple digit sales.

Future Quest is the only one of these that looks interesting – and that’s all because of the creative team (who know how to do all-ages books based on existing properties).

For the rest – was the world really crying out for a grown-up Scooby-doo? Or Flintstones? Really? I know DC might be really jealous of the good press Archie has been getting but really?

DC’s corporate timeline is littered with failed imprints, including Johnny DC and Cartoon Network.

DC never seemed to be able to make titles aimed at kids and teens work. Or care to.
The highly visible properties were ignored by DC, and are now successfully published by Kaboom and IDW. (Super Secret Crisis War! was loads of fun!).

So DC has to dig into the archives and find what remains.
Yes, it feels a bit like First Wave.
Me… I’d like to see Scooby-Doo and Johnny Quest in a manga style. Quest seems perfectly suited for speed lines.

What DC isn’t doing? They’re not trying to develop the DC Universe properties for the kids and young adult markets, for libraries and bookstores and book fairs..DC generally waits for Warner Animation to develop a property, and then DC prints the comics, ending the series when the TV show leaves the airwaves.

Where’s the new version of Young Justice? (Or even the old version by Peter David?) Or a young adult version of the Legion of Super-Heroes? Or the next volume of “Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures”?

Or is DC happy to let others like Random House, Capstone, and Scholastic license the characters?
Maybe they should do the same for the New 52?

The Flintstones one looks truly terrible. Like fan art of the John Goodman movie. I just don’t understand who their target audience is for something like that. Fans of the cartoon who, uh, want more Flintstones, but in a totally non-Hanna Barbera style? Fans of the movies who want drawings that kind of look like them?

Same thing with Frankenstein JR and The Impossibles. Jonny Quest looks fine.

And Scooby Doo……… euuugh.

Hope it finds an audience!

Torsten, you’ve got the wrong idea.

DC no doubt would have loved to have the Cartoon Network books coming out from them. CN didn’t want that because they don’t get any money from the comic sales via licensing or anything like that because they’re all part of the same family. Which is why CN went to BOOM@, which of course did well, and IDW, which I suspect the rights have lapsed because IDW hasn’t published anything since the end of the Powerpuff Girls Smash Up mini..

And it’s certainly not like you’re going to s4e this stuff promoted either on the CN or Boomerang, where they’d get to the right target of fanbase, But Cartoon Network is too busy trying to convince their Family Guy animation inspired version of Scooty-Doo is what everyone whould be watching instead of the way they sank Mystery Incorporated as well as Young Justice, Green Lantern, and Beware The Batman. All because they couldn’t get any merchandising sales. So they got spiteful.

Second, most of this stuff couldn’t be done by DC. The rights to the HB characters for the most part have been tied up elsewhere. I suspect the Scooby-Doo Team Up book was the first attempt at seeing if something like this would work. And it more than did.

Going to echo some posters upthread and say Future Quest looks great cross-over fun. Don’t really care for the rest on first glance, though I think Scooby Doo could be interesting, depending on how self-aware it is.

Besides Future Quest, which looks kinda awesome, the rest (especially Scooby) look like somebody doing a parody of what DC’s new edgy take on Hanna Barbera, like “Hanna Barbera! It’s not for little kids anymore!” Ugh.

Best announcement from Dc in years! I will hapiily try it.