Having looked at the sales velocity of Marvel’s Marvel NOW! books, Todd Allen turns his attention to how well DC’s New 52 books are performing:
Looking past those two potential blockbusters, the failure of recent replacement books looms large. DC has shown the tendency to start cancelling titles as they fall under 18K in the Direct Market sales estimates. In February, they announced six cancellations in that sales area, including two titles from their previous wave of replacement titles. A third title from that replacement wave, Phantom Stranger, hovers just above the outer edges of the cancellation zone with 19.9K in estimated sales for January. It’s one thing to have titles fail after a year or two, but many of the replacement titles are crashing swiftly and end up being the ones replaced. There are “traditional” titles DC isn’t publishing right now that might fare better, like a solo title for Robin and a Superman/Batman team-up comic, but the Batman sub-line is pretty crowded as it is.
As of now, seventeen months into the New 52, only 33 titles from the original 52 launch books have not been announced as cancelled – And, as Allen notes, many of the replacement books have also come and gone. DC needs to work out how to make their bottom end work.
February 15th, 2013 at 11:03 am
I don’t know that 33 out of 52 is so bad, really, considering the churn at Marvel seems to happen at a pretty similar rate over the last couple of years. One would have to compare the rate of new series’ introduction and cancellation at DC in the years before the new 52 to get any sense of that.
February 15th, 2013 at 11:35 am
DC is being run like a TV network now. Marvel, too, but to a lesser degree. Think of Batman as if it’s The Simpsons, and Team 7 as if it’s Do Not Harm. Some shows run forever (or would if the actors didn’t eventually quit). Other shows die fast. And in between are the things that eke out an existence and the surprise hits and the one-season wonders. And at the end of the week, the network has filled every slot, even if a few slots are reruns. There will be results on a smaller scale – every show’s demographics and rations – and results on the big scale – how successful the network is.
Right now, I think Marvel is CBS, offering a fairly limited palette of choices but a decent amount of variation within those choices. DC is ABC, trying hard to stretch beyond the tried and true, but at a high casualty rate.
February 15th, 2013 at 11:59 am
DC might have only 33 titles that made it past 18 issues, but Marvel has only 10ish books that are older than a year without having a major retooling along with way (ie Red She Hulk, Dark Avengers) . Of those, only 2 are long lasting titles.
Venom, X-Factor, Avenging Spider-man, the Ultimate Line (3 books), Daredevil, Winter Soldier, Wolverine and the X-Men, Astonishing X-Men.
February 16th, 2013 at 12:05 am
Almost all DC 52 have major retooling on its creator teams
February 16th, 2013 at 10:38 am
I agree that DC needs to do something to push their bottom end books better, but I appreciate them at least trying to do some offbeat things. While Marvel Now has me buying more books from them than I have in years, it seems like almost every book they’re announcing is either a further milking of the Avengers and/or X-Men franchises or features characters already appearing in other books. I think DC’s bigger issue is that they simply can’t support 52 books. Trim the line down to 36 and I think they’d have better luck.
February 19th, 2013 at 8:51 pm
I’m surprised they pulled the plug on Amethyst so fast as it’s a nice area of the DCU to explore. Also, Team 7 and Hawkman will be missed. Joe Bennett’s art on Hawkman was great, and I hope DC finds a place for him and Aaron Lopresti soon.
Firestorm, Deathstroke, and Ravagers weren’t important to me or the DCU in general, I think.