Two Random DC Complaints (Relaunches and E-Comics)

[Loren]

1.

Glancing down the solicitations list, I was suddenly struck by how many of DC's titles have been relaunched in the past few years. The result is that for a company that's been around for almost 70 years, only 10 titles currently have numbers above #100.

By February issue number, they are, in descending order:

847 - Action Comics
828 - Detective Comics
663 - Batman
661 - Superman
229 - ...
159 - Robin
147 - ...
129 - Nightwing
117 - ...
103 - Birds of Prey

You'll notice that every one of the titles I listed are Batman or Superman family titles. Can you, off the top of your head, recall what the other three are?

Hellblazer #229, Looney Tunes #149, and Scooby-Doo #119.

Yep, after Superman and Batman, John Constantine has the next-highest numbered DC series.

Incidentally, the next-highest numbered series is "100 Bullets" #81. Next after it is "Green Arrow" at a mere #71, then "Catwoman" at #64 and bordering-on-cancellation "Hawkgirl" at #61.

Y'know, Marvel got a bad rep for unnecessarily relaunching titles several years back, but DC may have finally matched them.

2.

So I was checking links on my Free Online Comic Book Compendium (http://www.lorencollins.net/freecomic/), and I discovered that nearly every DC E-comic that had been online has disappeared. Vertigo is still well-represented (thanks to this program (http://www.dccomics.com/news/?nw=6186)), but virtually everything else is gone. The only DCU book that remains on the site is Animal Man #1, because it's grouped under Vertigo. The only Wildstorm book that remains is Ex Machina #1. America's Best Comics is gone completely.

Meanwhile, Marvel continues to add at least one new issue a week (and often more) at their DigitalComics site, and now their index exceeds 130 issues. Strangely, the graphic novel indexes on DC's site have defined indicia for free online #1s, but Ex Machina is the only one outside the Vertigo page. DC needs to get its digital act together on this.

[cactusmaac]

1. Does it really matter? If the stories between the covers are up to scratch, I couldn't care less how the monthlies are numbered. Especially when I'm more than likely to get the trade anyway.

2. Yeah, problem is neither company really seems to care about digital distribution. The sales they get from traditional avenues seem enough for them.

[Cicero]

^ Marvel apparently has something in the works.

[filthysize]

Marvel releasing archives seems to be a testing ground to me. It's not impossible that they'll start selling TPBs in e-comic form on CDs. If one of them does it, it probably wouldn't be long until the other follows suit.

[Loren]

1. Does it really matter? If the stories between the covers are up to scratch, I couldn't care less how the monthlies are numbered. Especially when I'm more than likely to get the trade anyway.

In the long run, no, it doesn't matter, but I think it's symptomatic of a publishing outlook that I (and I imagine many others) aren't fond of.

Marvel got raked over the coals several years back for relaunching everything for the sake of the sales boost accompanying a new #1, and now it looks like DC wasn't smarter so much as they were simply several years behind.

Spinning out of "Infinite Crisis," DC opted to relaunch four of its longer-running titles. And how have they fared?

"Flash" probably had the strongest reason for a relaunch, with the title characater changing. Unfortunately, that editorial decision proved to be a fairly bad one, and the relaunch has bombed fantastically.

"Wonder Woman" got the 'famous writer' relaunch treatment that is usually reserved for Kevin Smith. The three issues that got released in the last seven months haven't exactly satisfied fans.

Back in 1996, "JLA" was a justified relaunch, with a wholesale change of lineup. "Justice League of America" got a new #1 just for the sales bump, which it's maintained fairly well. On the other hand, "the stories between the covers" are apparently NOT up to scratch (not that the ones prior to the relaunch were all that good either).

"Justice Society of America" seems to have fared best, although I imagine it was relaunched just to be a companion relaunch to JLA. It's also the only one to retain its previous writers.

In other words, it seems that when DC puts its eye on relaunched #1s as a marketing strategy, it takes its eye off of quality stories.