CBR: The DC Comics New Reader Litmus Test: The New 52 Week 4

[CBR News]

DC Comics claims its relaunched number one issues are new reader-friendly, so CBR News asked non-comic book readers to weigh in on the final batch of New 52 comics, from "I, Vampire" to "The Flash" and more.


Full article here.

[cpattersoniv]

I like Austen. Stabby people, LOL.

[I-Ching]

No feedback on Wonder Woman?! :(

[hugueknot]

I was interested in these reviews (allowing for quite a bit of eyeball rolling) but the idea of trying to derive some statistical analysis from this not-really-random sampling of (mostly) snarky co-workers and acquaintances is ridiculous.

[the_speedball]

I don't really get the knock against cartoonists. Are new newspaper strips not being drawn anymore? How is that a "dated" profession?

[cpattersoniv]

No feedback on Wonder Woman?! :(

Wonder Woman was week 3.

[Joe Grendel]

I don't really get the knock against cartoonists. Are new newspaper strips not being drawn anymore? How is that a "dated" profession?

Newspapers were squeezing them out for years -- it's what drove out Bill Watterson and Berkely Breathed -- before newspapers themselves got into a crisis spiral.

It's a very dated profession.

[Marak the Merciless]

The whole "newbie" thing. I also hadn't read a proper DC comic in decades, so I am in the same boat at these reviewers, more or less. And I sampled about half of these new 52s.

The recurring comment that baffles me is "I couldn't follow a thing that was going on in this comic...". Really?? Obviously, some of the books are better than others... And, of course, some were really not-so-great. But incomprehensible? "Firestorm" was about as straightforward of a book as they come.

[Agent_Dark]

Newspapers were squeezing them out for years -- it's what drove out Bill Watterson and Berkely Breathed -- before newspapers themselves got into a crisis spiral.

It's a very dated profession.

All our newspapers here in Australia have daily cartoons... with more on Saturday and Sunday. It's usually the best part of the paper

[le_rooster]

It may be that the relaunch will primarily bring back people who used to read comics (like myself) or those who read other comics. This seems the most likely as those people will be more interested and are likely to hear about what DC is doing.

[FriendRoss]

I don't really get the knock against cartoonists. Are new newspaper strips not being drawn anymore? How is that a "dated" profession?

thats what my milkman said

[Mr. Holmes]

I don't know, these new readers just come off as idiots to me, whether I agreed or disagreed in the books they read.

[JudasCole]

People who are interested in SF&F are interested in SF&F. In other words, the market for these books in NEVER going to be Joe Plumber who likes to watch 24 and his wife who loves American Idol and Desperate Housewives. The only people that are going to convert to reading comics are either young kids who are just discovering their tastes in entertainment, or people that have already self selected to be part of geek culture.

There were way too many never-read/heard of anything but "The Dark Knight" and, quite frankly, way too many females in these groups. These people are not, and are never going to be, the core market for comic books.

Comics did just fine in the late 80s and early 90s selling to the self-selecting geeky young males. They lost their customer base when they started emphasizing gimmicks, crossovers, art and sex/violence over just telling good stories. If they can get back to that, then they can grow their customer base again from the same group of people. If they can't, then they will lose. But in no case are they ever going to be selling a dozen monthly titles to the general non-geek public.

[Vic Vega]

People who are interested in SF&F are interested in SF&F. In other words, the market for these books in NEVER going to be Joe Plumber who likes to watch 24 and his wife who loves American Idol and Desperate Housewives. The only people that are going to convert to reading comics are either young kids who are just discovering their tastes in entertainment, or people that have already self selected to be part of geek culture.

There were way too many never-read/heard of anything but "The Dark Knight" and, quite frankly, way too many females in these groups. These people are not, and are never going to be, the core market for comic books.

Comics did just fine in the late 80s and early 90s selling to the self-selecting geeky young males. They lost their customer base when they started emphasizing gimmicks, crossovers, art and sex/violence over just telling good stories. If they can get back to that, then they can grow their customer base again from the same group of people. If they can't, then they will lose. But in no case are they ever going to be selling a dozen monthly titles to the general non-geek public.

Many of the self selecting geeks found other things to do with thier money as they aged. Like booze (O.K. that's just me, but you see my point).

You could reach the new readers if you focused on done in ones that featured a strong central cast. It intersted me a lot that one of the reviewers liked Flash best because he was helping out his buddy rather than some faceless guy.

This seem VERY in line with how TV shows are plotted. Power Rangers always have to rescue one of the gang or Jack Bauer may have to save the city of D.C. but the President is a recurring character so viewers care if he dies or not.

This may not be strictly scientific but it certainly is instructive.

[indygamer21]

I am kind of new to comics. Before this DC relaunch, I had never read/bought a DC comic book in my life. The only Marvel comic book that read was Ultimate Spiderman and even then I wasn't buying individual issues. I read some Japanese Mangas but even with all that I still consider myself new to comic books as a whole. Well at least American comics.

I got interested in the Relaunch after seeing it advertised on both TV and on a video game website. I had always liked superheros but I had mostly just watched the TV shows and went to see the movies. I bought about 10 of the New 52 and I plan on following all of them. I am proof that this New 52 relaunch was probably a good idea. The only Marvel book that I am currently reading is the New Ultimate spiderman with Miles Morales.

The people in this Litmus Test seemed kind of stupid when it comes to comics. They thought The Fury of Firestorm was incredibly hard to follow when it wasn't. I think some new readers don't realize that they aren't going to explain everything in the first issue.