Borderline underwear pervert. Lenore, Kindt, and Rubin (no relation) are kickstarting a new OGN.
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HUGE
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I knew something like this was going to happen, but I never expected it would be so soon or be a comic publisher as big as DC. I was expecting maybe IDW or Darkhorse.
But the writing was on the wall that something had to change when the unilateral decision by one company (Diamond) basically shut down the entire direct comic book market in the US.
This is good for pretty much everyone except Diamond, and screw them. The US comic market has been stagnating for decades, and maybe some competition will force people and companies to innovate and change.
Amazon or Shopify will take over delivery operations.
if they completely incorporate DC Universe into hbo MAX (including with the comics) Iâd really consider HBO max. I initially signed up for the first year of DC Universe but ultimately it wasnât worth it.
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I kept it until today mostly because of their shows, and animated movies.
I am sure it will be added to HBO Max with at different tears.
What we have right now is HBO Max light, no Atmos or HDR (which DC Universe did have).
This is a very fascinating idea. Right now everyone has different services for entertainment based on either medium or medium + genre. Netflix provides video content. Something like Shutter specifically provides Horror video content.
Even big companies that have several services, keep them separated by medium. Kindle/Comixology, Prime Video, Amazon music are all separate-ish services. Apple TV+, Apple Music, iBooks, all separate services.
If a particular company holds the rights to a large amount of IP, e.g: Warner, Disney, they could absolutely create a service that provides subscriptions to content across mediums.
Imagine if Disney + got you not only all the Disney TV and movies, but also Disney Music, Disney Comics, Disney Books, and Disney video games. Every Star Wars thing, no matter what form it takes, youâre getting it.
I think due to the artificial segregation of media by format a lot of fans arenât aware of things that exist in other forms. How many Adventure Time fans even know there are 17 volumes of comics and then a pile of side stories, let alone have read it? But if those comics were included with the Cartoon Network subscription, that could be something.
The overall plan is to eventually integrate all of the disparate video offerings under their corporate umbrella into HBO MAX eventually, its just going to take time to dismantle/move things over as all of the services were started via different sub-entities and have their own infrastructure and licensing agreements predating everything.
The death of DC Universe is confirmed.
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Itâs funny that DC didnât just do a Marvel Unlimited style system.
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I know right? I would gladly pay 4.99 a month for a unlimited access to their catalog.
The most important part would be to have a decent search engine that would search for specific story lines. The current one kind of sucks. It is divided between New 52, Rebirth, and everything before. Also, if I want to read Crisis on Infinite Earths it is not the trade but individual issues with all the troubles that it would entail.
If you have it now I would recommend âFreedom Fightersâ.
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Marvel unlimited pisses me off because the website doesnât have memories of what you read, where as the app does⌠but I donât like reading on the appâŚ
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Seriously many apps have to get their stuff together. I enjoy reading using the DC Universe app because it was âoptimizedâ to read it on almost any device using the panelsâ system, even in your TV. it also remembers where you left of on any device, which the Shonen Jump App also have but is way less.
I have no interest in these podcasts specifically, because I donât care much about DC underwear perverts. That being said, I am in love with this concept. There are some podcasts out there doing fictional serials, and some have been successful, but not that many. Iâd like to see as many as there are web-comics.
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Some DC creators are pretty chill. If Tom King is featured in any of those podcasts I would definitely be listening. His voice resonates with me.
Also, he is really good at capturing the essence of certain universes and making them his own. Point and case is his current Rorschach run. It is part Twin Peaks, part Watchmen comic, and part Watchmen TV show (which if you have HBO Max what are you waiting for).
DC over there like âWhat if Superman and Lois arenât married anymore?â Meanwhile Marvel is like âActually Miles Morales is Spider-Man.â
In New 52 they correctly threw out continuity in order to create a true #1 jumping on point for new readers. The problem is that they did not do anything else at all to get new readers. Thus, all they accomplished was losing old readers.
I do love how comic guys are ok spilling most of the beans years after the fact. Lots of other people in media take their secrets to the grave.
I think really their biggest mistake was not changing the staff. Yes, a lot of those people are great artists and writers, but they were already used to doing what theyâve always done. Should have hired all new creators, and not white dudes. Let 'em run wild.
My big regret, architecturally, is that in all the exuberance we didnât get a chance to build something equally exciting when it came to an overarching story, something to play out in a year or two, something that spoke to the spirit of the whole initiative â Scott Snyder
I think that shows it right there. The problem is you think you need an overarching story. Overarching stories are the problem, not the solution. Make each book its own thing that does not touch other books in any way. See also: the manga that sells an order of magnitude more issues than your comics.
Kinda agree kinda not. I feel that the ability to set these iconic characters in same world is and can be strength of super hero comics, mainly Marvel and DC. But it definitely should be a tool for fun, and not a tool for marketers to go âyou have to read every comic to know whatâs going on.â The idea that every comic should be part of some unified whole should go.
For example, if writer for Batman decides to make story about Batman teaming up with Superman to punch this weekâs villain, potential for lots of fun exploration of those two characters, but importantly, it should not matter whatâs going on Supermanâs weekly comics. He could be having a story arch about going on far space adventures, it shouldnât matter. The characters and the world should be a flexible playground, not some attempt at One True Canon, that falls apart constantly anyways.
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If you consider how many people were involved in the New 52, reading the Polygon article, very few, comparatively, participated in the story. I actually wish more people had been willing to spill the beans on just how much of a shit-show the New 52 was, but theyâre probably concerned with maintaining their professional contacts. I donât think in this regard that comics are any different from other forms of media.
The success of manga and the relative failure of American comics in comparison has nothing to do with an overarching story. If Naruto suddenly had a cross-over event with One Piece (or whatever else is popular), it would sell through the roof, collapse the roof, and keep on selling.
Marvel actually did something similar to this with their One More Day storyline, where Peter Parker made a literal deal with Satan to bring his Aunt May back to life, and the cost was that his marriage to Mary Jane was erased and everyone forgot about it. Everyone generally hated this story, but itâs actually still in continuity (I think). Marvel may have created Miles Morales, but they were just as bad as DC, theyâve just learned from their mistakes.
The problem with American comics is all the baggage theyâve been lugging around for 50+ years. Batman is perpetually somewhere in his 30s, but the character has been published for over 80 years. Yet despite that, Bruce Wayne has been Batman long enough that there are/have been 4 different Robins, and various other Bat-family members.
The problem with American comics is that they are mostly corporate owned, so nothing can really change, or change on a permanent level. We all know that when Captain America dies, or Thor becomes a woman, or Batman breaks his back and canât walk, or whatever else they say, that those changes arenât permanent, despite what Marvel or DC tells us. These characters keep being reset so that everything always goes back to the status quo. No one ever really ages, no one ever really evolves. Itâs the rare character like The Flash where there have been multiple people taking on that role, but even that is built into his character at this point. Itâs hard to tell a compelling story when the purpose of your characters is to support a much more profitable merchandising empire. WB makes more money off Batman underoos and action figures than it does on actual Batman comics.
At this point, I donât think itâs possible for American superhero comics to ever reach the sales of manga, not because of an overarching story, but because of the biases and stereotypes already baked into American society. Manga has been popular in Japan for decades and will continue to be popular because itâs already popular. Itâs an entrenched product. Itâs cheap, itâs readily available, and itâs been socially acceptable to read manga for decades.
Once upon a time, American comics were popular⌠back in the 1930s and 1940s, before the Comics Code Authority. So many more people read comics back then compared today. There were so many more genres⌠westerns, adventure comics, science fiction, romance, etc. The CCA killed the mainstream appeal of American comics and demonized it, salting the ground for all but the most devoted comics fans.
These days, American comics continue to be not very popular, despite the popularity of the characters, because itâs baked into our society. As cool as the MCU is, as much as everyone loves Spider-Man and Batman, the crossover appeal between the movies and the games doesnât reach the comics. None of that has to do with an overarching story.
Americans in general look down on comics. Theyâre considered juvenile, theyâre super expensive for the amount of content you get, and generally theyâre just not cool. Comics have been fighting against the âjuvenileâ label for years, and itâs mostly been a losing battle. Even âgreatâ comics like The Sandman and Saga donât sell anywhere near as many issues as manga, and those donât have overarching stories. Saga isnât part of a shared continuity.
Culturally, Americans just donât read that much, and specifically they donât read comics. Even Americans who read manga arenât interested in American comics for the most part. I donât know how many manga fans Iâve encountered who wouldnât be caught dead reading anything that wasnât Japanese, even if they would have liked it. By contrast, itâs already baked into Japanese culture to read manga. At this point, I donât see that changing for either country. American comics will never be as popular as manga, no matter what American comic book companies do. It would take decades to build that kind of cultural buy-in.
None of that has to do with an overarching story.
I agree with you that one of DCâs biggest mistakes was not hiring new staff to reflect better diversity. But the reason the New 52 failed wasnât because of an overarching story, it failed because as soon as they rebooted their universe, they went back to telling the same old stories they were before. It has more to do with terrible editorial decisions and trying to do a half-assed job at resetting their continuity. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to start Batman over again, but keep him having 4 Robins and umpteen other Bat family members. They tried to reboot their continuity to bring in new fans, but didnât change enough to do that, and in the process, they pissed off their old fans, so very soon after the New 52 came out, DC already started to unofficially roll it back. Thatâs why it failed. Traditional comic book fans LOVE an overarching story. Thereâs a reason why Marvel has a cross-over event almost every year. Cross-over events sell comics. Comic fans canât get enough of them.
I would be very curious and interested to see what would happen if DC did an actual real reboot of their universe. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman. Heâs 28 years old. There are no Robins. Clark Kent just moves to Metropolis and Superman gets discovered by the world for the first time.
Or, take a more radical approach. Clark Kent marries Lois Lane and they have a kid and that kid becomes Superman/woman/boy/girl etc. No take-backsies. Dick Grayson or one of the other Robins is Batman. Permanently. Let the characters evolve and grow organically. On the Marvel front, why are Reed Richardâs and Sue Stormâs/Richardâs kids perpetually tweens? Why canât Peter Parker and Mary Jane get married and have kids?
The reason Marvel reset Peter Parker and Mary Janeâs relationship in One New Day is because it gives the illusion of change. Peter and Mary Jane can go on a million dates, have fights, get back together, date other people, and ultimately, the characters never evolve or change. Thatâs the illusion of change. Theyâre stuck in amber. But if theyâre married, none of that drama or conflict exists. Peter and Mary Jane arenât interesting when theyâre married because the kinds of stories that are interesting about a married couple canât be told in comics. It involves them actually growing as characters⌠facing lifeâs difficulties, buying a house, having a kid, growing old, etc. and Spider-Man can never age. He keeps getting reset so heâs perpetually in his 20s, struggling to pay rent and being a down-on-his-luck regular guy. As popular as Miles Morales is, Peter Parker will always be Spider-Man.