Why the DC Comics Reboot Will Fail

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Why the DC Comics Reboot Will Fail
By Hervé St-Louis
June 4, 2011 - 11:16

I don't come from this from the usual fanboy perspective that feels violated about the nostalgic and 20 plus years of investment in a fictional universe will come to an end. I don't care about the continuity in my comic books anymore. Many retelling in films and animated cartoons recently have proven that a fresh perspective on these comic books and their history, be they from marvel Comics or DC Comics can entertain me and the vast majority of readers if done right. With good talent and good ideas anything can be a great comic book.

Why I really think DC Comics' experiment in September 2011 will fail is because they have totally discounted sales data and an understanding of the demographic groups that buy comic books.

On August 2011, DC Comics will publish a new Justice League #1 with a team based on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman. This book, like the other ones that will follow in September and October 2011, will be a total reboot of the entire DC Comics' universe. The main continuity in the DC Comics' universe spans decades of comic book publishing and is based on most comic books published by the company. It spans several thousands of characters. It's only competitor in size and lore would Marvel Comics' own super hero universe.

Since 1984, DC Comics has had existential issues with itself, consuming much of its time trying to explain its origins and streamline its gigantic universe. The first opportunity was the Crisis on the Infinite Earths mini-series where at the end of the one year publishing effort, a new streamlined universe was created. Since then DC Comics has had many similar reboots with each trying to clean up the perceived mess of the previous one and attempting to make things simple for new comic book readers.

The current reboot seems like another one of these efforts, except this time, DC Comics it seems that it will not reboot its universe within a story proper but will just start fresh from a blank slate and not cause any crisis to re-engineer its new continuity.

That's all fine. The problem is that the comic book readers left that still care about DC Comics, its characters and its universe have not professed a need for a clean reboot. In fact, the average reader has witnessed so many reboots that they probably want to shy away from them. I personally, don't care about reboots. I just want a good story.

DC Comics claims that they do this to incite new readers and people on the periphery to go back to reading comic books again. That's where the problem is. The guys DC Comics is willing to scrap its universe and entire publishing history for, don't care for comic books at all. Yes, they may enjoy them marginally, but the problem is not the contents or the universe or the continuity. The problem is method of delivery of comic books, the way they are published as single issues that a reader has to buy every month by doing a pilgrimage to a comic book store. That's what's stopping people from reading comic books. It's how people get comic books that's the problem. The content, however how convoluted, archaic or immature many feel is, is not the problem.

DC Comics will launch a digital version of its comic books at the same time allowing readers to get these comic books from that new universe on the same day they reach the stores. that's where the entire thing could break or succeed. DC Comics is trying to fix the distribution problem that stops people from reading comic books by offering a digital solution.

About the digital foray of DC Comics, I have serious doubts. Here's my first assumption. A year from the reboot, say, in September 2012, DC Comics will not have gained more readers or customers buying its books because the new readers they are chasing will not come. Their sales will continue to rely on a dwindling number of long time readers.

My second assumption is that the availability of digital comic books will fuel the piracy problem all comic book publishers are faced with. The new customers DC Comics will get will be in it as long as they can get the comic books for free. Buyers who get DC Comics will probably forego some of the print comic books they currently buy and only get pirated or free comic books from DC Comics.

My third assumption, many of the old readers will stay by the sidelines and avoid getting too involved in the new universe. Some titles like Justice League, Superman and Batman will do well. But 52 titles is way too much for any comic book fan to support and most of these books will cease to be published quickly. DC Comics seems to be obsessed with the number 52 for some reason.

I have no faith in the marketing and sales skills of the team behind the 52 reboot experiment at DC Comics. Although it feels that the reboot was ordered from "upstairs" at Time Warner, the execution is based on the work of overtly creative minds, not sales oriented and product managers with any kind of vision for where comics need to grow and be next. The focus is sorely on the content which is not really broke - again, as convoluted and seemingly inapproachable comics are supposed to be. The focus is not on redefining comic books as a form of entertainment with legitimate aspirations to lead the entertainment industry and impress readers with their own form of storytelling. The focus is instead based on maximizing the brand value of top DC Comics properties, like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash and Aquaman. How many times have readers told DC Comics that they don't care about Wonder Woman? Yet DC Comics continues to present Wonder Woman as a great character when the market will not support her. Meanwhile other upcoming "brands" at DC Comics continue to be relegated to second-class status under the DC Comics-ordained world order.

Instead of letting their characters float and exist, like Marvel Comics do sometimes, and see what sticks, DC Comics want to shove down the world's throat the idea that there is a hierarchy and an order of importance in its comic books and that, for example, Wonder Woman is part of that equation. If there is a content problem at DC Comics, that's the one.

The other problem with the reboot's named talents is that its by the same individual, Geoff Johns that has been mucking around and trying to "fix" DC Comics for the last decade with apparently only moderately success and many misses. Geoff Johns, as a creative mind, as a thinker, has shown that he forces a system on comics. Everything has to be explained, has to fit in, has to be resolved, cleaned up continuously. I thought that there was nothing left to fix in the DC Comics' universe, but Johns found more to tweak in Flashpoint. Johns cannot help himself from scratching at a wound that was but a small scratch and through his tinkering much of the DC Comics universe and storytelling has become stale and unappealing to many readers. To use a theme dear to DC Comics, there is no more chaos in DC Comics. Just order - the way Geoff Johns feels it should be.

Not satisfied with having imprinted on all of DC Comics' culture and way of storytelling for the last decade, with fondness for some nostalgic order close to the Silver Age and Bronze age of comic books, Geoff Johns now wants to eradicate all that existed and simply recreate the DC Comics' universe in his own view, without the need to bother with parts of the past he does not enjoy. I don't understand how the man has gotten so much power over the creativity at DC Comics, and that after failures like Brightest Day, Final Crisis and more of those convoluted crises which I haven't been paying too much attention to in the last few years, can DC Comics stifle creativity even more?

When comic books as a universe, whether at DC Comics or Marvel Comics, started to exist, they did so chaotically. It was not a pre-ordained system with an architect sitting in the middle of the universe bringing order. Stuff just happened. Ideas were borrowed. Accidents occurred and experiments were allowed. As a comic book reader, don't care to read a Superman story where his first encounter and fight with Toyman is retold, again, in a new continuity. Marvel Comics through its Ultimate line of comics has been retelling old stories for a decade again. Much of the comic book world is based on retelling old stories in a "fresh" new way again and again.

In television or movies, even video games, that new approach is entertaining. It can be too in comics. But when the stated goal is to "fix" something instead of entertaining readers, there's a problem. The main problem identified by DC Comics is how supposedly impenetrable comic books are to casual readers. So DC Comics has to fix itself again, instead of learning how to sell itself instead.

DC Comics seems to ignore that the demographic group interested in buying comic books enjoys the arcane details and convoluted lore that only a few can decipher. Creators in other media, like the game World of Warcraft, have understood that fans are invested in their ecosystem. It's value and accrued growth is based on their personal investment. In other realms, investment in say Apple products, their cult-like following is not based on making Apple attractive to all. It's based on creating a differentiation in the market where people aspire to be part of that select group of so-called Apple users. The appeal is the exclusivity. DC Comics is willing to shed all of this exclusivity an open its doors to all, without even selling the highlights of being part of that gang that is entertained beyond any other medium through comics because of the wildness and chaotic nature of the storytelling. The fact that comic books gives at a fraction of the price more entertainment bang and more access to crazy ideas and fictionalized world is not the appeal used by DC Comics in its reboot. All they sell is how easy it will be to follow their plain universe cleaned up by a creative control freak who's mind cannot accept anything to exist outside of a system. How can an ordained system appeal to anyone who seeks escapism? How can the most important reboot and reach out endeavour of DC Comics be left to someone who's original ideas have run their course and whose support team does not even understand the market they have successfully be selling to? Where is the business case on how this will benefit retailers which are the backbone of the distribution system for DC Comics?

All this reboot shows, is that DC Comics' internal culture is based on self flagellation. Whenever things start to go bad, or are perceived as such, the solution is to clean up the comic books and "fix" them, instead of fixing the core problem which is the delivery mechanism of comic books to the market place, and the marketing and sales efforts used to support the ecosystem. The Folks at DC Comics were probably told by Warner Brothers to fix something, and their solution, instead of innovating on market reach was to tinker with their continuity - again.

I'll just note in passing a few times that DC Comics tried some of the things it's attempting in the reboot. In the DC Implosion of 1978 happened when DC Comics released 57 new comic book series from 1975 to 1978 and suddenly discovered that the market would not support them.

The 52 mini-series also heralded a new cleaned up continuity and several new DC Comics' characters and series. Many of those new ideas died quickly. These comics were based on the premise that a whole year had occurred between the last event and the new one. Many of the momentum in older series was completely loss due to the 52 one year later reboots. Many series never recovered.

In these two instances, DC Comics lost territory in sales after a bold move, instead of gaining new ground. What is scary is that this time, DC Comics is attempting two bold move with a history of failure at once and figures this time, it will not fail! The sum of their failures must equate a greater success.

How can the bean counters at Warner Brothers allow DC Comics to take such bold steps and not even be alarmed at the potential damage done to the publisher's sales? What will probably happen, is that any dissatisfied readers will simply move on to Marvel Comics.

Why were Geoff Johns and Dan Didio even evolved in this restructuring when their involvement in recent negative changes for DC Comics' bottom line, has been responsible for some of the problems with the comic books creatively?

Are all the creative minds that muck around DC Comics and don't understand sales and marketing still calling the shots at DC Comics?