DC Comics has been making some surprisingly daring movies lately for a company that’s more than 80 years old. Over the past year, the publisher has experimented with a new tone and fresh creative talent on books like Batgirl, Harley Quinn and Grayson, and those experiments mostly paid off in terms of sales. This led to the mini-relaunch of DC Comics, that saw major changes to established characters (Superman losing his powers, Batman becoming a bunny-bot) and interesting new series like Midnighter, Black Canary, and Bat-Mite. There was even talk that continuity, once the be-all-end-all of the DC Universe, wouldn’t matter so much anymore.
Well, if Bleeding Cool is to be believed, DC may already be doubling back on their new direction. Despite the new line-up creating plenty of chatter, DC recently announced that they’re down $2 million in revenue this year over last. As such, word is the directive has gone out to stop “Batgirling,” and return to more traditional interpretations of characters. That means Superman will probably be losing the jeans soon, Batman will be Bruce Wayne again before long, and a lot of the quirky books DC just launched will have to find their feet soon or risk being canceled.
Of course, none of this has been confirmed by DC, and there’s still time for things to change. Quirky, more diverse comics of the type DC has been trying to do lately sometimes take a while to catch on, and DC didn’t really do themselves any favors launching more than a dozen new series at once. DC’s Vertigo imprint, which is an obvious inspiration to what mainline DC Comics has been doing over the past year, rarely launching more than one or two new series in a month. Hopefully the situation isn’t as dire as some sources are making things sound, and DC gives some of their series an opportunity to find their audience.
What are your thoughts on DC’s new series? Any your particularly enjoying? Any that disappointed? Are you glad DC might be returning to their meat-and-potatoes, or would you prefer they keep things weird?
via Bleeding Cool