The DC Universe has just become a bit smaller, and a lot less pulpy. DC Publisher Dan DiDio recently confirmed on his Facebook page that the company has let the rights to The Spirit, The Avenger and Doc Savage lapse…
“Sorry to say but none of these characters are still at DC but here’s hoping that another publisher gets them back in print soon.”
This is one of those “surprising at first, but not so surprising once you think about it” kind of things. Up until recently DC was pushing its pulp properties pretty hard. There was a high profile Spirit series, Frank Miller’s Spirit movie and even an attempt to establish an entire pulp universe with the First Wave books. Problem is, none of the comics sold, and the Spirit movie was embarrassingly bad, so I guess DC has, not shockingly, decided to cut bait.
Not a huge loss really. Aside from Darwyn Cooke’s brief but memorable run on The Spirit back in the mid-2000s, DC hasn’t done anything terribly memorable with the characters. Word is Dynamite might snap up the properties — hopefully they do something more interesting with them.
via Comics Alliance