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Post by Dr. Poison on May 25, 2015 7:02:51 GMT -5
The same way it's leaked on the Marvel side with creators saying "reboot" and later retracting their statement, I never thought this was going to write off the previous worlds and characters. They're back, in the greater scheme of things in the multiverse, along with numerous new iterations of characters as seen in Multiversity. Freedom Fighters, Kamandi, Shazam Family, the Action Heroes ; these all look really good. Who's to say these couldn't be added in addition to the new DCYou titles, or at least featured in mini's or a rotating anthology like Adventure or Showcase ? At the end of the day it's Diane Nelson. The move to Burbank and the moribund sales of the new52 have shifted the balance of power away from Didio and Harras to Nelson. She is the one who put the shackles on Geoff Johns limiting the number of titles he can work on each month. Convergence was something she inherited not spearheaded as the stop gap for the move. Moving forward, it is her voice that carries the room ion DC, and she has made Mark Doyle her golden boy based on the buzz and sales Batgirl and the "Batgirlization" of books got when he took over the Bat-office. That's the kind of traction they are looking for, and the DCYou initiative is very much in the Doyle vein. Doyle's trademark tendecies are to move forward, not backwards, to break new ground not tread old ground. The pre-Flashpoint stuff is back on the table because of the buzz the books got and the reaction to Multiversity, and it opens up options, but Nelson's direction via Doyle's vision is pretty apparent in the slate of titles coming out out post-Convergence we have already seen. She is not one to back off her position of give ground she has taken, so unless the new slate absolutely tanks, I don't think you will see DC looking back aside from a story or event or so a year playing witht he older versions, maybe a September event of one and done featuring different properties if they do the September thing again (I am doubtful they will so soon after the Convergence gap in the publishing schedule-you don't want to lose momentum you gain form the new launches, so maybe Sept 2016, maybe something for FCBD next year to test the waters, maybe a line of OGNs like the Earth One line since those maybe losing steam, but I doubt you will see a slate of monthlies featuring these properties before the current Post-Convergence slate of books gets their chance. DC saw that 52 titles a month wasn't working, too many were selling too few and they were top heavy in sales. The weeklies balanced things a bit the last year as they cut back the number of titles to a more manageable number, and I don't think you will see them expand beyond that number moving forward. They were hoping to bring in new readers and make the pie bigger, but all they really accomplished was re-slicing the pie a bit as the market stayed the same. Where the market is gaining is in Image style books and the non-core DCYou books look to be trying to capitalize on that vibe, not the retro-vibe of the pre-Flashpoint stuff coming out of Convergence. Doing those books would be a 180 from the things Nelson has been building towards the past year which have shown gains and trends in the right direction for DC. She will not abandon those strategies if they continue to work. At least that's my best guess based on reading between the tea leaves and the bits and pieces that leak out in various places. -M Well then, Nelson is betting on a very unreliable horse in this race. Batgirl wasn't doing poorly before the recent revamp. In fact, most months it outsold both Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. It's true that after the revamp, it's selling a little better but not significantly better. I think the revamp alienated a good chunk of BG fans along with bringing in some new ones. I don't mine the new costume but the interior art for the book drove me to drop it. This new trend of half-finished coloring book art in recent DC titles(Tarr's Batgirl, Chiang's Wonder Woman, Caldwell's Infinity Inc.) is not worth the money of the cover price of these books IMO and I will not spend my hard earned money on it and I know that there are others that feel the same way. Nelson is going to have to keep that in mind and at the very least, present a balance of these new Batgirl-like books along with more straight-up super heroic books with more detailed art and epic storylines. Do I expect every artist to present the level of detail that George Perez or Phil Jimenez do? No, but when you have a page where a character's facial features are missing or a characters who's various body parts are noticeably out of proportion, that's when I lose interest real quick. |
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 15:11:16 GMT -5
Call me a cynic and a skeptic, but there's a world of difference between characters are available for people to use and we will feature a book or a line of books starring these characters. More likely the other worlds will be available to use in arcs in existing books rather than in their own books for bigger tentpole type stories. Even if they do decide to launch a book featuring one of these properties-DC's track record is they launch when other books get cancelled, and they just launched a wave of new books that will be starting post-Convergence, all of which will likely get 8-12 issues before they might be cancelled if their pattern is consistent with past practices, so it is likely it will be close to a year before anything else gets put in the pipeline and that is if you get a creative team who wants to do it and creates a pitch that gets approved. It's good they are keeping their options open, but they seem to have a publishing plan in place that doesn't feature these characters right now that a lot of people in high places have put their stamp on, and it's likely that plan will be given time to see how it shakes out before they go to a plan B, which is what this announcement seems to me. The fact King was chastised for bringing it up seems to me to lend itself that DC wants to avoid what is generally happening here, people getting their hopes up for something that they do not have plans for and thus creating disappointment and ill will, and people not giving what they are doing a fair chance because it is seen as an obstacle the return of older properties. I'd love to see some of this stuff get featured, but I am not going to hold my breath waiting for it or hyping the possibility, because I don't want to set myself up for more disappointment where DC is concerned. -M I'm curious - did you buy any of the Convergence titles that feature any of the older characters that you miss? If so, which titles were they and did you enjoy them? No. I am not buying single issues of new comics any more. I was tempted by Truman Hawkman and Rucka Question, but the whole premise of Braniac battleworld of Convergence did not appeal to me at all, so I skipped them. I looked at maybe doing trades, but the way DC is collecting them (by week rather than by title) is a complete killer of any chance I would purchase them (i.e. I would have to pay for a lot of material I am not interested in to read the little bits I might be interested in). I already have plenty of stories featuring those characters I can read or reread to enjoy them, I don't need to overpay to read them in a story premise I have zero interest in for a project that was conceived as a money grab to fill in time and keep revenue flows going while their offices moved from NYC to Burbank because their staff couldn't plan ahead and build up an inventory of issues to keep their regular titles appearing during the move. The move also put unfair and undue pressure and risk on their business partners, i.e. the retailers who had to try to manage/prognisticate and order this woithout any track record and any safety net of regular books during those two months ahead of any real info on the books and without being able to return unsold copies if they over-ordered, or effectively and affordably reorder if they underordered. Whether you like or dislike the characters and their use, it was a bad move for the industry as a whole in terms of the economic health of the people who have to be in place to get the books to their readers who are shouldering all the risk and very little of the rewards because DC editorial was unwilling to incapable of planning ahead to make the move without disrupting their normal business. -M |
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 15:17:32 GMT -5
At the end of the day it's Diane Nelson. The move to Burbank and the moribund sales of the new52 have shifted the balance of power away from Didio and Harras to Nelson. She is the one who put the shackles on Geoff Johns limiting the number of titles he can work on each month. Convergence was something she inherited not spearheaded as the stop gap for the move. Moving forward, it is her voice that carries the room ion DC, and she has made Mark Doyle her golden boy based on the buzz and sales Batgirl and the "Batgirlization" of books got when he took over the Bat-office. That's the kind of traction they are looking for, and the DCYou initiative is very much in the Doyle vein. Doyle's trademark tendecies are to move forward, not backwards, to break new ground not tread old ground. The pre-Flashpoint stuff is back on the table because of the buzz the books got and the reaction to Multiversity, and it opens up options, but Nelson's direction via Doyle's vision is pretty apparent in the slate of titles coming out out post-Convergence we have already seen. She is not one to back off her position of give ground she has taken, so unless the new slate absolutely tanks, I don't think you will see DC looking back aside from a story or event or so a year playing witht he older versions, maybe a September event of one and done featuring different properties if they do the September thing again (I am doubtful they will so soon after the Convergence gap in the publishing schedule-you don't want to lose momentum you gain form the new launches, so maybe Sept 2016, maybe something for FCBD next year to test the waters, maybe a line of OGNs like the Earth One line since those maybe losing steam, but I doubt you will see a slate of monthlies featuring these properties before the current Post-Convergence slate of books gets their chance. DC saw that 52 titles a month wasn't working, too many were selling too few and they were top heavy in sales. The weeklies balanced things a bit the last year as they cut back the number of titles to a more manageable number, and I don't think you will see them expand beyond that number moving forward. They were hoping to bring in new readers and make the pie bigger, but all they really accomplished was re-slicing the pie a bit as the market stayed the same. Where the market is gaining is in Image style books and the non-core DCYou books look to be trying to capitalize on that vibe, not the retro-vibe of the pre-Flashpoint stuff coming out of Convergence. Doing those books would be a 180 from the things Nelson has been building towards the past year which have shown gains and trends in the right direction for DC. She will not abandon those strategies if they continue to work. At least that's my best guess based on reading between the tea leaves and the bits and pieces that leak out in various places. -M Well then, Nelson is betting on a very unreliable horse in this race. Batgirl wasn't doing poorly before the recent revamp. In fact, most months it outsold both Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. It's true that after the revamp, it's selling a little better but not significantly better. I think the revamp alienated a good chunk of BG fans along with bringing in some new ones. I don't mine the new costume but the interior art for the book drove me to drop it. This new trend of half-finished coloring book art in recent DC titles(Tarr's Batgirl, Chiang's Wonder Woman, Caldwell's Infinity Inc.) is not worth the money of the cover price of these books IMO and I will not spend my hard earned money on it and I know that there are others that feel the same way. Nelson is going to have to keep that in mind and at the very least, present a balance of these new Batgirl-like books along with more straight-up super heroic books with more detailed art and epic storylines. Do I expect every artist to present the level of detail that George Perez or Phil Jimenez do? No, but when you have a page where a character's facial features are missing or a characters who's various body parts are noticeably out of proportion, that's when I lose interest real quick. It's not just sales on Batgirl, it's the success of books like Gotham Academy launching at the same time. It's also the spike of digital sales and hits on social media for those books and the positive rather than negative press those books are getting improving DC's overall media presence and perception. As a whole those types of books are positioning DC to a better place in terms of public perception, customer accessibility, and overall image perception than the standard books were which positions them to a place were revenues will increase not continue to plateau or shrink. It's putting product out there that looks to appeal to the segments of the comic buying market that is actually growing rather than peddling goods to the parts of the market that are moribund or shrinking. In other words it's good business sense the way modern businesses, especially publishers, have to operate even if it doesn't satisfy the demands of the loud but small and shrinking old guard of customers. -M |
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Post by Dr. Poison on May 25, 2015 15:27:53 GMT -5
Well then, Nelson is betting on a very unreliable horse in this race. Batgirl wasn't doing poorly before the recent revamp. In fact, most months it outsold both Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. It's true that after the revamp, it's selling a little better but not significantly better. I think the revamp alienated a good chunk of BG fans along with bringing in some new ones. I don't mine the new costume but the interior art for the book drove me to drop it. This new trend of half-finished coloring book art in recent DC titles(Tarr's Batgirl, Chiang's Wonder Woman, Caldwell's Infinity Inc.) is not worth the money of the cover price of these books IMO and I will not spend my hard earned money on it and I know that there are others that feel the same way. Nelson is going to have to keep that in mind and at the very least, present a balance of these new Batgirl-like books along with more straight-up super heroic books with more detailed art and epic storylines. Do I expect every artist to present the level of detail that George Perez or Phil Jimenez do? No, but when you have a page where a character's facial features are missing or a characters who's various body parts are noticeably out of proportion, that's when I lose interest real quick. It's not just sales on Batgirl, it's the success of books like Gotham Academy launching at the same time. It's also the spike of digital sales and hits on social media for those books and the positive rather than negative press those books are getting improving DC's overall media presence and perception. As a whole those types of books are positioning DC to a better place in terms of public perception, customer accessibility, and overall image perception than the standard books were which positions them to a place were revenues will increase not continue to plateau or shrink. It's putting product out there that looks to appeal to the segments of the comic buying market that is actually growing rather than peddling goods to the parts of the market that are moribund or shrinking. In other words it's good business sense the way modern businesses, especially publishers, have to operate even if it doesn't satisfy the demands of the loud but small and shrinking old guard of customers. -M I can understand that DC has to appeal to new readers/customers as some older readers refuse to buy anything DC since the New 52 started. It's a shame because DC gave these former readers a chance to show their support for classic concepts with Convergence and still some of these folks refused to buy anything because it was part of the Convergence event instead of being set in the exact same setting as the comics were in 1987, 1999, or 2010. I would really like to see new books for a lot of the Pre-Crisis characters but I'm not sure enough of my fellow fans of these characters supported their Convergence come-backs to make that happen. Again, I think Nelson needs to keep a balance with her line of DC books. Make some that attract new readers but keep producing some that attract her current readership as well. |
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 15:31:27 GMT -5
It's not just sales on Batgirl, it's the success of books like Gotham Academy launching at the same time. It's also the spike of digital sales and hits on social media for those books and the positive rather than negative press those books are getting improving DC's overall media presence and perception. As a whole those types of books are positioning DC to a better place in terms of public perception, customer accessibility, and overall image perception than the standard books were which positions them to a place were revenues will increase not continue to plateau or shrink. It's putting product out there that looks to appeal to the segments of the comic buying market that is actually growing rather than peddling goods to the parts of the market that are moribund or shrinking. In other words it's good business sense the way modern businesses, especially publishers, have to operate even if it doesn't satisfy the demands of the loud but small and shrinking old guard of customers. -M I can understand that DC has to appeal to new readers/customers as some older readers refuse to buy anything DC since the New 52 started. It's a shame because DC gave these former readers a chance to show their support for classic concepts with Convergence and still some of these folks refused to buy anything because it was part of the Convergence event instead of being set in the exact same setting as the comics were in 1987, 1999, or 2010. I would really like to see new books for a lot of the Pre-Crisis characters but I'm not sure enough of my fellow fans of these characters supported their Convergence come-backs to make that happen. Again, I think Nelson needs to keep a balance with her line of DC books. Make some that attract new readers but keep producing some that attract her current readership as well. Well of the 48 books DC is doing post Convergence about half are DCU proper books that are continuity type books and about half are kind of outside the box story first kind of books that don't worry about continuity so much, more in the indy vein. That's a pretty good balance no? -M |
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 15:51:57 GMT -5
I can understand that DC has to appeal to new readers/customers as some older readers refuse to buy anything DC since the New 52 started. I t's a shame because DC gave these former readers a chance to show their support for classic concepts with Convergence and still some of these folks refused to buy anything because it was part of the Convergence event instead of being set in the exact same setting as the comics were in 1987, 1999, or 2010. I would really like to see new books for a lot of the Pre-Crisis characters but I'm not sure enough of my fellow fans of these characters supported their Convergence come-backs to make that happen. Again, I think Nelson needs to keep a balance with her line of DC books. Make some that attract new readers but keep producing some that attract her current readership as well. Why should I give DC my money for a story I don't want to read (whether or not I like the classic versions of the characters)? I'm not going to give them money for crumbs in the hope that maybe someday they might possibly give me a meal I want...they'll just laugh on the way to the bank as they count my money and keep doing what they do that makes them money. If they want to get my money, they need to provide a product I want to pay for. Period. End of story. -M |
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Post by Dr. Poison on May 25, 2015 17:37:01 GMT -5
I can understand that DC has to appeal to new readers/customers as some older readers refuse to buy anything DC since the New 52 started. I t's a shame because DC gave these former readers a chance to show their support for classic concepts with Convergence and still some of these folks refused to buy anything because it was part of the Convergence event instead of being set in the exact same setting as the comics were in 1987, 1999, or 2010. I would really like to see new books for a lot of the Pre-Crisis characters but I'm not sure enough of my fellow fans of these characters supported their Convergence come-backs to make that happen. Again, I think Nelson needs to keep a balance with her line of DC books. Make some that attract new readers but keep producing some that attract her current readership as well. Why should I give DC my money for a story I don't want to read (whether or not I like the classic versions of the characters)? I'm not going to give them money for crumbs in the hope that maybe someday they might possibly give me a meal I want...they'll just laugh on the way to the bank as they count my money and keep doing what they do that makes them money. If they want to get my money, they need to provide a product I want to pay for. Period. End of story. -M Because financially supporting books featuring these characters is the key to getting more books from DC featuring these characters. Back when the New 52 first launched, several higher-ups at DC said the reason that the New 52 was done was because consumers were not supporting the majority of their line. They even went so far as to say that if they hadn't done the New 52, they would have had to cancel a good number of books with only the Bat, Lantern, and Justice League books along with a few stragglers surviving the implosion. Convergence was your chance to show DC that you still want books featuring these characters as leads. |
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 19:49:00 GMT -5
Why should I give DC my money for a story I don't want to read (whether or not I like the classic versions of the characters)? I'm not going to give them money for crumbs in the hope that maybe someday they might possibly give me a meal I want...they'll just laugh on the way to the bank as they count my money and keep doing what they do that makes them money. If they want to get my money, they need to provide a product I want to pay for. Period. End of story. -M Because financially supporting books featuring these characters is the key to getting more books from DC featuring these characters. Back when the New 52 first launched, several higher-ups at DC said the reason that the New 52 was done was because consumers were not supporting the majority of their line. They even went so far as to say that if they hadn't done the New 52, they would have had to cancel a good number of books with only the Bat, Lantern, and Justice League books along with a few stragglers surviving the implosion. Convergence was your chance to show DC that you still want books featuring these characters as leads. DC is not a charity, they are a business, and my income is not their safety net and not owed to them because they might sometime produce a product I might want. They are professionals, if they can't put out products that earn my money, they don't get it. If they can't put out products customers want to buy, they don't deserve to stay in business. Put out better product your customer base wants, and they will buy it. Put out stuff only hardcore people buy out of loyalty, not based on the quality of the product and you will run close to going under. If the market changes, business need to adapt or they will fail. DC wasn't adapting. Supporting low quality products only breeds more low quality products. You give them no incentive to improve if they are already getting your money. Convergence was their chance to make some extra money while not putting out their regular line or working harder to meet the deadline crunch the move would have allowed. If they want my support, they need to put out product I want to buy, not tell me they need m to give them money so they can then put out product I will want to spend more money on. In the business world, if I show up, perform poorly and not up to the expectations of my customers or employers, I can't expect them to support me until such a time as I maybe get it right. Just as people are saying comic shops are not charity cases and they have to meet their customers needs to stay in business, publishers are not charity recipients either. They are a billion dollar corporation. If they can't use their own resources to produce products I want, there is no reason in the world they should get my product. The idea of supporting them is just another marketing line to get your money for what they do produce, not a means for them to have incentive to produce something else. It' not the key to change, it's a reason for them to maintain the status quo because they already have your money. If you spend money on books you don't want hoping to get books you do, the only result is they will keep making books you don't want because it is making them money. -M |
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 19:51:22 GMT -5
If you want your money to support classic characters, then buy the collections of classic stories featuring those characters DC produces and not the new stuff featuring versions you don't want. But as long as new52 Batman outsells classic versions of Batman, DC will produce new52 Batman and not "classic" Batman.
-M
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Post by Dr. Poison on May 25, 2015 20:01:27 GMT -5
If you want your money to support classic characters, then buy the collections of classic stories featuring those characters DC produces and not the new stuff featuring versions you don't want. But as long as new52 Batman outsells classic versions of Batman, DC will produce new52 Batman and not "classic" Batman. -M So what was it exactly about the Convergence books that featured characters that you like that stopped you from buying them? Out of all of the Convergence books that I bought(around 2 dozen), most of them captured the exact essence and characterization of the classic characters that were featured in them. They also had their classic costumes and in some cases fought their classic adversaries. What more would you have liked to see DC do in order to get you to try these books? |
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Post by hondobrode on May 25, 2015 20:03:23 GMT -5
It would be foolish, though not impossible, for DC to completely leave these characters behind, esp characters picking up buzz like Shazam and Thunderworld.
Mini-series or anthology titles like Adventure or Showcase could help do this.
I don't know when, but I could easily see a few of the more popular earths getting their own titles.
Why would DC constantly be building up the re-emergence of the DCU, and the many multiple earths and the goldmine of characters, both old and new, to just let it rot on the vine ?
The Earth-One OGN's are still coming out, and effectively are a separate line / imprint. The major thrust now is the continuation of the main continuity as well as the indie vibe non-continuity titles, but I don't think that means some of these can't fit in there somewhere. After all, Bizarro, Starfire, Robin, Cyborg, etc, aren't new characters; they're existing characters in the DC library with a different tone. I think we could see the same thing for the Freedom Fighters, Kamandi, the Crime Syndicate, etc.
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Post by fanboystranger on May 25, 2015 20:53:47 GMT -5
I tend to agree with mrp on this. I don't think that the bulk of the Convergence tie-ins showed themselves to be anything more than competent inventory stories, and other than Rucka's Question and Parker/Shaner's Shazam, none of them seemed to have a real creative vision that suggests a follow-up would be really be worth it. I also think that the idea that these "classic characters" were the dominant sales pitch is overstated-- just as many people seemed to pick them up for the creative teams and some people seemed to pick them up just because that's what DC put out over the past two months. I don't think the groundswell of support for returning to classic incarnations of characters is really there, for better or worse. Convergence really has turned out to be a "fill-in event", and the only part of it that sold well was the core mini, which most commenters feel was mediocre.
There's no real fan movement here-- it's mostly disappointed readers. I don't think that's the way DC should be moving forward. In a way, it was every bit as uninspired and cookie-cutter as the bulk of the New 52 comics. New, imaginative ideas are what's needed, and even then, I think most of the books are going to die on the vine because fans have shown themselves to be creatures of habit more than anything else.
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Post by Dr. Poison on May 25, 2015 21:20:51 GMT -5
Maybe I just got lucky with the Convergence books that I decided to purchase. Here are my thoughts on the ones I bought:
Justice League - Medeiocre
Nightwing & Oracle - Excellent
Justice League International - Good
Batman & the Outsiders - Excellent
Hawkman - Excellent
Justice League of America - Good
New Teen Titans - Good
Wonder Woman - Mediocre
Action Comics - Good
Blue Beetle - Good
Crime Syndicate - Good
Detective Comics - Good(with the exception of a few of the Huntress' choices)
Justice Society of America - Good
Plastic Man & the Freedom Fighters - Good
Shazam - Excellent
World's Finest - Good
So in total, I bought 16 titles(not 24 like I had thought earlier). I wanted to buy some of the others such as Infinity Inc., Supergirl, The Adventures of Superman, & Titans but the premise or the art turned me off. For the most part though, I was very satisfied by the Convergence event and it didn't seem like a rushed filler to me(at least not yet as there is 1 week left). The creative teams have been solid, the stories have been well paced, and the combatant choices have been pretty interesting so far. I realize that not everything is for everyone here but I do think that there is something for just about every DC fan in this event.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 22:27:22 GMT -5
I got these 10 Books
Hawkman - Excellent
Crime Syndicate - Excellent
Shazam - Excellent
Plastic Man & the Freedom Fighters - Excellent
Justice Society of America - Good
Justice League International - Good
Justice League of America - Good
World's Finest - Good
Wonder Woman - Mediocre
New Teen Titans - Below Average
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 0:52:50 GMT -5
If you want your money to support classic characters, then buy the collections of classic stories featuring those characters DC produces and not the new stuff featuring versions you don't want. But as long as new52 Batman outsells classic versions of Batman, DC will produce new52 Batman and not "classic" Batman. -M So what was it exactly about the Convergence books that featured characters that you like that stopped you from buying them? Out of all of the Convergence books that I bought(around 2 dozen), most of them captured the exact essence and characterization of the classic characters that were featured in them. They also had their classic costumes and in some cases fought their classic adversaries. What more would you have liked to see DC do in order to get you to try these books? 1) The price point adding a dollar to the standard price point for the event to maximize revenue is not a way to get people to sample or support the book, it shows it for what it is-an attempt to generate revenue in the time of transition-I can get a 100+ page issue of Heavy Metal for $4 via subscription, why am I going to pay that much for less than half as many pages.... 2) I might be interested if the characters and their story were the central feature of the books, it's not, the paint by number editorial story of the event is the central feature, the characters are accessories to make that event more attractive, so I am not getting stories of these characters I am getting pieces of a bigger story that these characters are periphery to..I am being sold the bigger event story not something that allows these characters own stories to be told, so in the end I am not supporting these characters but more event comics, which I do not like in general and do not want more of 3) costumes and powers are not the heart of the appeal of these characters to me, it is their heart and soul-I do not care about Superman's red and blue suit in whatever variation or flying or super-strength, I care about stories of him as a man struggling to do what is right, his hopes, his inspiration his struggle to be Superman, not him hitting Braniac as his cape flaps in the wind or punching parasite through a wall into Lex Luthor's lab. Give me Clark struggling between man and Superman, balancing doing what is right and what is needed, give me stories that explore the character and the themes of heroism, not the trappings of them in empty stories with no consequences for characters or the reader. The best Superman stories (say Timm's Superman animated series as one example) were never about the costume or powers, they were about the man. Te same is true of other heroic characters as well. The Convergence tie ins to me was DC selling the trappings of the classic characters in a package to promote their event at a higher price point to generate more revenue. It has nothing to do with testing the market for books about classic characters and everything to do with getting as many people top buy the books they put out during the transition by whatever means necessary. And so that was the things about these books that made me not want to buy them. -M |
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