Here's a mixed bit...



Glad to see them going back to the $2.99 price point for DCU books but it's still $6 a month since it is twice-monthly.

-M

New titles

The Super-Man
Superwoman
The Super Sons

also see Titans and Teen Titans

At least everything is in Rebirth, and no hold outs like Batman, GL and LSH last time.

We all knew Action and Detective would revert eventually.

I suppose it could be interesting.

They had me at bringing back legacy stuff, they lost me by making the books twice-monthly. I can't afford that, now I have no choice but to drop the books I am buying.

Right now, I am likely to check out the Rebirth 80 page special to see what's what, if I like what I see there, I may pick up a couple of the other Rebirth Specials to sample the new status quo. Those I like I will pick up when trades come out or read if the library gets the trades. It's great that the price point is $2.99, but I am still not getting enough value for the dollar in a 20 page comic for that price point. If they offered print subs at 40-45% off like Marvel does, I might commit to one or two titles, or if they offered a digital sub service like Marvel Unlimited, I would sign up to read as much or as little as I wanted at my discretion, but the monthly (or bi-weekly) print floppy format at a comic shop is pretty much dead to me as a modern consumer.

For as much as Rebirth is addresssing what people perceive as the mistakes or missing elements DC made with the new52, it is still appealing to the hardcore niche customer of the direct market and looking to reslice the existing pie, there's nothing in the initiative intended to grow the readership beyond the hardcore audience who frequent the lcs, mail order or Comixology already in place, so while it will bring some spikes in sales and marketshare, it won't make a damn bit of difference in the long term viability of the market and medium. It doesn't address anything that is limiting the viability of the product to mass audiences and leqaves them in a position to have to do something else to shake things up in a couple of years when marketshare attrition set in once again.

Didio said their goal is to position DC to never need to reboot again, that is not a viable goal unless you address the ceiling that exists on sale sin the direct market and find a way to get the product into a format that appeals to a mass audience. The direct market has devolved into a vicious circle and things like Rebirth are part of that cycle, not the means to escape form it. If they did all this and announced a publishing initiative that broadened the scope of the appeal of the product and it reach into a larger potential audience, then there would be something to actually be excited about, but they are falling back on the "if we build it, they will come" mentality that doesn't work, hasn't worked for 2 decades, and won't work with modern consumers.

As a sidenote, the Diamond truck accident I posted about in the Meanwhile thread highlights the problem with the Direct Market-books are printed to preorders (this is why they may have to allocate some of the books lost/damaged in the accident, there are no more because only enough to cover what was ordered by retailers for initial orders were printed). Mass audience will not pre-order the book.
There's no product available to grow the audience even if they could get people to come when they build it. Growing the market is not the concern or the goal for Marvel and DC, it's capturing as much of the existing (and shrinking) market a they can. It's a self-defeating strategy and a self-fulfilling plan for destruction of the market eventually. Abandoning the larger mass market to focus on the direct market already cost them 1 and now possibly 2 generations of new readers they will never get back, and their response is to stick their head in the sand and try to milk as much out of the existing customer base before it disappears rather than try to do anything to grow the market and capitalize on the massive popularity of the properties in other mediums and formats right now.

Let's keep repeating the mistakes of the pat and hope we get a different outcome this time is a great leadership strategy and vision. Not.

-M

Well there was a classic Legion image in the video when Johns was talking about what was missing from the current DC, so that may be a winter debut (since everything up through Fall was listed). I think Shazam is in wait and see mode to see if the film slate is altered after BvS, or it could be the title Johns goes to since he is leaving Justice League with #50. Who knows.

-M