Riddle me this: Will DC be the #1 Comics Publisher next year?
Who’d win in a fight between Superman and Spawn? How the f*ck old is Cable? And what in the holy hell is a Megatron? When the tough questions arise, Panels on Pages will gather the facts, but it’s up to the PoP!ulation to draw its own conclusions. So come on… Riddle Me This.
Will DC Comics be the #1 Publisher next year?
Marvel Comics has had a stranglehold on the number one spot in comics as long as I’ve been collecting. They have been #1 in sales and market share since what seems like forever. Marvel has been the New York Yankess of comics, can DC be the Boston Red Sox? Or maybe even a one year anomaly like the Tampa Bay Rays?
Marvel seems to be running on all cylinders right now. Their main titles and events are selling. Surprise books like Future Foundation are topping the sales charts. Marvel has a new status quo coming for the X-Men that may ignite more interest in that family of titles, while the past few years has been focused on the Avengers juggernaut. No matter what problems you or anybody else have with Marvel they sell, sell, sell.
Marvel has been seeing some of their market share chipped away at, and not just by DC. Other publisher’s have been grabbing pieces of the market, and holding onto them aggressively. IDW a relative newcomer to the comics game has seen some growth since their inception. Dark Horse has always been seen as the number three publisher, and they are being aggressive with adding new and varied titles to their publishing portfolio.
Then we have DC. Consistently the underdog in sales to Marvel, DC has the punchers chance. Launching 52 new #1 issues, with more to follow, DC has been saying a lot of the right things. They have been talking about a national advertisement initiative, including television ads. Lower selling books supposedly will not be suffered lightly, and are said to be on a shorter leash than in the past. If a creator can’t make deadlines, DC says they will be off the book. At the same time they have upset longtime readers. With the launch of an entire line, DC has the potential to draw in many new or lapsed readers. The question is, have they alienated enough longtime readers to have their plans just crumble around them?
I personally think that September is a forgone conclusion. DC has said their goal is to be the number one publisher, and they mean beyond September. The dirty little secret is that September isn’t in the bag just yet. If DC can’t capture a majority sales lead in September it really damages their chances of achieving their goals going forward.
The question is, what do the fans think? Using the information available, is DC poised for a new run at the top spot? Putting aside however you may feel about the relaunch itself, do you think that DC is going to reach their goal? Is this all a horrible mistake?
Filed Under: Columns • Riddle Me This
Well, they will definitely have alot of work to do if they want that to be the case. They will have to up the quality of the stories a few notches.
Green Lantern wasn’t a huge success at the cinema so I doubt that will bring in too many new readers.
They will have to pander to some of their long-time readers in some ways if they plan to keep them.
I think it is going to be neck and neck overall but DC is going to have the bigger sales overall for the year, based only on the 52 #1′s that are coming out, between people who will buy all 52 issues (not me) people who will pick up a bunch of them to try something new that catches their eye and then pick up less and less until they have their core collections going (me) and then the people new to comics that want to see what the news is about and that a #1 seems like a good place to start.
I think DC is going to be the overall winner but only because of the #1s that are coming out. Unless Marvel follows suite and one ups them by killing all the 616 characters by having a monthly Death of So and So, followed by their own across the board reboot.
Who knows.. With all the hate out there its hard to say.
Dc will have to do a lot to beat Marvel simply because Marvel tend to publish 100 comics a month compared to DC putting out around 80.
If… IF… DC’s relaunch works, I doubt it will be more than a temporary fix. Marvel hasn’t held the top spot through stunts, it’s done so on the strength of its characters and overall business plan, however flawed it may seem at times. DC’s relaunch stands to up the company’s profile, but how much and for how long?
I say DC gets September… maybe the year. But I think their grasp on that number one spot will be EXTREMELY tenuous, and they’re going to need to get creative in how to hold on to it.
Great article Nick!
It’s an odd situation. You would think that any company with Batman, Superman, WonderWoman, Green Lantern, and the Flash in their stables would HAVE to be the number one comics company. Marvel’s counterparts are ‘culturally inferior’: Spider-Man, FF, IronMan, the X-Men—these are all lesser stars who have been boosted by better writing (perhaps?) and the recent movies….
So, can DC become #1 again? I would like them to get there, as I am a Marvel Zombie (primarily) and my perception has been that Marvel has become too arrogant (all those $4 Ultimate comics are terrible).
At the least, I like that DC is trying to shake it up. (Is the potential market for floppies too dead to respond? Are $3 comics too costly to produce (and therefore going away)?
Good article. It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out in the long haul for DC. Also, you can rest assured that Marvel has some big stuff planned for the end of the year and next year as well. They certainly won’t give up their spot without a fight.
Something I forgot to mention about DC’s digital pricing. The first few issues are 2.99, then for digital they go down to 1.99. That is huge.
*yawn*
That’s what I think.