DC comics might be closing?

[AmazementComics]

So on February 21, 2020 Dan Didio stepped down from Co-Publisher of DC comics. Now the only original creatives are Jim Lee and Geoff Johns. Apparently, since comic sales are declining faster than ever, DC is planning another universe reboot called Generation Five. However if this fails, AT&T will shut down DC comics as a publishing brand and instead focus on television, movies, toys, and video games. I've also heard that Marvel MAY be looking to buy out DC comics, which I'm not at all in favor of. How do you guys feel about DC Comics closing down and Marvel potentially buying out DC comics. Put it this way, the same thing that's happening to DC would happen to Marvel. Disney would shut down Marvel comics and indie publishers like Dark Horse and Image will remain. Think of all the poor fans of both company's comics, like myself!!!

• It's unbelievable
• I haven't heard about it
• I'm indifferent

Vote now!Show results

[brusskel]

Damn! That makes me super sad, going to be honest! DC comics shutting down is like a huge section of my family's childhood disappearing!

[johnm71180]

DC and Marvel have both been hiring low quality writers for years and making good comic brands into mediocre or garbage tier quality. I've seen the sales of both brands be so bad its caused comic shops all over the place to shit down because they cant afford to stay open as a result of this. Its funny because Marvel is the more egregious of these two and hasn't had to really face the consequences of this because they have Disney F.U money backing them up.

[bakasama25]

The way I see it, is that getting of Diamond might be the best way to help the industry even if it destroys DC and Marvel in the process.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I feel kind of wary about Marvel buying DC as well...that just puts Disney one step closer to literally owning everything... 6_6;

I'm a little confused about the issue here though. Is it that DC's business model is still reliant on physical comics, or comics sold 1 issue at a time? I really hope not, because that's very outdated, and if that's the case they have only themselves to blame.

It doesn't make sense that they would cling to such a practice...but if they have indeed modernized, then what are they doing wrong?? The webcomics industry has been growing in recent years, not declining...and unlike sites like Webtoons and Tapas, they have decades of brand and character recognition already built in to any potential audience...

On that note, I don't understand why Marvel comics would inevitably have to shut down too, for the same reasons...basically, the OP seems to imply that comics are a media black hole that even multi-billion dollar companies would rush to rid themselves of, and I'd really like to hear the reasons why. =/

[AmazementComics]

Do you understand that if comics are a dying industry for the two big conglomerates, anything that the companies they're owned by they perceive as lackluster will shut down? You have to look at the sales of comics (if you read the comics that is) for both companies.

Its funny because Marvel is the more egregious of these two and hasn't had to really face the consequences of this because they have Disney F.U money backing them up.

this pretty much sums up why Marvel could buy out DC comics, they have Disney and Kevin Feige at the helm. Unless Disney does away with comics altogether.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Do you understand that if comics are a dying industry for the two big conglomerates, anything that the companies they're owned by they perceive as lackluster will shut down?

I'm not questioning the logic behind the reaction to comics 'dying'; I'm asking why they're dying in the first place. Like I said, webcomics as a whole are far from dead, and I don't see why DC comics (or Marvel comics, for that matter) couldn't at least keep themselves afloat with 21st century marketing strategies.

Most of the poll participants are either unaware this is even happening or don't care, so I think it's well worth explaining.

[bakasama25]

That... Is a long answer. I'm not even sure Skicloak can even answer that and as far as I know, the process seemed to have begun even before many of the posters in the forum were even born.

[Nature]

I doubt that's the point. DC comics probably sees webcomics and printed comics as two different things. The issue is that under Dan Didio, the New 52 comics was there to pull in new readers while erasing pretty much decades of continuity from the past which was a problem. Then DC rebirth swooped in and fixed the problems for the most part. The new writers are probably running on fumes now coming up with new stories on a whif.

[spadedigsbutts]

There’s so many more comics out there nowadays and for me, it feels like the previous giants DC and Marvel just haven’t really kept up when it comes to quality. I used to be pretty big into both and spent hours learning all the universal lore and stuff but the stories were just getting...idk by the time DC’s the new 52 was around I think I only liked a handful of the series...and it wasn’t really even that great of a reboot for newcomers either since it still required backstory from lines that had been made non-canon previously sorta? There’s just so many crossovers and nowadays, I just can’t justify paying 4$ or so for like 25-30 pages of 1/30 of a story that I don’t even think the writers know is going. I’ve pretty much just gone full ham on webcomics and graphic novels since and tbh I don’t really regret a thing? I really don’t want Disney buying yet another -property though please god they already own so much of the market...

[bakasama25]

Disney can't buy anything at the moment. They got themselves into a mountain of debt buying Fox and Lucasfilms.

[spadedigsbutts]

Can’t say debt has actually stopped them before tho

[AmazementComics]

Which ones did you like? The Batman comics were alright, so was Justice League.

[Nature]

Well it looks like Marvel's woke culture is making them broke on the comics side of things. I remember reading all new all different marvel and every character was changed. Miles morales as spider-man, Sam wilson as Captain America, female Thor... all of it was garbage.

[bakasama25]

With Bob Iger out and Bob Chapek, infamous among Disney Theme Park fans as the Penny Pincher, I'm not seeing it.

@Nature

The problem with many new Marvel writers is that they're mostly YA writers who want to use writing as a stepping stone for TV and Movie writing gigs that pay more. So you get people that don't get comics nor have a love of them.

[rmdooley]

It's sad to see the heroes that got me interested in comics on the ropes but I'm always open for change and would not mind a reimagining of the comic industry

[AmazementComics]

Normally I'd be inclined to agree, but this new reboot their pushing is literally going to kill off Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and replace them with wholly NEW interations of the characters. Marvel already tried that, failed, and it almost cost them the comic book industry back in 2014.

[CarltonIsaac]

The mainstream printed comics industry in America is now a dead horse, what with sales barely making the print cost and comic book stores tanking by the dozens.

I quit collecting DC and Marvel seriously after 2010, and am not interested in the stuff they've been publishing since then, as are most buyers.

I guess Comic Books in the West aren't the 'escapist entertainment' they once used to be.
But there's still some hope with indie publishers the likes EVS and Zack bringing the old school 'fun element' back to the Action/Adventure comics genre.

[spadedigsbutts]

The bat family definitely got some of the better ones, though they may have had a few too many Batman specific ones for a lineup of 52 new series lolol, tho I really liked the aesthetic of the court of owls for sure. I remember liking parts of the Wonder Woman run (I think the art really stood out to me at the time) and I think I might have been the minority among my friends at the time, but I really liked aqua man. To this day the new 52 aquaman is one of my favorite issue #1’s because I still get so much amusement out of the fact they wrote like 30 pages of people being ocean-racist to aquaman at it was just the funniest shit. In hindsight it might have been supposed to be dramatic but I will never get over aquaman being shamed for eating fucking fish in a restaurant. I think the new 52 was weird in that it kind of made me read all other series I had normally had no interest in while disliking those I usually liked lolol

What were your favorites?

[AmazementComics]

Besides the ones I mentioned, Shazam was good. So was The Flash. I do hate how Batman-centric it was. Like there was Nightwing, Batgirl, The Outsiders, don't even get me started on Red Hood. Superman was unbearable at times. Convergence was a terrible way to end the universe. DC Rebirth is trying to repair what was bad about the New 52.