DC Comics Ends the New 52…And Keeps the Same Universe

 

The ONLY DC UNIVERSE I'LL EVER ACKNOWLEDGE!

DC Comics is ending the New 52 in June after Convergence. And in its place will be…The same DC Universe the New 52 is set in.

Good Gravy.

After Convergence, DC Comics will be keeping 24 titles in their New Universe with the same numbering and launching 24 more titles in different universes. Dan Didio, Jim Lee, Bob Harras, and the DC Editorial regime continue to cock-tease comic fans in the efforts to get them to trick off their money like a bunch a pathetic Simps.

I wonder how many comic fans are wise to the game. Or how many have become wise to the game in the last four years.

The vicious cycle continues at DC. More new title launches. Which will probably be followed by a short-term surge in sales, which will be followed by a rapid sales decline, and more cancellations a few months later.

Business as usual under the Didio Regime. Promises of change but continuing to do the exact same thing. I doubt most of these new titles see a twelfth issue.

Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result. But I’m finding insanity is the norm in the comic book industry.

Didio’s spinning this talking about how comic fans want stories. How there will be less editorial control. More HOT AIR from a windbag who is a master of the art of bullshitting.

 The big problem is that neither Dan Didio nor anyone who works for him knows how to write a good comic book story. No one knows how to draw a quality page that tells a great story in pictures. No one has learned the craft of comic storytelling in his dysfunctional regime that is still run like early 1990’s Image Comics.

It’s even sadder when you consider that Image Comics editors, writers, and artists today have grown so much in their craft over the last twenty-five years that they’re publishing fan-favorite comics like Saga and The Walking Dead while DC struggles to sell iconic characters like Superman and Batman to a more and more indifferent audience tired of the cock-teasing, bullshitting and drama from DC’s dysfunctional editorial regime who can’t do anything without gimmicks or shock marketing some event with blood, gore, and death, death, and more death.

I know most fans thought that Convergence would end with the New 52 and a return to the Classic DC Universe most fans knew and loved. But the mistake many comic fans keep making is trusting Dan Didio. As long as he’s in charge all he’s going to do is keep pulling these attention whore stunts where he teases change and then YANKS it away just as fans start buying his comics again.

Well, I haven’t bought a new DC Comic since Didio became Editor-in Chief. And I haven’t bought a DC action figure since 2012 when my Mattel Club Infinite Earths subscription ran out. I’ve been DC merchandise free for two going on three years. And I probably won’t buy another DC Comics related product for the rest of my life.

And I’m comfortable saying that. There was a time a few years ago I couldn’t think of not having new DC figures in my collection or missing a DC TV series like Static Shock or Justice League Unlimited. But these days I could care less about DC or Marvel’s characters anymore or the merchandise based on them.

At this point I’m just indifferent to the gimmicks from the big two comic publishers. Last week when I was at Jury Duty and I read about the so-called end of the Marvel Universe on my laptop I didn’t even flinch. And when I read about the Post Convergence DC Universe this Saturday I was pretty indifferent.

That’s not a reaction a publisher should want a lifelong comic fan to have about their products. Praise means fans care. Anger means fans care. Indifference on the other hand means people like myself have moved on. And in the business world indifference is the KISS OF DEATH when it comes to products.

Right now I’m just indifferent to Dan Didio and his dysfunctional DC Universe in the same way I was indifferent to the redesigned Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme in 1988. Today GM doesn’t make Oldsmobiles anymore. Because Oldsmobile no longer exists. And I doubt Warner Brothers will continue publishing DC Comics in a few years for the same reason GM no longer produces Oldsmobiles: Declining sales and shrinking demand.

That’s what happens when customers become apathetic about a brand and become indifferent to their products.

In 2011, when I wrote my first blog denouncing the New 52 I cared about what happened within the DC Universe. But I realize these are not my heroes. So I give about as much a shit about them or what happens to them as I do about the New Marvel Universe coming up.  

Do I want the old DC Universe Back? Yeah, I do. But I realize They’re Time Warner’s property. And they can do whatever they want with them.

Moreover, I realize my money is my property. And I can do whatever I want with it. I don’t have to spend it on like DC’s crap comics, movies and merchandise. Right now there are too many GREAT comics being produced by Archie Comics, indies and webcomics like Bill Walko’s FUN The Hero Busine$$ strip, Jeph Jacques AWESOME Questionable Content, strip, and R.K. Millholland’s LEGENDARY Something *Positive strip for me to keep griping about DC and Marvel’s FUBAR comics anymore. The way I figure it I’ll give money to the indie comics and try to buy the self-published trades of webcomic artists so they can continue to have the money to keep producing great comics. I’m urging comic fans who read my blog to take the money they’d spend on Marvel and DC and show these independent writers and artists some support too. Many of these guys and gals are great people and they’d appreciate your hard-earned dollars more than Time Warner and Disney ever would.  

And I’ll take my time to focus on my own self-published projects as well. This summer I’m planning to publish a fun cross-over between the Isis and E’steem series, and I’m preparing to do a Kickstarter to pay a comic artist to do the cover for both books in a few weeks. A donation to my Kickstarter would be money better spent than on the weekly $50 or $100 haul of crappy Marvel and DC Comics. 13 years of stories in and the Isis series is still in the same universe and there will NEVER be a reboot as long as I’m publishing it. Every story is an entry point and every story is fun from first page to last for readers of all ages.

Reads like Oldschool Wonder Woman!

Wonder Woman fans, if you want to read stories that are just like the classic Princess Diana you knew and loved, check out my modern Isis series eBooks and paperbacks. Many of these stories like Isis: The Ultimate Fight and Isis: Power of the Princess were originally planned to be Wonder Woman stories under the hypothetical run I proposed on the blog a few years ago.

I’m not upset about the Post Convergence DC. I just don’t care anymore. Maybe in the last four years since the DC Universe I knew and loved ended I’ve grown up. Maybe I’ve finished my mourning for the old DC Universe. Maybe I’m ready to move on. While I’m still against DC Comics’ New Universe and the unprofessional way Dan Didio treats comic fans, I’d rather take my time and money and build up my own SJS DIRECT publishing imprint and support the work of talented indie artists and writers and make my characters and their characters household names. The fact of the matter is that I love the comic medium and I enjoy great comics. And I’m ready to enjoy the medium of storytelling with other publishers and share their stories with my friends and my blog readers out there.