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DC Tells Editors, Stop Batgirling, Go Back To Meat And Potatoes

Published Tue, 25 Aug 2015 13:00:22 -0500

Last updated Tue, 25 Aug 2015 16:50:29 -0500

This morning we mentioned that DC Comics was down over $2 million on planned revenue/expenditure for 2014/2015.

Here's where the other shoe gets dropped. I understand from a number of senior sources that DC editorial have been told to "stop Batgirling" and go back to "meat and potatoes".

Batgirling was the internal phrase at DC Comics, inspired by the success of the revived Batgirl comic book – and Harley Quinn, to be fair, to try more quirky, experimental, off the wall and less continuity-laden comic books across the line

Ironically this shouldn't affect Batgirl which is still a strong seller against expectations, especially on digital. And Harley Quinn should also remain immune.

Batman was also already going to revert to Bruce back as Batman and Jim Gordon as Commissioner, that was always the plan.

But Superman? Yeah, look for him to ditch the shirt and jeans look a lot quicker than planned and to get back into the suit pronto. As for his identity revelations – that they can keep, but they have to downplay it a little and not make the stories be about the change in identity status as much as they are now.

Dark Knight III is expected to do very well and absolve DC of many sins. But expect a lot of the current fringe books to be tidied up quicker than they may have otherwise.

The lesson learned is that you cannot calculate and manufacture "surprise" hit books. The reasons books like Batgirl or Harley Quinn hit – or Ms Marvel and Hawkeye hit – is because they're doing something that the rest of the line wasn't doing. Marvel aren't trying to make every book into Ms Marel. Not yet, anyway. The audience it seems doesn't want the bulk of the titles like that, it's the fact that there's only one or two that make them special and it does well.

Comic book audiences are a lot more conservative than some people give them credit for.

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