DC’s New 52 Trailers Fail to Sell?
Here we have the extended promotional trailer for DC Comic’s New 52 initiative, where they reboot or create 52 titles in September. I’ve blogged about this before, but I find myself becoming less optimistic that this cheap gimmick will continue the stories I’ve been caring about lately or create anything that actually means something and lasts through the next eventual Crisis.
Does any of this sell you on DC Comics though? Do these trailers or any of the news you’ve heard made you care in the slightest? Is DC seeming to be achieving their goal in attracting a new audience, or do you seeing this falling on its face?
Maybe I’m just bringing my own biases into this, but I don’t see anything in this trailer selling the New 52 initiative. It’s familiar superheroes (mostly familiar with Superman in a tee shirt) beating up people and things. The shorter TV commercial is even less enticing. What’s new? What is the selling point of getting new and fallen-out readers to these books?
New books at #1 isn’t an irregular thing. Marvel essentially did the same thing with The Mighty Thor #1 and Captain America #1, yet these are not restarts or even soft reboots. These are new volumes, picking up at a fresh story for new readers while still embracing everything that has happened even within the previous issue of the last volume.
So why should I care, DC? Especially since you’ve screwed around with the Batman bits I was really digging, such as Dick and Bruce co-existing as Batman and Bruce Batman’s nifty new suit with the Bat signal chest. Why should I care? Why should the new and the old care? And why isn’t THAT in your trailers and commercials?
The real sticking point though is that DC pulls a quote from the New York Times to promote their initiative as being “audacious.” Let’s look at that for a moment.
1) Showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks
2) Showing an impudent lack of respect
Yeah, that fits.
DC’s 52 Title Pick-Up
The world was set ablaze earlier this month when DC Comics announced that they would be restarting or debuting 52 titles this September. Finally, with the announcement of Grant Morrison tackling the perennial super hero title Action Comics, the world now knows what books to expect this fall.
Restarts of long-running ongoing titles seem silly to me, simply a cheap marketing gimmick. So do revamps simply for the sake of revamps and for other reason. These first issues may be a good starting point for new readers, but they’ll be inconvenient or annoying interruptions for current ones. Not to mention that restarting a book for new readers is only a temporary fix, as the titles will become convoluted and impenetrable again within a couple of years. Is that really worth screwing up over 900 issues of continuous publishing?
With that said, this whole debacle presents specific opportunities and sadly dropped balls. Here’s what I picked out from my own views. What about you?
The Pull List – Week 13 & 14, 2011
And yet again I missed a week. I didn’t actually buy anything last week, so oh well. At least I’ve had my last two twitter spree posts to keep you entertained. But now, it’s all about the comics, and with not getting last week’s books until this week, there are a lot of them. What did you pick up that I should check out?
The Pull List – Week 12, 2011
Real quick, before I run off to MidSouthCon in Memphis, I’m going to get up this week’s Pull List. If you’re visiting MSC, check out the Gundam and Tokusatsu panels I’ll be on. Otherwise, tell me what comics you’re looking at in the comments.
The Pull List – Week 10 & 11, 2011
I finally missed a week. Didn’t even make it to the big 1-0. Oh well. Now I get to put more titles in one post, including this week’s Pick of the Week. Did I miss something these past two weeks? Do you have a book you want to talk about? Talk about it in the comments.
The Pull List – Week 7, 2010
Typing this out from my hotel room at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for Con Nooga. If you’re here, stop by and say hi at the MTAC/GMX promo booth. In the mean time, tell me about your comics in the comments.
The Pull List – Week 6, 2010
Our latest snowpoclypse in Nashville Wednesday evening delayed my weekly comic trip, but I did manage to pick up my books last night for a late Pull List post Did the weather keep you from your weeklies, or did you find some gems in the stands? Tell me about it in the comments.
Movie Night – Superman/Shazam: The Return of Snowpocalypse
This week’s Pull List will be delayed for the same reason I didn’t record with CineGeek last night. Nashville was hit with yet another snow storm that, while only a couple of inches, brought the city to a standstill for several hours. Instead, I spent the night in with friends, drinking perfectly acceptable orange juice and apple cider while watching Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam.
The Pull List – Week 4, 2011
I’m off to Ohayocon in a couple of hours, hopefully to find an interesting story to tell. Before that though, I grabbed some comics. Sadly not the sold-out Fantastic Four #587, the end of the storyline “Three” that sees the death of one of the team members (Look around the internet. Marvel spoiled it for everyone.). Alas, that’s what second printings are for. Anyway, enough about me. What all are you reading?
The Pull List – Week 3, 2011
It’s Matt Fraction Week with a new issue of Thor and the big 5-0-0 as Invincible Iron Man returns to the original numbering. Let me know what you’re reading in the comments below.
Shameless Plugs
