By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
The publisher is calling it “DC You.” Various websites call it “the Batgirlization of DC.” Whatever you call it, it’s a welcome attempt to broaden the base of comics readership.
During the month of June, DC is launching 21 new titles, and changing the premise of a fistful of others. A press release describes this initiative as a “bold, new direction,” but since it’s only been four years since DC’s last “bold, new direction,” is there any reason to believe the hype?
Actually, yes. While most “bold, new directions” usually translate to “what we were doing before, only more of it,” this time DC really is trying some new things. And while not all of them will appeal to everybody, they shouldn’t – there should be comics to suit a broad range of tastes, not just generic superhero stories that appeal to the same fan base over and over.
Two of the most interesting new books debut June 3: Bizarro and Bat-Mite. The former you might remember as the backwards-talking super-moron with the chalky white skin, and he’s back, on a road trip with Jimmy Olsen. (The Daily Planet’s young photographer is trying to trick the blundering, super-destructive nincompoop into going to Canada. Sorry, Canada.) The latter is a hero-worshiping imp from another dimension with magic powers who dresses up like Batman and is on a mission to “improve” the superheroes of our dimension. Naturally, our heroes don’t want the help, especially since it invariably takes the form of immense property damage.
Yes, both of these titles are superhero-ish. You can’t really stray too far from the tropes of cape-and-cowl, a genre that has proved its popularity for decades, and on several occasions has been the last man standing when the sales floor dropped out from under other genres.
But Bizarro and Bat-Mite are also unabashed humor books. Whereas superhero titles have spent decades starring teeth-clenching heroes in grim-and-gritty adventures, those characters will be, in Bat-Mite and Bizarro, the butt of the joke. And while I love superheroes – who doesn’t? – that’s going to be funny.
More humor can be found in the new Starfire title coming June 10, starring the eye-poppingly zaftig, amusingly hyper-sincere and embarrassingly honest alien from the Teen Titans, who has moved to Key West in order to wear as little in the way of clothing as possible. Harley Quinn continues to find humor on the shady side of the law, and will be joined by a comedic team-up miniseries aptly named Harley Quinn and Power Girl (June 17). And then there’s the hard-to-describe Section 8 (June 10) about a group of useless, wannabe superheroes like Six-Pack (a drunk), Dog-Welder (just what it sounds like) and Senor Bueno (don’t ask).
Naturally, a lot of effort has been expended to skew younger in virtually all DC books, some younger than others. Black Canary ditches the character’s long history and multiple iterations on June 17, and renders her as late teens or early twenties, so she can be the lead singer in a rock band.Prez (June 17) re-imagines a short-lived, goofball title of the 1970s, by starring a 19-year-old girl as the first teen president of the U.S., set in the near future. And all of this started with Batgirl, a title that re-launched the character as a young, hip college student given to Doc Martens and home-made capes – and was a surprise hit.
You want younger still? Gotham Academy is a cute book continuing the adventures of youngsters at an upscale prep school that has its fair share of secrets. Robin, Son of Batman debuts June 17, starring the pre-teen Damian Wayne, who tries so hard to be an adult it hurts. We Are … Robin arrives June 24, featuring Gotham street kids who take inspiration from Batman’s sidekick and fight crime in their own unique way.
All of this experimentation is welcome, but of course there must be a lot of high-selling superhero books to support the new titles until they find an audience. And there’s no shortage of those, although there are changes in status quo up and down the line:
* In the Batman books, the Dark Knight is presumed dead and Jim Gordon has taken on the role in a high-tech, armored bat-suit. (Spoiler: No one really believes Batman is dead.)
* In the Superman books, Lois Lane has outed Clark Kent to the world, while simultaneously the Man of Steel is mysteriously losing his powers (and his super-suit).
* In the newly re-launched Justice League of America (June 3), the team is at its teeth-clenching best, caught in the middle of a war between DC’s two biggest bads, Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor.
* Batman Beyond returns to his devastated future June 3, with someone new behind the mask.
* Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) is on the run from the law in his own book, while the bulk of the Green Lantern Corps is trapped in a nightmarish otherworld with no explanation in Green Lantern: The Lost Army (coming June 24).
* In an unfortunate similiarity to Green Lantern, Aquaman is being pursued by Atlantean warriors at the order of his estranged wife, Queen Mera, who considers him a traitor.
Several B-listers are getting new shots at a series, too, including Martian Manhunter (June 17), Omega Men (June 3), Dr. Fate (June 17) and Midnighter (June 3). I always root for these guys to succeed, but frankly, their respective track records aren’t good. Dr. Fate looks like the most off-beat of the bunch, as it stars a second-generation Egyptian-American med student in what promises to be a light-hearted book. And Midnighter, for all the ultra-violence, stars a gay man.
DC is also exploring a market for supervillains. Lobo, Sinestro and Deathstroke all have their own books. And Doomsday (June 17) stars a kid infected by the Doomsday virus, who occasionally Hulks out to fight crime, which terrifies the people he’s saving. Can readers root for the bad guy? We’ll see.
And while Constantine was canceled on TV, that hasn’t stopped DC from re-launching the character with a new title June 10. Let’s hope creators of the new title understand that the appeal of Constantine is that he’s not a hero, or even a nice guy (which the TV show didn’t seem to grasp). From the 10-page preview on DCcomics.com, it appears they understand this perfectly.
Yes, there’s a Constantine preview on DC’s website. In fact, there are 43 10-page previews there (http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2015/05/21/are-you-ready-for-the-new-dc-universe), which can eat up an afternoon. DC is also promoting “DC You” with more than 500 online issues from 2011 to present on sale at ComiXology for 99 cents through June 8 – which could eat up a month!
So credit where it’s due: DC is trying some humor, a little rejuvenation and a great many titles that don’t star straight white males (I don’t think Bizarro counts). It may work and it may not, but the publisher deserves credit for the effort – and by golly, some of those books look pretty good!
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Replies
Fair play to them. During New52 would have been the time to do this, as they had so much good feeling, excitement and marketing clout behind that. It would have been a standout moment in the history of our form for a major comics company to rejig itself in such a major manner to reach out to a new audience.
As it is, we have DC trailing along a few years behind Marvel, which is business as usual, laudable as this particular case of it is.
In which vein, Batgirl was an Uber-Nu52 style series when it launched in 2011. It was seriously grim and dark, full of anger and violence and trauma. Gail Simone declared when it was relaunched that she had been trying to bring much of the lightness of touch the current highly successful run is showing into her run, but much to her chagrin DC wouldn't allow it. Batgirl was actually re-jigged partly in response to the huge success of the Kamala Khan Ms Marvel. Thus really we are talking about the MizMarvelization of the DCU! But I can see why they wouldn't put that on their marketing materials!
But better late than never, although done because it was a good thing to do would beat doing it because it seemed to be reaping rewards for Marvel.
Having grouched my grouch though, they do seem to be going all-out here, with for instance, unapologetically gay and bi writers scripting unapologetically gay and bi characters - Midnighter and Constantine respectively. That's a kind of commitment I can admire.
The companies should probably think seriously about how to direct readers to material that might interest them. Why should a casual reader who doesn't like Batman guess that Batgirl even exists? I don't think covers say enough (particularly since they keep slapping joke variant covers on serious issues), and Marvel's and DC's backlists are mazes.
I don't get why all of the issues this month have a Joker variant. Is it the Joker's birthday or something like that? Like the anniversary of his first appearance? I don't like it. I actually picked up an issue of a DC book a few months ago because I thought it looked like an interesting crossover with the Flash, but then I found out it was just a variant cover for Flash's anniversary and he was nowhere in the story.
But back to the subject at hand, I am more than happy that DC made this change. It feels so great to be interested in DC again.
It is the 75th anniversary of the Joker's debut this year, but according to DC Indexes Batman #1 went on sale in April and it was cover-dated for Spring.
Perhaps Marvel and DC should have separate websites dedicated to their major characters that explain what's going on with them currently, and have rotating sample issues with explanations of how to find more issues stylistically like those.
Figserello said:
Good to know. I gave the New 52 Batgirl a try only because Gail Simone was at the helm, having followed her work on Birds of Prey, but gave up on it a couple years in -- about when there was this super-angsty story of Barbara's wayward brother torturing their mother and him seemingly falling to his death, just in time for Commissioner Gordon to blame Batgirl for his murder.
Now I know Gail Simone was writing those stories with one hand tied behind her back. Thanks.
Plus, I'm liking the New New 52 (?) version of Batgirl -- the plucky twentysomething college student feeling her way through life -- just as much as I'm liking the newest iteration of Ms. Marvel. If DC is copying Marvel, well, at least they found a good source to copy from.
Man, now we will probably never know what Gail Simone would have done with the character left to her own devices.
Why did they come up with a son for Batman? Why not bring Helena Wayne into the main DCU instead? She could have played Robin for awhile then moved on the Huntress
I am too, Clark. This is Batgirl at her best, most prime, self. Strong, but still figuring things out.
ClarkKent_DC said:
I like the new Batgirl a lot, too. It's Bat adventures played in a different key, a lot like the Brave & the Bold cartoon took things in a lighter direction.
As for Damian, I doubt anyone at DC is second-guessing him the way you are, Ron. He's probably DC's most successful new character of the past decade.
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