The DC Rumor Mill Has Me Thinking

I’ve been thinking…
Any time I read about DC comics for the past year, the media write fake news about DC Comic, like ‘Is DC Universe failing?’ ‘Is DC comic is going to end?’ My personal favorite ‘Marvel may buy DC Comic.’ I admit I foolishly fell for the last one. Why do people write fake news about DC Comics? Do they really hate DC so much that they are trying to put them out of business? I have to say I’m hurt and angry by this, The Buck Stop Here! I think DC is doing very well, people are entitled to their opinions, DC comics has been around for over 85 years and still going strong, where are you going to find TV, movies,comics,shop and interact with fans all in a same place for $75 a year? You won’t find that on Disney +, Marvel unlimited only have comics, DC Universe has it and are doing very well. And that’s my rant for the day, I think DC Comics are doing just fine.

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Why do they write things about DC Comics? The media loves a story. Even if that story may not having anything to back it up. It’s this entire concept of clickbait titles. It draws attention.

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Well the stories you are talking about, they write it because it gets clicks. If writing “Marvel Unlimited is about to end” got clicks they would be reporting that.

As far as why those get clicks in the first place. It has become cool to crap on DC COmics as Marvel is objectively more successful at the moment. And after decades of selling fans on Marvel vs DC that is how people react to that.

Part of it is that it does sell on paper. I have no idea what the future of DC universe holds, and clearly it will be around after HBO MAX launches. The Stargirl announcement pretty much confirms that one if there was any doubt. But with HBO MAX launching and claiming to have so much DC content everyone assumes that will mean Warner won’t want both. In truth if both would make money I don’t know why they wouldn’t, but we don’t know what kind of money it is making.

It also helps because the forum while great also is a place for people to vent. And most don’t get that in a service with presumably hundreds of thousands of users (or even 10s of thousands no idea what the subscriber count here is) that 10 people complaining does not mean everyone hates it. But that is what laypeople take away. Disney+ would have plenty of people saying negative things on a forum if it had one because that is what people do on the internet, but it doesn’t.

So that leads people to thinking “they must be shutting down” which gives news sites and videos that just want clicks an opening to post a video saying nothing, except for enough to get that click.

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Marvel being absorbed by Disney pretty much insulates them the various “they are going out of business” clickbait. DC has had some issues, new 52 followed by rebirth not that long after didn’t help. 5G was a fustercluck of hypotheses and clickbait.

Marvel has dominated the theater film space, and that area gets more media attention than the small screen animated market, which DC dominates. AT&T buying WB was problematic because every time one company buys another rumors of mass layoffs, cutting the bottom line, etc. come to the conversation. DCU and HBOMAX, will be how much the big kid gets that the little kid doesn’t, but often ignores the fact that it could be a very partnered relationship, especially in light of Doom Patrol S2. Stargirl not being DCU “exclusive” had a two fold effect of (A) it wasn’t exclusive, although I don’t recall it ever being marketed as exclusive. (B) The CWVERSE haters threw a tizzy that it’ll become yet another CW show.

I must confess, all of those people getting bent out of shape about Stargirl also getting shown on CW never made sense to me. The bigger the audience, the more money it can make, the more likely it gets a second season. DCU being commercial free and possibly getting extra content, because it doesn’t have to meet CW time constraints, is a plus and value add for DCU not a value subtract because CW will have it with commercials and slightly more editing.

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Should note the Disney will buy DC thing. That came about because Disney bought Fox, so now everyone assumes that Disney will just buy anything people have a problem with and “fix it”.

It’s sort of like how once Netflix aired Arrested Development every time any show ever made before or sense got cancelled or was in danger of getting cancelles “speculation” it would be revived on Netflx started.

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On top of clickbait, I also think the line between media and news is blurred. Especially for the sake of this topic. None of the sites that I read about comic books qualify as “news”. They might share information that is accurate and new from time to time but it’s not journalism in the classic sense of the word and ideal. The internet can make anyone a reporter with minimal effort and cost and I think our collective mentality has not caught up to the fact that there are no standards for quality, editing, sources, etc. I also think “fake” is the wrong term for this. I would say these articles are assumptions or speculation but not fake.

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DC is now become Marvel before the 2000’s. They are not really looked at as often as Marvel is now with there movies, and probley just for clickbait. They just hear rumors and then they blow it out of preporsion to make everyone panic. I think DC will survive and grow well, even though they have become a little less popular in mainstream media.

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I didn’t know any of this. Now I’m all bent out of shape.

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I chalk it up to BS clickbait. People love controversy and drama. It used to annoy me because I thought this is exactly the type of narrative that creates toxic fandoms and ultimately stagnates progress in all forms; But now I just choose to see it as FREEEE advertising! Perspective. :wink: All of us here know better. Haters gonna hate. Ignore them.

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Also Disney buying DC would give them basically a monopoly on comic books, which would violate anti-trust law and I doubt the acquisition would go through, just in those grounds alone. The thing is DC is just a few films and Marvel is just a few flops away from changing mainstream perceptions.

DC has IP, especially in the trinity, that it is almost difficult to put a price on. WB & AT&T. 20 years from now Iron Man and Thor as comic books and as a franchises will have moved out of the public consciousness, Superman, Batman & WW won’t. The closest Marvel has is Spider-Man and Captain America…I’m not sure if X-Men is safe, but let’s say it is. The collective value of that IP in both media and merchandising, that goes to DC. And don’t sleep on the merchandising element of that IP. I’d love to know just for the trinity how much licensing revenue the trinity brings in.

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Plus why would Warner sell DC anyway. Birds of Prey underperformed and Justice LEague lost money but they made a boatload of the other films, and the TV shows… I mean Arrowverse except for Arrow which ran for 8 years has yet to be cancelled so it is making money clearly. Hell, the comics while not banking in insane gobs of money is making a profit and can only imagine the toys are. DC has got to be one of their most valued if not most valued properties even if Birds of Prey did poorly and critics have been inconsistent. Why would they sell it to their top competior?

I mean I guess in theory they could sell just the publishing (not that I think they want to do that), but why would Marvel buy the least profitable part of DC at the moment, and then use it to make comics that would help sell tickets and toys to the competitor, it wouldn’t make any sense.

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Concerning the clickbait articles I think part of the problem is the confusion that comes with a takeover / merger. No matter what they tell you, no one knows exactly what is going on. There are new managers, execs, VPs, etc. The “news people” contacts may be gone, in different positions, or trying to just hang on. You don’t need two accounting depts. or two purchasing depts. which makes everyone nervous and crazy rumors can start up.

Concerning IP and how to leverage it, the trinity may be around for a long, long time, but tastes change with the times. In the early part of the last century the pulps had big characters just like DC. Other than the Shadow, Doc Savage, and Tarzan who in the general public can name all the different characters and knock-offs? Who besides Sherlock Holmes is remembered from before that? Tom Mix and Davy Crockett have faded and even John “Duke” Wayne is unknown to the youngest among us. The DC characters have changed with the times similar to James Bond who’s movie debut was 58 years ago in 1962, but has a new film debuting this year. The trinity has been around longer than that and are still a major power today.

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And that comes back to how flexible these characters are. But, it also demonstrates that as a writer/artist/filmmaker, as Marv Wolfman said, “you get to take out the toys and play with them in new ways, you just have to make sure you don’t break them.” And that’s why some of the characters have endured for so long. Batman has the longest continual monthly new story record and it’s still going strong and will be difficult to beat, for any character, ever. Superman would have the record but death of Superman relinquished that title to the bat.

Much of the planet has only known a world where these characters have existed. They were here decades before I was born and will probably be around centuries after I’m dead.

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DC feels very directionless to me but a lot of that stuff is baseless speculation. It’s weird that stuff that has been confirmed to be true like Didio leaving didn’t get any more information

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It does seem like a rudderless ship sometimes, but I’m patient. I’m willing to pull the thread and see where it leads. And yeah, I’m surprised when the actual facts (like Didio) aren’t hardly given any attention, but a rumor (like the fake takeover) spread like wild fire.

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It takes no effort to be ignorant of a subject and create meaningless, baseless, clickbait BS that is the digital embodiment of yellow journalism.

However, it does take effort to be intelligent and know what you’re talking about, while creating content that is unbiased/objective, of substance and accurate.

Sadly, some people prefer to be ignorant and take the no effort route. The path that requires knowledge and effort will always be more rewarding, and truly be worth journeying upon.

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My friend and I have been talking about this in an ongoing conversation. One thing my friend mentioned was that once I was able to get him read Infinite Crisis and 52 he was all in on DC. In the world of comics, DC has something that Marvel cannot come close to. The shared multiverse in DC is massive. While Marvel does the big crossover events, and I am sure they do great, they don’t stick to the rules they lay down. Civil War was retconned within a year. DC does the retcon thing often but they will stick to something for a while so at least that important scene in a book really does feel important.

Another thing that we were talking about at the comic shop was the rumors when Disney bought Marvel. I remember people thinking Marvel was going to fail and Disney would just abandon it. DC is currently in that same situation with the ATT merger. There is nothing but a brave future for DC and they will continue to tell stories are at high standards for a very long time.

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I read merch alone was roughly half a billion per character (trinity). Per year. And this was several years ago.

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First off its rumors and predictions. I hate to be the one to burst your bubble but the comic book industry is not doing well right now. Look at the numbers they’re bad, there not improving. Sales aren’t well, you have a lot of creators attacking fans And The quality of writing has gone down. personally I think DC right now has a better quality of comic than marvel. Marvel is a joke right now. There are lots of bad writers and editors are almost non exsistant.

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@fishin4bass.66054 There are good and bad titles with both companies. Always have been. Judging these things is subjective. You’re right though. Sales are not great on floppies. They’ve been mostly flat for a long time now. I think that’s why there is so much speculation.

I’m in the camp that believes things will go mostly digital. If you cut print and distribution costs then it’ll likely be able to turn a pretty solid profit with existing numbers. You then have to wonder if you’ll maintain present sales if you go all digital.

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