This has probably been asked a gazillion times and if so greatest apologies but why can’t DC publish more content on DCUniverse?
I would personally pay triple the asking price if every comic was available. I’m sure a lot of people would.
Don’t get me wrong, I love DC Universe and never imagined getting what I’m getting but I just love DC Comics and obviously want more.
Is it a rights thing with certain creators? Or maybe they just want to space out back issue releases because theoretically that keeps people coming back I guess? Do they just not have the original copies in some cases and it’s impossible to publish? All of the above? Something else I’m not seeing?
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Yes
I know it sounds simple, but it’s true. Just look at the comics that are already released here. Some single issues in series like Justice League of America are missing because they haven’t been collected into a volume, or if they were, there are licensing issues that prevent them from being released. There’s also the issue of certain creators who may own some rights that could make it impossible to publish their work here. And then there are those creators whose behavior is controversial, and DC doesn’t want to publish their volumes or series and give them money from the titles.
There are also not-so-good reasons why DC might have done that. For a while, they didn’t release Watchmen on their service until it got a massive revamp, and then it was only available to Ultra members. It’s pretty clear that they were holding it back so that they could encourage people to buy the physical or digital copy of the book instead.
Basically, there are a variety of reasons, but I think I’m glad the service has such a dedicated team that adds new and old titles to the service every week.
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Agreed. Not dissing DCU, it’s been ah-mazing.
Just want mooooooooore
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There’s a few reasons why their entire library isn’t on the service, and they’re all reasonable.
First would be that they have a limited staff digitizing comics. When the pandemic hit and there were layoffs, that probably got halfed. Now you’ll probably say “Why don’t they just hire more people to digitize and clean up this stuff?” Easier said than done, I’m afraid. It’s why the people who are digitizing what they can from a list every week get my respect. It can’t be easy.
The second is that there are almost a hundred years worth of comics and countless issues. Sadly, not everything is digitized. Aside from rights issues, there’s also the matter of finding good sources/masters of the comics to scan, clean up and prepare for digital viewing. Some series have eight hundred to a thousand issues alone, so imagine trying to get everything digitized. One could say “Well, why didn’t they do that before they launched the service?” If that were the case, we’d still be waiting for them to digitize stuff.
The third comes down to bringing you back for new content. Streaming and digital services, be they movies, shows, books or comics get and keep repeat customers by offering new content regularly. People are fickle. You can have an entire library at your fingertips, but eventually you’ll get overwhelmed or bored. Offering something new incentivizes you to keep coming back. Even if what they offer that week isn’t what you want, it reminds you that you can look for something in the library to tide you over until the next batch of new comics next week.
I remember when the service first launched a few years ago. It had a good amount of comics. It didn’t have all the comics, but then again it never promised that. But soon they started adding thousands more when they got stuff digitized. Then the pandemic hit, so we were down to a select number of new issues added every week. Now we have a larger library, select titles every week, and if you have Ultra then you get digital trade paperbacks and things like Vertigo. What we have now compared to what we had when DC Universe first hit is like night and day.
We all want more, but we also need reasons to keep coming back and also have to be realistic when it comes to the workers doing what they can to get things done, what’s available to scan and what will keep us coming back.
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