How DC’s New 52 Is Successful

A little over a year ago, DC reset their universe and compiled it into 52 new books. In the most important way, it was a huge success as they increased their market share over long time rival, Marvel Comics. A year later things seem to be trending downhill with a lot of long time readers disenchanted with it and talking about how it failed or is failing. You can Google those posts if you want. I’m here to talk about how it’s successful, and not in the way you might think.

I believe DC’s New 52 is successful for one important reason–they tried new things. I grew up a Marvel zombie, but read more DC than Marvel now.

Here were the launch titles:

Action Comics

All-Star Western

Animal Man

Aquaman

Batgirl

Batman

Batman and Robin

Batman: The Dark Knight

Batwing

Batwoman

Birds of Prey

Blackhawks

Blue Beetle

Captain Atom

Catwoman

DC Universe Presents

Deathstroke

Demon Knights

Detective Comics

The Flash

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

The Fury of Firestorm

Green Arrow

Green Lantern

Green Lantern Corps

Green Lantern: New Guardians

Grifter

Hawk and Dove

I, Vampire

Justice League

Justice League Dark

Justice League International

Legion Lost

Legion of Super-Heroes

Men of War

Mister Terrific

Nightwing

O.M.A.C.

Red Hood and the Outlaws

Red Lanterns

Resurrection Man

The Savage Hawkman

Static Shock

Stormwatch

Suicide Squad

Superboy

Supergirl

Superman

Swamp Thing

Teen Titans

Voodoo

Wonder Woman

Now that’s a lot of titles–52 to be exact. The ones I bolded were ones of note. With the exception of a handful of them that might fall under DC’s Vertigo imprint, they might never have gotten made. Not only that, but they might not have had as big a push as they did with as wide an audience. A lot of places were offering discounts if you bought all 52 titles, and number ones sell.

Yes, a lot of titles were canceled. Yet the majority of them lasted a year, which is actually pretty good in today’s comics. They were given a decent enough run and push and a few of them had pretty good creative teams.

In some cases, DC didn’t help by making bad editorial decisions, weird artist and writer pairings, and the like, but the fact remains that they still gave these books a shot. A few of them such as Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Demon Knights probably could have been published under DC’s Vertigo imprint, but I doubt they would have sold as well.

I’m a Marvel Zombie, but enjoy the handful of DC titles I regularly read. Their rebooting got me to try a lot more titles than I normally would have and I’ve stuck with a few. I am sad that a couple of them like Voodoo got canceled, but for the most part, the ones I read are still around, and I don’t read the standard, popular superhero ones that would have been around new-52 or not.

If you’re an old DC fanboy, who’s read comic books forever, you won’t like what DC did. However, if you’re only a casual DC reader who likes the titles that aren’t Batman, Green Lantern, or Superman or don’t want to be bog down with continuity and crises then DC’s new-52, may be for you.

Marc Johnson