As I sat there at my desk, filling out a new subscription for my local comic book shop, I couldn't help but notice a trend. It's something that had been going on for months, but visually seeing this on my sheet really struck home the point to me. It's a trend I really don't see going away soon. Have I teased everyone long enough? I like the attention really, so I will make you wait for one more sentence.
Okay, here goes. I'm barely buying any comic books from DC. When the "New 52" event started over four years ago that effectively rebooted the DC Universe, I was all in. I will admit that like most die-hard comic book fans, I complained these impending changes. Since I've been a fringe DC fan at best, I realized this was the best thing for me. It gave me a chance to start fresh. Through a deal at another comic store (not my home base), I got all the number one issues. This helped me decide what I liked and what I didn't like. I reviewed this on my old site. For fun, I think I will resurrect that article if I can find it. Anyways, I stuck with about half the books.
Fast forward to now and I can reveal that I only put THREE DC comic books on my list. This is a far cry from where I was years ago. Over the past year and a half, I've slowly started dropping books as constant creator changes and stagnant storylines pushed me away. Stalwarts such as Flash, Green Lantern, Batgirl, Aquaman (!) and Wonder Woman fell by the wayside. Surprise darlings such as Swamp Thing and Animal Man just ended. Even Fables ended after a ten plus year run.
My list is so diluted that only Batman, Justice League and Starfire (only four issues old) remain. The reason I keep these books? The creative teams. Scott Snyder is still telling an interesting Batman story and Geoff Johns is writing a Justice League comic devoid of current continuity.
On the flip side, creative teams are the reason I left the other books. I could give you specific reasons for why I dropped all the other books, but I won't bore you with the details for each one. I will say it was a combination of inconsistent art and writers coming up with storylines that were just boring. I'll use Green Lantern as one example.
Ever since Geoff Johns left the book after his ten plus year run, I expected the worst from the book. He was the only thing keeping me around, but I still tried to give it a chance. However, I can only take so much of the Green Lantern Corps fighting even more escalating threats involving the various corps of Yellow Lanterns, Red Lanterns, etc. Hal Jordan had become so unlikeable that the thought of him being in charge of the Lantern Corps turned me completely off the book.
The most egregious example is what happened to Wonder Woman. For about thirty five issues, an intricate tale of re-imagined Greek mythology unfolded around the most powerful female comic book character in comics. It culminated in a woman that was raised as a warrior, who practiced peace ended up becoming the God of War. This is an idea that was rife with good story possibilities. Instead, the moment Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang left, that all changed. David and Meredith Finch (with DC's blessing), took over by returning Wonder Woman to her super hero roots. That meant we had to hear all about her relationship with Superman and fighting normal comic book villains. It took me all of one issue to decide this book was not for me.
To further my point, there were a couple of big time events that I found did not interest me. Even though I am suffering event fatigue, the past two big comic book events (Convergence and Forever Evil) failed to capture me. That's when I knew they had started to lose me. It's almost as if after four years, they've run out of ideas.
DC has a lot of recognizable heroes such as Batman, Superman (noticed I haven't said anything about him until now?), Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman. Unfortunately, the stories they are telling are boring. I don't want them to go back to pre-New 52 versions of the characters. A lot of my favorite writers have moved on to other projects in other companies. I have realized that my flirtation with DC for the past few years was apparently a phase.
I will give them credit, they are trying to come up with new titles to entice the readers. It's just that siren song is not going to work with me any more. There's a slew of Marvel comics and a lot of independent books that can easily fill that void for me.
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