The State of the DCnU – Part Two

Earlier, I gave a mild, encouraging evaluation of DC’s creative efforts.  But what of their commercial ones?  For some prospects on that, I went to Comics Unlimited, easily the finest and most successful shop of its kind in Orange County.

Mark and Nancy, the estimable owners of Comics Unlimited, were not in, but Laine and Denise, who pretty much run the place when their bosses aren’t around, had plenty to say about DC’s retail strategies.  Both were pleased at how business had been humming throughout the month.  “I don’t think even DC had any idea how big this was going to turn out,” Laine mused.  “Because we [retailers] didn’t know, so how could they have known?”

An unfortunate side-effect of all this success, however, was frequent shortages in their stockpile of “New 52” titles.  Laine explained, “We have to order our titles a month or so ahead of time, and DC uses that information from all the retailers to figure out how many they need to publish.  We reorder as soon as we run out, but it takes a few weeks for us to get more.  People come in because we’re a big store, so I always feel bad telling them we ran out.”

While Denise and Laine both knew it was entirely possible some of the sales went to guys trying to resell fresh #1s on eBay for twenty bucks, they assured me interest was genuine, generated by strong word-of-mouth.  “It seems like they’ve been getting better each week,” Denise said.  “The first week, we had people come in almost like normal, but now it’s like everyone has to come in right away on Wednesday, or they might not get the titles they want.”

I believed her.  Right before the interview, I had been looking for a copy of I, Vampire.  I’d thumbed through it just that Wednesday, but with a hefty pile of comics already cradled in my arms, I decided to put off purchasing.  After reading rave reviews across the internet, I came into the store and found its spot on the shelf empty.  When I asked Laine if they had any more, she said, “We had four this morning…”  Seeing the empty shelf, she smiled apologetically and said, “Yeah, we’re sold out.”

It seems everyone’s mostly surprised and taken aback at how much they’ve actually liked what they’re reading.  “Take The Flash,” Denise told me.  “I like Wally.  I hate Barry.  I read the last Flash series because Geoff Johns was writing it, but I just thought Barry was depressing.  But after I read this one, I actually cared about Barry.  I even liked Patty, because she’s a nerd and she’s cute.  So I thought that was great.”

While praise from devotees of comics certainly means a lot, DC’s aiming for new readers with this relaunch.  Laine thinks they’ll get them.  At Comics Unlimited, the proprietors have a practice of collecting all their subscribers’ pulls into separate boxes from the free issues they put out for sale on their shelves.  “We’ve had to get out a whole ‘nother big box for new readers,” Laine said, “because they want to make sure to get the titles they want.  Which is smart.”

But most of the new readers had some familiarity or affinity for comics.  People completely new to the form have a harder time mustering enthusiasm.  I was surprised one day when Julia, one of my classmates, said to me, “Hey, you read comics, right?  What do you think about this whole relaunch thing DC is doing?”

I figured Julia’s boyfriend was a comics fan and had told her.  It turned out she’d heard about it on the radio, which impressed me, you might imagine.  For fun, I lent her my copy of Batwoman #1, certainly one of the biggest hits to come out of the new 52, and in my mind, a great example of the medium.  After all, the story was strong, the art breathtaking, and it featured a strong woman with recognizable iconography.  I figured Julia would get a kick out of it.

When she handed it back to me a week later, the first thing she said: “It’s confusing.”  Why is Batwoman so scary-looking?  What’s with the tree growing inside the building where Bette and Kate were changing?  Who’s the skeleton in the suit working in a government building and furthermore, why is there a skeleton in a suit working in a government building?  She also found the dialogue cheesy and was completely flummoxed by Kate’s whole speech about her sister dying, but actually not and instead becoming a villain and their father knowing about it and also someone drowned, or something.  On the other hand, the art was “pretty” and the story was “kind of interesting.”  Otherwise, “Yeah, it’s not for me.”

Obviously, Julia’s underwhelmed reaction to one comic in no way means DC has no chance of attracting brand-new readers, but it does mean cautious optimism needs to be exercised.  As Laine said, “Our DC rep told me his boss was telling everyone not to get too excited, because it was just the first month.  No one knows what the sales will be like five or six months from now, and that’s what really counts in the long run.  So they’re not celebrating like crazy just yet.”

So what does this all mean?  Well, it means DC can give itself a pat on the back for what has been, by all accounts, a stupendous first month.  They’ve gotten a great deal of attention and even in the worst light, they’ve got a tremendous amount of people reading.  The great word-of-mouth says a lot about the quality of the titles that have come out, so kudos to DC for that.

This also means they’ve set themselves a very high bar, and that can be a burden.  The next two to three months will be crucial as story arcs hit the dreaded “big fat middle” of their plots, and readers decide which ones are worth keeping and which ones need only a standing perusal in the store.  For DC to capture the market in any significant way, they’ll have to ensure last month’s excitement translates into monthly, even yearly contentment, a tough goal for any company.  But considering they’ve already surpassed everyone’s wildest dreams with this endeavor, there’s every reason to believe they can continue to do so.

– Minhquan Nguyen