DC Comics Gears Up For Next Week’s Relaunch Push

I'm attempting to write something on recent concrete retailing developments leading up to DC's relaunch, which starts next week with the distribution of two transitional comics, Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1. Hopefully I can post that early next week. For now, I'll direct you to probably DC's best piece of PR-generated coverage yet, another super-friendly piece at the LAT Hero Complex blog that's a report on the forthcoming event through a kind of profile on Dan Didio and Jim Lee.

The reason this one seems so appealing is because they've pulled out the "comics are dying/we have to do something" argument, which is a great piece of rhetoric for a lot of reasons. First of all, comics sales are dying, and companies like DC should be doing something. Second, it makes DC sound honest and bracing relative to how they might come across with a strategy that didn't at least rope in some sort of critical analysis of the state of comics publishing. Third, it suggests a contrast between what they're doing and what other companies -- Marvel almost solely, of course -- aren't doing. Fourth, it adjusts expectations a bit in the way that when something has to be done there's an element of hoping for the best, whereas if something is done by choice or to gain an advantage it brings in a greater expectation that it has to strongly succeed to have been worth doing. In other words, this is pretty good PR, and a nice set of arguments to take into a week of mainstream publicity where they can be employed or not depending on the venue.

My objection to this PR strategy is I haven't seen anyone suggest that nothing should be done or that times aren't desperate. The few strong doubts I've seen or heard expressed are about DC's ability to execute this plan as strongly as they need to for it to have the effect they want it to have without causing a massive and largely unnecessary employment of resources that could have been better employed elsewhere. That's an important distinction, and astute characterizations of the motives and causes involved don't really touch on that point. Nor does DC's initial success in capturing the attention of comics shops order-makers with several titles launching at 100,000 plus assay those fears -- although that's a far more positive outcome than if they hadn't launched well, for sure. The thing is, DC is coming off of years of producing comics like this series that seems to have totally baffled a huge fan of their characters in its lack of delivery on basic storytelling promises -- to be about something, to answer a question initially asked in a way that satisfies. I'd suggest this largely unstated assurance that things will change in the content is a key thing to keep in mind as the DC Comics PR assault reigns over the next five days.
 
posted 4:25 am PST | Permalink
 

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