Here’s Something I Can’t Figure Out

Like many an on-line reviewer, I received a copy of Batman: Cacophony #1 from its publisher DC Comics, one guesses for consideration as a subject for criticism. I lack the necessary exposure to mainstream comics to make the kind of easy distinctions required to write a good review of such a comic without reading it a half-dozen times. It seems no better or no worse than just about any DC Comic I read during 1998 or so when I read every title the publisher put out because my job allowed me to. It seems that there may be a more overtly sexualized undercurrent here, including a bizarre scene where Joker proffers his backside to a mystery assailant. The dialogue also read oddly to me, like the characterizations weren't quite as sharp as they are in your standard writer-driven, editor-approved DC effort. It also stars Maxie Zeus.

And yet I understand all of those things. What I don't understand is why this title gets to be its own comic book. I don't get why this can't be part of a regular Batman series. I mean, I know the stock answers here, too: writer Kevin Smith has a specific fan base, the story doesn't fit into regular-title continuity, there's so on and so forth. Then I'm reminded Batman: Year One didn't fit into continuity, either, and Frank Miller had a specific fanbase, too, and that title ran through four issues of a Batman comic book just fine.

Clearly something has changed in the last 20 years where it makes sense at several times during the year to put out competing mini-series -- not on hit books, but on any books. I mean, I understand how a popular reality show can have a "results" show, but this seems more to me like taking that recent episode of ER where Anthony Edwards returns as Dr. Sad-Faced Baldy Guy and running it on Tuesday at 9 PM as ER: Spotlight because that way you get two doses of ER's not-great-anymore ratings. This doesn't happen in TV because it's stupid. Does anyone know when this happened in comics and what convinced companies of this not being stupid? Am I wrong in thinking the market is just a bit broken that this is a viable strategy?
 
posted 7:10 am PST | Permalink
 

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