ALLSW_Cv34.jpg
All-Star Western #34 cover by Darwyn Cooke, who also draws the innards.

I didn’t get a chance to run DC’s August Solicitations yesterday, but they announced that six books were getting canceled: All-Star Western, Superboy, Birds of Prey, and Batwing are all original New 52 books, ending with issue #32. Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger ends with #22 and Trinity of Sin: Pandora ends with #14.

In addition, World’s Finest was originally said to be ending with #26m but then SDC sent out an alert to sites that ran that saying, nope it wasn’t cancelled. Series writer Paul Levitz was rumored to have “walked off” so maybe he “walked back on”?

All of the cancelled books were at the low end of the sales chart; All-Star Western in particular was a fan-favorite that had been rumored to be on the chopping block on and off for a while. The rest were old school books that just need a rest, let’s face it. DC is bringing back the Teen Titans and Suicide Squad and three weekly books and had a ton of other stuff going on. But in case you were wondering, after three years, 24 of the original New 52 remain from when you were young and your heart was an open book:

JUSTICE LEAGUE #34
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #34
GREEN ARROW #34
THE FLASH #34
AQUAMAN #34
WONDER WOMAN #34
SUPERMAN #34
ACTION COMICS #34
SUPERGIRL #34
SUPERBOY #34
BATMAN #34
BATMAN AND ROBIN #34
DETECTIVE COMICS #34
BATWOMAN #34
BATGIRL #34
CATWOMAN #34
BIRDS OF PREY #34
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #34
BATWING #34
GREEN LANTERN #34
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #34
RED LANTERNS #34
GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #34
SWAMP THING #34

That’s a little less than 50%. Of these, Detective, Batman and Robin and Justice league have the same writer, and Wonder Woman has mostly the same team, although that is to end after a notable three year run. This number may seem low but other than Savage Dragon and The Walking Dead, I don’t think too many other books have been published every month by the same team during this three-year period. To be honest, anything more than a year on a book was always a long run, and the exceptions—Teen Titans by Wolfman and Perez, FF by Lee and Kirby, Bendis and Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man. I know I’m just hitting the high spots here (there are many longer runs by writers, like Johns on The Flash ), but obviously, it’s a way shorter creative arc now.

On a more disturbing note, I’ve been making a lot of jokes of late about comics doing selfies, and lo and behold, August’s variant cover theme is SELFIES.

SELFIES.

Only the other day I was goofing around with the September Future’s End cover for Batman and noted this seemed to be a butt selfie:

J9hENoz.gif

May I suggest for the next cover theme twerking? I think that would get a lot of attention and as a bonus, it’s timeless.

27 COMMENTS

  1. Sorry to hear of the end of All Star Western. That genre just doesn’t seem to resonate with typical comic readers. Too bad, because it was a very well crafted book. Maybe it will reemerge as an occasional mini series or one shot.

  2. Kind sad about Phantom Stranger. It had a rough start, and just as the new writer got going it got weighed down by Blight. Ah well, enjoy them while they’re around!

    Meanwhile, how in the world DC thinks Star Spangled Stories will survive is beyond me.

  3. Nathan, maybe they believe in the talent on the book, besides myself and Justin we have the amazing Scott Hampton on full art. Please give them credit for trying Genre’s that no one else is interested to be doing these days.

  4. Actually, there will be 21 out of 52 left. You included Superboy, Batwing, and Birds of Prey on your list. They are canceled in August too. Detective has had 3 writers so far (Daniel, Layman, and now Manapul & Buccellato). Batgirl has had Simone for all except 4 fill-ins.

  5. FWIW this means Swamp Thing, Batwoman and Constantine are the three lowest-selling titles, in that order, in the ‘new 52’ universe. I’m assuming Constantine is safe due to the impending series, but I hope Batwoman doesn’t get the impending axe. I haven’t read Swamp Thing of late, so I’m as to blame as anyone for its decline.

  6. There are 41 titles in the “Five Years Later” September listing.

    As I contemplated that, I remembered the original 52 titles, and how many characters have gone MIA. Booster Gold (a rare cameo here or there) and most of the JLI. Captain Atom. Firestorm (a brief cameo in Villains United). Voodoo. Hawk & Dove. Almost everyone in DC Universe Presents. Blue Beetle and that undercover Green Lantern. Legion. Static Shock. Resurrection Man. I, Vampire.

    Wait… Deathstroke and Blackhawks had their own series?

    You realize what DC is doing, yes? Each September, they are introducing a new universe. Earth 2 was easy to spot, Earth 3 was always about the evil Justice League. Earth 4 will probably be Batman Beyond… either the kid-friendly version, or the gruesome fetishized dystopia pioneered by Blackest Night and Flashpoint.

    As the New 52 Earth-1 is reduced to the legacy titles, expect more alternative universes, most likely cultivated from the digital-first process.

  7. August 2014 at DCComics.com:
    http://www.dccomics.com/browse?content_type=comic&date=08/01/2014&date_end=08/31/2014

    25 titles from the original New 52 (Issue #34)
    29 titles from the next waves/ripples. (Includes Batman weekly and Futures End.)
    8 digital-first titles
    6 licensed/kids titles
    2 other

    70 titles total. (Not counting Vertigo.)
    54 tie-in with the New 52.

    Here are the #34 New52s:
    ACTION COMICS #34 ON SALE 8/6
    ALL-STAR WESTERN #34 ON SALE 8/27
    AQUAMAN #34 ON SALE 8/27
    BATGIRL #34 ON SALE 8/13
    BATMAN #34 ON SALE 8/13
    BATMAN AND ROBIN #34 ON SALE 8/20
    BATWING #34 ON SALE 8/6
    BATWOMAN #34 ON SALE 8/20
    BIRDS OF PREY #34 ON SALE 8/13
    CATWOMAN #34 ON SALE 8/27
    DETECTIVE COMICS #34 ON SALE 8/6
    THE FLASH #34 ON SALE 8/27
    GREEN ARROW #34 ON SALE 8/6
    GREEN LANTERN #34 ON SALE 8/6
    GREEN LANTERN CORPS #34 ON SALE 8/13
    GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #34 ON SALE 8/20
    JUSTICE LEAGUE #34 ON SALE 8/20
    JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #34 ON SALE 8/27
    RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #34 ON SALE 8/20
    RED LANTERNS #34 ON SALE 8/27
    SUPERBOY #34 ON SALE 8/13
    SUPERGIRL #34 ON SALE 8/20
    SUPERMAN #34 ON SALE 8/27
    SWAMP THING #34 ON SALE 8/6
    WONDER WOMAN #34 ON SALE 8/20

    [Technically, they are #36, if one counts #0 and the villains month gimmicks.)

  8. I think you meant BATMAN (as opposed to DETECTIVE), along BATMAN AND ROBIN and JUSTICE LEAGUE as still having the same writer. And, as someone else has noted, BATGIRL does too (not counting the two “Simone fired” issues and a couple of fill-ins.

  9. Torsten, I said to someone else last night over this we should still include Suicide Squad and Teen Titans as still “continuing” as part of the Original 52. I know they’re both relaunched with new #1’s, but really, they only took a short break.

    To me at least, they should still account.

  10. “Please give them credit for trying Genre’s that no one else is interested to be doing these days.”

    Nobody is interested because NOBODY IS INTERESTED.

  11. “I haven’t read Swamp Thing of late, so I’m as to blame as anyone for its decline.”

    You’re not to BLAME. You don’t OWE anyone money. You have no DUTY to keep books afloat.

  12. I loved Superboy and Batwing when they started out – but then they went and changed the characters, so that was that. The “Batman of Africa” angle of Batwing didn’t last very long either (18 issues), so I never understood what the new Batwing was about and why he even needed to exist.

    Pandora, I’m not surprised about. The character has so much potential – but the execution was blargh. Ray Fawkes was fantastic on the Vertigo miniseries “Mnemovore” but his DC work feels so bland.

    I still like what DC have done with the 52, ultimately. They’ve published some quirky books that wouldn’t have gotten a chance pre-52, like Resurrection Man, Frankenstein, Animal Man and Blue Beetle, and it’s what got me buying DC at all, when I didn’t before. So what if they all got cancelled – it’s sad, but the fact they gave these books a go in the first place, that’s good in my book.

  13. Jimmy Palmiotti,

    Thanks for all your contributions to the new DC, especially the genre books. I’ve loved all of them and I’ve been glad to see DC publishing them.

  14. It really is a shame that fans aren’t interested in a well-done western or romance comic (or insert your favorite dead genre here) by virtue of them BEING a western, romance, funny animal, war, what have you. I guess I’m a rare old-school guy who, having read and collected comics for four decades can still enjoy genres ranging from Crumb undergrounds to Al Wiseman Dennis the Menace to Dick Ayers westerns to John Romita romance comics. Wish there were more of us left.

  15. @Torsten Adair You do realize they introduced batman beyond and the future universe of the new 52 over a year ago right? There goes that theory

  16. @jer hasn’t been 52 books for a while now. They stopped putting new 52 on the books 4 or 5 months ago too.

  17. I can’t believe they cancelled Superboy! How would that work in terms of crossing over into supergirl and superman comics. It was such and enjoyable series and i got used to picking up all 3 at this time of year :-(. I hope it gets a reboot!

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