The AP is reporting that DC has overtaken Marvel Comics for the first time in almost 10 years. It’s no coincidence that the jump in sales comes at the same time that DC decided to relaunch its top-tier characters in an event dubbed “The New 52”.
According to the Associated Press, DC took up 51% of the market share for October. Unless I’m even worse than math than I thought, that should account for more sales than all the other companies combined for the month. Pretty spectacular if you think about it.
I wish I could just wish DC well with its new-found success. I have been a long-time DC-over-Marvel fan for over 30 years. But like most people who follow something for that long (sports, music… whatever), I have my own golden age for these characters. It was the mid-to-late 1980s when the last major reboot took place following the epic CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
The key to that set of reboots was the promise of streamlining continuity and dropping excess baggage. And doing it all without substantially changing the characters that we’ve known and loved for all these years. Unfortunately the years since would cause most, if not all, of the major events that came from this shake-up to be undone. Even Superman, who took a slight depowering at the time, eventually got most of his power back to full strength.
At the same time that I’m left with the disappointment of all the changes made to these characters, I’m actually left with the slight optimism that history will repeat itself and that these changes too will essentially be undone. I miss my characters.
Congratulations DC on your stunning October victory. I sincerely hope you the best for the future. Though if you couldn’t prevent a travesty like this from happening:
Then I don’t really know WHAT I’m expecting from you guys…