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King Krypton said:
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I disagree. I think this is the opening stages for DC to do exactly what many of us have suggested here before. Use the multiple franchise titles to appeal to several segments of their fanbase, rather than just one segment. The new line ensures that continuity minded fans don't have to worry with this, and thus have nothing to bitch about.



From my experience, they think they DO have something to complain about...they're against ANY other interpretation than the one they deem is "proper." They do this on Superman and Batman all the time, usually asserting that only the versions started by Byrne and Miller are valid and that anything else is inherently bad. (Lest we forget, MOTA and his ilk spearheaded the claim that Siegel and Shuster got Superman all wrong because they didn't write him the same way that Byrne did.) I've seen these guys complaining on various MBs that the old-school readers are "stealing" comics away from them with the reuse of the older concepts, which is really ironic since these guys have not only been hogging comics to themselves for years, but are also hostile to any newcomers or anyone whose tastes don't line up with theirs. It's OK for THEM to steal comics away form everyone else, but don't do it to them....

Anyway, here are my predictions for 2005:

All-Stars Superman suffers the exact same fate as Birthright and Trinity...no support from DC, hateful lynch-mob flaming from the Byrne/Jurgens obsessives, and miserable sales. Meanwhile, Miller's All-Stars Batman will be praised to the skies and be a big seller just because it's Miller.

None of the regular Superman books go beyond what they are now: boring, stale, repetitive low-selling gruel.

The planned hostilites among the DCU heroes will get the same lavish praise that Identity Crisis got, with a silent majority of the fanbase still feeling annoyed that DC insists on making its universe painfully bleak.

Green Lantern will start with decent sales, but quickly falter in the long term.

Batman's increasing jerk-ness will annoy even more fans, but DC will just keep piling it on until it reaches critical mass.

FF will be a moderate box office hit, nothing more. Ditto for Constantine.

Batman Begins will split the audience down the center, some loving it without question and others seeing it as pretentious bull on the order of Hulk.

Bendis will still be the most overrated writer in the Marvel stable.

The DVD editions of The Adventures of Superman will barely sell at all, as most people these days can't even be bothered to watch anything older than they are.

Watchmen will see another director come and go, as will V for Vendetta.

DC and Marvel still won't do squat to break out of the dying direct market and get comics back into the hands of the masses.


As you can guess, my outlook for the industry is pretty grim.



Disagree with you about FF and Constantine;agree with you about Bendis;reserving judgement about your other predictions.