Down For The Fourth Time: DC’s Fourth Wave Of Cancellations

DC’s January, 2013 solicitations have been released, and there is some good news in there, particularly if you’re a crossover fan, because it seems like every damn book in DC’s slate is involved in some kind of event in January, from Rise of The Third Army across all six Green Lantern books coming out in January (we’ve got the standard books, along with annuals for New Guardians and Green Lantern Corps), to Rotworld across Animal Man, Swamp Thing and most of the DC Dark titles, Death of The Family across the Batman books, and the H’el On Earth event going through most of the Superman titles. Hell, even Justice League is continuing its self-contained Throne of Atlantis story, with a solicitaiton promising “More on the Superman/Wonder Woman alliance,” which means either that I have a very misconstrued definition of the word “alliance,” or that between the United States and England, one of us must like to cuddle.

There’s even an event going across the seemingly unrelated titles Blue Beetle, Legion Lost, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. and Grifter. That event being cancellation.

Each of those books is part of the 13-month old First Wave of the DC New 52 reboot, bringing the count of survivors from the reboot to 38 if I’m counting right. The best-selling of those books, Legion Lost, sold 18,786 copies in September, which isn’t exactly setting the world on fire. Still and all, it sold better than Savage Hawkman and I, Vampire, and those are still chugging along… at least for now. Comics Beat points out that the 17,000 to 18,000 level is where DC Editorial seems to start sharpening the axe. Which means that the smart money on the deadwood for New 52 Round Five will be those two books… unless it turns out that DC Universe Presents is also getting the whack – it looks like the Black Lightning / Blue Devil story in that book might be wrapping up earlier than originally solicited, and sold worse than Legion Lost last month.

All on all, this is not utterly unwelcome news, although Blue Beetle was a regular read here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, and Frankenstein looked like it might be trying to become more than the Hellboy knockoff it started off looking like. But still, it’s gotta be a kick in the slats of you’re one of the people working on those books. You’re fresh off the New York Comic-Con, you’re exhausted, you’ve just washed off the stink of fan-bought liquor and rank adulation… only to show up at the office on Monday and find out that you need to find some new shit to do. Unless you’re Rob Liefeld, who probably spent the weekend alone, with a bottle of scotch and a Twitter app, trying to find ways to rhyme “DC,” “douchebags,” and “Grifter’s failure was everyone’s fault but mine.”

(via Comics Beat)