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After almost 20 years of comics being led around by their big-screen cousins, beloved DC Comics writer Scott Snyder says it’s time for comic book writers to go back to basics. Snyder notes that the movie and TV adaptations, as well as the recent speculator boom in the collectibles market, have been taking up a lot of the oxygen in the room, but comics need to focus on story and character.
Snyder has worked not only on Marvel and DC superhero books, but also on indie titles like American Vampire and Wytches, and the latter was optioned for film almost immediately after it was announced. At the moment, he’s heading up DC’s Absolute Universe with Absolute Batman by himself and Nick Dragotta.
Snyder knows, then, exactly how much impact outside media has on comic book sales and hype. In an interview with CBR, he also noted that COVID stimulus money played a role in bolstering the market for higher-ticket items like variant covers, but that as consumer confidence drops, superhero stories have to get back to basics.
DC and Marvel Movies Won’t Save the Comics Market, and Scott Snyder Knows It
Snyder Thinks It’s Important to Focus on Making Comics That People Actually Want to Buy
In recent years, comic book movies have become less of a sure thing than they had been. Marvel Studios movies used to easily pass $1 billion at the box office, but are lucky to make two-thirds of that, and the surrounding buzz has significantly diminished and turned sour. That, combined with a rough consumer economy, has had a negative knock-on effect for comics, and Snyder says that the responsible reaction is to make comics “that remind people how awesome this medium is,” since there is no guarantee that people will buy the “premium” stuff anymore. As he says to CBR:
Over the last 15 years, comics had a lot of different kinds of investments. Different kinds of help in good ways… like being bought by different companies. Marvel and DC having the support and the money but also the connection to TV shows. Films that were coming out at both DC and Marvel, and then having streaming really explode during this period, so a lot of the indie series could be optioned.
The market itself for comics in general felt, if not inflated, then just very helped by a lot of outside factors. Then with COVID, there was a really big speculator boom — where people had a lot of disposable income suddenly, and they would buy variant covers. Now on this side of things, that’s really ended. It really is just comics. [DC is] still owned by Warner Brothers and stuff, but people understand that comics are separate from the movies, and the movies have taken a break.
Superman starts in July, but right now there’s more of a lull….This moment felt like, without the comic book movies, without streaming and shrunken from its height, without the speculator boom, how do we make comics that just remind people how awesome this medium is? And the risk was, what if we made them and nobody shows up?
But instead, the fans always do.The fans are the best. They came, and they sold everything, beyond anything we had expected. Absolute Batman Issue #5 is nearing 150,000 copies, which is mind-blowing. I didn’t think Issue #1 would hit 150,000.
While comic shops have razor-thin margins and are seemingly always in distress, actual sales numbers of American comics have been on the rise for years. That success changed in 2024, and, coupled with the financial problems of Diamond Comic Distributors, it has set off some alarm bells. As with the comics boom and subsequent bust of the ’90s, price speculation played a big role in the rise and fall. Record-setting sales for classic comics and original art helped keep the momentum going even when the broader economy was showing signs of slowing down. Per Snyder’s argument, it’s probably more sustainable to just have a popular book.
DC’s Absolute Universe and Marvel’s Ultimate Universe Are Driving Some Big Gains Right Now
The Multiverse Works Better In Print Than Onscreen
While DC has been racking up huge sales with its Absolute family of titles – including Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Wonder Woman – Marvel originated the tactic, reviving its Ultimate Universe earlier in 2024. The first iteration of the Ultimate Universe was intended as a “clean slate” for new fans who wanted to jump into comics, but the Ultimate line went on for long enough to develop its own continuity issues. It’s now back after a years-long absence and more popular than ever. The message seems to be that, while DC’s movie multiverse was a catastrophe and Marvel’s has been a mixed bag, it works well in comics.
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Absolute Batman’s Joker Is On the Horizon, And He’ll Bring ‘Evil Bruce Wayne’ to Life
The Joker has always been a reflection of Batman, but in the Absolute Universe, he’s more of a reflection of Bruce Wayne than the Dark Knight.
The Absolute Universe has also done something for DC that the New 52 tried and failed to do: provide a starting point for new readers. DC’s 2011 reboot failed in part because there were stories and concepts that DC couldn’t bear to part with, which created continuity issues and suggested that the publisher wasn’t really behind the restart. About five years later, DC’s Rebirth initiative proved that point, returning most characters to a pre-New 52 status quo. Since the Absolute titles exist in their own universe, DC Comics can totally reinvent the wheel without feeling the need to discard anything of value.
Absolute Batman is available now from DC Comics.
Source: CBR
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