CRISIS At DC Comics As Mark Waid's Summer Event Absolute Power FAILS To Sell Spur Rumors DC Will Be Cutting Their Publishing Line

We've known DC Comics has been in trouble for some time. The company has failed to move the needle with any of its initiatives in recent years, with their "Rebirth" reboot of their lines collapsing faster than any in history, which led to a "Dawn of DC" secondary soft reboot that couldn't even generate any top books for the Big two publisher. Now, retailers and insider sources are saying troubles are even worse for the company with a failed summer event in Mark Waid's Absolute Power leading to talk of selling off the comic IPs entirely.

DC Comics sales have been in the toilet for several years. Whereas back in the New 52 days of Dan Didio's tenure at the helm of the company, they were scaring Marvel out of market share, now, they're lucky to see one book in the top 20 of monthly sales for an already sluggish comic book industry where the majority of audiences have tuned out. 

Though the comics industry has a myriad of problems, as Batman writer Chip Zdarsky said, the primary issues are twofold: 1. Fans don't see any reason to keep reading because continuity gets rebooted at the drop of a hat, invalidating classic stories they love and never progressing characters and 2. DC Comics and the rest of the industry have done everything they can to push the LGBTQ agenda on all of their characters, making it difficult for any readers to want to read gay romance fan fiction of their favorite characters.

Nothing exemplified this disaster for DC Comics more than Tim Sheridan's recent Alan Scott Green Lantern series, which launched with the writer urging people to buy the book to own the bigots and quickly spiraled into the hero trolling docks for gay prostitutes and having The Spectre, as an agent of God, tell him his lifestyle is valid. It was insulting to multiple classic characters, and adding that to the mythos is something impossible to come back from. The series didn't sell well, as readers rejected the changes to the once married-with-children character.

Now, DC is trying to hype the launch of a summer event, Absolute Power, which they're hoping Mark Waid, a long-time industry veteran, will bring them out of the dark ages of comic sales. While Waid has talent, something most current DC writers do not, he also has mired himself with controversy this last year by lashing out against comic readers who are Christian or vote for Donald Trump on multiple occasions. It's never a good idea to insult half the buying audience. He's also attacked fan-favorite writer Mark Millar for standing with retailers against these self-insert identity politics comics killing the industry.

Retail reports show that Mark Waid's Absolute Power's initial sales are underwhelming. No one bothered to pick up the event, which is supposed to lead to a new Ultimate-style universe. DC Comics has been hoping it would save the company. Sales are so low that there are renewed talks about cutting the publishing line entirely. 

In 2021, artist Ethan Van Sciver told Cosmic Book News Robert Kirkman was in talks to buy DC Comics and that Warner Bros. would be moving to a licensing model with the company as sales collapsed back then. While most mainstream industry mocked the idea that this was happening, multiple insiders have told Fandom Pulse that these talks are now happening in 2024. 

DC Comics sales are so bad that Warner Bros. is considering cutting the publishing company entirely. With Absolute Power failing and Mark Waid unable to do anything to help the company, the talks have been renewed, and Robert Kirkman's taking on the licensing is part of the discussion.

Robert Kirkman has already revitalized the Hasbro properties of Transformers and GI Joe with relaunches, putting the books in the top comics sellers after IDW destroyed the brands with their identity politics-laden works. He's shown he can revitalize properties with reboots with quality creative teams involved.

While the discussions are preliminary with DC Comics, this would be the best move for the company to license out their properties to someone who knows better, like Skybound, as they would be able to release new versions that wouldn't feel mired by the last several years of sub-par work that DC Comics has produced.

However, if DC Comics fails in the short term, it's another bad sign for comic book retail shops, which have been struggling this last year due to audience apathy. Even Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Marvel Universe relaunch has failed to move the needle enough to do much outside of his own Ultimate Spider-Man title. A major shakeup is needed to keep this industry alive. Who will be bold enough to make the first move?