2016 has been a successful venture for DC. Their major movie releases Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad may not have been critically accepted by critics but the DC fans have proved that reviews do not mean much when it comes to superheroes that are beloved. Both movies raked in business for Warner Bros. with groundbreaking opening weekends. It’s not only movies that DC has success with.
Rebirth, the new comic book release by DC has also found major success. The soft reboot kicked off in May to very positive buzz due in part DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. Early estimates for July have crowned DC as the king of the comic book world.
It should be noted that Geoff Johns was so confident about the quality of Rebirth, he actually declared:
“It’s $2.99 for 80 pages. It’s not a lot. If anyone wants to check out comics, wants to check out DC Universe Rebirth #1 and doesn’t like it, they can mail it to Warner Bros., to me, and I will send them a check, I literally will, for both postage and for the book. I will buy all these books back because I believe in this issue a lot. I think it’ll do very well. I hope it does well. But I seriously will, I’ll buy back this book.”
DC’s success is huge in the comic book world as publications have been going through ups and downs as they adapt to the shift to digital that has affected all publishers. the movie Suicide Squad’s relentless and unique marketing unquestionably contributed to DC’s increased sales but the most prominent reason is because of the quality of the product-good story line. Johns also stated:
“The only reason I write these characters is because I love them. The only reason I want to spread the gospel of these characters is because I love when – like, when Blackest Night happened, suddenly a lot of people were like, ‘I like Mera!’ I was like, ‘Me too, that’s why I put her in there!’ And New 52 launched and people were like, ‘wow, I like Aquaman AND Mera!’ (laughs).
“It’s all about connection. I think a lot of people who are into this stuff like us, when I was in school I met my best friend because he was reading comic books. We made a connection through comics, and then I had a best friend in high school, who I’m still friends with. The chance to write a love letter, to put so much into this, it really felt like, ‘okay, if I have to take a step back from writing comics for a bit,’ I felt like this was a great opportunity to say thanks through a comic book. I think the compass of Hope and Optimism is in DC’s DNA and it’s important to get that out there.”
