Eagle-eyed cub reporter Jeff Reid noted that a number of DC's lower tier titles were missing from May solicits. We contacted the publisher and can now confirm a number of cancellations.
March sees the end of three Batman related titles (with January 2011 sales):
- Azrael (7,825)
- Batman Confidential (13,116)
- Batman: Streets of Gotham (21,592)
And as of May, you will no longer find new issues of:
- Doom Patrol (9,375)
- Freedom Fighters (9,437)
- JSA All-Stars (17,920)
- R.E.B.E.L.S. (10,354)
With sales numbers the way they are industry-wide, the writing's long been on the wall for these titles. Hell, it's not even safe for books with "Batman" in the title. Though that's what's happening with Outsiders (also missing from solicits), which will relaunch anew as Batman and the Outsiders (again). Anyways, no huge surprises here. In fact, DC ought to be commended for keeping these niche (within a niche) titles afloat for as long as they did. I think we walk away from this one with four or five modern R.E.B.E.L.S. collections. That's kind of nuts, honestly. The gift horse can keep its lips sealed, far as I'm concerned.
Of course it's very sad to see some terrific little ongoings come to their end, but with Flashpoint on the horizon, there's plenty of new projects yet to be announced. Wouldn't be surprised to see an influx of new Flash and Green Lantern related titles either.
January sales figures courtesy of ICv2
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Glad to see Batgirl wasn’t on that list. I just jumped on the Batgirl wagon with issue #18 and would have hated to see it cancelled right after that.
Hope Batman Beyond can stick around for a long time too!
I think Batman Confidential was slated for cancellation around the time that Superman Confidential went under, so it’s shocking to see that it lasted this long. Good for them.
Personally, didn’t think we needed another Azrael book, but eh…what do I know?
Doom Patrol is such a great concept, it boggles my mind that no one can make it stick. Shame.
what is considered the minimum for sales numbers at the big 2? Its interesting that a book like Streets of Gotham has 21.5k circulation and its still not good enough. Thats a lot of comics.
@wally I suspect it depends on the book. I’m sure there’s books that are continuing with less than that, they’re just not necessarily a 10th bat book with very little buzz.
@gobo –yeah there is definitely the A and B list for Bat books.
I loved Doom Patrol when it first launched. However, it got a little ridiculous with all the Oolong Island politics and Dr. Caulder getting Superman’s powers. Create a disturbing Vertigo line for Doom Patrol and I bet it could do better.
@Impossibilly According to the sales list on ICv2 (linked in the article), Batgirl does around 25K, not quite in the top 50. It does about half as well as the majority of books in the top 20. It’s safe, but could be doing better.
i gave all these titles a shot, except for Freedom Fighters, and the only one i can say im sad about is REBELS, that book had fantastic art and an epic story. the other books though, they just weren’t up to snuff in my opinion
Yeah, the writing’s been on the wall for most of these for some time. The only one that stings for me is REBELS. But, still, 25 issues is a solid run for a book whose sales were in 10000 in the current market.
@misterckent I couldn’t agree more. Doom Patrol belongs at Vertigo with a great writer and relatively limited print numbers. I found this iteration to be really disappointing.
I don’t think that Batman: Streets of Gotham cancellation is 100% sales related. But otherwise, it does still appear that DC has been trying to keep as many boats afloat as possible.
I have two titles that I am especially sad to see go. Confidential and FF. I NEED a NON continuity title for just plain old Bruce Batman stories. And i think they pulled the trigger too quick with Freedom Fighters I think. It got NO support, and I don’t think we even got as far as we needed to to start liking these characters to the point that word of muth buzz would start.
Nothing on there really shocks me. However, I am really going to miss R.E.B.E.L.S. I hope that somewhere in the Green Lantern Universe these characters will still pop up.
I am sorry to see R.E.B.E.L.S. go.
I picked up the first four Freedom Fighters issues; I tried really hard to get into it. It just wasn’t very good. Just my $0.02, of course.
In this day and age, I’m very surprised that we got 22 issues of DOOM PATROL. I’m happy enough with that run. I feel that I should track down those R.E.B.E.L.S. trades. People really seem to like them.
I have a feeling this is happening partly in order to make room for ongoings of Brightest Day characters now that they’ll need somewhere to live.
@Thursday yeah. we’ve known this for a few months now. I think Dini wanted off. I think that is should be a back-up though. I <3ed reading stories about behind the scenes of the criminal world in Gotham. Hush killed it. they should have stuck to the under the radar villans.
Let’s just all thank the powers that be that Jonah Hex isn’t on the list!
Well, glad I didn’t see Batgirl or Batman Inc on the list.
I had been thinking about trying out JSA All Stars and/or Doom Patrol. Oh well. Maybe I will give Generations Lost a shot.
Comic book companies need to cut the numbers of pubs even more aggressively! Do you think that the movie industry could survive if every week they released 20-30 movies in the theaters?
@r3v Batman Incorporated is one of DC’s highest selling titles.
@Unoob Don’t look at the Jonah Hex numbers. Just don’t. By rights, it ought to be a distant memory. No complaints here.
@Unoob: I’m great it isn’t canceled every month. Jonah Hex is one of my favorite DC titles.
I picked up the first two issues of FF but just didn’t get into it.
The saddest story here is that Thunder Agents and Jonah Hex are now DC’s two worst selling ongoings, if you don’t include things outside of continuity (Doc Savage, Spirit, Vertigo, kids books)
Sad about REBELS, space opera is definetly on the wane, too bad it’s one of my favorite books.
People start buying Jonah Hex, it sells less then 3 of those books that are cancelled and is probably one of the 4 best books that the DC imprint puts out.
Rebels is by far one of the best books on the market. Same with Doom Patrol. Well, dc is getting that much less of my money.
Noo… R.E.B.E.L.S is an excellent title. I’ll be sorry to see those characters go 🙁
None of this is too surprising. They’ve been adding ongoing Batman books so something had to give eventually with the lower selling titles.
As Paul said, the crazy thing is that books like REBELS and Doom Patrol made it as long as they did. To be honest I dropped both of them. Doom Patrol never hooked me so I was out shortly after the Metal Men backup ended. I tried to stick with REBELS for a long time and finally had to give it up. Just wasn’t doing it for me after the first year.
All I can say is thank god JONAH HEX isn’t on this list.
Woops, Unoob beat me to that sentiment!
I loved REBELS as well. And while I’m sad to see it go, I am thankful for what we did get. … I kind of hope Starro wins this round and goes on to plague the rest of the UCU.
RIP REBELS, Thanks to DC for taking a chance and letting the story run to its natural conclusion. Its good to see Tony Bedard becoming a major player at DC with GLCorps and DCUOL because of his hard work on REBELS. I hope we get more of these “Fringe” books down the line.
azrael was blowing ass so thats cool with me. but they cancelled streets of gotham?wny? that was such a good comic.
Just glad my precious Booster Gold wasn’t on the list. Kind of glad JSA All-Star is getting the axe. I hated the way they split the team in two.
R.E.B.E.L.S 🙁
Too bad about R.E.B.E.L.S. There was a lotta good stuff in there, mostly in the phenominal character of Vril Dox. Give that dude a mini!
I am worried about Booster Gold. Sales in Janurary were 16,324, which puts it barely in the top 100. Of course, I also worry creatively because the series (though I love it) seems to be spinning its wheels story-wise.
I am bummed about Doom Patrol, Freedom Fighters, and the Batman titles. DP and FF I understand (after looking up and screaming “WHY?”) but even the Bat-books? Yeesh.
I somehow knew confidential would get canceled. It was pretty decent but never spectacular.
Yes! DC can now launch more Batman-related titles. Awesome.
Surprised Streets of Gotham got cancelled considering it’s sales aren’t awful, and the book except for some rough patches has been good.
Man I am so pissed that R.E.B.E.L.S. has been cancelled. I have been enjoying this book. The Starro storyline has been great! However it has changed from R.E.B.E.L.S. to L.E.G.I.O.N. in the book. Maybe it needs a new number 1 or a rename. Or maybe DC should go the marvel route and release minis.
Also #saverebels
I’m almost afraid to ask if Secret Six is in danger. Anyone know? I wasn’t a mainstream DC guy for years but got really into Brave and the Bold and Secret Six in the past couple years. One is gone, I’d be sad to lose the other.
Streets of Gotham lost a little of its luster for some reason when it jumped over from Tec. Too many fillers? I’m not sure. Maybe there was too much Hush. What Dini and Nguyen did on Tec was pretty fantastic. The “done in one” and two-parters were especially memorable.
…knew i shouldn’t have made REBELS my pick of the week…
Are these titles gone for good or will some be coming back (such as Batman and the Outsiders) after Flashpoint? If R.E.B.E.L.S. came back as L.E.G.I.O.N. I’d be happy as that was a great book. Too bad it never found its audience but I’m also glad it lasted as long as it did.
It brings up the same question I have been asking over and over again. “Who is buying comics these days demographically?” If “My Boyfriend Thor” didn’t sell, and “Jonah Hex” does poorly, who the HELL is the market!? And how does it support multiple Deadpool titles instead!? If you guys don’t look into it, I think we will. I figure you guys have the better connections tho. I mean my daughter is 16 and NONE of her friends read comics. Comic fan based sites like this show way different numbers than what the market apparently is as well.
@kmob181 Secret Six was at 20,327 last month.
Shame about Azrael and REBELS. Two great, underappreciated books that had a lot of great things going for them. But I can see with one being about deep religious stories and a C-related space story (with Green Lantern taking over the company) it’s not too surprising they’re gone.
Give DC credit for, other then Freedom Fighters, giving these titles a good 1 1/2 to 3 years to tell stories and get some type of pull with an audience. Unlike Marvel who, after seeing the sales for the first issue, will either cancel the series or retrograde it to a mini with a drop of a hat.
I just started reading REBELS! Don’t take it away, I’ve only read 2 issues, but I loved them!
Azrael was not great but David Hine is, I hope he gets something good to write soon.
@misterckent Doom Patrol in an adult comic has been the talk of my lcs for a while you are not alone.
@SLOCKhart I think you are right about the Brightest Day concept.
@Thursday Boostergold rules
Wahhh! REBELS was awesome!
Really going to miss Doom Patrol. This Giffen iteration did for DP what Brightest Day has done for the Hawks, i.e.; reconcile past & present continuities and storylines.
Considering how much the Big 2 milk their major characters, is the loss of three Batman titles that bad? How many Batman titles are there total?
Let’s see. Remaining Bat titles:
Batman, Batman and Robin, Detective Comics, Batman Inc., Superman/Batman, Red Robin, Batgirl, Gotham City Sirens, Birds of Prey, Batman and the Outsiders, Gates of Gotham, Batman: Brave and the Bold
Did I miss any?
Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight
You can chop away some Bat books as long as I get to keep my Jonah Hex.
i was under the impression that batgirl was doing very well in trades.
With the loss of REBELS and Guardians of the Galaxy, it looks like the cosmic sides of the Big 2 universes are headed back to the file cabinet for a while. A shame, since these were some of the best books going for a while.
Wow! The cancellations are interesting, but the overall sales figures these days are simply terrible. The overall sales decline in the total industry is sad to see, and for those above suggesting that total output should be reduced, the numbers appear to agree with you pretty strongly!
@PaulMontgomery – so borderline-ish?
As long as Thunder Agents and Hex survive, I’m okay with this.
@Paul: Should we even put Batman Inc on the list? Considering it’s been wiped off the face of the Earth for two months now.
Zing!
man, JSA All-Stars was just bad from the start.
I like Freddie Williams III’s art though. It’s all computer rendered and weird
from what i understand Jonah Hex does terrible as a monthly but sells well in trades. i buy it in trades. just keep Hex going; i will not care that the umpteenth Batman title gets canceled.
that’s a shame, i like Azrael. still, it serves people right for not appreciating that Knightfall story, which was super
The Outsiders switches to Batman and the Outsiders for issue #40 in May. It’s billed as a final issue.
I had stopped buying Streets of Gotham a while back (to make room for some other titles). And while I buy All-Stars, it’s been…. okay. Never really got into the art.
But I really have been enjoying Doom Patrol, Freedom Fighters and R.E.B.E.L.S. a lot (though it took a while for Freedom Fighters to gel for me). I’m gonna miss those books. Some great reading all around.
I like reading about characters outside some of the more high-profile ones like say, Batman or Green Lantern. A shame I’ll have a few less opportunities to enjoy them.
Shows you how far behind in the know I am, but I just found out at the ECCC DC Nation that Freedom Fighters and REBELS (……) had been canceled, and I’m pretty pissed off about it. All the time they allowed Dan DiDio to write Outsiders without canceling astounds me. Seems a little skewed in the favoritism department to me. REBELS had a good run, and it’s still one of my favorite books DC is putting out. Too bad not enough readership. Freedom Fighters wasn’t given a long enough run IMO. I enjoyed the first arc a lot.