Is A DC Culling On The Horizon? Or Rather, A CATACLYSM?

A note before we begin: this article is conjecture at its finest (additional note: “finest” is subjective). I am willing to admit that the following thoughts are created by me actively reading into conceivably absent subtext, and will also note that after pitching this little editorial to the other staff members of the site, I was met with a resounding “you’re wrong — you know that, right?” Regardless, the internet exists for nerds like me to show off their actively wrong opinions, and I’m fine with mine.

Check after the cut for some thoughts from myself, as well as the only reference to Nic Cage I will ever make while sober.

Earlier today, Eddie Berganza took to the DC Blog the Source to tease DC’s upcoming 2012, poking fun at Mayan prophecies and noting that a lot of death and destruction is in store for various titles as crossovers begin, an outer over arcing shell becomes more vivid and DC continues to gain market share from Marvel domination. Of course, amidst what is clearly crafted from a “How To Hype 101” manual, there are a few choice lines in there.

Berganza writes,

So as we start our 5th issues, the end is penultimately near on JL’s first arc with Mr. Apokolips himself: Darkseid! Catastrophe strikes in STORMWATCH, and Superman and Grifter will be picking up the pieces in their respective books.

And the coming months look no better for our heroes as the Court of Owls reaches out with their Talons, bringing an end of days to the Batman family. There’s a bitter cold end for the Flash when Captain Cold hits Central City. What does it mean to the future when the Teen Titans and Legion Lost meet, or when O.M.A.C. comes to JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL? What happens when the first vampire rises? Will JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK and I, VAMPIRE fall? Is there any hope as the all-consuming Rot moves across ANIMAL MAN and SWAMP THING?

Yup, like I said, the end is only the beginning. This is going to be a great year for DC Comics! Enjoy the Cataclysm, everyone. We are happy to bring it to you!

The very first thing that stands out to me is the fact that as of when I read the post this morning and when I read it just now, Cataclysm still remains capitalized, despite all logical grammar dictating that it shouldn’t be. To me, the only logical reason it would be capitalized would be that Cataclysm is the upcoming title of a book — or rather, an upcoming event title full of mayhem and destruction; the DCnU’s first grand event, perhaps? Granted, it IS 2012, and we are due for our own doomsday come December, but I imagine what with DC announcing that their mysterious lady is named Pandora via the famous Greek myth, it does strike me as a little coincidental to use a word derived from Greek with its own Googable ties to Greek mythology. Why else would DC be “happy to bring it to (us)”?

So there you have it. My prediction for the first DC event is that it will be called Cataclysm.

Moving on to the obviously the more dicey of subjects, it would seem that DC might possibly be also gearing up for a wave of cancellations as they prep for a second launch of titles. We’ve heard rumors of a second wave for quite some time now, and we’re not alone — Warren Ellis has even predicted a new wave of #1s, and when they come we’ll all be excited and/or pessimistic. However, one would imagine that to make room for the new #1s, some of the old titles would have to go. After all, DC wouldn’t want to drown the market with titles; if they did, they would probably lose more than they would earn as discerning shoppers were once again met with the difficult decision of what to buy over what. Yet here we have Berganza mentioning “an end of days to the Batman family”, OMAC joining the JLI, and the fall of Justice League Dark and I, Vampire; looking at the wider picture, we have DC creators leaving books left and right, with various citations to editorial getting in the way (for example, Ron Marz is off Voodoo because, as he told Newsarama, “editorial wanted to go in a different direction”). Do we really need all those Batman books, or does anyone else think that DC would be ok with just Snyder/Capullo’s title and Detective (if only for the legacy that title has). On top of that, why put an admittedly small/cult favorite character like OMAC into two titles, when you can just give Giffen the keys to the JLI truck and let him play with both in one section? Or why continue to produce critically reviled and/or underselling titles when you could just replace them?

It might sound borderline pessimistic, but we are all somewhat waiting with baited breath to see the first DCnU cancellation — not in so much as we want DC to fail, but rather in so much as we are all watching an experiment in action, and we clearly know what has worked. I myself am rather curious to see how many issues a series like Hawk and Dove or Legion Lost will get, neither of which I read but neither of which I ever see anyone say anything “nice” about (even beyond the internet’s trademark anti-Liefeld comments, which are just tiresome). James Robinson is worried that Shade might not get its full 12 issues due to low sales and so are we, but in looking at the November 2011 sales statistics over at ComicChron.com we can see that Men of War and Blackhawks are selling less than the Shade, with Static Shock, Voodoo and OMAC not doing that much better; is it really too far off to imagine that DC might keep OMAC as a character, but just put him into a different book?

Or, to put it simply: at what point does this Honeymoon Phase end, and the wash out begins?

As they say on tumblr, “Gratuitous Picture of Yourself”

I’m more than willing to admit that this is possibly something only I see. I’m like Nic Cage in that movie Knowing, predicting disaster from silly numbers and everyone else thinks I’m just being dumb. But never the less, I’d like to pretend this is at least food for thought.