srca1941 wrote:
4) When I asked if the reboot was a success, a failure, or something in-between, I meant to you personally. Sales-wise it's obviously successful (like any big "event" I'm sure), and you can always find critics who will go one way or another, but I'm interested in personal opinions. To those who have added and stuck with DC books because of this, it's obviously a success. To people like me who have been loyal to DC for years, and are now ready to drop (or who have already dropped) most of their books for one reason or another, then it's obviously a failure. I used the example of the little girl and Wonder Woman because it was one of DC's goals to capture new readership. Is a 5-6 year old likely to be a monthly reader anythime soon? No, but everyone has to start somewhere, and maybe she would buy again in the future. Scarring off the parents of these potential buyers isn't going to help.

To me personally, it's mostly a failure. Batwoman, Batman Inc, Jonah Hex/All Star Western, and Green Lantern were good before and after the relaunch. Justice League is fun on a disturbing level (like a cross between early Image and The Authority-lite), and Aquaman and Action Comics are decent enough. I liked Batgirl much more before the relaunch. I'm probably reading the same number of titles before and after the relaunch (though I tried a lot of #1s, like a lot of folks), but I can't call it a success unless I was sticking with a lot more titles than before. Unlike Marvel's lineup, of which I enjoy the majority of titles, I have no interest in most of the New 52.

I'm glad that sales were strong at first, because they got a lot of people to try new comics, even if the relaunch didn't bring as many new or relapsed readers into stores as hoped. (This is the only thing I'm hopeful for about Before Watchmen.) This in turn can get people to keep trying new things, like how TMNT and Marvel's Epic line in the '80s got a lot of people (like me!) to try non-superhero comics - I actually just wrote a short piece about this on my website today, plug plug 

I agree that this was, in some ways, a missed opportunity. I'm convinced that if more regular DC titles were like some of the Wednesday Comics strips (especially Ben Caldwell's manga-inspired Wonder Woman, Sean Galloway's Teen Titans, and Amanda Conner's Supergirl) or the Legends of the Dark Knight series (which holds up much better than a lot of the standard Batman/Detective stories, in hindsight), that the lineup would have been stronger.

If the sales on more of the titles were steadier, I'd be happy for the industry despite my personal reservations, the creative reshuffling, and the handful of quick cancellations and new #1s. I hope DC can reveal a stronger long-term lineup, for its own sake - which might be harder, with more creators leaving, doing their own projects with other publishers, and/or refusing to work for DC in light of recent events (I don't want to start a flame war or name names, but this could have an impact on DC's success)...

Mike Hansen, The Geekiary & All Day Comics