DC Cancels Its Longest Running Series, Hellblazer, And Replaces It With New 52 Title, Constantine

[obii]

Yeah the main downfall of the New 52 has been the Young Justice line. I'm going to blame the recruitment of Liefeld, Defalco, Mackie, Lobdell, etc. on Harras. Having said that though, I think Lobdell doesn't deserve to be lumped with all of them. Superman is surprisingly better than ever now.

What I miss there is the funny stuff. Impulse, Young Justice Lobo ongoing all were funny and DC 52 covers Superheroes, Horror, but no funny stuff?

And now you take my mature stuff

[Peter J Poole]

Of course it will be...

I admire your confidence...

Cheers

[NinjaMic]

Ive seen like 0 news coverage from anyone about this book

Respectfully, you were informed of this back in April of 2011...

It's Time to Reboot HELLBLAZER's John Constantine

While it sucks to see it go, this is why I cant take any of the weeping fans seriously.

People don't talk about it, barely buy it....but wants DC's head when they cancel it.

[Joe Kalicki]

curious: do you care of the new book is as good as the old?

in your opinion, obviously.

Of course I care.

[DarthEwok]

If DC was really interested in upping Hellblazer's sales, they could have found a way to promote the series and/or create what they felt might be a jumping-on point for new readers.

The only way the big 2 know how to promote a book now it to relaunch it with a new #1

(Aside from very occasionally planting fake twitter rumors that is)

[SAMURAI36]

Still can't believe DC are doing this. Suffering through John Constantine playing (relatively) nice with the caped clowns is the equivalent of seeing Superman jacking it at a strip club.

Statements like this continue to be the reason why the industry isn't successful. Just sayin'...

Yoi do realize you're pointing that out to a (fill in the blank) that thinks the exact same creators suck when they aren't doing a book with DC on the cover, right?

"Yoi" do realize that you are comparing apples and oranges, right?

Not the point I was making at all. Your original point seemed to be (forgive me if I'm wrong) that it didn't matter as a book because it wasn't selling. I was saying that it does matter to people who read it. I accept it wasn't selling well and accept it has to be cancelled as a result, but I don't expect everyone who read and enjoyed Hellblazer to be over the moon about a new Constantine book set in the DCU and why should I expect them to be?

Yes, that was more or less my point. But since your point continues to be, it mattered to the people who was reading it, then my point becomes, if it mattered that much, then more people (especially the people who claim that it matters so much to them) would've actually bought the book. There are far too many people in this thread alone, that have admitted to not actually buying the book. Blame your fellow fans, not DC, for the book not selling. Especially if they let it go on for 300 issues, and with "top talent". They did their part, the fans didn't do theirs.

A) I think people would be bitching less if the book had just been cancelled.

I wouldn't take you for the niave type.

B) You're discounting trade sales. Though at least I guess rebranding him as Constantine will save little Timmy from having his head explode when he reads JLD and asks mum to buy him Hellblazer...

Yep, and the same trade sales will be there with this as well. But I have to say, for as long as I've been working at my shop, I've yet to see HB trades fly off the shelves as fast as New 52 books are. Just sayin'...

C) Good to see your respect for the customer base continues apace

Yep. I have respect for those that have respect for themselves. Don't be a contradictory hypocrite, and I won't feel inclined to treat you like one.

And what any industry does with its product line affects how people spend their money. It's a two way street.

Cheers

Sure, but you seem content to return to this point; to lay the blame at DC's feet, and not at the feet of the so-called "fans".

Just curious, what are the fans' responsibility here? Bottom line, they weren't buying the fuckin' books. Period.

So... if people don't do with their money what you see as the 'right thing', that is, 'support the industry', they are idiots.

Nice way to over simplify and under seller the point being made here. If you can't see that it's simply common sense to support the product that you claim to love so much, then no one here can help you.

Honestly, the 'industry' is not my concern - the 'industry' is the concern of the "blue-suited penguins" at Warner and Disney.
My concern are good stories with a decent level of quality.

And somehow, that is separate from "the industry", right? Nice.

If the industry must fall for something better arise - so be it.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Dude. Check your reading comprehension skills at the door? Nothing I said- nothing -suggests that I'm looking for it to be bad. Actually, if you look at both of my posts you're responding to and fully read them instead of deciding in advance that you know what I'm saying... I think you'll find I'm saying quite the opposite. I'm sorry you've got a bug up your ass because somebody else said something, but this is twice now that you've made comments on my posts in this thread that show you're actually either not capable or not trying to have a discussion, because both times you've made inferences that aren't there to be made. Both times you're arguing that I said something that I said the exact opposite of.

Since sitting up on your giant high horse caused you to miss it the first time, here it is again: You made the ridiculous point that more exposure for a character is better, despite that time and time again the comics industry has proven that to be not necessarily true. You made this point to argue with my initial point that Constantine as a character could support the exposure of being in a Vertigo book and the New 52... since you were arguing a point I had literally just made, you already painted yourself as not paying attention. But in the above post, where I do say that no, not all exposure is intrinsically good, and give the hypothetical that Constantine by Venditti could suck (could, I never said will) that seems to be the only part of my post you read, and you cast me immediately as somebody who is shooting something down sight unseen. That's actually not something I'm doing, or have ever done.

Before you decide to throw somebody in the gutter just for having a different point of view, actually read the point of view expressed. Both of my posts make it clear that I think there's room for Constantine in the new 52. My initial post made it clear that I didn't think using him in both necessarily waters him down, and I believe I mentioned how much I'm enjoying Justice League Dark. So, really. Calm down. For a guy raging at fanboys having conniptions over the lost of their character, you're jumping the gun a lot.

"Dude", save it. YOU were the one that posed the question of "what if it turns out to be shitty"? I didn't. The fact that you felt the need to ask that question at all, proves my point. If you're enjoying it, then great. There shouldn't be anything to complain about.

Again, you're putting a lot of faith in this idea that there's all these readers out there, that are suddenly going to start buying 'Constantine' now that it's free from some kind of "Vertigo" shackle.
Additionally, you're also presuming that this untested fanbase is going to be large enough to support the book and counter-act the spite of long-time 'Hellblazer' fans who are boycotting this new development.

I don't know about a "Vertigo shackle", but what I do know is that JC as he is/was presented in the HB book is not accessible for all readers. He will be in a Constantine book, but out by DC under the New 52 banner. Especially if there's a plan in place to release a JLD or similar movie, featuring him.

I always think that everybody that posts here owns a comic book store or shares on DC or Marvel. So much worry about the market is simply not justifiable by fear of your favorite comic being canceled. Having a big company allows your lower sales to be "held" by your bigger sales... so a good title in average can have a low time and a rise after without this need to cancel.

But sales is not the reason, come on... they wanted to revamp the title since last year. Is not even an excuse.

DC wants to make everything a fucking movie rated pg13... so they screw their own characters.

The industry doesn't need to end, what needs to end is the mentality that started in the nineties, or when sales started to happen only in comic book stores that what matters is how much comics a store asks in advance.

Without a good story it all comes to an end...

Sooo, sales for this book were somehow better last year than they are right now? Because someone here already posted the numbers, and they didn't look that great.

Now, I'm not saying that sales were the ONLY reason, but they clearly were a primary factor. And again, if a movie is indeed in the works, then this all makes sense, to reposition the character in such a way that it maximizes exposure.

My guess is dc is planning a new Constantine movie and don't really need too much adult stuff in the movies.

Precisely.

Comics are also now more like superhero tv shows wherein you get a reboot about every time there is a new tv show or new comic book series relaunch. Even before Flashpoint, DC comics was already similar to superhero tv shows and the comics were already rebooting quite frequently, for example, the many reboots of the Doom Patrol after coie. We now have a new take on Green Arrow in the Arrow tv show and comics are similar in that once a new writer takes over Green Arrow, it could also look more like a reboot.[/quote]

I agree with this as well, except to say that DP has seemed to fail with nearly incarnation of that title. It just hasn't done well, period.

Constantine might be put to better use in the dcu titles and maybe movies and Vertigo will do just ok without Hellblazer.

I agree totally.

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever... it might even turn out to be true, but it makes no sense.

Cheers

How you think this makes no sense, is beyond me. These characters don't exist in a vacuum.

Oh boy. More sense than you might imagine, Pete


Guillermo del Toro is really in talks for a Justice League Dark movie!

That puts a considerably different spin on the whole situation. Still not a decent reason to shitcan Hallblazer, but you know the suits do worry about people getting confused about what book to buy (not as that's stopping them putting out a dozen Bat books, but I'm sure it makes perfect sense to them). For a Del Toro movie...I'm potentially slightly more OK with that.

Not sure why you're comparing Batman to JC... For one thing, Batman's books are all consistent with each other. There's not a drastic difference in tone and concept from one Bat book to the next. So when you read one Bat book, concept-wise, it's like reading the others as well. Not the case for JC and HB.

Also, Batman has long since been a household name. JC isn't.

Erm...."You're ruining comics because you're not buying books you don't like!". It must be terribly difficult for you, having to pick up all that slack. You're the real superhero, Sam. When I grow up, I wanna be just like you.

Great, you should be. At least you'd complain alot less, and find stuff to enjoy alot more.

[DarthEwok]

Statements like this continue to be the reason why the industry isn't successful. Just sayin'...

HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! The industry isn't successful because of a statement made by an anonymous person on the Internet. HA HA HA HA

What power these Internet people have

[NinjaMic]

HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! The industry isn't successful because of a statement made by an anonymous person on the Internet. HA HA HA HA

What power these Internet people have

Feigning ignorance isnt really that funny tbh

[QCCBob]

Sam

Mike H. posted 'Most people don't interact with their entertainment on a purely intellectual level.' to you.

I posted 'You do realize you're pointing that out to a (fill in the blank) that thinks the exact same creators suck when they aren't doing a book with DC on the cover, right?' to him.

Pointing out that people don't interact with their entertainment on a purely intellectual level about a guy who doesn't like anything without a DC on it PROVES the point.

[QCCBob]

Feigning ignorance isnt really that funny tbh

"Feigning"????