DC Fans Livid With Major Batman Spoiler – DC Comics and the New York Times are being obliterated on social media over the decision to reveal the shocking reveal to Batman #50. In the issue, Batman and Catwoman are about to be wed, and the publisher has spent months, huge amounts of money, specialty covers and more to prepare fans for the second biggest marriage in DC Comics history.
However they spoiled everything by releasing an advance copy to the New York Times, who subsequently ruined it for fans. What’s the big spoiler? The two don’t end up getting married. Catwoman ends up believing that Batman being happy is the end of Batman. She deduces that him being happy is a determent to the world, as the world needs him and essentially calls of the wedding because of her belief that he needs to be miserable to effective at being a super hero.
Fuck you, Tom King.
It gets worse, because now fans are revolting against the publisher who has experienced record highs and steady gains over the last three years. They won back scores of fans, and impressed many critics. Yet in the last few months, major changes were made to top books after DC brought in Brian Michael Bendis, and the changes seem to be ever sweeping. Fans have taken to social media to vent about their anger and frustration over not just the unnecessary twist in the story that’s been built up for months, but also the brazen reveal over the weekend that ruined the twist.
DC Responds – John Cunningham, Senior VP of Sales for DC Comics, tried to quell the fan rage by taking to a local comic retailer Facebook page to explain why DC fucked up so hard.
1. DC Sales strongly advocated getting the news out ahead of the OSD, so that the Moment of Realization did not occur hours before events began. We even did our level best to try and spoil it here on this page over and over again (and failed). The NY Times article was posted here at 630 a.m. PST not out of “Pride” — please — but to get you the information as soon as we could.
2. In the abstract, we believed the news would break on Monday morning, given the arrival time of physical copies in store and the reality that a copy or a scan would end up being passed to uncontrolled comic book outlets (much like Marvel’s wedding issue last week and every other major comic book event in the lat decade).
3. As mentioned here before, any discussion about financial remedies for problematic DC product must occur after the product is on sale.
4. While The Times piece is more fulsome that [sic] some might like, it does not spoil the shock ending of the book for fans. We’re working on getting this posted here for you.
5. I stand by my belief that BATMAN #50 is one of the best single issue periodicals of the last decade, that it is a special moment in comic book history, and that if it’s not the book we (think) we want, it’s the book we need.
I’m not sure what “twist” wasn’t spoiled, as it seems pretty clear that they did in fact spoil everything. The response was so tone deaf that even the terrible Batman scribe himself, Tom King, slammed the decision; saying he’s “….pissed about things and excited about other things.” He did say he’s proud of the book and hopes people will purchase it.
There is a large amount of cancellations for the book already happening, leaving many stores in the lurch having already paid for their shipments of the issue. The backlash has been severe and justified so far, but only time will tell if DC makes the decision to rectify the issue.
2018 objectively speaking has been a bad look for DC Entertainment as a whole. Their Walmart line of books was slammed by fans, and others are outraged over GameStop trying to get into the comic market, thus putting even more pressure on local comic shops. Then there was the unnecessary talent shake up and cancellations of various titles for no real reason; as well as the delays for the Watchmen book Doomsday Clock. The signing of Bendis, the lack of support around King’s Batman and Bendis’ Superman books. Not too mention the hits the Arrowverse are taking in declining ratings, and of course the turmoil that is the film division.
Quick Hits – The New York Times is now asking readers what responsibility they have to protecting fans from spoilers. Disenchantment has revealed their first trailer for the new Netflix series by Simpsons creator Matt Groening.