Comics and Characters: Marketability and Niches

Over at Comic Bloc, there's a topic about which JSA member should get their own solo book. This is something I've posted about before.

For the curious, *my* opinion on the poll is here.

Anyway, it got me thinking that the popularity of a character shouldn't be a factor in whether a character gets a solo book or not. I mean, sure, it'll bring in readers from JSA, or whereever else the character originally appeared, but that's not going to be enough, and without a hook, there won't be any way to pull in a wider audience.

Let's take Mr. Terrific for example. Michael Holt is an awesome character with personal tragedy, mad skills and a busload of the coolness factor. I like him a lot. It's great when he's featured in storylines and I'm looking forward to his role in Checkmate.

But would I read a solo comic about him? Well, it'd depend on my finances that week. See, as awesome as Michael is, I'm not sure he has a hook that would really draw me to the comic every month. He's a smart guy with tech expertise and a neat costume. But...well, so's Bruce Wayne. So's Ted Kord...Barbara Gordon's also got tech expertise, even if she's a costume-less woman...even little Tim Drake might not be much of a robot-builder, but he's shown himself more than capable of hacking and detective work.

The thing is, while JSA fans would read Michael's comic, most other readers would probably gravitate toward Batman for that first. Batman's got the name recognition after all. Michael, instead, is better utilized in a group setting.

See, comic books, to me, have to offer something the others don't. DC and Marvel and Image and the rest aren't gonna pay to make two comics that are near identical when one would do. The stories have to have a notable difference and something new to offer.

Superman and Batman could have so many spinoff comics because each comic type told a different kind of story. Gotham Knights was very bat family, and then bat villain related, where Detective focused on the mysteries, and Batman proper was of course Bruce's center stage. Legends of the Dark Knight and Monster Men also tell different types of stories.

It's like...looking at group titles: JLA are the legends, they fight the big fights. JSA is closer knit, focused as much on family and legacy...they fight big fights, but they tend to be more personal. The Teen Titans are about growing up, the Outsiders were/are a bit more of a mercenary, grey-area type force...The Classifieds tell less constrained stories, often with a different tone, and only some of the same characters as the main lines...

I've heard rumors that they might bring back Infinity Inc, of sorts, which could work, I'd bet there's an audience for the soapy dramatic emotional crap.

See, the thing is, while many people read all of the titles, many just read one or two, whether their tastes run to coming of age stories or legacies or just plain grandstand heroics.

There can be so many Lantern comics because Hal's Green Lantern can do the home-based, Earth, traditional hero crises, Guy and the GLC can do their space opera/police drama thing, while god knows what Kyle's going to end up doing except that god willing it involves bondage and ripped costumes somewhere.

Comics need an audience and name recognition only goes so far. They need a tone and a genre and a direction. They can always run stories counter-type later, fun interludes that don't always fit the grand scheme, but the grand scheme is ultimately what draws a wider audience.

Going back to the JSA, for example: any one of those heroes would be a great lead character in a comic. They're all personable and appealing and cool. But the trick is figuring out what kind of comic they would end up fronting.

I picked Sand first not because I like him (though I do) but because there's a built in audience for mysteries with an occult/horror edge. It wouldn't necessarily even need a mature label, if the author went with the more subtle/cerebral understated elements of horror. And nothing with the former Golden Boy should ever be completely depressing, there should definitely be some underlying note of optimism, of making a positive difference beneath there.

In fact, it'd probably be *very* successful if they went in that direction. In the bookstores, the young adult shelves are filled with horror, mystery and fantasy. Comics that young people can enjoy are pretty rare,and a great many adults read young-adult related stories all the time. (J.K Rowling and Tamora Pierce could doubtless attest to this.) And because real horror, especially the kind of Lovecraftian stuff Sorrow is associated with, is as much about the unseen, unspoken implications as what's obviously there, a young adult direction doesn't need to impede the story at all. The adults might appreciate more of the subtleties and horrific implications, but younger readers could enjoy it too.

And best of all, there really isn't any series currently that taps into that market. Which means the possible attraction of many non-regular readers who'd enjoy that sort of horror, as *well* as regular readers of Sandman Mystery Theater and JSA who'd be attracted by the familiar name.


Mid-Nite's another one, because as the success of House and Grey's Anatomy now, as well as ER and Chicago Hope way back when, shows, people love medical dramas. And a medical drama about metahumans would be pretty nifty.

How would you diagnose a meta-human, or an alien, when you're not familiar with their particular physiology. What about battle injuries or weird unknown illnesses? Alien plagues? Ancient curses? There could be a lot of fun stories there. Could even bring in other specialists to round out a cast, psychic healers, magic users, alien scientists.

There are some fascinating elements about the DCU that don't really get explored. What does it mean to have aliens and superheroes all around, in plain sight, interacting with normal people in normal society. To know that John Stewart, the Green Lantern, and his blue girlfriend live down the hall from you. That if you go to Warriors on a Sunday Night, you might catch a glimpse of Superman or Aquaman...Magic's real, aliens are real, superpowers are real...and where Marvel's got most of those folks looked down upon or trying to blend in, DC's got a lot of 'em out and proud.

So what does that *mean*?

What does it mean for the judicial system: What happens to the supervillain once he's arrested? How is evidence collected? How do warrants work? Can a lawyer appeal on the grounds that Batman was unnecessarily brutal when he zip stripped his client and left him infront of the GCPD building?

Best part of Manhunter, I think, is the look at superhero justice. Allows for a lot of fun crossovers letting Damon hit on Carter too. Gotham Central was good for the look at police procedure...it'd be fun to see more of that.

But anyway, I think the comic companies are more likely to go with characters around whom a new, interesting, and most importantly marketable franchise can be built around versus whether the character is popular or not.

Remember, Guy Gardner got his own comic after all. :-) *Twice*.