Joshua Williamson, the current writer of Superman, recently admitted that DC Comics attempts to sell comic by making readers angry.
Superman #8 Cover B by Lee Bermejo (2023), DC
Speaking with Popverse, Williamson said, “Sometimes people get really angry and they spend money, which is the saddest thing. But it’s been the hard lesson that I’ve learned from DC. It’s that when people are happy, they spend less. It sucks, but it is a pattern that I’ve seen in my time at DC.”
Williamson added, “I don’t want to make anybody mad. The thing is is that I would want to say, ‘First and foremost, trust me.’ It’s not just about, ‘Oh, I want to piss people off.’ That’s not what you’re doing at all.”
Superman #7 Cover E by David Finch (2023), DC Comics
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Instead, he offered, “What you want to do is you want to establish some kind of trust first and then say, ‘Listen, this is going to be a rollercoaster ride. It’s going to be crazy at times. There’s going to be some ups and downs and it’s going to be nuts, but trust me to come on this ride with me.’”
“In any kind of story, the character kind of has to go through it. They have to go through hard times so they can reveal who they are,” he added. “It’s one of those rules of Pixar, they talk about this a lot. You root for them for trying. They have to try and they have to get kind of beaten up.”
Williamson elaborated, “Man, when you’re watching anything, any movie, or reading a book, and the characters just get the crap kicked out of them, and then they get up and they’re just like, ‘Let’s keep going. I’m going to keep going.’ It’s like Captain America saying, ‘I can do this all day.’ That’s the stuff that you’re like, ‘Hell yeah!’”
Batman Vol. 6: Abyss Cover Art by Jorge Molina (2022), DC Comics
Williamson’s commentary about conflict, is not surprising, it’s a necessary component of good, solid storytelling. However, his comments about DC Comics making people angry in order to sell comics or spend money is illuminating.
However, it seems clear that this strategy has been absolute failure, despite Williamson claiming it’s some kind of hard lesson he learned. As Jon Del Arroz at Fandom Pulse reports, “The comic industry is dying. Nearly every week, there’s a new news story about a beloved comic shop closing down.”
Superman: Son of Kal-El #11 Cover C by Brian Ching (2022), DC Comics
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To that point, even DC Studios CEO James Gunn lamented the state of the comic book industry telling Michael Rosenbaum, “I started out I wanted to write comic books when I was younger. If I was writing comic books today I’d probably be — I’d probably be unhappy because so few people are reading comic books.”
“But I would probably be really happy with what my job was. I’d enjoy that storytelling process,” he said. “So that’s what’s important to me. I just happen to be good at directing because directing takes a lot of different weird talents that I do many of those things, but not all, well.”
Sales for DC and Marvel Comics also seem to be in decline. Retailer Phil Boyle of Colisuem of Comics wrote an op-ed published at ICV2, “Marvel and DC, you blew it. Or maybe you just succeeded in your plan to kill off an American art form of which you’ve been the able stewards of for 80 years.”
He explained, “Where did it go off the rails? It’s not such a conundrum to anyone with two active brain cells and a list of back issues they need to complete their runs. … But along the way, the immediate sale and false bolstering of numbers through variant covers, convoluted events, and incessant reboots left the considerations of the fans behind. Character swapping, gender-bending, and changing sexual orientation of beloved characters fell flat with the Wednesday Warriors who supported the industry for decades. The crowd of new readers the changes were meant to attract didn’t translate to a 1-for-1 swap, leaving a declining customer base.”
Panels from Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #3 (2023), DC
What do you make of Williamson’s comments?
By his logic, Taylor Swift must have the most unhappiest fans in the world! Look at how much money they spend!