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  • DC Entertainment Is Changing the Shape—and Scrollability—of Comics

    DC Entertainment Is Changing the Shape—and Scrollability—of Comics

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    Comics are due for a reboot and the old guard knows it. DC Entertainment, the elder statesman of the business, has been trying everything to get young eyes on its familiar characters, from Monday’s surprise announcement of DC Go! webcomics, to a recently-launched kids’ line, to a licensing deal with teen favorite Webtoon.

    Today, the company announced a partnership with even more potential to reshape the medium: a distribution deal with GlobalComix, a digital platform that has raised millions in funding to optimize traditional comics to be read by scrolling vertically on a smartphone.

    Starting today, fans will be able to read 400 DC, Vertigo, and Wildstorm books, including story arcs from Batman, The Joker, and Doom Patrol, on GlobalComix’s subscription-based app, with many free to sample. The comics will be in standard panel-and-page format, but given GlobalComix’s investment and strategy around verticalization, DC’s move suggests a clear trend. That’s because the deal follows yesterday’s unveiling of DC Go!, a new mobile-optimized initiative on its DC Universe Infinite (DCUI) digital service. It won’t roll out until November 20, but when it does, it’ll allow readers to flick through original Harley Quinn, Nightwing, and Raven series—as well as some archival material—in a style familiar to anyone using apps like TikTok or Instagram.

    Seems simple, obvious even, but it’s a shift the traditional comics industry has been slow to make. When comics first made the migration to digital formats, they largely resembled the same multipanel pages that comics readers had been looking at for years, optimized for the screens of iPads or other tablets. Vertically-scrolling comics, on the other hand, allow readers to follow the story top-to-bottom, like reading a feed on their smartphone. With all the other things now available on those screens—mobile games, social media—old-school publishers have to keep up.

    That point was hammered home this summer when Webtoon, the South Korean mobile platform that has popularized vertically scrolling comics worldwide, went public in the US based on a valuation of $2.67 billion. DC’s plans, announced in the lead-up to New York Comic Con, which begins Thursday, indicate that the comics giant is ready to advance on a number of fronts.

    “The legacy American comic publishers seem to have reached the limits of new customer acquisition through media,” says Milton Griepp, publisher of ICv2, the trade publication of the comics industry. If they want to grow, he adds, they’re going to have to embrace vertical scroll comics, “which are bringing in tens of millions of new, mostly younger readers worldwide.” (Disclosure: This writer has written for ICv2.)

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    Rob Salkowitz

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  • ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Might Be the Worst Comic Book Adaptation of All Time

    ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Might Be the Worst Comic Book Adaptation of All Time

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    Fans, it seems, are not dancing out of Joker: Folie à Deux.

    Director Todd Phillips’ film, which features the return of Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck and the addition of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, was highly anticipated, especially after the success of the first chapter, released in 2019. Following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, however, there was no shortage of criticism from film reviewers and the audiences who saw it in Italy. Since its US release this past weekend, during which the movie brought in a lower-than-expected $40 million at the box office, that chorus of discontent has grown louder.

    Take, for example, Joker 2‘s CinemaScore, which is currently a resounding D, the lowest ever for a comic book movie. Before Folie à Deux, the worst comic adaptation CinemaScore—a measure of the opinions of American theatergoers—belonged to 2015’s much-derided Fantastic Four, which got a C– upon release.

    Joker: Folie à Deux‘s current score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, meanwhile, sits at a meager 33 percent.

    Many have pointed out that this second installment is far too ambitious but also not very cohesive in its desire to bring together the psychological exploration of these famous villains. On social media, particularly on X and on TikTok, many people are merely annoyed that the film is a musical.

    While Folie à Deux‘s box office missed projections by about $10 million in the US, it still hit the top spot. It also came in No. 1 worldwide, bringing in a little more than $81 million in international box office for a grand total of $121 million. Still, the original Joker made more than $96 million in its domestic opening weekend and went on to become one of the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time.

    There is another front on which Joker: Folie à Deux could save face, at least in terms of image and prestige: film awards. There is speculation that Lady Gaga could earn an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category, particularly because the pop star’s role in the film is limited in terms of her screen time. Gaga could also have a fighting chance in the music categories. She just released an album, Harlequin, which contains her songs from the film as well as unreleased pieces inspired by her Harley Quinn character. Phoenix could also get into the Academy Awards race, though competition is at an all-time high this year.

    Joker, which tapped into a much different cultural moment when it hit theaters in 2019, earned 11 nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director. (Phoenix won a Best Actor trophy, and Hildur Guðnadóttir also took home a prize for his original score.) It is unlikely that this sequel could perform as well, but hope—like the Joker’s laugh—is the last to die.

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    Paolo Armelli

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  • It’s Hard to Be Excited Over DC Movie News, Even for Fans of James Gunn’s Work

    It’s Hard to Be Excited Over DC Movie News, Even for Fans of James Gunn’s Work

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    Recently, it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would both be the top creative leads at DC. While I like some of Safran’s work, and much of Gunn’s over the last few years, it’s very hard to be excited about this announcement considering the decisions of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) over the course of most of this year and the circumstances around the recent departure of previous DC head Walter Hamada.

    The first reason for concern was outlined extensively in the report that whoever would head DC would still have to report directly to WBD CEO David Zaslav. In a perfect world, this would actually streamline things because reporting to a full board would be messy and subject to having too many chefs trying to write a menu. However, considering how Zaslav rose to power and his toxic strongman approach to leadership, this is a red flag. Now, even before Zaslav and his wrecking crew came in, guns a-blazing, Hamada was not going to stick around. Shake-ups like this aren’t uncommon, even if it’s not so sudden and violent in every sector (see the gutting of animation), and Hamada found out about Batgirl‘s cancellation at the same time as everyone else. If he didn’t know he was leaving or not valued, this definitely sent that signal.

    Also, there’s a lack of patience and a demand for results regarding making the DC Universe comparable to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s despite the critical and/or commercial success of the films released since Hamada’s appointment in 2018. This includes Shazam!, Joker, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, the Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Suicide Squad, The Batman, and now Black Adam. Although, with Justice League come accusations from Ray Fisher of undermining the investigation into the abuse Fisher faced on the film’s set. That alone is a reason for many to be wary of Hamada’s leadership and show the limits of representation.

    Yes, I’m going to make it about race

    All of this aside, even if everything were sunshine and rainbows, I fully expected Hamada to be replaced by a white man. I’m just surprised it was two of them. That Dan Lin rumor didn’t phase me when projects and positions led by marginalized communities in WBD were cut left and right. Days before the announcement of DC films’ new leaders, WBD cut and then reinstated (possibly because they legally can’t cut it) a pipeline for more diverse talent behind the scenes.

    This is because Discovery (pre-merger) was super white, and the first investor call for the merged company spoke so much about nostalgia, capitalizing on existing IP (which is mostly white), and the need to court more audiences in middle America. Middle America is home to people of all types, including many refugee and immigrant populations, but that’s not what most people mean when they allude to this region.

    Also, I suspect that by naming two heads of DC, he is also diluting the creative power of each of them. Now, here are three visions for how to move forward. Based on Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad alone, I see Gunn and Zaslav with competing visions. Ideally, Gunn and Safran would always work together and be cohesive, but it will only take one begrudged head to ally with Zaslav. Or if one has a falling out or public clash with Zaslav or anyone at WBD, the other can be used as insurance.

    (featured image: Jesse Grant/Getty Images)

    —The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

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    Alyssa Shotwell

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