DC Comics just announced to CBR that five ongoing series of the DC You launch are being cancelled. Among the books just announced for cancellation include fan favorite title The Omega Men by Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda. The others include Lobo, Justice League United, Doomed, and Gotham By Midnight. Catwoman has been assigned a new creative team as well, with Genevieve Valentine and David Messina being replaced by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda.
Lobo, The Omega Men, Gotham By Midnight, and Justice League United are all slated to ship their final issues in December, followed by Doomed, which as of this moment does not have a confirmed final issue launch date. Of the brand new titles, The Omega Men and Doomed are both brand new books in the DC You relaunched as a part of the new line by the publisher.
The Omega Men was a beloved comic in the brand new DC launch line-up and since then, the title has grown in the amount of nuance and violence, pushing the boundaries of language and things that can physically happen in the world of DC. While sales for the comic were lackluster, this is the kind of series that fans will likely cite as a special take on the Omega Men in the immediate future. Also, the material with Kyle Rayner was the most interesting use of the character in decades.
Another problem is the creative team switch on Catwoman, one of the very best books published by DC since Genevieve Valentine and Garry Brown took over the comic. What should have been a gimmicky reboot inspired by status quota shifts turned into a full blown The Wire stylized crime fiction title. Valentine’s writing was perfectly suited to the tone of the old Marvel Knights crime books of the early ‘2000s. While her status quota shift was never going to last forever (especially regarding the change in tone of the series after the reboot,) we still would have liked to see the book conclude in a more organic fashion considering the slow evolution of this series pacing.
Gotham By Midnight was no slouch in terms of quality either, even though the early departure of the gritty violence depicted by Ben Templesmith was a loss. The comic likely could have used the extra spaced in developing the rest of the characters on the night shift. Here is David Carter‘s most recent DC sales analysis for July where he assessed the current climate of the company.
