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Who says Marts and co are building a company to match Marvel? Maybe they have very different aspirations in mind….

Marts took Marvel guys and years of experience from the company with him. Surely there will be some Marvel influence built in the start-up.

Mike is one of the nicest guys in comics and a real class act. Wishing him much luck on the new venture.

With Joe Pruett? That does sound promising!

I’m glad you wrote this. Great analysis. I’ve noticed this has seemed to be the case since Mike Marts took over the Bat office. The Gail Simone kerfuffle seemed to occur after Bobby Chase had been promoted and Brian Cunningham had been placed as the new editor. It seems that a lot of the good will that seems to happen on the Bat office book comes down to not only Mike Marts himself, but the editors he (I’m assuming being a senior editor) chooses as his associate and assistant editors on these book. Despite the ill will Liefeld had towards him, Gail Simone had nothing but good things to say about Brian Smith.

With the whole Batgirl fiasco, I”m wondering if that was senior management making an decision for a new editor over Mike Marts. Because when that all went down, it simply didn’t seem like the way his office has handled things (even the Batwoman controversy that happened with Amy Reeder seemed to be handled fairly quietly compared to a lot of the other blow ups that were going on around the same time.)

While different editors obviously are going to have different management styles and characteristics, it seems the fact that the Bat office has been so rock solid for such a seemingly long time now under Marts leadership, you’d figure other editors would strive to have the stability and success he’s had. I realize he’s only one man and can only do so much, but I wish his example was more widespread throughout DC as a whole. I think it would lead to at least a perception of more stability in what’s going on line wide right now.

Marts deserves all the respect in the world. Would love to see him take an expanded role at DC/Warner in the coming years. It might be a little geeky to get excited about editors, but as a fan, I’m really digging what he’s done with his corner of the New 52.

You’re with The Beat now, Jonny! Getting excited about editors is What We Do.

Eventually all DC will publish will be Batman,Green Lantern comics, and Superman comics.
When was the last time something non- Superman,Batman,Green Lantern and Geoff Johns related that sold well?
It`s been a long time.
DC could put out an Alfred the Butler comic book or Lois Lane comic book and they would outsell the majority of any announced upcoming DC new 52 replacement comic books.
respectfully
“The Amazing Stam”
Make Mine Marvel

@STAM – The Aquaman relaunch has been doing pretty damn well, finding itself in the top 10 and 20 regularly.

Just sayin’.

And I don’t think DC is looking for or needs any of the 2nd or 3rd tier characters to be top sellers. A lot of the reaosn for the relaunch I feel was in boosting sales on their midline titles, which they were able to do for the most part. Books don’t have to sell 100K+ to necessarily be considered a success.

@blacaucasian
Hence why I said non- Superman,Batman,Green Lantern and Geoff Johns related. Aquaman is written by Johns, and now that Johns has left writing Aquaman we shall watch the sales drop to the bottom of the ocean(pun intended). :)
respectfully
“The Amazing Stam”
Make Mine Marvel!

With the consistent sales and decent reviews of the Bat, GL, Justice League, and Superman books the case can be made to just have ongoing comics under those umbrellas while putting out B and C, even D list titles as mini series.

For as long as I can remember Batman has sold well. Even when the book sucks it sells because it’s Batman. Batman is like pizza even when it’s bad it’s good.

For what it’s worth — and I know I’m in the minority here — I’m not finding the current Batman books to be at all enjoyable (except for BATMAN, INC) and have dropped all of them from my list, the first time I’ve ever walked away from the Batman line in decades.