While the jury is out on the DC Universe's new slate, James Gunn’s announcement led to a boom in back issue sales, particularly first appearances of The Authority, Booster Gold, Damian Wayne, and others.
Not everyone was happy with the line-up of upcoming DC Universe projects DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn shared on his social media channels and that will replace the previous DC Extended Universe .
However, it has sparked interest in the source material (i.e. comic books) of these properties. This is particularly true for obscure ones that the general public was not aware of.
Gunn shared the slate of DC Universe projects for Warner Bros. that he and DC Studios Co-CEO Peter Safran are hashing out, on February 1, 2023. The Twitter post alone has had 5 million views, though the response of the DC fans have been mixed, with some being happy with the reveals, while others range from indifferent to negative.
Wonderful to see. https://t.co/GINWGT22KP
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 3, 2023
However, interest on the DC Comics properties that were revealed to be part of DC Universe Chapter 1 (which Gunn referred to as Gods and Monsters) have reached a fever pitch. As a result, sales of back issue comics where these properties first appeared have surged. James Gunn himself shared how books like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow written by Tom King, Grant Morrison’s Batman run (where Damian Wayne first appeared), and Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman are selling like gangbusters on Amazon.
Aside from the more famous properties from the DC Comics stable, the more obscure ones such as Creature Commandos, The Authority, and Booster Gold, have all had a significant bump in their back issue sales. Booster Gold’s creator, writer and artist Dan Jurgens, expressed his appreciation for the renewed interest in the time-traveling superhero celebrity.
🙏🙌🙌🙌
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 1, 2023
It seems like the principle of FOMO (aka fear of missing out) is at play with this big bump in sales of these particular back issues. Many casual fans were not even aware that Batman has a son that became another Robin, having been most familiar of the Dick Grayson version. But hopefully it does not spiral into a new speculator market boom.
Comic book fans should be familiar with the comic book crash that occurred back in the 1990s, and was propelled by events like the first new X-Men title, the Image Comics revolution, and the Death of Superman, as well as comic books being harvested by big projects in Hollywood at the time.
Sales of comics reached very heady heights during the time, but it also led to an extremely speculative market, with many buying comic books to simply try and cash in. First appearances of characters and key issues were given particular attention by speculators, which is similar to what is happening now with certain DC comics. Could this trend continue as more DC Universe projects are revealed?
The first steps in Warner Bros. Discovery's new DC Universe will begin with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, out in theaters March 17, 2023.
