DC would rather make a deal for digital comics than improve their entertainment value

Wired did a report about DC making a deal with Global Comix to produce digital editions of their comics output:

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.

Gee, haven't they noticed there's been a million "reboots" in terms of continuity, and none of it worked? And again, interesting they keep pushing Harley Quinn on us in all directions. What is so special about her that isn't so special about Black Canary and Huntress? And what's so special about the Joker, lest we forget? Pushing even a veteran villain creation like the Clown Prince of Crime upon the audience at this point has long been reprehensible too, because again, there's been far too much emphasis on villainy, much like darkness, for too long a time. And again, they make a big deal out of Batman, but not Superman. The only "clear" trend here is marching through the darkness, most likely without even any comedy to alleviate the frustration.

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.)

The legacy publishing has long reached the limits of what it can accomplish through artistic value. So why does he think this is going to do much to change any negative perception they've acquired since the early 2000s, when DiDio/Quesada brought down DC/Marvel's artistic cohesion, to say nothing of continuity? Sorry, but this farce of digital marketing is coming far too late. If there's any front DC's not advancing on, it's mending their continuity, respect of legacy characters who were marginalized and humiliated, and moving away from the kind of woke politics they've been shoehorning into their output over the past decade. Marvel's tried this digital approach in the past, and it hasn't led much of anywhere, mainly because the artistic quality was bad. Why should we be expected to care about DC taking a similar direction?