I mostly get wind of these arguments second-hand through my son and his friends -- but it's very clear that DC is pissing a lot of people off by their decision that the most cost-effective marketing strategy is to aim exclusively at 18-39 year old males and act as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. Their objectification of women is what arouses the most outrage, but as the article makes clear, they're also ignoring the kid and young adult markets that once provided the main comic book audience.
The superhero genre has never quite known how to handle female characters, but what DC has been doing goes several degrees of insensitivity and exploitation beyond any past offenses. And if the most rabid fans of presently-existing DC comics feel entitled to attack women in the way they have been, I would say the publisher itself bears a significant share of the responsibility.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=52103
The cover of a publishing project is a precious thing. In the book world, each cover is agonized over, sometimes for more than a year, with input from sales, marketing, editorial and others. In magazines, everything from seasonally appropriate coloring to visibility while sitting on a newsstand is discussed. In superhero comics, well, we get covers like this.
The cover to the new "Teen Titans" #1, released earlier this week, is not just a terrible comics cover, it's a prime example of how even the most corporate comic book companies can make basic mistakes regarding the potential audience for a book. It's embarrassing that anyone, in particular a company as large and full of intelligent people as DC Comics (I swear! I used to work there -- many of those people are wonderful), could produce something this non-functional. Covers are important, but their job is also very basic. . . .
You know who loves Teen Titans? People who enjoyed the early 2000s "Teen Titans" animated show, many of whom are female and many of whom are teenagers or young 20-somethings today. Market research could and does back this up. Graphic Policy's Brett Schenker pulled together the Facebook stats for me for fans of the original "Teen Titans" animated series. Currently in the United States, there are 500,000 self-professed fans of the show on Facebook. 260,000 of those are women. Yes, that's right -- more than half. The majority of male and female fans are ages 15-23 with the bulk being 17. This is just a quick review of the potential market for these comics. Say a quarter of those fans actually tried a Teen Titans comic aimed at their demographic -- you're going to have a significantly higher number than the 26,000 copies "Teen Titans" is estimated to have sold in March.
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