DC would like your help picking its next new series, and has launched its own version of “April Madness” called 2021 Round Robin Brackets to help make that happen.
They’ve listed 16 possible future titles and their descriptions, and are asking fans to vote on them in various places –including Instagram, Twitter and the DC Universe Infinity Community message boards, depending on the round. Voting for round one goes through April 7, with plans to reveal the creative teams for each pitch coming as round two starts on April 8.
The pitches range from comics focused on DC’s top characters, like Green Lantern and Superman, to some focusing on lesser-known characters, like Nightrunner, the “Batman of Paris” whose debut was marred by racists back in 2010. There’s also a pitch for Asteria, who is probably best known from her appearance in the most recent Wonder Woman movie.
For round one, you’ll need to have a Twitter account to vote:
- Swamp Thing vs. Suicide Squad Seven
- Jesse Quick: Control vs. Paws Off the Justice League
- Justice League Queer vs. Robins
- Lobo/Animal Man vs. Son of the Creeper
- The Brave and the Bug vs. Zatanna and the King of Nightmares
- Green Lanterns Underworld on Fire vs. Etta Candy: Holliday Hero, Inc.
- Blue Beetle: Graduation Day vs. Nightrunner: Love in Paris
- Superman & Lois: Ignition vs. Asteria: The Last Amazon
After round one is over, they promise to reveal spot art and the creative teams for whatever’s left.
The pitches they’re using are only one paragraph, but there are a lot of good, fun ideas in them, many of which I’d love to see make it into a comic. They also have real creators behind them, like Ryan North and Gustavo Duarte, even though we don’t know who pitched what at this point. It’s one thing for DC to put up a poll asking what character should get a comic, with the promise that they’ll make it. It’s another thing to know that each one of these pitches came from actual creators and we’re helping to decide if they will get paid to make it into a series.
Now, creators pitch comics all the time that don’t get made, and they are used to the ones that do get made being raked over the coals by fans on Twitter and elsewhere. You’ve gotta have a pretty thick skin to survive in comics, so maybe this social media/marketing ploy to get more people to sign up for the DC Community Boards isn’t a big deal for them.
But the idea isn’t going over well with everyone:
Round one ends April 7; we’ll see what’s left at that point.
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