Now according to solicits for DC Comics August lineup Batwing #34 will be the last issue of the series. While Dc Comics has not yet announced the cancellation of the book if the solicits are to be believed then it’s the end of the line for the last Black lead book standing from the publisher.
Batwing launched back in 2011 with Writer Judd Winnick and artists the series then starred African superhero David Zavimbe. Over time the writer, artist and then the titular character were all phased out because of either creative differences or declining sales. In Batwing #20 Luke Fox became the titular hero and Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray became the creative team. Some say they enjoyed Luke more others thought David should have been factored into the series in some way. Either way the sales continued to fall. So much so in fact that the series past the magical cancellation numbers long ago. by Batwing #15 the series was selling 14’000+. Most books get dropped around this ballpark or lower. Batwing #26 saw a little over 10’000 issues sold (See Sales Figures Here)
For comparison sake here are the other black lead books which got the ax
Mister Terrific was cancelled with sales of 11,000+ at issue #7 (See Sales Figures Here)
Static Shock was cancelled with sales of 10,000+ at issue #7 (See Sales Figures Here)
Voodoo was cancelled with sales of 11,000+ at issue #12 (See Sales Figures Here)
If this is the end then Dc Comics must be commended for holding out as long as it did because lord knows these numbers have not been encouraging at all.It was a good run, one that I enjoyed and followed from day one. Hopefully both Luke and David don’t drift off into comicbook limbo but find homes in other DC Comics.
Read the solicits below and brace yourself for the news in the coming months
BATWING #34
Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by EDUARDO PANSICA
Cover by DAN PANOSIAN
On sale AUGUST 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T • FINAL ISSUE
It’s the final issue of BATWING – but what is the final fate of Luke Fox?
Did you enjoy Batwing while it lasted?
What are your fondest Batwing Memories?
Who was your fave LUKE or DAVID?
Sound off below!
More as it breaks!
[Source: Newsarama]
Sad but not surprised
My sentiments exactly JJ.
Quite disheartening. I enjoyed David and have been warming up to Luke. I hope my only purchasing trades didn’t contribute to its downfall although I’m sure it did. Hopefully he can get new life in Eternal and or Future’s End. Smh, well I guess all I have now is Ultimate Spiderman. If that Storm book is good, I’ll mess with it, but I tend to stick with DC chats mostly. Man, this sucks!
Haven’t been following sales too closely, but here’s my take:
I don’t think it’s surprising that Voodoo, Mister Terrific, and yes even Batwing didn’t do too well. Static Shock was a bit of a surprise, I thought it would hold out longer.
Honestly, the New 52 wasn’t the silver bullet DC had hoped it would be in my opinion. Also, there are way too many Bat-related titles. Honestly, if you’re a fan of any other DC character besides Batman I kind of pity you.
I was done with DC when they castrated Cyborg! (SEE Justice Leauge #27)
The art and storyline in the first couple of issues was excellent, then it went downhill from there. Nobody wants to buy crap and the Iron Patriot is definitely going to get cancelled next if things don’t improve. I hope the Storm series has a decent artist and writer. Not that the writer should be Black, but it would be nice to get a writer whose voice speaks to her distinctiveness as a African goddess, mutant, and leader!
Doctor Voodoo was an excellent mini-series.
Clarification: I wasn’t commenting on the quality of the books I mentioned so much as marketability.
I honestly think DC could have done more to market this book. Especially when they did a soft reboot by changing from David to Luke. In my opinion they expected it to sell simply because “Bat” was in the title.
Marketing sucked for Batwing!
I was hoping it would outlast Redhood and the Outlaws!!!! That book has been terrible since the first arc ended! SMH
lol I hear that! Apparently sexing up Starfire saved that book. Batwing needed a famous white chick to bed in order to save his book apparently lol
I feel responsible. I didn’t the book consistently and now look what happens! We have to support characters created in our image in order for them to continue in modern pop culture.
Possibly the limited page count and the writers were also at fault. The artwork was not at fault in any way and always great. The covers were incredible. I was hoping Luke would have more friction with Batman and having it lead to Luke reinventing Batwing under his own terms. There was a lot the writers could have made happen with this comic past David Zavimbe but I think it should have been saved in a big way by better writers. I hated what Jimmy Palmiotti did with Daredevil Dark Knights. Now he screwed up Batwing. Menace was too much like Bane and he became evil and big too fast. Possibly they can fast-forward to the future in another book and make Tif Fox take the mantle of Batwing since she’s proven herself to be a fighter against her tormentors in the underworld and looked up to Luke who she now knows is Batwing. It had potential but I agree the marketing was at fault along with the 20 page problem and Jimmy Palmiotti.
I know I won’t win any popularity awards for this but I preferred Luke to David. I was so excited to see an American “black batman”. That being said Dr. Dead is right its not serprising. From my “research” into why the cancelation came about I found that the mainstream DC readers didn’t like that he was “to like” Batman beyond. Smh another one down.
It’s a real pain that this was cancelled but to be honest it was never really that good. What we really need is a decent character in his/her own rights, not one that’s riding the coat tails of an existing hero. The only reason spinnoffs like Nightwing work is because the character has such a long history.
As a brit I get equally annoyed at the lame english characters that crop up like Knight and Squire…. I mean come on have the writers ever met an englishman we’re not all from the 15th century everyone here hates the rich and the royals we have the worlds best soldiers and none of us have said gord blimey since the second world war.
I think what we need to do is come up with some new characters with rich well written back stories that can stand alone and slowly be introduced into the justice league.
On a separate note DC’s tv series The Flash introduced a black Iris West. For those who don’t know Iris west is Barry Allens wife in the comics and aunt of Walley West the second Flash, could this mean they are planning to make Walley black in the comics? Personally I really hope not I’d rather see a new character rise up on his own accord but still worth mentioning.
in Fairness Starfire is orange lol