DC's New 52 commercial has me concerned/ is pretty lame

1. This is basically a collection of still images from promo art. It doesn't tell a story, it gives an impression of "look - stuff with superheroes" that doesn't say anything outright about what DC is selling other than characters.

2. As still images, I see these every day on t-shirts, toys, cartoons, etc... there's nothing here to make me care.

3. The music seems geared at 18 year old dudes who are into bad Nu-Metal. Not kids, certainly. And not adults. And not people who don't take their "edginess" too seriously. This is disposable cock-rock, and it certainly doesn't project any sort of epic scale to the DC Universe. It seems to say "look, comics are for kids who wear safety pins in the clothes they bought at Hot Topic".

4. I am baffled by the lack of either story about "why comics" and the utter lack of a "value proposition" for reading comics inherent in what's basically a montage that looks like it might have been done on a Mac using the first version of Final Cut Pro and After Effects.

• if you're selling to a new audience, they need to know why they should be buying your stories
• pitching "the greatest creators" doesn't mean anything outside of the comics community. Keep in mind, most people think that directors and actors make up TV shows as they go along. They apply this same logic to comics. Artists just draw stuff.
• its impossible to know what any comic here is about, its just a vomiting of semi-familiar faces from T-shirts and pop culture ephemera.

It DOES look like DC is courting 18 year old males, which is exactly who they said they were reaching out to in sales meetings.  Traditionally, this sort of marketing has also attracted those outside the demo, but this seems so specifically aimed at angry, suburban kids that...  I don't know.

There's a pattern emerging that I'm not comfortable with.  Didio and Lee seem to be trying to recapture the industry magic of the 1990's, but that audience has changed, and the young folk today aren't the same young folk of then.  lee will refer to teaching people to "collect" comics in an era when most people are reading stolen comics from a bit torrent site.  Didio is keeping the same cadre of talent on staff he's had around since pre-Countdown. 

The commercial reflects DC's myopia and inability to understand the audience they're courting.   The kids aren't going to look toward "grim'n'gritty" to legitimize their artform the way we did.  This is the generation who finds a wimpy British dude flying around in time and space in a blue box to be a really, really good idea.  They love My Little Pony and dressing up in silly costumes at Cons and will argue that Batman & Robin was a good movie because its wacky. 

With the 3 month lead of solicitation information, this ad, etc...  I'm increasingly becoming concerned that DC is blowing through money, time and creators, and in 9 months will be far worse off than they were in the spring of 2011.

Here's the extended version, by the way:



Boy, that music is really... something.