Newsarama has an interesting article about the most frequently relaunched comics, including this snippet on Doom Patrol:
"DC’s team of superpowered misfits led by an older man in a wheelchair actually pre-dated Marvel’s X-Men by a couple of months, though while Uncanny X-Men has been going strong for 532 issues and counting, Doom Patrol hasn’t had the same luck. The first volume took over the numbering of the intriguingly titled My Greatest Adventure in 1964, lasting until #124. The team got a new ongoing in 1987, which Grant Morrison took over and thoroughly Morrison-ified starting with issue #19, leading to the comic becoming part of DC’s mature readers line, Vertigo. Two short-lived DC proper series followed in 2001 (from John Arcudi and Tan Eng Huat) and 2004 (by John Byrne), leading to the current Keith Giffen-written series, which is ending with May’s issue #22. Can a sixth volume be far behind?"
Read the full article at Newsarama!
Not that you asked here, but while we're all thinking about the likelihood of a DP relaunch, I have to say that any discussions prompted by the Newsarama article should be prefaced by definitions of what does or doesn't constitute a "relaunch". At DC, historically, that would include features as well as explicit titles. (If they counted features, Aquaman might have topped the list.) Many of the titles they offered as examples included miniseries, in which case Dark Horse publications would probably walk away with the prize (Hellboy, Sin City, Aliens... what were there, twenty Aliens miniseries? more?). Even limiting ourselves to DC and Marvel, Namor and Dr. Strange should have been mentioned. And Kull, Ka-Zar and Ambush Bug.
ReplyDeletePlaying the odds, the next time we're likely to see the Doom Patrol would be as guest stars for a full arc of another title (with the odds on a variant of Teen Titans, whatever name they happen to be published under at the time). Beyond that, DC will probably opt to experiment with format instead of messing with the content...again. (Fool me once, shame on you; fool me three times in ten years and I'm muttering about class action suits.) I want a monthly comic, but I'm in an aging demographic. In order to read it at all I may have to settle for direct-to-trade or online-to-trade.