First of all, I’m immensely sad to see OMAC go. I adore that comic, and look forward to it each month more than I do any other corporate superhero comic. I’ll definitely notice the gap when it’s gone.

I have to admit I’m genuinely surprised DC are doing this. One of the things I’ve long respected about the current administration there is the willingness to keep lower tier titles going much longer than any would normally expect them to, and give things a chance to find and build an audience. Mark Andreyko’s Manhunter, John Rogers’ Blue Beetle, and Gail Simone’s Secret Six all benefited from this, running for years before they finally cancelled them. I recently asked around on twitter to see if anyone could think of a DC title from the last decade cancelled due to low sales after less than a year, and while there were a few, the list is very short.

This cull signals a clear end to that way of doing things, and a probable shift to the way things are done across the street. While 90% of the Marvel vs DC crap fans spout on about is bullshit, if there was one significant difference, it was that if a book like the Mighty Thor had got off the ground at DC, it would probably have gone rather more than 8 issues- and equally, a Blue Beetle at marvel wouldn’t have lasted 6. Well, that’s no longer true. Couple this with the announcement of the Batbook crossover on the way, and the various other little crossovers going on in each corner of the 52, and the rising supremacy of “rockstar” writers in the company (Snyder, Lemire), it really does feel like even the tiny differences that did exist between the two companies are starting to evaporate.

Whether this is good or bad for DC, I don’t really know. But I’m sad to see an already depressingly homogeneous field become even more monotone, and books like OMAC become even more rare outside the (currently ridiculously ghettoised) indy publishers.