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Me, in a green "Freed Between the Lines." hoodie.
Written by May 25, 2006

COMMENT: 52 Putdown

Pop Culture Article

I’m done.

Week Three did nothing for me, and the numerous continuity issues already popping up in and around a series that is all about continuity is just way too distracting. Especially at $2.50 a pop. One of the bigger problems for me is the use of the weekly/daily timeline that doesn’t feel the least bit organic, with scenes seemingly being spread out and arbitrarily labeled Day Two, Day Three, etc.

Side note: Did anyone else think Detective Jiang in the opening scene this week looked like a slightly tweaked Crispus Allen? AKA, the recently deceased partner of Renee Montoya (who was disappointingly absent this week), now host of the Spectre, Crispus Allen. I could be wrong, but I don’t remember a Detective Jiang ever appearing in the 40-issue run of Gotham Central.

Anyway, like I said, I’m done. Out of morbid curiosity, I’ll be following along via Fossen’s clever weekly take, 52 on 52; Douglas Wolk’s more thorough weekly analysis at 52 Pickup; and I’ll peek in on the official Web site every now and then.

I’ll also be watching the sales charts to see how dramatic the dropoff is between the first 4-6 weeks and weeks 17-20, by which time I suspect only the diehard will still be onboard. My guess is it will be something precipitous, like a 60-70% decrease from the first Week, settling in somewhere around 35-40k/issue and a slow but steady trickle downward from there.

I won’t be spending another dime on it, though. The past is the past and I’m moving on.

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Written by

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.

3 comments

  • Mark Fossen has written:

    The interesting thing here is that I don’t think DC has a choice. They can’t pull the plug on this thing, even if Week 36 is ringing in at 1,000 preorders. i suppose anything’s possible, but it would be a massive loss of credibility of this falls apart.

  • Guy LeCharles Gonzalez has written:

    Yeah, I can’t imagine they’d pull the plug on it. That’d be a PR nightmare that’d surely hit the mainstream press.

    With the primary writers locked in to editorial positions and a roster of C-list artists who come relatively cheap, they can certainly afford to carry it through to the end, especially if it was budgeted with Infinite Crisis instead of as an individual project. Even at 25k/issue, though, it’ll be considered a relative success because of the weekly frequency and the absence of the Big Three.

  • Chris has written:

    I’m with you, Guy. This last issue cemented for me the desire to leave the dark and grim DC behind, and I don’t need it popping up on a weekly basis.

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