Broadened Horizons

I have largely remained in the confines of super-hero comics for as long as I've been reading comics. This is not because I am particularly opposed to non-super-hero comics (though they are my preferred genre). The reason why I've not ventured much outside of super-heroics is that I like immersing myself in a shared universe. I enjoy the DC Universe as a whole and so have stayed within its borders (though there have been the occasional exceptions, such as Jonah Hex).

But things seem to be changing with the "New 52." Or perhaps, as Scipio has noted, they are going back to their roots in the Golden Age. Rather than trying to ghettoize non super-hero stories in the Wildstorm or Vertigo imprints, for example, they are now firmly in the DC Universe. A year ago Men of War would have been a Wildstorm book, while Swamp Thing most certainly would have been in Vertigo.

But now that they're in the DC Universe, for good or ill I feel safe giving them a try. And that's a good thing, as they're both very entertaining books (Swamp Thing, incidentally, is probably the scariest thing I've read in years).

Will this diversity of genres help DC sell more books? I sure hope so. I do know that for every person out there with an iPad there has to be at least one DC Universe book that speaks to their interests. DC just has to make sure they know that.