DC’s Absolute Success Shows Marvel Needs to Adapt (or Else)

DC Comics has done something that would have been unthinkable, even just a few years ago. The publisher has finally been able to break Marvel‘s stranglehold over the sales charts on the back of the Absolute line of comics. The Absolute line started in 2024, and many fans thought it was a copy of the new Ultimate Universe. It took the heroes of the DC Multiverse and put them on an Earth where Darkseid was god, much like Marvel’s Earth-6160 was a creation of the Maker. However, the Absolute books were able to not only dethrone the Ultimate books, they stayed at the top, and the rest of DC has prospered because of it.

DC’s Absolute books have been fantastic, giving readers everything they could want. They’ve sold over eight million copies since the summer of 2024, a level of success that Marvel just hasn’t been able to match. The Absolute books have also had the effect of dragging the rest of DC along with them, with the publisher’s recent DC K.O. selling like hotcakes and books like Superman and Wonder Woman also rising to the top. DC has hit a new level, and Marvel needs to adapt, because DC is eating their lunch.

DC Is Doing Something Marvel Doesn’t Do Anymore: Give Fans What They Want

There are a lot of reasons for the success of the Absolute line, but the one that has made DC work so well over the last few years is the simplest: DC seems to care about what fans want from their comics in a way that Marvel just doesn’t. “Fan service” is a thing that can backfire on creators because, as Alan Moore once said, the audience doesn’t really know what they want or they’d be creators. Following the whims of the fandom can be a mistake, but DC has found a way to do it expertly.

The Absolute books work because they feel like the kind of books that fans have wanted for years. They take familiar characters and ideas in new directions, all while dialing up aspects of these icons that online fans like. For example, Absolute Wonder Woman is a woman first book and it fits everything that fans said they wanted from the hero. Absolute Superman is about Superman actually fighting for the poor and the downtrodden. All of the books take something that fans have complained about for years regarding certain characters and fixes those things, all while giving readers the kind of queer, leftist stories they want.

Compare that to Marvel. The House of Ideas not only doesn’t listen to fans, it actively antagonizes them at times. One needs only look at editors like Nick Lowe and Tom Brevoort responding to any fan concerns to see that Marvel doesn’t really care about what their readers want. Quite the opposite. The company has been coasting on the success of previous years, changing nothing that fans have complained about during that time and just assuming that fans will keep buying. The company is almost completely stagnant; sure, there are some great books, but so many of their offerings feel like they’re only there to hit a quota.

DC has been struggling for a while, and they listened to what fans wanted. Fans wanted the New 52 to end? It ended. Fans wanted something more like Bronze Age DC? They got it. Fans wanted less Batman and more of other characters? Fans got it (although there are still a lot of Batman titles). DC All-In has been such a success because DC listened to years of complaints about their books and fixed the problems. Marvel, on the other hand, just keeps going, ignoring the fans, and shoveling them the same offal they’ve been complaining about for years.

Marvel Needs to Start Listening to Fans More or They’ll Never Dig Themselves Out of the Hole They’re In

Reading DC over the last few years has been amazing. The publisher dropped the ball with DC Rebirth in the late ’10s, but since Dan DiDio was replaced at the top by Jim Lee and Marie Javins, the publisher has been slowly but surely rebuilding their line. They rebuilt it by listening to the complaints of fans and working to give them what they want. The Absolute line is the ultimate example of that. These are comics that fans in the 21st century want to read.

Marvel has spent years now just circling the same area of superhero comics, repeating itself over and over again while actively antagonizing and ignoring the fans. Listening to fans too much is foolish, but when people are telling you what they like, you should try to give it to them. The House of Ideas has been on top for so long they’ve become complacent; I honestly think they think they know what the fans actually want. However, if they can’t match DC for giving fans what they want, they’ll never taste the top of the sale charts again.

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