I’m just going to put it as plainly and simply as I can:

Dan Didio’s DCU is dead in the water and overdue for a dramatic overhaul.

The Beat has posted Paul O’Brien’s analysis of Marvel’s sales figures for May, and he sums it up this way: “With all their big sellers hitting the shelves, Marvel slaughtered DC, with a margin of 47% to 31% in unit share, and 43% to 28% in dollar share.”

It’s the continuation of a trend that seems to be getting worse every month as Marvel, playing the same Big Event game over the past couple of years, has steadily distanced themselves from their not-as-Distinguished-as-they-used-to-be Competition in the Direct Market. DC only managed to place 6 titles in the Top 20 for May — only 3 of which sold over 100,000 copies; 2 of them being All Star Batman & Robin and the final issue of 52. The former exists in its own little pocket of space and time, while the latter was the epitome of “lightning in a bottle” and its follow-up, Countdown, is clearly not going to come anywhere near to matching its success.

And yet, if Rich Johnston is to be believed, Dan Didio’s contract got renewed!?!

The best thing Paul Levitz could do now is have Countdown’s final issue end with Earth-2 Superman stepping out of the shower to the revelation that the past 20 years [real time] have all been a dream. Couple that with an announcement that Didio’s been fired and an immediate line-wide relaunch with all but Superman, Batman and Detective Comics restarting at #1, and you’ve got the kind of clean slate, hard reboot that will get media attention, pique reader interest — old and new — and give DC a shot at not just stopping the bleeding but pumping some life back into its superhero line.

It’ll never happen, of course, but wouldn’t it be great to see them have the courage to attempt it?

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