Whether you’ve grown accustomed to reading comic books on a weekly basis, wait for the collected editions, or enjoy both, you’ve no doubt noticed that six-issue story arcs have long been the standard for the industry. Well, according to Bleeding Cool, DC may aim to change the status quo in 2017.
Since the Rebirth initiative kicked off last June, many of DC’s top titles have shipped on a twice-monthly basis, including heavyweights such as Batman, Superman and The Flash. Each of these have mostly stuck with the expected length, but the publisher may go in the opposite direction and lean toward shorter, tighter arcs as the year progresses.
I can’t help but think of titles like Action Comics and Green Arrow, both of which happen to be some of DC’s finest at the moment, that share the commonality of having their story arcs getting successively shorter as the relaunch has gone on. Sometimes it’s just a filler story to give the series’ regular artists some lead-in time going into the next major tale, but I have indeed noticed that Green Arrow especially seems to be going for the truncated approach, while still having a grand scheme that will play out over an extended period of time.
Harley Quinn, however, has gone the quick and deadly route from the get-go, opting for three-issue arcs and even several done-in-ones. That format actually fits with the frenetic nature of the book and probably won’t change. Perhaps this was the trendsetter taking into account that she’s currently one of the most popular characters in all of fiction.
Tell us, do you want to see longer stories play out like those offered over in Batman? Or is Harley Quinn’s short and sweet nature more to your liking? Sound off in the usual place below!
