Finite Crises
From The (essential) Beat:
MILE HIGH COMICS presents THE BEAT at COMICON.com | 2
The NYT quotes Dan DiDio as saying "The commitment of resources scared a lot of departments...This is not just an editorial risk; it's a company risk." It's an interesting comment. In this day of the internet and message boards, the universe-shaking crossover seems to be the least risky approach possible for a comics company. The prize that DC's eyes are on is really the line of books seven months from now. Now that's a risk.
Heidi's comments in bold, DiDio's not so much so.
Firstly, DiDio's assertion that this is a company risk. It isn't, not in the slightest. As Heidi points out, this sort of "everything you know is wrong and CHANGES" mega crossover has become SOP since 1985, for both of the Big Two (and really before then, starting with Secret Wars in what, 1982?) The diehard comics fans will always come back to the characters, no matter how much they gripe about "They killed Blue Beetle!" or "Golly, I liked 'em better when they were happy!" The books will sell into the DM about as well as they ever do. Probably better due to the buzz surrounding the event. And if people end up not liking the direction that they're going...well, superhero comic worlds are infinitely malleable and can bounce back from anything and woo fans back with "It's just like you remember, only BETTER!" The superhero sector of the DM is driven by habit as much as anything else. Habits are very, very hard to break.
As for risk outisde the DM.. Uh, doesn't anyone remember when they killed Superman and nobody really noticed? Lois and Clark still went on the air, as did Smallville. Superman's saleability was unmarred in the long and even the medium run. So few people who know about Superman as a cultural icon actually read the comics that DC could really go bananas and not damage their franchises. And, I believe, the comics readers will come back for their character fixes anyways.
As for what comes seven months after, (that's what, two months before SDCC?) and risk, I'm not so sure. I think that 52 is going to be something of a gamble, but that's an issue of marketplace mechanics and not content mechanics. Playing to the current pool of comics readers isn't that difficult for the Big Two (okay, not entirely true, but it's easier for them than it is for say, nearly anyone else). I'd like to see them take riskier moves in the arena of actually capturing new readers, whether through genre diveristy (where DC trumps Mavel currently), accessbility, support of fringe titles and outreach. Now you're dancing out on the edge...