While Disney cuts staff and restructures Marvel around AI, the story over at DC is the opposite.
Insiders tell me DC is “killing it in comics,” and that success is now shaping what gets made on screen.
The engine behind it is the Absolute line. As one insider put it, “Their Absolute line pointed the way to go by being in sync with the influence of Anime/ Manga in global storytelling. It’s why Absolute Batman animated was greenlit.”
DC’s Absolute Line Is Outselling Marvel
This is not just talk. Around the time Marvel reshuffled its comics leadership, the trades noted that Marvel had lost its position as the top comics publisher for the first time this century, ceding the lead to DC on the strength of the Absolute Universe.
The numbers back it up. Absolute Batman creator Scott Snyder recently said the book is selling around 500,000 copies, a figure that is almost unheard of in today’s direct market.
Why Absolute Batman Is Becoming An Animated Series
That momentum is why DC is building screen projects directly out of the line. Snyder is creating and serving as showrunner on the Absolute Batman animated series, with a Joker anime series also reported to be in the works.
The insider framing is that the Absolute books travel globally because they tap into the same anime and manga influence driving so much of modern storytelling, and DC is leaning into that rather than fighting it.
Absolute Vindicates The Snyder And Nolan Era
There is a bigger argument inside all of this.
The insider’s view is that the Absolute line justifies the big creative swings Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan took in their era, and that it continues in that same spirit.
The throughline is taking the characters seriously, reimagining them in bold ways, and trusting a global audience to follow. The Absolute books did exactly that on the page, and the sales followed.
Meanwhile, Marvel Animation Cannot Chart
The contrast with Marvel is hard to miss.
On the comics side, Marvel is reportedly looking to license its books out rather than publish them. On the animation side, its shows cannot chart on Nielsen, and Marvel fired the showrunner of X-Men ’97.
So while Disney is cutting, restructuring, and leaning on AI to do more with fewer people, DC has found something in comics that has real momentum, and it is turning that into its next wave of shows.
Marvel used to set the pace. Right now, in comics, DC is the one out front.
This is one piece of a much larger shift. For the full picture on Disney’s restructuring, read how Disney is prepping for the Paramount-WBD war by resetting its legacy IP and eyeing Lionsgate.
