Every time there is a mention of a 'reboot' or 'relaunch' or 'retcon' or whatever 'R' word you may use, fans get either excited about it or a bit numb or cynical to another change up. We all talk about how the first books out of this new 'event' will hit record sales and for a few months, retailers will be incredibly happy.
But what happens from announcement to event? This is a dangerous time for retailers because many fans will drop books because these stories don't matter.
Example! I have struggled to enjoy SUPERMAN and ACTION COMICS but knowing the books will be ending in a few months I can just... not buy them. In fact there are only a few DC books that I will be picking up until the summer, more will be going bye-bye of my buy buy list.
So what is a retailer to do? These books have been ordered MONTHS in advance and will be paid for ad sadly... probably stay on the shelves for a very long time? Need proof of this? Take a look in the back issue bins and see how many pre NEW 52 books are in there compared to everything else.
Remember FLASHPOINT? I do and I was working at a store when that event was going into the NEW 52 and the shelves of them stopped moving.
So what I will do and i hope you do as well, is to buy the books you have on your pull list, despite them ending on issue # 52. I only have three books on my pull list (none DC, I pull 96% off the shelf) so my store won't be stuck with these books.
So what you going to do?