10 Reasons Why The New 52 Was Doomed To Fail

4. Scandals, Right Off The Bat

On top of the aforementioned editorial issues that quite literally plagued the relaunch, the new DCU itself was home to many a scandal during its publishing run, especially in respect to its treatment of women.

To begin with, barely any women were involved in the reboot at a creative level, with only Gail Simone and Amy Reeder having lent their talents to the relaunch during its formative months. The company's initial response to concerns that women were being excluded from the editorial process was completely crass and even combative, and while they later rectified their original defence, one couldn't help but feel that DC were taking their non-male readers for granted, and indeed, ignoring the urgent need to diversify their payroll.

Then there were the scandals that occurred on the page, which only seemed to further highlight the need for more women-led books to be published. The eye-wateringly terrible Red Hood and the Outlaws sported a depiction of Starfire that wasn't just anatomically wrong, but plain old creepy too, and DC kicked off Catwoman with a comically bad first issue that involved basically nothing but non-stop Bat-boning for its entire duration.

Certainly, DC's approach to women-led works (and women in general, it must be said) during this period can be summed up as being both diabolical and shambolic. No wonder readers were put-off by the whole thing.