Robin, Nightwing, Birds of Prey to be cancelled in Feb.

[CBG]

While fans are still up in the air about whether or not Batman will actually die at the end of Grant Morrison’s “Batman: R.I.P.” arc, DC has confirmed three casualties for Newsarama.
According to the publisher, the February-shipping issues of Robin, Nightwing and Birds of Prey will be the final issues of the respective series.
As well as being the final issues, Robin #183, Nightwing #153 and Birds of Prey #127 will end eras for Batman-related titles, as each stretches back at least nine years.
Birds of Prey (which debuted in 1999) is currently written by Tony Bedard and follows the adventures of Barbra Gordon, the former Batgirl (now “Oracle”), Black canary and a rotating cast of DC’s female heroes; Nightwing (which debuted in 1996) is written by Peter Tomasi, and Robin (which debuted in 1994) is currently written by Fabian Nicieza.
The three series – coincidentally all originally written by Chuck Dixon, fleshed out the world of Batman in the comics, showcasing the original Robin, Dick Grayson, as Nightwing, Tim Drake as Robin and Barbra Gordon in Birds of Prey.
The three titles were roughly in the middle of DC’s lineup, sales-wise, with Nightwing seeing sales of over 50,000 copies to comic shops for September, while Robin and Birds of Prey saw sales of 32,000 and 21,000 copies, respectively.
DC declined to say if the series’ cancellations were due to sales, or if the three titles would be replaced by three new titles in 2009.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/110804-GothamCancellations.html

Of course, we all suspect a relaunch later on.

 

[Anubis]

Eh, not reading any of them.

 

[SouLeSS]

Hey, cool, I'll be able to be like "well, I have the entire Nightwing and entire Robin run."

 

[TwilightPro101]

Betting on a relaunch as well.

 

[SouLeSS]

Really really really hope they don't turn Nightwing into a 'legacy' hero. Ya know, give Dick Batman, have Tim take over Nightwing, someone else comes in and takes over Robin.

That would suck.

 

[Hush]

It would be an interesting idea but I would like to not see that either.

 

[TwilightPro101]

Third that.

 

[twylight]

GAH! That sucks! BoP is pretty much all that I really read in the Batman world these days. However it makes sense, it's been in a horrible slump since Simone left and they moved them to SoCal. Ever since OYL it's been going down hill. I'll miss it though, I love the characters in it. It is such a good basis to get to know the characters of Oracle, Huntress and various other smaller (or less spotlighted) female players in the DC world, on a personal level.

 

[Double Down]

I enjoy Nightwing. Robin I just read.

 

[WompuM]

Bollocks!!! A shame about Nightwing.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I can understand the Nightwing and Robin cancellations since they're obviously going to be involved with the shake-ups of the Batman line. But why Birds of Prey? That title stopped being involved in the Batman line and became more of a DCU title since Oracle split from Batman.

 

[Kevin]

Crap, didn't see this thread.

 

[Morg]

Crap, didn't see this thread.

You need your eyes checked, it was only 4 rows down

 

[Kevin]

Focused on other things. Sorry.

 

[yenaled]

They'll all be back.

 

[venom892]

It's a shame cause I had just gotten into to nightwing due to RIP and was really enjoying it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Can't say I'll shed any tears. Nightwing looked like it might be getting better, but all three of those titles were basically f***ed in either the lead-up to OYL or in OYL itself. I'm sure they'll come back whenever someone sane realizes that Batman can't live in a vacuum.

 

[WompuM]

Nightwing ended on a pretty high note pre-final crisis. Then as we all know octo-todd happened. But it had been getting better.

 

[BrianWilly]

Robin has been pretty good recently. Certainly no readers have been complaining, which can't be said for a whole lot of DC's other titles.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Good enough that you'll miss it when it's gone, or just better than the crap we had before it?

 

[SouLeSS]

If they're both done 'for good' I'll definatly miss them. Nightwing and Robin. I don't read Birds of Prey.

Or, maybe, which would be the best thing to hit DC in years, would be a Nightwing and Robin series written by Tomasi to replace both the NIghtwing and Robin titles. I'd buy it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'd buy that, too. Birds of Prey should remain its own thing, though. They've grown far beyond just being another part of the Batman family.

 

[BrianWilly]

Good enough that you'll miss it when it's gone, or just better than the crap we had before it?

Good enough for anyone who's at all interested in the character, and getting to a better place.

It's almost certainly a gimmick decision instead of a sales or popularity decision, though, or else we wouldn't have all three canceled at once.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, probably. But if it leads to Nightwing and Robin or some other sort of singular Bat-family title for the ancillary characters of the Batman universe by Tomasi, I wouldn't mind.

 

[Motown Marvel]

what?! i dont get it. why? i mean, im sure they'll be relaunched...but....what?!