Does DC Actually Care What Readers Think About The DCnU?

Does DC actually care about what new and returning readers think about the reboot of the DC universe? Well, according to Bleeding Cool, they’ve actually gone and hired Nielsen, who is most well known for its television ratings and surveys, to get the pulse on US reader and retailer reactions to the new #1s.

DC Comics have announced they have hired the rather respected monitoring company Nielsen NRG to survey comic book retailers and readers about the New 52 line – and who is reading it, what, why and how much…But as well as onlne surveys, they’ll be going into comic shops, meeting and talking to retailers and readers alike…the results may affect what DC will publish next. And results will be released next year…

If you want to participate in the survey, it can be found here.

Now, I did take the survey and my local comic book store, the owner of which always greets us warmly and only gently mocks Rob for his Steve Austin fixation, was not one of the ones targeted by live pollsters in house. However, Bleeding Cool further reported that comedian Patton Oswalt set off a kerfuffle when he tweeted that he’d bought his last DC comic yesterday and it appeared implied that it was because he’d been hassled by the live Nielsen pollsters at Meltdown Comics. Still, Oswalt was possibly overheard, as far back as at least this past July, that he wasn’t going to read the new reboot at all and found the idea “evil”. Which, gets a body thinking…

Did Oswalt cave and go back to read the issues in the relaunch, like a spectator at some horrible car crash that he couldn’t look away from or stalker ex-boyfriend? Did he simply get pestered by a pollster who might have also been an overzealous fan? Who knows. Either way DC is probably of a mind that any publicity is good publicity. Much like the controversy over Starfire, which is the gift that keeps on giving.