. “The Warner Publishing brass, generally speaking, were not a bunch of happy campers that they owned a comic book company,” Uslan says. “They only saw value in Superman.”

The “ages and stages” concept is something I’ve talked about for a long time here at the Beat. It’s essentially the idea that a reader moves through different versions of a character as that readers grows and matures. This stands in contrast to editorial philosophy where Batman and Spider-Man develop right along with the same readers, ad infinitum. The latter way leads to angry fanpersons endlessly complaining in message boards that it is not “their” Duo Damsel. While audience retention is important, capturing new readers is just as important, and perhaps this new idea will help with that.

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