For Round Robin participants, just because a pitched DC Comics series loses the vote doesn't necessarily mean it is axed entirely.
According to DC Global Publishing Initiative Senior Editor Katie Kubert while speaking to Comics, FYI, the door is not closed on the losers of Round Robin 2022 tournament. When asked if these series have no chance of being made, Kubert responded, "No! There’re some things that I can’t say quite yet because they have not been announced, but there’s other things where it’s like, 'Okay, so these pitches didn’t advance, but, we value them, we think they’re amazing.' So now we have to figure out where they go."
Round Robin is an online competition where different pitched series for DC Comics are put to a fan-vote, with the winning series eventually being made. This is DC's second Round Robin, after last year's victor was the Robins miniseries now available in print and on DC Universe Infinite. However, Robins beat out other fan-favorite options like Green Lanterns: Underworld On Fire, Blue Beetle: Graduation Day and Suicide Squad Seven, some series which seem to be left in limbo.
This go-around though, while losing pitches may not become series, Kubert teased that their story ideas could still be told in another way, though there are many questions to consider. "Does it make sense to launch their own title?" she asked. "Does it make sense to do them as digital products? Does it make sense to include them in our anthology stories, which is what we’ve done with a few of the others?"
Kubert continued on, saying, "My team right now is trying to figure out how we can ramp up from what we did last year to what we did this year, to get more of those stories out ahead of time. Right now, we have all of these things. They were developed, and they’re amazing. What is the best way to put them out, because they didn’t progress to the final round? So it’s mainly just figuring out, where’s the best place that these will be most successful?"
This spells hope for fans of some pitches that were already voted out of Round Robin 2022, including Black Canary: When Canaries Cry, Firestorm: Fourth World Problems, Cyborg: Cyber Gods and more. Whether Kubert is also referring to 2021's losing pitches though is unclear.
The second vote for Round Robin 2022 has closed, with two more left to go as of writing. Series like Suicide Squad: Dark, Hawkman & Hawkwoman: The Changeling and Green Lantern: The Birth of Conspiracy were still in the running after the first vote, but it has not been revealed which pitches have advanced to the next stage yet. Fans can participate in the vote for the best pitch on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, as well as DC Universe Infinite.
Source: Comics, FYI