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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

"Countdown" To Change

"Countdown" To Change

After reading the Newsarama interview with Dan Didio, I have come to the conclusion that the situation at DC has become so dire that to continue to publically mock "Countdown" would be in bad taste.

Honestly, I do not see the current regime at the company lasting any more than 6-12 months tops. "Final Countdown" will indeed mark the end of an era, an era that started strongly -- if not controversially -- with "Identity Crisis," reached its peak with "52," and crashed and burned with "Countdown."

What were the mistakes?

1) DC is not Marvel.

I'm reminded of that skit Eddie Murphy did about Bill Cosby, where Bill calls Eddie up and tells him what is "wrong" with his act. Bill's sole interpretation of Eddie's work consists of "filth florin filth" -- that the secret of Eddie's appeal is that all he does is say dirty words. Marvel's secret to success was not that they had violence, or grit, or adult situations, or "filth florin flith." Marvel's secret to success is that their characters are, essentially, underdogs. Well-written underdogs, freaks, weirdos and outcasts. What better type of character to appeal to teenagers? Further, Marvel superheroes are not just flawed to be flawed, but have their flawedness organically built into their backstories and characterizations.

By contrast, the serious personality flaws imposed on some DC characters in Didio's regime -- such as sociopath/killer Max Lord, sociopath/killer Superboy, "bad girl" Supergirl, rapist Dr. Light, cruelly unethical Leslie Thompkins, and amoral JLA -- have been superimposed, artifically added, uneccessary. They are "filth florin filth," what DC thought Marvel did to attract readers.

Now, what Jenette Kahn & Paul Levitz understood 20 years ago was that DC was not Marvel. They didn't even want DC to be Marvel. Instead, they concentrated on how to make the company even more unique. And that produced "Watchmen," Vertigo Comics, "The Dark Knight Returns," and a lot more.


2) Failure to nurture Editors internally.

Of course, this point goes back to before Didio, back when DC let Axel Alonso get away.

But there has been a similar failure to make the extra effort to retain a good editor over the last few years that I think has directly impacted the company at present. I think the reasoning behind this poor decision and the motivating factor to do what was done instead was again DC trying to "be" Marvel.

Further, I would hazard to guess that this poor decision had a devastating eventual impact on "Countdown."

The irony is that it was exactly Alonso's contribution to Marvel -- Marvel Knights, Marvel MAX, and the whole line of more "adult" titles -- that Didio was, in my opinion, trying to emulate.

And then there is the separate set of rumors relating to how specifically Assistant and Associate Editors are nutured (or not) at DC. Eyebrow-raising, to be sure -- but since I have only heard this second-hand, I'm not getting into details.

However, I will say that assistants are the backbone of any editorial department. If they do not feel that they have a future with the company in terms of promotabilty, etc., how does that effect their morale?

And if their morale is low, if they are not rewarded for new ideas & innovation, how does it effect, at least unconsciously, their work? I mean, it's not like they get paid a crapload of money. The days of "doing it for the love of comics alone?" Over.


3) "Stephanie will never get a trophy case."

The Didio era at DC inadvertantly helped launch a renaissance in feminist activism in comic books.

Take for example "Girl Wonder Dot Org"

Perhaps at first DC considered this group of women who were so outraged by the untimely demise of "the female Robin" as somewhat of a joke -- obsessed fans, overly-sensitive wimmins, etc.

But they're not going anywhere. "GIrl Wonder" keeps growing and growing and attaining a higher and higher profile in both the fan community and among comics professionals.

And if they ever reach "Friends of Lulu" level and are considered an emblematic women-in-comics organization, remember that their namesake refers to a c**k-up done on Didio's watch. A c**k-up that the DC VP has been outspokenly defensive & dismissive of.

Actually, Stephanie Brown's grisly demise combined three general c**k-ups of the last six years all in one.

First, you have the "filth florin filth" aping of what Marvel is considered to be -- hardcore, violent, and amoral. So you have teenage girl tortured with power drill, and trusted nurse inexplicably allowing her to die.

Second, you have what I will explore later -- short-term investment in gimmicks rather than longterm investment in character and story. The "female Robin" was specifically introduced as a gimmick with a short life-span, a character that would provide a couple of interesting covers. There was a long-term investment in Stephanie Brown, whom many fans loved. This was pissed away (as was the Dibnys, as was the Giffen-era JLA characters, etc.) for a short-term bang-for-your-buck.

Third, you have cluelessness/insensitivity to female issues which are interpreted by some (though not all) as misogyny.

Or you can consider the whole "Supergirl" c**k-up. Or "Identity Crisis." Etc.

I mean, geez -- my name is footnoted on the "Identity Crisis" Wiki entry.

And then there is the mere fact that...well, that I even have a Wiki entry at all. But let's not go there.


4) One-Trick Pony

All the major DC events for the last four years have been riffs off of -- "THEY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AND EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS FALSE WITH THE MUTIPLE EARTHS AND THE STUFF LIKE THAT."

It is inexplicable to me that DC kept running the "New Crisis" thing into the ground after "Infinite Crisis." Whose idea was this? Who said "let's keep running this into the ground?"

At least "52" had Morrison and offered something new to the table. But "Countdown" ???

Was it simple greed that spawned "Countdown," or was there truly not an original idea left to be had?

Was Didio so in love with his big success -- Crisis/52 -- that he couldn't see the flaws?

Or was he merely being cynical?

Of course, Marvel had "Civil War." But that event at least led into storylines and events that were unique enough to stand on their own. "World War Hulk," "The Death of Cap," and "The Initiative" do not smack of cheap "Civil War" tie-ins. But howlers like "Amazons Attack" and "Countdown"?

Looking at a recent solicitation for DC, I noted that the majority of the titles are "Countdown" related. Oh my God! That's like if Marvel decided to make 75 percent of their books "House of M" spin-off series.

And whose brilliant idea was it to have each issue be drawn & written by different creative teams? It looks like crap. It's like those late books with 15 different inkers working on it at the same time.

But another aspect of "Countdown" that irks me is the sheer *preciousness* of it. It is a project that reeks of being too in love with *precious* concepts like Pied Piper & Trickster as "Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern" and Jimmy Olsen as the key to the DC Universe. These are precious, fan-fictiony sorts of plotlines that even hard-core DC continuity fans have a hard time swallowing.


5) Dan Didio is not Joe Quesada.

And he shouldn't have to be.

I mean, God -- Levitz sure as hell wasn't Quesada. There was a study in contrasts. And if Levitz tried to "be" Quesada he would have looked like a fool. Because Levitz is Levitz and Quesada is Quesada and that's the way it is.

Didio doesn't "pull off" a Quesada particularly effectively. And that's enough on that.


6) Alpha Dog

Didio is an "alpha" -- an aggressive male used to full-on attack and victory.

Compare this to the layout of power at DC pre-Didio.

You had Levitz who was clearly feared/respected but was not an "alpha" personality -- not outwardly aggressive. He clearly radiated a male "Yin" energy but that was balanced with Jenette Kahn's equally respected but softer "Yang" energy. Within the DCU editorial itself you had Mike Carlin, who assumed the role of "alpha." But since power was spread more evenly between Levitz & Kahn, this aggressive energy could only run roughshod so far.

With Kahn out of the picture and Didio possessing more power than Carlin ever had, you have the "alpha" type running amok with little interference or feminine balance.

This becomes a problem because you essentially have something akin to a dictatorship.

Who can stand up to the uber-powerful "alpha" figure and successfully argue their point of view?

Balance is always better. That is how future "Countdowns" can be avoided.


8) Raising the "red flag" at Time Warner

Paul Levitz pulled off a quite amazing thing pre-Didio, for the last 15-20 years or so.

While Marvel underwent one traumatizing "bloodletting" and buy-out after another, DC maintained a relatively stable relationship with its corporate parent.

This stable relationship was facilitated, in large part, by the "travelling under the radar" strategy.

"Travelling under the radar" meant, essentially, no c**k-ups to attract the attention of Time Warner and piss them off.

And when the inevitable c**k-up happened, Levitz swiftly dove in and dealt with it using an iron hand.

The result was almost two decades of stability.

But now -- at least if my statistics monitor is any indication -- it seems as if DC is on Time Warner's radar.

Didio has mentioned in a recent interview that he doesn't care about what people on the Internet say.

But think of this:

You have a magazine like "Mother Jones" basically calling DC out on the carpet for their portrayal of Supergirl and dispatchment of the Stephanie Brown Robin. It is like a big advertisement for DC/Time Warner that says: "DC hates women."

This, as well as the coverage on "Identity Crisis," the "Countdown" fiasco, and -- what the hell -- the "Goodbye To Comics" fiasco, has put a gigantic red flag over DC. A cascade of c**k-ups.

How could all of this have been avoided?


9) Lack of innovation.

Yes, "Minx" is an innovation -- not a Didio project.

Yes, "Zuda" is an innovation -- not a Didio project.

What are the innovations of the Didio regime?

a) "Taking the smile out of comics" with the "innovative" "Identity Crisis"

b) Aping the successful "Crisis on Infinite Earths" of twenty-five years ago with "Infinite Crisis"

c) Aping the successful "Crisis on Infinite Earths" of twenty-five years ago with "52"

d) Aping the successful "Crisis on Infinite Earths" of twenty-five years ago with "Countdown"

e) Aping the successful "Crisis on Infinite Earths" of twenty-five years ago with "Final Crisis"

And now we have the highly-innovative "Countdown" spin-off "Arena," which, by Didio's own admission, is on the level of "fan-fiction."

Yes, "Arena" is another trashy, ultra-high-concept fanboy wet dream like "Marvel Zombies."

But Marvel didn't *need* to put out "Marvel Zombies" as a desperate measure to bring up sales. "Marvel Zombies" was a happy accident, whereas "Arena" is a lifeboat.

Then I remember projects like Allred's "Teen Titans" special and the Rob Haynes-drawn "Kid Amazo" arc that is now being serialized in "JLA Classified" using a different artist. Both nixed by Didio because they were "too weird."

The popular wisdom is that if you want innovation, try Vertigo. But I think that's DC's failing. Because Marvel has more successfully blended the innovative/"weird" with their mainstream.

You need a VP of editorial who has that range of vision, who "gets" both the mainstream and the innovative. That was Axel Alonso's gift.


10) Sales.

DC has basically invested their whole superhero line on a series that sucks.

"Countdown" is an industry joke, and Didio's repeated attempts to justify it sounds eerily familar to GW Bush trying to justify Iraq.

"Countdown" is, as they say, a quagmire. Giggity-giggity-goo!

But with this corny and retro series, DC is right where it started before Didio arrived -- except along the way they've managed to piss off long-time readers, women, and, one would assume, some of the company's corporate overseers.

Marvel sells almost twice as many books as DC. Marvel does this by being Marvel.


11) Editorial disintegration.

From what I observe in the news and what I've garnered second-hand, DC has never been in such a disorganized state regarding book schedules, resulting in an unheard-of number of late books.

Why is this? Is it merely the creators' fault?

Where is the direction? Where is the motivation? How is morale?

Why does there have to be editorials in DC Nation basically admitting that Editorial is f**ked and asking *the readers* if they have any input as to how to make the books come in on time?

If you have to ask the readers that question, you are *done.* How was that DC Nation editorial even approved?


12) Investment in the short-term as opposed to the long-term.

Gimmicks like "Female Robin," "Identity Crisis," "the great Giffen JLA massacre," "All-Star Batman," etc alienate long-time readers, drive parents away from the titles, and scoop up great short-term dividends.

The question is, what strategy is best for DC? Short-term "slash and burn" or longterm investment in old & new readers?

Yes, killing off Kirby's New Gods in a much-hyped series will give you initial high sales. But then, you've slashed-and-burned your history. What do you do when your short-term is up?

The whole Identity-Crisis/Infinite Crisis/52/Countdown complex is a short-term enterprise that started out cool and interesting and went on too damn long.

The fatal flaw with "Countdown" was that Didio did not realize his own short-term strategy, that he mistook it for something longterm.


Conclusion:

The first two years of the Didio reign was a time filled with optimism and dreams of a new DCU.

But the DCU is back where it started before Dan.

Actually, it is back somewhere in 1992.


Post-Didio:

Who would -- theoretically, of course -- replace Dan?

My personal pick would be Dwayne McDuffie. He has the experience running a comic book company, he has Hollywood experience, he's a great writer, and sounds like a good egg.

I've heard Axel Alonso's name bounced around since I was at DC. As far as I know, he wished to remain with Marvel.

Mark Waid's name had been bandied about as well as of late, which made his gig at Boom Studios all the more shocking.

Finally, a friend of mine suggested that Jann Jones take on the role. Maybe too early for her to be a VP. But maybe DC can make the effort and home-grow another Jenette Kahn.

Whatever the case, I sense the change along the horizon.

70 comments:

  1. Wow. I wish I had written this! I couldn't express what is wrong with this Second Age of Didio better than you did here. Bravo!

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  2. Wow. You really hit the nail on the head with this: ""Countdown" is an industry joke, and Didio's repeated attempts to justify it sounds eerily familar to GW Bush trying to justify Iraq." Wow.

    I'm the kind of stupid fanboy that sticks with a book even if they don't necessarily like it, and I'm seriously considering dropping Countdown. The only other time I've ever dropped a book because it was that bad was the Byrne/Mackie Spider-Man. I like the novelty of a weekly book, but enough is enough.

    Thanks for posting this.

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  3. This is a really great post, and makes a bunch of salient points, and I hope to God the change on the horizon you're hoping for is coming. But since Didio reportedly recently extended his contract, I don't know if we're going to get much reprieve.

    Final Crisis itself is promising -- although obnoxious -- but that's absolutely simply because of Grant Morrison's influence, and if anyone else were writing this book I wouldn't give a flip.

    Still, Didio's defenses of Countdown -- that "fans and retailers he meets at cons like it" -- is pretty weak considering most fans aren't going to seek out Didio to tell him how much Countdown sucks.

    ...although maybe they should start.

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  4. I am in overwhelming support of this post. You have articulated the frustration I have with DC right now. Maybe you didn't intend to highlight Marvel, but these are all the reasons why I'm loving Marvel right now.

    One other thing that I'm fed up with is the overwhelming amount of miniseries that DC puts out. My budget simply cannot keep up. I decided that I am no longer buying into what DC is selling. I will not be buying all 37 of their miniseries. If they can't move a story forward in the monthly titles, then I'm not sure if I'm interested in buying it. If you need so many miniseries to move your universe forward, what value does that place on the monthlies? I think it shows that the monthlies aren't worthy to carry the story forward. I think that's lame.

    I really am not a fan of Countdown, even though I find myself continuing to give it the benefit of the doubt. This week I read Countdown 38, and upon coming to the next section of the Holly Robinson story, I found myself still wondering "Who is Holly Robinson?" I'm not a huge continuity buff. I still don't really know who these characters are or why I care about them or why they need have a weekly saga. That's after, what, 14 issues? There's something wrong there.

    I'm not even all that excited about my favorite characters anymore, like Superman or Batman. Even though Grant Morrison is writing Batman, I still haven't really resonated with it, and Morrison has historically been one of my favorite writers. I'm not a fan of the whole retro-story vibe that DC has going on lately. It worked in the Golden and Silver ages. It doesn't work now, in my opinion. DC titles are the first to be cut from my pull list.

    The DC Universe feels like it's going around in circles. It feels like the same things are being rehashed over and over. At least with Marvel I feel like new ground is being broken. The ONLY thing in the DCU that I'm excited about is the Sinestro Corps Wars, which has been great. Guess where it's taken place? In the monthlies. When there is a great story in a monthly, it feels like a payoff for being a loyal reader. When I have to go out and buy an additional mag after already investing month in and month out, I feel a little cheated.

    Sorry for the long comments, but your post really connected with how I'm feeling about DC. I'm glad Marvel's market and unit share continues to climb.

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  5. Put me down as another fan of this post. Nicely written!

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  6. A fan of this post, though I still get iffy when you bring up real-world politics in it, especially since I've already thrown my support on the Iraq thing. ^_~

    But anyway, I think you've gotten it down perfectly, Val. We are back in the 90s strategy of short-term sales increase over long-term investment. Event fatigue, I think, really plays a role in this.

    What I find utterly fascinating is that Didio at one moment says you shouldn't trust the internet or he doesn't pay attention to the naysayers there but then has his editors turn right around and say, "Look to the internet if you want answers!" during the Countdown interviews at Newsarama. Heck, you know things are bad when Newsarama, the site that's essentially a promotional page for new projects and whatnot, is actually asking tough questions to the Countdown people and calling them out on mistakes.

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  7. Bingo! In one post, you summed up why there are no DC titles on my pull list right now.

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  8. As you point out in this post - and in others - Didio applies alpha-male politics that crashed and burned in 'proper' industries in the early 1990s (as such people were discovered to be as much of a liability as they used to be an asset), but for some reason still seem to prevail in the creative industries.
    Whatever your interpretation of Didio's work thus far, I don't think there are many who'll argue in favor of someone trying to set themselves up as a svengali-like figurehead of any company.

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  9. Anonymous3:45 PM

    "You have a magazine like "Mother Jones" basically calling DC out on the carpet for their portrayal of Supergirl and dispatchment of the Stephanie Brown Robin. It is like a big advertisement for DC/Time Warner that says: "DC hates women."

    Yeah, you don't want a magazine with the earth-shaking influence of Mother Jones making trouble for you. Think of all the hemp farmers who'll stop buying DC comics!

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  10. "Yeah, you don't want a magazine with the earth-shaking influence of Mother Jones making trouble for you. Think of all the hemp farmers who'll stop buying DC comics!"

    no, actually Mother Jones is a respected magazine for progressives and a long article on "DC is sexist" does not help the company PR-wise

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  11. As a DC enthusiast, its very discouraging to see all of the double-colon'd series announced. (ex: Outsiders: Five of a Kind: Shazam/Katana), and more so the Countdown spin-offs and tie-ins (ex: Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Red Rain). Of course as a consumer I have the option not to buy any single issue, and I shudder at the thought that the entirety of Countdown could hinge on the return of Jason Todd wandering through an Elseworld's title from ten years ago, but you also never know. Sadly, this reader may end up missing out on some crucial story element simply because it was buried in one of a dozen Countdown Presents items that didn't strike my interest.

    I agree with virtually all of your points (including the one regarding Mother Jones), and am increasingly finding the good in the DCU occurring in the periphery where writers have enough clout not to worry about too much editorial oversight, including the somewhat self-contained Green Lantern books.

    I'm not sure the late-book topic is as bad as it was at the beginning of the year, when Action Comics and Wonder Woman simply went AWOL. But fill-ins are dissatisfying, and suggests a ship that the captain doesn't know how to steer.

    Didio's attempt to bring in name writers for whom writing comics was a lark, such as Heinberg and Picoult, has been a failure, with Picoult suddenly absent from the latest issue of Wonder Woman (but who can blame her?). Other writers who have sold well, such as Meltzer, can only seem to stay long enough to get the ball rolling, and then depart.

    Didio's also built up a stable of loyal writers who seem willing to go along with any editorially driven storyline he cooks up. Writers such as Beechen, Pfeiffer, and the duo of Palmiotti & Gray pop up with a regularity which suggests the books they write sell much better than they actually do. Unfortunately, these writers aren't doing much but coloring by numbers while simultaneously dismantling the DCU and writing amazingly illogical cross-overs (Amazons Attack!), and bringing a largely incoherent feel to Countdown.

    And, finally... Killing the New Gods? Who was asking for that?

    I'm not clear on numbers for Countdown, so I'm curious to see how it's doing when it hits the issue 26 mark.

    There's still good stuff going on at DC, but you have to read around the edges. And, probably to nobody's surprise, very little of it ties into Countdown.

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  12. The crisis-mania at DC -- in which everything, sooner or later, ties into or crosses over with the crisis of the moment -- has led me to avoid books I'd have been thrilled by a few years ago. Didio's reign has created a climate in which I'm NOT buying Grant Morrison's Batman, Busiek's Superman, Waid's Brave & Bold, or McDuffie's JLA. That's kind of amazing, but not in a way that helps DC's bottom line.

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  13. A very accurate and comprehensive post. I really think you can sum up th recent DC years with "trying to be Marvel."

    DC has been attempting (and failing) to copy Marvel not simply in the editorial department, but in their marketing and publication formats.

    The only thing DiDio has really accomplished is to take most of the fanboy hatred off of Quesdada.

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  14. I read COUNTDOWN by I am not moved to defend it. I just do it. I buy it. I like buying the same comic every week I guess. I dunno. And I loved 52.

    And while this is a really interesting post, as a reader, the thing that resonated the most with me was the least-insidery part. #4: One Trick Pony.

    Word.

    My least favorite thing about 52 was how it ended. Here you had all these great stories and then,
    huh?
    There's 52 worlds.

    I was like, ummm... what's up with THE QUESTION chick. And didn't they just try to turn Earth into Apocalypse?

    WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING???

    Yeah. One Trick Pony. Drives me nuts.

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  15. Nail on the head. Especially about the coming change. The pendulum has swung far, far too into the realm of suckage, and may soon be returning to the side of awesome.

    Whenever I get mad about the Didio offenses, I just keep that in mind. That and the fact that some lower level folks at the DC offices have my Stephanie Brown costume revision hanging in their offices. ;)

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  16. Very interesting post.

    I agree that they are doing "Crisis on Infinite Earths" to death. I agree also that DC is not Marvel, and should not try to be Marvel.

    One point of fact - DC has gotten better over the past year with lateness, not worse. I keep track. All Star books are really the big offenders though - and I have no problem with them just discontinuing the line, but they won't because they know it doesn't have to be good or on-time since they use popular names to create the comics, names that will sell no matter what.

    Marvel does have its own problems too! For starters, the inmates run the asylum over there. And they also have their stunts and a similar anti-feminism mentality on a great deal of things.

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  17. "Yeah, you don't want a magazine with the earth-shaking influence of Mother Jones making trouble for you. Think of all the hemp farmers who'll stop buying DC comics!"

    According to their media kit, Mother Jones has a circulation of 233,845. Which is higher than... well, anything DC or Marvel currently publish.

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  18. I've been a Batman fan forever and I am still so lividly ticked by what they did to Leslie Tompkins. Bad enough that Stephanie was tortured but there was no basis - no basis at all - for Leslie's decision to let her die. It was like someone walked in who knew nothing of her history in the Batverse and decided "old lady makes good villain." So disappointing.

    I dropped Birds of Prey when Black Canary decided that it was too hard to be the mother of a would-be ninja and superhero at the same time (because - of course - her mother hadn't done just that). I dropped most of the Bat titles after Leslie Tomkins although I do keep up with Detective because it follows more traditional mystery storylines and stays out of a lot of the other politics of the tie-ins.

    Wonder Woman is jumping the shark for me because it has gotten sucked into this Amazons Attack insanity and I can't figure out what the hell is going on anymore.

    Most of my purchases are Marvel and Indy now and I have hundreds of DC back issues in display cases on my walls. They're losing me, and I'm adult with cash money who likes super hero comics.

    I should be an easy sell for them, and they're even pissing me off.

    This was a great post - you should be proud of it.

    Colleen aka chasingray.com

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  19. I've been a Batman fan forever and I am still so lividly ticked by what they did to Leslie Tompkins. Bad enough that Stephanie was tortured but there was no basis - no basis at all - for Leslie's decision to let her die. It was like someone walked in who knew nothing of her history in the Batverse and decided "old lady makes good villain." So disappointing.

    I dropped Birds of Prey when Black Canary decided that it was too hard to be the mother of a would-be ninja and superhero at the same time (because - of course - her mother hadn't done just that). I dropped most of the Bat titles after Leslie Tomkins although I do keep up with Detective because it follows more traditional mystery storylines and stays out of a lot of the other politics of the tie-ins.

    Wonder Woman is jumping the shark for me because it has gotten sucked into this Amazons Attack insanity and I can't figure out what the hell is going on anymore.

    Most of my purchases are Marvel and Indy now and I have hundreds of DC back issues in display cases on my walls. They're losing me, and I'm adult with cash money who likes super hero comics.

    I should be an easy sell for them, and they're even pissing me off.

    This was a great post - you should be proud of it.

    Colleen aka chasingray.com

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  20. As a long-time fan of super-hero comics in general, and a male, and a avid reader of Mother Jones, I agree with your post. DiDio has made "stunt murders" and shock value a substitute for decent writing and being true to the characters...which are the real key. I mean,I'm a fan of Batman, not the current creative team. Trashing the character of Leslie Tompkins was asinine...killing Stephanie Brown was equally daft. Of course Bruce would honor her sacrifice. Bringing back Jason Todd? Stunt casting. Late books...the solution is simple...can't make a deadline, don't get paid. That's how it works for me and my books (ghost stories, but still).

    However, Marvel should not get a free pass. Joe Q has done similar things. The whole brouhaha over One More Day, "killing" Cap, the dickification of Iron Man (way to drive interest in the character before the movie...LOL) all must be laid at Joey Q's feet. I'm getting harder and harder to spend my cash (and that of the Library I work for) on comics as I don't think either of the big 2 care what I think. I'd like to see more one and dones, more thinking outside the box (ala Vertigo and Planetary) and less writing for the trades and fewer pointless crossover stunts.

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  21. Its fascinating how the Stephanie Brown/Supergirl thing keeps coming up as an explanation from all that ails DC...at least online. But when talk to fans in stores etc..it never comes up. I just can't wrap my head around the idea that mistreating Stephanie Brown and Supergirl has led to the downfall of DC. Its just too extreme and unsupported.

    When people do talk about problems at DC, what comes up is anemic storylines, poor execution, few if any consequences, one year later fiasco, this wierd revisting of the 80's (both successes and failures) and how DC is 100% editorial driven (basically repeating the Marvel Harras years that nearly destroyed Marvel) rather then creativily driven. Didio has come up as a problem but so has Levitz who seems to be living in a cloud from the 80s rather then now. But still nada on Brown and Supergirl.

    What I read and here is lots of explanations for what is wrong...yet none of this DC hates women mantra that you find on a few websites. Probably because Brown was three+ years ago and most readers don't care about anything but the present (unless it screws with the past continiuty wise).

    Minority opinion I know, supposed to ra-ra anything that has the sexist or racist angle to it, otherwise you yourself is declared racists or sexist...but in this case I think your just reaching. Trying to insert your blog theme into a current situation at DC that it doesn't really belong in.

    At the end of the day, success for any publishing venture is grounded on one thing and one thing only - quality product, something DC hasn't had in a consistent, reliable manner for a while now.

    Everyone now and then they hit a home run...but the followup still costs them the game. Brown and Supes play into that, but that is not the beginning, middle, or even a large portion of the problems at DC right now. Its a sympton but "correcting" it isn't going to be a cure either.

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  22. I just added your blog as a link on mine.

    Brava!

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  23. Hey OS,

    Good for you. You adeptly articulate what I and a good many long-time DC fans I’m sure have been feeling for quite some time now. Whenever I read “Final Crisis” all I hear is “Last Gasp.”

    I’ve been appalled at DiDio’s DC since that clusterf**k called Infinite Crisis. Can anyone on Gods Green Earth-52 give me a 2 sentence synopsis of just exactly what the hell Infinite Crisis was (supposed to be) about???

    At the time I gave Phil Jimenez a lot of grief for not being able to carry the book himself.

    The “committee of artists” approach to IC was bad enough but the fact that DC unapologetically released issue #7 with UNFINISHED art is INEXCUSABLE!! The insult to injury was that the IC hardcover was REVISED to change a major plot point of the series!!!

    While Jimenez is far from blameless in my eyes, from everything I’ve seen of DC since and from your “behind the scenes” insights OS, I’m thinking it’s a miracle that IC wasn’t somehow worse (although they should thank George Perez for picking up the slack).

    When all is said and done, the problem with Dan DiDio’s DC Comics is not about his disrespect of the fans/consumers, or the fractured continuity (never DC’s strong suit), or the incoherent direction of the DC Universe—it all comes down to quality control or lack thereof.

    Regarding the Mother Jones article: Don’t be so quick to “pooh-pooh” it. I’m a reporter at the day job so I know a little about the news-gathering cycle.

    What’s being missed here is that the MJ article is among the FIRST on this topic to appear OUTSIDE the trade/comic book press—reporters read other publications—someone from Time or Newsweek or from the style sections of the major daily papers or one of the wire-services—will read the MJ article, see the hook (“Superman’s publisher hates women” or some such) and likely follow up with an angle of their own.

    I’m not saying it WILL happen but I wouldn’t bet against it either.

    Keep on keeping on OS.

    --FanBoyWonder

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  24. I'd have your baby if I didn't already have a gal in my life! :D

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  25. God I hope the people at DC read this. You've just given them the keys to they city by writing this. They need to take this and start to fix things... One can only dream.

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  26. Strangely, you've actually left me more optimistic about DC than I have been for a long time. The fact that other people - people who actually know how comics publishing works - are seeing the same problems as me is an indication that it's not just me being picky. And if enough people are seeing the problems, it's got to change.

    Either that or DC goes bust.

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  27. A big, huge ditto to everything you said about the DiDio era at DC.

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  28. All the rebuttal to the MJ/hemp farmers snark is true and well noted. But the comment gave this liberal a good laugh just the same.

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  29. I started out agreeing with a majority of the things in this post... and then it kinda spirialed into a semi DC: BAD/Marvel: GOOD post and you kind of lost me.

    Dan Didio is, as I've been lamenting for a long time, a nincompoop. He seems to be attempting to fashion the DCU into his own personal love-toy without reguard for anything other than his own thoughts. The Stephanie Brown situation is a perfect example. Hordes of fans have clamored for SOME sort of respect shown to her and having Batman (and Tim Drake) fashioning a tribute to Steph in the Batcave is such a logical and requested (nay... DEMANDED) conclusion that it's actually inexplicite that Didio continues to ignore it. Didio THINKS he has his finger on the pulse of comicdom, but he's actually clueless.

    I agree that the problems with the state of DC lies very much with Mr. Didio.

    The "beating to death" point you meake is something I'm not sure I agree with as much. I've been viewing the whole "Crisis" thing as a Trilogy. Identity Crisis was the starting point. The whole lead into Infinite Crisis (Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Omac Project, Day of Vengance, Green Lantern Rebirth, etc, etc) brought us ingot the 2nd part of the triology which was infinite Crisis. 52, One Year Later (which was great in concept but failed for the most part in reality) and now Countdown will lead into the final part of the Trilogy with Final Crisis. To me it reads like a long term set up for a totally new DCU. If the storylines were the same and the characters the same big three over and over I'd agree with the "beating to death" thought process, but I see a clear road that, while it has it's bumps, it leading somewhere.

    Countdown is not going well because of the failure of the creators and editors to keep all of the storylines riveting. The concept itself is solid. I, myself, am buying more DC stuff than ever before because I'm intrigued by what's going on.

    The funny thing is, many of the things you listed is what I see is wring with Marvel comics. I feel that Joe Quesada is as bad as Didio. He's another one who beats crap over the head endlessly and rarely seems to care what the fans say. He's amazingly arrogant and is as much of an Alpha Male as Didio is. Marvel had enless "reactions" to DC projects with stuff like "Identity Disk" and "Modak's 11". Plus they cahged the Spierman format to be "tri-Weekly" in an attept to go after the weekly market share. Stuff like Secret War was impossible to follow and months late. The entire build up to Civil War was rushed and almost inane. Civil War itself was a total debacle. It was badly written, made no sense in many spots, Had no regard for continuity at all (with the same exact events appearing in different books at the same time but having different results) played the short term "event card" with things like the ridiculous return of Capt Marvel whom came back just to be used for ONE PANEL of Civil War #7, etc, etc. World War Hulk has been much better handled, but even it has endless tie-ins that seem to be the same story over and over again. There has been almost no progression for two months. It's been nothing but fights. And dont; even get me STARTED on how horrible House of M was.

    Marvel, like DC, has had some great stuff come out... but the quality of titles (DC with JSA, JLA, Booster Gold, Birds of Prey, Checkmate, Blue Beetle, The New Atom outweighing Marvel's Capt America, Hulk, Ultimate Spiderman) leaning towards DC and with both companies

    I think both comic companies are floundering for direction to a point. Both could use a change at the top, in my opinion.

    I will not claim to know if DC is as bad off as you think. I also have a little bit of a hard time accepting that Countdown is an industry "joke" as many of you are claiming. There have been so many mis=steps with both companies over the last few years, I tend to doubt that a series that is at least on time and readable (and improving as it goes along) would be considered an more of a joke than scholck like Secret War was. I thinikpart of the problem was that 52 was so good, that anything less was going to considered a disapointment. WHile I have no enjoyed Countdown as much as I did 52, and I have felt it's not the best work we could be getting from DC, it's not the worst comic I read each week. Plus Countdown is still consistantly in the top 20 in sales... so if nothing else, people are stikcing with it since there is SOMETHING in the plot and storylines that people feel the need to keep up with it.

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  31. Even though you seem to have a really strong point against Countdown and DiDio´s run on DC (I mean, if you are following the Legion of Super-Heroes you would not understand a single pit why you have it running in other 4 books without any reason for being OUT of the main book).
    However, I don't think Marvel is doing much better at that. I haven´t got a clue of what the hell is happening at X-Men, Planet Hulk is probably 20 times more ridiculous than Death of Superman. What I see is American comic books going awry.

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  32. I'm really upset with all the killing off of characters that's been going on. Until recently editors seemed to understand that they had a responsibility to pass the characters on to whom ever succeeded them as well as to future comics readers. Instead this generation of chief editors seem only interested in short term sensation.

    Killing off the New Gods is about as low as I've seen an editor sink. It's just incredibly disrespectful to the legacy Kirby left DC.

    Another frustration is the hardcover program from DC. I've always been a DC guy but with Marvel putting out all those wonderful hardcovers out a substantial majority of my money is now going to Marvel. That's a big change for me, DC's been getting the lions share for more than 20 years.

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  33. Excellent and on the mark. Great article. You hit the nail on the head with almost everything that seems to be wrong with DC these days.

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  34. Thank you for have articulated everything wrong with my company of choice so well.

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  35. Just a correction: "yin" is female; "yang" is male.

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  36. the strange thing about DC right now is that a lot of the books have incredibly high-profile teams on them, putting out some great stories that have (so far) had no direct connection to Countdown.

    morrison's batman, dini's detective, donner and johns' action, busiek on superman, rucka putting queen & country on hold so he can do a DC version of it (checkmate), johns' GL, simone and mcduffie coming up on flagship titles, johns (again) on JSA, waid completely altering the flash paradigm and yet building the character, not destroying it...

    there are certainly severe problems at DC, and i agree with just about everything that valerie said. but as far as the stories go, if i stay away from countdown and spend my money on blue beetle, and anything written by sean mckeever or marc andreyko, then i'm a fairly happy DC camper.

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  37. I think your comments on DC flying *Under The Radar* during Paul's tenure were spot on. I too worked for Time Warner, and many times read the company newsletter (Connections - remember that thing?) Once there was an article on DC where they called DC an R&D department. NOT a publisher of comic books. :D

    I think Didio has definite raised the awareness level of DC at TW in a most unpleasant way. ;)

    - Jim

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  38. Great post :D Tho I dun rly like Marvel either. :(

    But DC definitely needs a new direction. :\ It's definitely going for the "short term" gains while just accruing such a bad reputation. :(

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  39. I leafed through JLA #12 yesterday, and saw the most convincing argument against writing Sin out of the books that could possibly be made: Roy and Lian Harper.

    How the hell can Roy be able to be a parent and a superhero at the same time, and Dinah can't? Echh!

    Speaking of Lian, the bits of her dressed up in a kid version of her dad's old costume were more adorable than I can put into words. I'm just sayin.'

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  40. Remember how I said I buy COUNTDOWN. Just read issue 36. Nevermind. I'm out. Too many cliches. Too many shortcuts. 100% dumb. I'm through making excuses for the book. I really wanted to like it but I am OUT.

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  41. I just read 37 and 36 today, and I've pretty much given up on Countdown. It was just so incredibly bad. For the last bunch of issues I've mostly been reading it for the Pied Piper and Trickster parts, which I found pretty enjoyable, but that's gotten just as bad as everything else.

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  42. There are a couple of points you've made, and could be more, that I certainly agree with. For example, Dr. Light being turned into a rapist was definitely contrived. Something tells me that if Marvel were to do something similar with say, the Wizard, the crooked technologist who led the Frightful Four in many of its lineups, that no Marvel fan would've stood for that, and it'd be much more vocally rejected.

    And even more disturbing was the villification of both Jean Loring and Cassie Cain, which is possibly worse than killing them off. Put another way, it's probably a fate worse than death, and very distastefully done at that. That was also one of the reasons why I decided not to have anything to do with 52, and find it odd if some people actually liked it, because really, all that it seemed to come down to was getting to see the Elongated Man put himself to death if that's what it took to be with Sue again. And along the way, Ralph was turned into an utterly humorless shadow of himself. What is so great about that?

    Any succeeding editorial staff would be making people proud by fixing those many mistakes, and the audience could also help encourage that by saying that they'd like to see some R&R - resurrection and redemption - for all heroes and supporting cast members who were wrongfully disgraced in Identity Crisis. Say you'd like to see Jade (Jenny-Lynn Hayden) come back, for example, and it could be done. No character, no matter how minor, should be left behind.

    Any successor to DiDio should be someone who's got more rationale not to show contempt for the audience like he's being doing, and would do well to let know that he/she is willing to do what's possible to fix any and all mistakes made since Identity Crisis. And, if DiDio leaves, that could also be just what's needed to get Joe Quesada out of Marvel too and to get their own mistakes repaired as well.

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  43. ""Countdown" is an industry joke, and Didio's repeated attempts to justify it sounds eerily familar to GW Bush trying to justify Iraq."

    thank you, thank you

    I'll second the nomination for Axel or Dwayne as the new VPs, DC really needs a fresh shot in the arm

    something I would have added to the argument is the c**k-up with the spoilers for the finale of 52 been given away in DC NAtion editorial.

    It was a totally opportunistic move, set out to make DiDio look 'fun and nice' in fans' eyes. It was also managed to royally tick off the four writers of the title, who hadn't been asked about this reveal, and had to find out by reading the editorial when the issue got published. They then of coruse all four went on to Newsarama and bitched separately (but in agreement) at Didio for spoiling the mystery they had spent a whole year building...

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  44. Pity, because a strong point of 52 was that, darkness aside, it reintroduced some of the flavor of the old DC. But Countdown?

    To quote Batman from #36,
    "Somebody tell me how this isn't a massive waste of time?"

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  45. This post is one of the most brilliant posts I've read in a long time.

    Couple of things I'd like to add -- bear with me, its worth it

    1) What has happened to Wonder Woman is a sinful embarrassment, a disgrace.

    Wonder Woman is one of the most recognizable heroines on the planet, one of DC's big 3. Under Didio's watch, this comic has been treated like the ugly unwanted stepchild.

    Plagued with delays since day one of the relaunch, under Didio's watch their depiction of amazons (women in general) is so blatently out of character in their bizarre AMAZONS ATTACK, that it leaves one to wonder if this is DC Comics - The Company view on women as a whole.

    The basic premise of the Amazons is to bring peace, harmony and unity to the world -- that's why they sent Diana into the world to begin with.

    But under Didio's watch, Amazons are attacking the White House, America and all of humanity as a whole. Long dead characters inexplicably come back and are so poorly written, its like glorified fanfic. Next thing you know, they'll have Diana lined up to be a professional garbage picker. But hey, her sister Donna has been reduced to librarian of the universe -- its the only way she can remember who she is nowadays 'cause the readers don't have a clue.

    It's a slap in the face to readers because not only is it out of character, so far away from the premise that one has to wonder if this is just an itty bitty subliminal message underneath:

    Women are power mad, she bitch witch warriors out to attack the world.

    Great role model, GUYS.

    Not to mention that its also one of the worst written stories anyone has ever read.

    Why is every single woman in the DCUniverse either a mess (Donna Troy), a murderer (Jean Loring), a poster child for all the Lindsey Lohan / Paris Hilton / Nicole Ritchie's: (Supergirl)?

    There are no positive role models for female readers and even now, with Gail Simone on Wonder Woman, announced almost 2 months ago, is the book delayed yet again?

    Yes, guys this is a company that has extended Dan Didio's contract.

    We should ALL be so talented and lucky.


    2) Under Didio's watch, no one delivers.

    The Kubert Bros were announced as exclusives 2 years ago.

    They haven't delivered 6 months worth of consequtive issues and one of their storylines in Action, hasn't even finished yet. Maybe they should rename the book InAction.


    DC Direct gave both Kuberts their own TOY lines and DC Direct plans a year in advance: the toys will be out before they ever finish the stories.

    3) Don't even get me started on All Star haven't got a clue. Because Dan Didio is such a motivational tool...

    Jim Lee's once a year annual -- (although we had two issues this year so far and Superman,) comes out, whenever the windblows.

    They made a big deal about Jim Lee's return to Wildstorm Wildcats and last year, SWORE up and down on Newsarama that Wildcates #2 would be out November of last year.

    I think people should start looking on the back of milk cartons for anything JIM LEE related.

    This guy spends more time at cons, spouting off with promises on Newsarama than he does at the drawing board. Come to think of it, add up all the Newsarama Jim Lee articles last year then compare it with the two comics that came out in the same year.

    An issue of All Star Batman and Wildcats #1. There are guys hard at work in the trenches, month in and out that don't get that much attention.

    Come to think of it, Jim Lee finished 2 issues in 2 years compared to Alex Ross who completed 12 issues of a painted bimonthly comic in the same amount of time.

    JUSTI-fy that.

    4)Dan Didio takes great pride on lying and deceiving the readers, the very people he supposed to be paid to entertain. Ah liars, they have all the fun but every deck has its fool.

    At this years 'con', he CON'ned the entire panel by forwarning the audience before the panel began 'You don't know who is telling the truth here.'

    This method of doing conning, lying and deceiving customers spilled over into the comic,
    The Flash: They cancelled Wally's run and pissed those guys off.

    Started a new Flash series, deceiving readers, getting them to invest time and money into this new comic KNOWING FULL WELL they were going to kill him off and cancel that series only to go back to Wally's run.

    Wha? Wha happened?

    They pissed off Wally's fans, then pissed off Bart's fans then pissed everyone off by going back to exactly where they were before.

    What was the point?

    It appears all they wanted to do was piss people off and, well, congradulations on a job well done. Take a bow, Didio.

    5) One Year Later... all of Dan Didio's revamps were cancelled or are on their way to the can. They only one left standing?

    Blue Beetle but with readers of 16,000 or so, I take it DC is renting him a place at the roach motel.

    6) Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis... Yes baby, all of DC's characters seem to be in an infinite identity crisis because none of the readers can make heads or tales (no pun intended) of any of their comics, which don't come out monthly -- as the consecutive Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman ads in the comics state.

    But then, you know Dan 'You can't believe a word anyone says' Didio because we all know, he operates on deceit.

    6) As for all his 'FANS' at cons? Well, of course they're going to give him love. Why would ANYONE who doesn't like him or his mark on DC go to the panels to begin with?

    People who don't like what DC is doing is NOT going to go to the panel... just to hear more of what they don't like.

    Those people just don't bother.

    At best, DC has at least 16,000 supporters so if even 1/3 of that turn up at a panel, that's a lot of love... but don't deceive yourself into believing that's its actually representative of what the community as a whole really feels about his work output.

    6) Last but not least, we all know Dan Didio does not pay attention to the 'Online community'.

    He has said this repeatedly, ad nauseaum.

    So, if the online community has no bearing on him or what he thinks, why does keep promoting to them on Newsarama? Daily.

    This guy must be a glutton for punishment.

    But yes, it is true.

    Dan Didio pays the readers no mind at all. Readers asked for the return of Firestorm? He gave them, well, something else.

    People repeatedly ask for the release of the Wolfman Perez New Teen Titans Graphic Novel? He okays Judd Winnick's Barnicle Titans East. People claim they want more of the Giffen JLA? He gives it to them, I mean, REALLY gives it to them.

    So yes, we all know how Dan Didio feels about readers.

    So why then is he asking those same readers, who he pays NO MIND -- for input on how to get his monthly comics back on schedule?

    That's the million dollar question, folks.

    Well sir, Mr. Didio sir, you have showed us time and time again with your product output, that you know so much better than us readers.

    Why now are you asking us how YOU should do your job?

    It's not like you've showed us how much you care or value our input.

    Maybe that must be why DC doesn't come out with monthly comics anymore. But wait, the ads say MONTHLY! But you know, Didio says, don't believe a word anyone says. It's all for the element of surprise.

    Well readers, SURPRISE! Your monthly XXX didn't come out this month! Isn't that a surprise?

    Hee, hee, ho, ho... AHHHH...HAHAHA!

    It's all our fault.

    He asked us the readers what to do and you know, well, we failed.

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  46. I've read DC for many years. Their characters are my favorites. The current strategy of endless crossovers and editorial/beurocratic storytelling is putting me off in a big way. I'm not buying CD, though I enjoyed 52. I'm avoiding all the crossover stuff. Even though I'm mostly certain that Morrison will make something good out of Final Crisis, if it came out today I wouldn't buy it. I can't support this stuff.
    Blue Beetle is good. Shadowpact is good. The Spirit is good. Checkmate is good.
    Marvel doesn't interest me, either. I hate the whole Registration thing, and the sight of Iron Man makes me sick nowadays.
    I'm looking at more indies now. Dynamo 5 is good. Scott Pilgrim is good. Lone Ranger is good.

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  47. Wow, you're right, I wish you weren't but it's bang on.

    I've been a DC fan forever and the only thing I read now are JLU and Legion of Superheroes, stuff i read to my kids.

    I remember the energy after the original crisis, I couldn't wait to read the new books. After Infinite Crisis, I bailed on everything.

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  48. I really don't understand the hatred of Iron Man. In case you folks aren't realists, understand that the Registration Act MADE SENSE. Iron Man went all in on this, perhaps betting more than I would have liked, but at least he was a decisive player. He went for what he thought and was best and got it done. Now don't get me wrong, I was rooting for Cap. But at the same time, I knew Cap was being an idealist and was therefore expected to lose. Civil War as a whole introduced a fantastic opportunity for fresh stories in the Marvel U. It had flaws, clearly. But the foundation it laid redeemed it.

    And yes, I'm also a fan of Spider-Man's unmasking, though it should have happened in Amazing rather than Civil War. The character needed a shake-up after 40+ years and all I could think was "dear god... what happens now??". I'm hooked on what happens next to Peter Parker and isn't that a good thing?

    Also, Joe Quesada has done some fantastic stuff people. The Ultimate line? Hello??

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  49. Hey Jericho... it's very obvious you have a lot of passion when it comes to the Dan Didio/DC situation, and I totally respect that... heck your post spurred me to write a response, which in itself is the mark of the good job you did writing it. I also cannot stand Didio and would love for him to move on, get fired, find religion... anything but continue in his present job, but I'm going to have to disagree with a majority of things you brought up. PLease bear with me here... I'll expain my thoughts as best I can. Your comments are in bold.

    1) What has happened to Wonder Woman is a sinful embarrassment, a disgrace. Wonder Woman is one of the most recognizable heroines on the planet, one of DC's big 3. Under Didio's watch, this comic has been treated like the ugly unwanted stepchild.

    I totally agree. The problem here is however, that this has been going on for YEARS long before Didio ever worked for DC. Wonder Woman is one of those character that very few people seem to know how to handle. She is constantly written as either way too passive and saintly or way too agressive and overbearing. Too many times writers have confused strength with in-your-face, borderline eliteism. This was something that Giffen and DeMattis aped extremely well in issue #6 of "Formerly Known as the Justice League". The horrible job that creators have done on the most recent run of WW is hardly Didio's fault and I will grant him a boon in finally selecting probally the absolute best person to fix the problems with the character once and for all in Gail Simone. The problems with Wonder Woman stretch back a long time before Didio's tenure, and none of us could have been expected he'd be any better to the character than others have been. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel with Gail on board.

    Plagued with delays since day one of the relaunch, under Didio's watch their depiction of amazons (women in general) is so blatently out of character in their bizarre AMAZONS ATTACK, that it leaves one to wonder if this is DC Comics - The Company view on women as a whole.

    As much as I have disliked AMAZONS ATTACK, it's very obvious that Hippolyta is either being controled or influenced by Circe, The Bana or something else. The rest of the amazons are following their leader, and are loyal to her and their sisters, but many question their own actions.

    The basic premise of the Amazons is to bring peace, harmony and unity to the world -- that's why they sent Diana into the world to begin with.

    Yes, that is true, but I also can understand (if not agree with) the idea that the Amazons feel that they have been forced to suffer too much at the hands of "Man's World" and the emotions/frustrations that Hippolyta and many of the amazons feel have boiled over and they felt their only course of action was to attack. I myself feel the premise feels false, but it's not so out of left field that it's ridiculous.

    But under Didio's watch, Amazons are attacking the White House, America and all of humanity as a whole. Long dead characters inexplicably come back and are so poorly written, its like glorified fanfic. Next thing you know, they'll have Diana lined up to be a professional garbage picker.

    Well, characters inexplicably back from the dead is actually a staple of comic books, not just under Didio's watch. Captain Marvel, Bucky and Jean Grey anyone? As for Diana being degraded on purpose and reduced to something like that, I think that's being a tad extreme.

    But hey, her sister Donna has been reduced to librarian of the universe -- its the only way she can remember who she is nowadays 'cause the readers don't have a clue.

    Um... this one is totally wrong. Donna played a huge role in Infinite Crisis (as a aleader of an entire group) and is playing a huge role in Countdown (where she's obviously the most powerful and most level headed of the entire group she's involved with there). She's hardly regulated to the sidelines playing "librarian". While Donna's history is contived and as uneven as almost any character this side of Hawkman, I think your description of her current status is WAY off base.

    It's a slap in the face to readers because not only is it out of character, so far away from the premise that one has to wonder if this is just an itty bitty subliminal message underneath: Women are power mad, she bitch witch warriors out to attack the world. Great role model, GUYS.

    I can certainly see that that message can be taken from this series, while I do not see it that way. You could also argue that the message is "The world run by men have pushed us woman around for the last time. Now we push back and show you that we not only are as strong as you, but we are stronger and are a force to be respected and reckoned with." In the end it depends on how the story is handled. But I understand your point.

    Not to mention that its also one of the worst written stories anyone has ever read.

    Now THAT I cannot argue with. It's been horrible. The funny thing is, so was WAR OF THE GODS back in the 90s. Again I blame the writers as much as the editorial staff when a story just is this bad.

    Why is every single woman in the DCUniverse either a mess (Donna Troy), a murderer (Jean Loring), a poster child for all the Lindsey Lohan / Paris Hilton / Nicole Ritchie's: (Supergirl)?

    Well, Donn's history may be a mess, but the character seems to be quite in control these days. I cannot argue the Jean Loring and Supergirl points (although Supergirl was VERY well written in the recent World's Finest issues, which goes to show that when you have a good writer on board things work out). However, to say EVERY SINGLE woman in the DCU is either a mess, a murderer or a freak of nature is pretty extreme, not to mention untrue.

    There are no positive role models for female readers and even now, with Gail Simone on Wonder Woman, announced almost 2 months ago, is the book delayed yet again?

    Well, considering that most comics are around 3 months ahead, I don't think the delay is that huge. It's only one issue from what I understand.

    Yes, guys this is a company that has extended Dan Didio's contract.
    We should ALL be so talented and lucky.


    Well, cannot argue here either. I wish the man would go away and the fact his contract has been extended stinks. However, from a business standpoint it seems that DC has been doing better sales wise over the last few eyars than before, so as a pruely business decision, I'm guessing this is why Dan's contract was renewed.

    2) Under Didio's watch, no one delivers.

    I will not argue this point either. While I cannot blame Didio for all delays (and huge delays are rampart across the comic industry, just look at Marvel with Secert War, The Ultimates, Dardevil: Bullseye and Civil War to name a few) there have been a lot of them the last year. Wonder Woman, All-Star Batman, Action Comics are the tip of the iceberg.

    3) Don't even get me started on All Star haven't got a clue. Because Dan Didio is such a motivational tool...

    Dan is certainly a TOOL... heh. Well, the entire book is bizarre (to say the least) not just the release schedule. The problem is, when you have HUGE names like Miller and Lee on it, there's not much you can do. These type of guys do what they want and you can only hope they want to play correctly. When they don't... what are you going to do... threaten them? They;d laugh and go work for Marvel, Image or someone else and still do what they want.

    They made a big deal about Jim Lee's return to Wildstorm Wildcats and last year, SWORE up and down on Newsarama that Wildcates #2 would be out November of last year.

    I could be wrong, but I do not think Didio has ANY control over the Wildstorm books.

    Come to think of it, Jim Lee finished 2 issues in 2 years compared to Alex Ross who completed 12 issues of a painted bimonthly comic in the same amount of time.

    Well that's a big tribute to the professionalism of Ross. I agree there is no excuse for Lee at all.

    4)Dan Didio takes great pride on lying and deceiving the readers, the very people he supposed to be paid to entertain. Ah liars, they have all the fun but every deck has its fool.

    Ok, as much as I hate Didio, this is just silly. Do you REALLY want him to just spoil every single thing before you've had the chance to read a book? I myself would rather be deceived and read and discover it all for myself. Hell, Joe Quesada did it with his stuff about Speedball all before Civil War... he was lying through his teeth. The "leaked" image os a Red, White and Blue Iron Man holding Capt America's sheild and the "Steve Rogers: Iron Man" solict that was on amazon and taken off a few weeks later was total smoke and Mirrors on Marvel's Part. And you know what? It was a great move. It made people expect one thing, and then they threw a curve and did another. Hell, I'd be PISSED if M. Night Shamalyan had revealed that Bruce Willis' character was dead in interviews before I saw Sixth Sense in the movie theatre.

    At this years 'con', he CON'ned the entire panel by forwarning the audience before the panel began 'You don't know who is telling the truth here.'

    This method of doing conning, lying and deceiving customers spilled over into the comic,
    The Flash: They cancelled Wally's run and pissed those guys off.


    I will admit I think they were looking to create a weird parallel to Crisis on Infinte Earths with the loss of a Flash (Wally), but I think there was always a plan to bring Wally back. Bart's run as Flash was NOT well received... in the end, it was a mistake to ever do it. I highly doubt ANYONE was pissed that Bart's Flash run was cancelled.

    Started a new Flash series, deceiving readers, getting them to invest time and money into this new comic KNOWING FULL WELL they were going to kill him off and cancel that series only to go back to Wally's run.

    Wha? Wha happened?


    Um... it's called story progession. Actually, it wasn't an overall bad idea. The way Wally came back (in the JLA/JSA crossover) was actually a great story and a pretty big surprise. I fail to see the problem here. You might not like the story, but to be angry that they had a plan and a plot with a lot of twists and surprises puzzles me. Would you rather just one and done stories that have no twists? I, for one, like a good yarn with surprises around some of the corners.

    They pissed off Wally's fans, then pissed off Bart's fans then pissed everyone off by going back to exactly where they were before.

    What was the point?


    Not exactly where they were before. Did you read last week's issue of Flash. Things are VERY different. And as things have been hinted at... we most likely have not seen the last of Bart it seems. Again, part of the overall plan.

    It appears all they wanted to do was piss people off and, well, congradulations on a job well done. Take a bow, Didio.

    You are never going to pleas everone, and while I respect the fact you dislike this, I highly doubt that pissing off the readers was the idea behind the plotline.

    Then again, with Didio I suppose it's possible :)

    5) One Year Later... all of Dan Didio's revamps were cancelled or are on their way to the can. They only one left standing?

    Blue Beetle but with readers of 16,000 or so, I take it DC is renting him a place at the roach motel.


    Uh... what about the New Atom, Checkmate and Shadowpact? In fact, The Outsiders is till around also, just with changes to the team (and it's leadership). In fact, besides Bart as the Flash... what has been "cancelled"? All is not only incorrect, it's not even close. Both Firestorm and Manhunter were not OYL books, and Manhunter is coming back anyway.

    6) Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis... Yes baby, all of DC's characters seem to be in an infinite identity crisis because none of the readers can make heads or tales (no pun intended) of any of their comics, which don't come out monthly -- as the consecutive Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman ads in the comics state.

    As oppossed to Secret War, Civil War, Silent War, World War Hulk... I'm guessing you feel the same way about Marvel's war problem and joe Quesada's issues over there too right? As for the stement that none of the comics come out monthly.. I haven't seen one issue of JSA, JLA, Blue Beetle, 52, Countdown, Green Lantern, Nightwing, Robin, Birds of Prey, Flash, The New Atom, Checkmate or Legion ship late. The problems with WW, Action and Batman (which really hasn't been bad with shipping on it's own... Batman I mean) is that we have big name creators on these where it's harder to get them to conform to anything other than pleading to their professionalism.

    But then, you know Dan 'You can't believe a word anyone says' Didio because we all know, he operates on deceit.

    Dan is a moron and is vlueeless on what the majority of DC fans want... but deciet is part of his job. Remember how mad the 52 writer were that Dan revealed the return of the multiverse before it happened? Do you REALLY think he'll do something as dumb as that again?

    6) As for all his 'FANS' at cons? Well, of course they're going to give him love. Why would ANYONE who doesn't like him or his mark on DC go to the panels to begin with?

    I can't stand Dan. I almost LOTHE what he does. However, I've been to quite a number of DC con panels. I know quite a lot of people who dislike Dan who have gone to them. I also dislike Joe Q, but have gone to plenty of Marvel ones too. I don;t go to see Dan Didio... I go cause I love DC comics.

    People who don't like what DC is doing is NOT going to go to the panel... just to hear more of what they don't like.

    Those people just don't bother.


    Wrong. So wrong it's amazing in fact. I am more than willing to bet that over 50% of the people at the panels would gleefully boil Dan in oil.

    At best, DC has at least 16,000 supporters so if even 1/3 of that turn up at a panel, that's a lot of love... but don't deceive yourself into believing that's its actually representative of what the community as a whole really feels about his work output.

    This is just ridiculous. DC only has "at best" 16,000 supporters? The company would have been bankrupt YEARS ago then. A book has to sell at LEAST like 10,000 issues to even be considered mildly profitable. In june of 2007, JLA #10 sold 129,185 copies. Justice #12 sold 112,402 copies, Countdown #47 sold 77,456 copies, Flash sold 76,813 copies... hell, Countdown #44, sold 73,925 copies and Coutdown is an "industry joke" right? Yet it consistantly outsells Wolverine: Origins, Ultimate Spiderman, Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men. (numbers are from Comic buyers Guide lists that are complied from Diamond distributors). Saying that DC has "at best" 16,000 supporters is WAY off the mark, unless about 50% of those 16,000 supporters are buying four copies each. Which I doubt. Yes, the numbers are largely the comic shop order numbers, but do you think that the comic stores would continue to buy such high amounts if they weren't selling them?

    6) Last but not least, we all know Dan Didio does not pay attention to the 'Online community'. He has said this repeatedly, ad nauseaum.

    Agreed. He seems to not care one bit for the most part. He's too arrogant to think we know what we want. He seems to know what's best for us. I hate that.

    So, if the online community has no bearing on him or what he thinks, why does keep promoting to them on Newsarama? Daily.

    Well, he does have to promote this company... he'd be a total moron not to realize that... wait...

    This guy must be a glutton for punishment.

    Maybe he likes it? He could make a lot of maoney allowing fans to hit him over the head with things!

    Dan Didio pays the readers no mind at all. Readers asked for the return of Firestorm? He gave them, well, something else.

    I cannot argue with this. Agreed.

    People repeatedly ask for the release of the Wolfman Perez New Teen Titans Graphic Novel? He okays Judd Winnick's Barnicle Titans East. People claim they want more of the Giffen JLA? He gives it to them, I mean, REALLY gives it to them.

    Again, no arguement fcrom me. Agreed, agreed and agreed.

    So yes, we all know how Dan Didio feels about readers.

    Yep, we are a necessary evil.

    So why then is he asking those same readers, who he pays NO MIND -- for input on how to get his monthly comics back on schedule?

    That's the million dollar question, folks.


    Well, um... cause he's a twit?

    Well sir, Mr. Didio sir, you have showed us time and time again with your product output, that you know so much better than us readers.

    heh, yeah he certainly thinks so.

    Why now are you asking us how YOU should do your job? It's not like you've showed us how much you care or value our input.

    Agreed and agreed. No arguement here.

    Maybe that must be why DC doesn't come out with monthly comics anymore. But wait, the ads say MONTHLY! But you know, Didio says, don't believe a word anyone says. It's all for the element of surprise. It's all our fault. He asked us the readers what to do and you know, well, we failed.

    Again, it's not everything or even half of the books that are late... it's mostly the big three with the high profile talent on it that it's harder to keep in line.

    Please don't take this as a "YOU ARE WRONG, I AM RIGHT!" repsonse Jericho... obviously some of this is my opinion, which could be off base... but I think your dislike for Didio (and it's totally warranted dislike) had coulded things.

    In the end, we most likely would agree to disagree.

    hey, great post in any case.

    Thanks!

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  50. Generally speaking, there's a lot you can say about comic books and feminism that I agree with. I don't understand why the feminist/comics crowd always comes back to Stephanie Brown though. Yes, most of what you said about her demise and the gimmickry of the female Robin is true. I can't see her getting a case though. She was a worthy character, but she wasn't much of a Robin, and she got herself killed doing something incredibly stupid while expressly violating Batman's orders. You get a case if Batman feels responsible for your death. Not only were her actions completely unsanctioned by him and tremendously unwise, unlike other Robins, he never introduced Spoiler to the vigilante life. She was the Spoiler before she ever became Robin.

    The glass case is a sign of guilt as much as mourning. He may feel bad about her death, but he doesn't need a memorial for him to flog himself with when he feels down.

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  51. Hi Rocketeerz,

    Thanks for your response. I'll clarify some points but I did go off on a tangent with a long post so I'll just comment on some.

    For the record, I don't 'hate' Dan Didio. I don't even know the man. I'm sure it may come off that way but these are all comments on his work output, not him personally. Also, my comments are a reflection of the comments he makes in public, which often make himself look like not the brightest bulb in the socket. If people like him and Jim Lee didn't comment so much on the internet, I'd have even less to say.

    "As for Diana being degraded on purpose and reduced to something like that, I think that's being a tad extreme."

    No, there I disagree. DC once had Wonder Woman working at Taco Whiz. There's nothing wrong with working in fast food or service but considering she was sent here as an ambassador of peace, I can't see how that colored her role or initial purpose. And if DC would do something ridiculous like that, well, anything's up for grabs.

    "Um... this one is totally wrong. Donna played a huge role in Infinite Crisis (as a aleader of an entire group) and is playing a huge role in Countdown (where she's obviously the most powerful and most level headed of the entire group she's involved with there). She's hardly regulated to the sidelines playing "librarian". While Donna's history is contived and as uneven as almost any character this side of Hawkman, I think your description of her current status is WAY off base."

    In reference to the status of Donna Troy: In her original conception, she was WW's 'Sister', raised as an amazon w/ amazonian gifted powers. After Crisis, the WW reboot left problems to be fixed with that so they tied her into the Greek Titans of Myth the way Diana was from the Olympians. Nuff said... until DC editorial took her so far away from her original concept by redoing her origin, so many times that now she is reduced to the 'Librarian of the DCU.' SHe even recited the history. This is so far away from her original concept, they should have just created a new character. But wait -- they did have one, Harbinger but they killed her and used Donna to fill her place, even though there is nothing in her character concept that would state she's remotely belongs there. The irony in her being a librarian? Well, you need one to keep track of all the times DC has changed her since Wolfmen and Perez's successful rendition.

    Regarding Dan's whole modus operandi of deceiving the readers? Well, when they cancelled Wally Flash and started the new one, I for one never would have invested in the book if I knew it would have been cancelled. But that was the plan, to kill Bart and go back to Wally. As a reader and consumer, I felt duped.

    Dan has also said at the 'con' that you can't believe everything you will hear. You don't know who's telling the truth. This is done for the element of surprise.

    Call it what you want but a spade is a spade. Why bother listening to answers if everything comes under question. Maybe other people like to play silly guessing games but I dunno, not me. A reader can be surprised without being outright lied to.

    Speaking of, in all of DC's comics, there are three consequtive ads that run consistently thoughout their books: A Superman ad by Kubert, followed by a Batman ad by the other Kubert then the WW ad by Dodson. All say 'Monthly'. Few of them are. Superman is pretty good, Batman's a toss up and Wonder Woman speaks for herself.

    Don't advertise monthly when your books rarely are. It makes you look kind of silly. Well more than silly but, you know.

    Regarding my comment of about 16k supporters, yeah, there's more than that but I took that figure from BB's sales chart fig. Yes DC as a company has more but the point was, even at 16k, you're bound to find enough of those people who believe DC can do no wrong, even if DC themselves say so. Those are the unconditional supporters and those are the ones who go to the panels. Can you really believe you are doing well just by what they're saying? You can but it doesn't necessarily mean its true. Kind of like asking one's own mom how they look. In your mom's eyes, you can do no wrong. Same thing with the supporters. Want an unbiased opinion? Stop listening to all the 'Yes' people.

    In closing, I feel strongly about many of the points because as a former die hard DC guy, I want to see them do better. They're pissing off a lot of people and well, common sense dictates that the way to attract customers or keep ones, is not to do things that will deliberately piss people off. And yeah, there are a lot of DC defenders but there's a whole lot of people pissed off and I just don't see that as a great way of doing business.

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  52. All I want to quibble with is "Evil Max Lord," as I think that was a fine turn of character; sure, it is a retroactive twist on Max, but really? I thought it was played well, & I don't want my comics to only support the status quo.

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  53. All I want to quibble with is "Evil Max Lord," as I think that was a fine turn of character; sure, it is a retroactive twist on Max, but really? I thought it was played well, & I don't want my comics to only support the status quo.

    Status quo would have not doing anything with the character at all, which would have been a lot better than spitting on the Giffen/Dematteis legacy, as I saw someone else on the Internet say, Maxwell Lord's ongoing redemption was the emotional core of the entire JLI series.

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  54. Your premise that Levitz and Kahn understood that "DC was DC and Marvel was Marvel" and DiDio doesn't is a joke.

    The Man of Steel mini-series was DC's attempt to "Marvelize" Superman. So was Emerald Dawn and then Emerald Twilight. Both of which were events to "Marvelize" Green Lantern. They tried "Marvelizing" Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Arrow, the JLA, Hawkman, the Atom, and the Legion.

    All of which almost put DC out of business. You conviently ignored that DC was in third place behind Marvel and Image with only 13% of the market at one point because of it. Sure, it gained attention for the characters at first, but those moves ultimately pushed older fans away. Legion of Superheroes had been a big hit for DC for a decade and the Teen Titans was a monster hit. Crisis changed all that, thanks to removing Superboy from the Legion and undoing Wonder Girl's origin (which had just been explained in a very, very popular issue). Despite not being top ten books the pre-crisis titles actually outsold the post-crisis titles by a pretty big margin. It's true. Pre-Crisis DC had 35% of a much bigger market. In an attempt to appeal to Marvel fans, DC alienated a lot of longtime DC fans (sadly Marvel themselves did much the same thing a few years later). If not for the popularity of Batman (thanks to the first three Batman movies), DC likely would have folded during this time period (Wizard magazine predicted as much, as DC barely had better sales at one point then Dark Horse Comics).

    Now, considering how popular Batman was, the move from DC at the time to have him insult and belittle every single DC character (especially Superman) as frequently as he did, would have to be one of the biggest bone-headed moves in comics history. Afterall, if Batman has no respect for any DC character, why should fans have respect for those characters either? There's a reason why Wolverine NEVER, EVER pissed all over Spider-Man, Captain Americe, etc.

    Who was in charge when Batman was a dick? Who was in charge when Batman stopped being a dick?

    Of course this is another thing conviently ignored.

    You also conviently left out the multiple times DC had to revamp their titles because of the huge mess "Crisis of Infinite Earths" created. The original Crisis was DC's attempt to "Marvelize" their universe.

    The truth is, the sales of DC's titles are still higher now then pre-DiDio. Of course, he deserves no credit for that.

    Of course, you also conviently ignored all the great books that DC put out last year (Morrison's Batman, Spirit, Dini's Detective, Busiek's Superman, All-Star Superman, Waid's Legion, Johns' Green Lantern, Birds of Prey, Cooke's Superman Confidential, Green Lantern Corps, Monster Society of Evil, etc.). That they didn't sell as well is a shame and has nothing to do with Countdown. Stores over-ordering Marvel books with a Civil War banner and a World War Hulk banner might be a culprit.

    And, let's not even get started on how you conviently ignored the stuff that happened to a kid (Robin being brutally murdered by the Joker) or female characters (Batgirl getting shot, Kyle's girlfriend, Black Canary being raped, Wildcat being murdered, Crimson Fox, etc.) that weren't under DiDio's watch. I believe it was under the watch of people you were just patting on the back.

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  56. Ok, this is getting a bit silly now.

    Dan Didio supporters are so predictable, you know as soon as the 'But DC Books are selling better now than they were Pre-Didio.' comes out, you know they're probably on one of the other newly conceived 51 other earths.

    Cause they can't be reading the same sales figures as everyone else.

    Where are all those brilliant wonderful Didio revamps? Swimming around the bottom of the sales charts, the ones still ON the charts.

    But that's better than they were in 2002 Pre Didio because in 2002, PreDidio, they weren't there at all.

    But again, those Didio supporters and their big claims about DC sales, well, they're kind of like those ads.

    Superman.
    Monthly.
    (Yeah, on Krypton.)

    Batman.
    Monthly.
    (If you live in the BatBizarro universe)

    Wonder Woman.
    Monthly.
    (On Paradise Island)

    DC may as well be posting billboards claiming 'We're idiots. We're Idiots. We're idiots. And if you believe them, you're just like us!'

    And I'm not saying any one person is anything. It's implied by their descripion, which doesn't match their Action.

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  58. To the Crisis post:

    25 years ago, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein and George Perez invited new and old readers into the DC Universe by simplifying all their multiple earths into one cohesive whole in a series called Crisis On Infite Earths.

    Not without problems, the series was still a roving success, paving the way for Byrne's Superman, Frank Miller's Batman and George Perez' Wonder Woman. Superman enjoyed a renaissance in sales, Wonder Woman circulation nearly doubled. Frank Miller's Batman still sells today in Absolute Editions and multiple TPBs.

    DC, under the wisdom of Dan Didio, set out to capture 'Lightening in a Bottle' (pardon the pun) once again by publishing Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis and the 52-Countdown to Final Crisis.

    But with each Crisis, the quality declines further and further making a joke of the original story by consistently diluting the concept. Because there's only so much milk you can get out of one cow.

    Where are they now? Well now, there's not one, not two, not five but 52 earths for readers to keep track of.

    What in Dan Didio's roving halls of genius ever made him believe 52 earths would be a fanboy field of paradise, if 25 years ago, 5 earths were considered too much?

    Yes readers are more sophisticated than they were 25 years ago but that doesn't mean anyone traveling in Dan Didio's DC Nation need to be carrying their Hitchhikers Guide to the DC's Universe-S... in order to read their comics.

    Really, the only thing Didio has been doing is showing readers the crisis DC faces now is bigger than anyone thought... a drought deep in the well of originality.

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  59. Hey Kelson,

    RocketeerZ, you clearly haven't been following any Flash boards over the last 3 months. By the end of that run, Bart-as-Flash had picked up fans, plus there were Bart's fans to start with, plus there was a vocal contingent that was most upset that DC lied in official solicitations, claiming that issues #14 and #15 of the series were coming out when they knew full well that they weren't.

    You are absolutely right... I have not frequented the DC Boards much at all the last two years or so. The costant bickering and endless spoilers turned me off, so I've avoided it. I based my opinion on the people I know and the Newsarama, Comics101, Silver Bullet Comic Books and Comic Book Resources boards and comment areas. The concenus there seemed to be that there was much unhappieness about Bart's Flash run, and that Bart was no longer even close to the character he had been. Aging Bart and basiclaly removing every last personality trait that had made Bart popular to begin with has been the largest issue I've seen people have with this situation. While most were unhappy Bart was killed off, very few people seemed to be unhappy that he waqs no longer the main character of THE FLASH. I certinaly could be wrong with my opinion.

    And now there are people complaining, "We waited a year for Wally to come back and got this?"

    If you mean the first issue of THE FLASH with Wally back, I can certainly agree the issue was less than I expected. While I didn;t out-and-out dislike the issue, I *was* disapointed in it, but I do like Waid a lot and trust him to put the plotlines and story into the direction I will enjoy. As for the storyline that brought Wally back (The Lightening Saga in JLA and JSA), I thought that story was fantastic and the majority of reviwes and comments I have seen have been ver4y positive.

    There do seem to be more pissed-off Flash fans now than there were 3 months ago. It's not quite as bad as it was last year when Bart's series was launched, but there's plenty of anger going around.

    Hmmm... I'm going to have to disagree with that opinion. Doesn't mean you're wrong Kelson, it's just that I saw almost nothing but negative comments and complaints about Bart's Flash run, and a lot of happiness about Wally's return. I myself, have not seen a lot of people mad that DC pulled the "bait and switch" job they pulled. To me (and to a lot of people I know) it was a very nice job of making us think one thing, doing something else (something the fans have been demaneding in the return of Wally) and making it a complete surprise to the fans who usually have this sort of thing ruined by internet or solicit spoilers. Like I asked Jericho, would you really want the surprising twist of a major story ruined for you? To me, the entire thing wasn't lying in an attempt to cheat readers out of money or anything... it was misdirection to make the story a surprise. I'm just having a very hard time understanding why people would be so angry about that.

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  60. Hiya Jericho,

    For the record, I don't 'hate' Dan Didio. I don't even know the man. I'm sure it may come off that way but these are all comments on his work output, not him personally. Also, my comments are a reflection of the comments he makes in public, which often make himself look like not the brightest bulb in the socket. If people like him and Jim Lee didn't comment so much on the internet, I'd have even less to say.

    Duely noted. I didn't think you hated Didio personally any more than I do. I, myself, have only met him once at a con for about 1 minute so on a personal note I have no opinion of the man. I know what you mean.

    "As for Diana being degraded on purpose and reduced to something like that, I think that's being a tad extreme."

    No, there I disagree. DC once had Wonder Woman working at Taco Whiz. There's nothing wrong with working in fast food or service but considering she was sent here as an ambassador of peace, I can't see how that colored her role or initial purpose. And if DC would do something ridiculous like that, well, anything's up for grabs.


    I understand, but that was before Didio's time. Your arguement should be towards DC editorial/management as a whole then, not towards Didio. Having not read tWonder Woman at all during that time, I don;t know why they put her to work in a fast food resturant. All I can surmise is that there was an attept to "humanize" her more. Or you could be right, maybe it was for the reasons you think, however I tend to think that in this day and age, no one who didn't respect the character wuld accept an offer to writer her, and thus would not look to disrespect her in a blantant way.

    In reference to the status of Donna Troy: In her original conception, she was WW's 'Sister', raised as an amazon w/ amazonian gifted powers. After Crisis, the WW reboot left problems to be fixed with that so they tied her into the Greek Titans of Myth the way Diana was from the Olympians. Nuff said... until DC editorial took her so far away from her original concept by redoing her origin, so many times that now she is reduced to the 'Librarian of the DCU.' SHe even recited the history. This is so far away from her original concept, they should have just created a new character. But wait -- they did have one, Harbinger but they killed her and used Donna to fill her place, even though there is nothing in her character concept that would state she's remotely belongs there. The irony in her being a librarian? Well, you need one to keep track of all the times DC has changed her since Wolfmen and Perez's successful rendition.

    Well, again most of this was done before Didio's time... but I have to quibble with the thought she's been regualated as a "Librarian". I think the items I list prove she's much more of an important character. If the only thing she had done since returning was rip of history notes, then I would agree. Also, in those 52 backup features Donna didn't TELL the story of the DCU history, she actually was being TOLD it by the information sphere that used to be Harbinger's. She was learning about it, not informing anyone about it.

    Regarding Dan's whole modus operandi of deceiving the readers? Well, when they cancelled Wally Flash and started the new one, I for one never would have invested in the book if I knew it would have been cancelled. But that was the plan, to kill Bart and go back to Wally. As a reader and consumer, I felt duped.

    To each his own, but if you knew the whole story before hand, what would be the need to read the book at all? I just fail to understand why ANYONE would want to be told the entire spoilers before hand. That takes ALL of the fun out of reading the stories themselves. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

    Call it what you want but a spade is a spade. Why bother listening to answers if everything comes under question. Maybe other people like to play silly guessing games but I dunno, not me. A reader can be surprised without being outright lied to.

    I guess the problem here lies with the word "lied". I don;t see it as such. I see it as misdirection and a way to preserve the mystery behind the stories in an age that makes spoilers commen place thanks to the internet. I can, however, understand that your feeling are legitimate and you see it differently than I do. We both see this on seperate ends I suppose.

    Speaking of, in all of DC's comics, there are three consequtive ads that run consistently thoughout their books: A Superman ad by Kubert, followed by a Batman ad by the other Kubert then the WW ad by Dodson. All say 'Monthly'. Few of them are. Superman is pretty good, Batman's a toss up and Wonder Woman speaks for herself.

    Don't advertise monthly when your books rarely are. It makes you look kind of silly. Well more than silly but, you know.


    No arguement there. All three of the big three have had shipping issues and have not been on time (although most if not all of the other titles from DC have been) . Do you think (and I'm not being sarcastic here) you would feel better if the ads didn;t mention being monthly?

    Regarding my comment of about 16k supporters, yeah, there's more than that but I took that figure from BB's sales chart fig. Yes DC as a company has more but the point was, even at 16k, you're bound to find enough of those people who believe DC can do no wrong, even if DC themselves say so. Those are the unconditional supporters and those are the ones who go to the panels. Can you really believe you are doing well just by what they're saying? You can but it doesn't necessarily mean its true. Kind of like asking one's own mom how they look. In your mom's eyes, you can do no wrong. Same thing with the supporters. Want an unbiased opinion? Stop listening to all the 'Yes' people.

    Some good points here. You are correct... there will always be people who will refuse to admit there are problems and issues with DC's policies and actions that need to be corrected. I just wanted to point out that there are many, many more supporters of DC than 16,000... but by supprters, I mean people who buy and love the comics that DC puts out. That does not mean they are 100% on baord with every move or decision made by DC. I'ma HUGE Dc fan and buy a majority of their titles. I consider myself a big DC supporter/fan, however I question on a regular basis many things that DC does. Being a supporter does not mean you are only a "yes" man.

    In closing, I feel strongly about many of the points because as a former die hard DC guy, I want to see them do better. They're pissing off a lot of people and well, common sense dictates that the way to attract customers or keep ones, is not to do things that will deliberately piss people off. And yeah, there are a lot of DC defenders but there's a whole lot of people pissed off and I just don't see that as a great way of doing business.

    Pissing off customers and possible customers is NEVER a good way to do business, you are totally right. I agree that there are things in DC that NEED to change (and Didio leaving would be a happy one for me). However, I do not see DC being in the trouble right now that Val seems to think and the people who are mad now at DC are the same people that were mad five years ago. In many, if not most cases they continue to buy still. It's like the baseball fans who scream and yell about the moves the team GM and manager make or the play of certain players. They are unhappy, and argue about it and get very angry, but in the end continue to watch the games, and buy tickets and support the organization.

    I think we both feel pretty strongly about our points (and you make some excelent points) and I doubt either opne of us are convincing the other of much, but it's still cool to debate about it. I certainly hope things improve to make you the big DC fan that you once were.

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  61. The Man of Steel mini-series was DC's attempt to "Marvelize" Superman. So was Emerald Dawn and then Emerald Twilight. Both of which were events to "Marvelize" Green Lantern. They tried "Marvelizing" Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Arrow, the JLA, Hawkman, the Atom, and the Legion.

    Ok... someone explain this to me. Just what the heck is "Marvelize" even mean?

    I have to say that I think EVERYONE is wrong about this. i get the whole "marvel gives their characters flaws and are more realistic" arguement. That was was very true back in like... 1966.

    But for pete's sake... ALL comic characters have had humanizing "flaws" and personality quirks and bad things happening to them and so on and so on... for YEARS... like going back to the friggin mid-1970s!

    DC doesn't "marvelize" their characters. That's just a ridiculous statement. The notion that only Marvel successfully makes it's characters "real and human" is plain dumb. Maybe back in 1966 you could argue that, but in today's market where the friggin writers change companies and titles like baseball players change teams it's a ridiculous notion.

    John Byrne wrote THE MAN OF STEEL using the same sort of way he worked on FANTASTIC FOUR. I TOTALLY disagree that he "marvalized" it. He was writing the way he writes.

    Did Robert Kirkman "marvelize" Invincible? Does that mean that because the main character has serious personal problems and acts like a real human being, does that make him a marvel-rip-off?

    I seriously challenge anyone to show me how DC or anyone else continues to try and "marvelize" their characters or books in today's day and age. Marvel doesn't do things ANY different than Dark Horse, Image, IDW or even DC. Not anymore. You can argue that maybe the characters may be more well known. Maybe you can argue the books are better written (although I would TOTALLY disagree with that). Maybe the artwork is better or the company is just run better... but when it comes to a style or a "vision"... the lines are so blurred over the last 20 years that no one's prcess of their character is different anymore. Everyone is just trying to put out blockbuster storylines and write the characters in ways that will sell issues.

    I mean heck, Marvel completely stole the "team" concept from DC right? Does that mean in the end that everything Marvel does has been "DCing" their entire line with team books? C'mon...

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  62. Having spent the past two days reading the various posts, I feel I can respond with some knowledge.

    I am thirty years old, and had read comics solidly since I was about eight. While not the 'Wise Man of Comics' I can say that I have some history and love of the artform. Which is probably why I am having some growing pains with the products on the market. This had led me to several conclusions, but most importantly, I have to ask:
    Maybe we are just getting too old for comic books?

    Maybe we've hit that point where we have seen it all before, and as such are bored? Personally, with a wife and child, I can barely find time to go to the store once a month, let alone weekly. The writers that I used to follow have moved on to different themes in THEIR lives, which of course affects their writing. Personally, I find that Superhero books in general tend to be a bit cyclical in their stories, but maybe it has always been that way.

    Don't get me wrong, there are still some great books out there; I just find it hard to invest so much emotional weight in them at this point in my life. Or to put it another way, I used to LOVE LOVE LOVE Giffen's JLA run: when I was 14. While I can still go back and re-read the stories and enjoy them (and the newer Superbuddies)I find it difficult to care about Blue Beetle's death, or the alleged disrespect to Giffen's & DeMatteis' run on the book. Frankly, I would be worried if I cared so deeply about these stories now that I have two human lives that I bear some responsibility to. The only reason I even know or care about the Dibny's fate was because of a pretty darn good story.

    My point is that comics have traditionally been children's fare, fairly or not. That is not going to change, and frankly I don't want it to. I don't want DiDio to care what I think: I want him to care about what my five year old thinks! We're applying adult criticism to a genre that has thrived from illogic. (Superman has an aura around him that enables him to fly? Huh?) You either accept it, or don't.

    And if you don't, well, let the free market speak for you! If Countdown (which I actually enjoy, for what its worth) dipped below 20,000 sales weekly, it will not be published, period.(Although, at a weekly pace, 20,000 sold per issue is still more than most books sell.) The various tie-ins? Don't buy it. Why bother worrying about it?

    In regards to sexism in comics, which I will agree with, surely we have more important areas where sexism runs rampant. Maybe sexism in government should warrant your attention just a bit more than Supergirl's mid-riff.

    In closing, I must point out one particular caveat that has pricked my imagination: DiDio's supposed comment about "there needs to be a rape." I guess I must have been there, or maybe OS can dig a bit deeper in her memory for the details, but I cannot imagine one's career surviving such an statement in today's corporate world. Not that I am calling the OS a liar by any means, but maybe an embellisher?

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  63. Great article OS!
    Very compelling and well-written.You really are very convincing in your arguments about the direction that DC has found itself in for the past few years, up until' now.As a comics
    collector/reader since 1972, my tastes may be somewhat different than others but,I find the current direction at DC to be rather distressing and unsatisfying to say the least.I read 'Infinite Crisis' with great anticipation, but like many others, at the end
    felt cheated at this shoddy attempt to recapitalize on the success of "Crisis On Infinite Earths".What comes to mind for me is the plot of "Superman Returns",
    trying vainly to recapture the magic of the first Superman movie of the '70's and falling so ridiculously short, it is as if there is not one single original idea left these days.Seemingly, in DC's case, they keep doing it over and over(with Crisis
    after Crisis), with each being a faint echo(less than each preceeding one), because this idea has been 'milked for all it is worth'.It seems to me(although I could be wrong),that DC abandoned the Multiple World aspect of it's
    history(in the aftermath of C.O.I.E.)and Marvel picked it up, ran full-on with it and now, some years later, DC has said "what's missing here?" and has decided to back-track big time(to pre-1985)
    only on a much larger scale(52 earths).The way that I see it, it
    wouldn't be so bad if there were a
    few extra earths....but this many?
    Too.Many.To.Keep.Track.Of and also Too.Confusing.
    Granted, I was extremely disappointed with Infinite Crisis,
    sort of dangling the Multiple Earths thing in the reader's face and then retracting it at the end....and 'for a several hundred bucks, we will eventually get to it'.That is the sort-of-mentality that seems to be apparent at DC these days with no end in sight 'events' that have lost me.I have not 'bought into' 52 or Countdown
    and am happier for it, considering all of the disparaging remarks that I have come across(the conclusion of 52, for example).
    It seemed apparent to me during the midst of Infinite Crisis that DC was 'getting off' these days on being a 'snuff'-film factory what with the de-capitations, arm-severing,shot-in-the-my-head-is-blown-up sort of activity I started to witness with more and more frequency.Killing off classic charactors in brutal, violent ways
    is de-rigeur these days(as well as, killing off new charactors, seemingly brought in for just that purpose.Osirus in 52, anybody?).
    I just don't see this all as being very gratifying,(as-much-as gratuitous)or as an investment in long-term story or charactor development.It all seems to be about the fast-sell(as so many others have stated so brilliantly, before me)with no regard to the fall-out "One Year Later" or whenever(if ever)it comes about.
    It is no wonder so many people are expressing 'burn-out',over DC's approach to making comics(especially so-called 'events' mini-series) these days.Is it just me, or do I recall a time when it
    used to be fun to read well-written and illustrated stories(
    more recently- "New Frontier"
    comes to mind).Maybe I am spoiled by the very rarely, occasional 'good stuff' and then there
    is the more normally produced dreck-of-the-month(with a few exceptions, if one is lucky).
    all I can say is, it is hard to settle for the dreck when a person has memories of something better(of possibilties explored and the contributer's giving it their all - quite successfully).
    My attempts at buying any given title consistantly for more than a couple issues these days is at best more "miss" than "hit".
    Maybe I have outgrown comics, or my idea of what they are, or can be(well-written,well-drawn,edge-y, innovative) is very out-dated and way past it's prime.
    Maybe they will just look in their
    "Jar of Crises" and find it empty(not even a crumb left).... which is something that all of us here are already well aware of.
    Hopefully before all the Fanpeople
    have left the building.
    O.S., I hope that you are right about Didio and that the end of his era is on the horizon...
    hopefully to a better one!

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  64. I´m a Brazilian Fan. Sorry for the poor english.

    First, one brazilian site make a note about your blog here:
    http://www.melhoresdomundo.net

    And i can say this: You express what a lot of the Brazilian comics fans are afraid off... i don´t know around the world but around HERE for sure!

    We NEED the Dan Didio resignation for the Survival of a DC comics. Didio does a LOT damage, but still have one way to save our heroes.

    WE have the MORRISON!!
    the KUBERTS!!!

    And a LOT more...but a week and without a serius direction has waste all this talents.

    We hope the situation get a end, once for all, and in time!

    BUT WE, THE FANS, ARE NOT LISTEN!!

    SO HOW Are we can put the DAN DIDIO empichment in WORLD VOTE?

    This solution aleady EXIST?

    If the answer is YES, please, I´M IN!!!

    If the answer is NO....

    So We NEED to START. WE need some one with VOICE to START!

    PLEASE!

    YOUR HEROES NEED YOU!

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  65. thank you for articulating the haphazard nature of Countdown. From the beginning, appeared as a transparent, cobbled together attempt capitalize on the success of the decent 52. Since then, nothing of any value has occurred and it has amounted to nothing but immense padding and filler.

    Didio misses the appeal of 52 and mistakes it's weekly publication as the key to its success, instead of the skillful plotting.

    Personally, i thought, instead of "countdown to final crisis" being the name tacked on the end, it should have been "countdown to me giving a shit"

    Gray

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  66. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  67. I honestly don’t know square one about how publishing works in comics. What I do know however is that Countdown is straight up boring. I really dug 52, because it was original, dealt with really cool characters that didn’t get the publicity that they deserved, and it was fun to have a comic come out once a week. But with Countdown, the formula just doesn’t work. I mean, Mary Marvel fought a monster made of dead babies. DEAD BABIES. That’s jumping the shark, good sir.
    Also, just that they have to have everything on an epic scale. It can’t just be Superman fighting a giant robot made by Lex, but Superman fighting the evil Nazi Superman from Earth-whogivesacrap. Jason Todd, the murderous vigilante and former Robin? Yeah, he’s traveling across parallel universes with a Monitor. It really seems like DC is being ran by 8 year olds, especially with the new Arena books coming out. On that note, bringing Elseworld characters into main stream continuity really compromises the respective story’s integrity. The only two series that DC is printing right now that I enjoy legit is The Sinestro Corps War and the Black Adam miniseries. Marvel isn’t perfect, but Joe Q seems to be able to keep the fans happy. Plus World War Hulk was pretty cool.

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  68. Just a quick add-on. Green Lantern is the one title that got the whole continuity shattering event right with "Sinestro War" and isn't it a shame that it takes a issue of Superman staring his DOG to fill me with that sense of joy that I have foolishly always look for in my long underwear tales?

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  69. WOW...if this was your thesis project for your PHD degree in DC you would be called DOCTOR by now. Every point you make gets right to the heart of what is wrong with DC these days. As a long time geek and fanboy I have seen it all as we all have but for some reason Marvel's "events" don't leave me as weary DC's. I actually couldn't get through the last few issues of Final Crisis. Batman RIP seems like change for change sake and for the fist time in a long time I can't read it monthly and have decided to wait for the whole damn thing to finish to read it in one big chunk. I hope that its just my age or a brain tumor that is keeping me from not only following the motivations and twists but actually CARING what such a "major" even is doing to my beloved Dark Knight. And the politically themed DC DECISIONS is just lipstick on a very smelly turd sandwhich.Bravo on consistantly putting out thoughtful well argued work that takes our love for the medium beyond the simple "I love when Hulk Smash! kind of conversations.

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  70. Anonymous6:22 PM

    HAHAHA. Reading this over 2 years later is freaking hilarious. McDuffie got canned by Didio and Didio is STILL THERE! Also, it looks DC is finally makes gains against Marvel since they didn't do an event this past summer. Blackest Night ate up the competition. Unforunately, Diane Nelson has other ideas for Dan in the new year. I'm sure of it.

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