"It's simple, under his editorship, DC Comics has consistently been outperformed by the competition. You can't blame him for less that stellar results in other mediums with DC properties. It's the fact that he isn't getting the results that Warner Brothers should be demanding from one of it's subsidiaries.
It's worse than that. He is damaging a lot DC intellectual properties (thats characters and continuity). He should be fired. "
--from the 19-page (and counting) "Fire Dan DiDio Immediately" thread on the DC Message Boards
"It was roughly two, two and half years ago that I opined to Marvel’s David Gabriel that I thought they’d be able to get a ten point lead on DC if they worked a little harder.That’s now grown to a 20 point lead, or, to put it another way, Marvel is about 50% larger than DC these days.
That’s just ugly.
At the end of the day, that’s down to editorial content " Marvel’s comics are simply more compelling for the audience right now than DC’s."
"Ouch"--Kevin Melrose, Blog@Newsarama
"I think it's worth considering that something as simple as an Invasion of the Body Snatchers rehash might seem somewhat appealing compared to what DC has been dishing out over the last year or so. In fact, it's probably time to consider the damage done by the Countdown miniseries and its related spinoffs."
--Dick Hyacinth
"Sometimes your boss is wrong. Yup, as amazing as it sounds, Dan DiDio, architect of today's DC Universe, the man who gets up in front of a million fans at conventions across the globe, my boss, was wrong."
--Mark Chiarello, from this week's unintentionally poorly-timed DC Nation
I linked to one of your DiDio posts a while ago on the comics groupblog "Howling Curmudgeons" and added this note:
ReplyDeleteFor a long time, I wasn't inclined to bash Dan DiDio. . . . But then DiDio started publishing his weekly "DC Nation" editorials. I finally stopped reading them after realizing that they made me feel bad--bad about liking superheroes, bad about liking DC, bad about liking comics. They made me despair for the future of the industry. So I stopped and I feel much better now.
At the risk of pouring gasoline onto the fire pits, Ryan from Film Fodder Comics has written a devastatingly detailed analysis in the case against Dan DiDio’s tenure at DC.
ReplyDeletewww.filmfodder.com/comics
Not only does Ryan cite DD’s pros as well as his cons, he offers some constructive suggestions to DD. It’s worth reading.
Personally I think it’s too late for DiDio, as he’s certainly lost my confidence and trust and I’m not altogether sure that he was EVER interested in the confidence and trust of the fans/consumers.
I’m not eager to see anyone fired in this economy but perhaps there is a place within the DC/Warner mothership where DD’s strengths can be best applied WITHOUT damaging a 70-year-old comic book franchise. Something that’s a lateral move at best and NOT a promotion.
Cheers,
FanBoyWonder
I think Dirk's right -- Countdown (and before that, World War III) have burnt up a lot of DC's goodwill. They showed that the company was willing to put out something cheapjack and slapdash for the money grab, and that's something that's hard to forgive or forget.
ReplyDeleteI should probably add to my initial comment that I think both Trinity and Final Crisis are pretty good. Their sales are likely being undermined by the earlier anything-for-a-buck comics, but hopefully they'll help set the groundwork for a change in rep.
ReplyDeleteI think Trinity is more likely to be successful in that regard; Final Crisis has too much baggage to really soar in the eyes of fans, even if the story and art were beyond reproach.
Yeah when I first read that DC Nation column this week I was like "oh boy, that was an interesting judgment call." Maybe they thought of it as some sort of contrition, but I'm not inclined to think so.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing when I was reading the DC Nation page too. I wasn't sure if it was going to come up anywhere else though since I was starting to think I might be the only person that actually slogs through the whole thing each week.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, bad timing. If I were Dan DiDio I'd have tugged on my shirt collar and gulped after seeing that.
Have a good day.
G Morrow
I suppose all this Didio hate is lost on me 'cause I have no real investment in DC previous to 2005 and the cartoons. Honestly, overall, I like what DC is doing a LOT more than Marvel these days.
ReplyDeleteLooks like they nuked the thread over there.
ReplyDelete