It’s likely Beaty was put off by the fact that Wertham doesn’t come off as a three-dimensional figure, but that didn’t bother me much, as I felt the man ACTED like a cartoon.

He gets Dwayne McDuffie to do JUSTICE LEAGUE. I buy two issues, thinking I’m going to get some great return to good superhero storytelling basics, as exemplified by McDuffie’s JLA cartoon.

Instead, I get this poorly-drawn **** that reads pretty much like any of the crossover crap. I read the same number of Meltzer issues and am horrified to say that Meltzer wrote a better JLA than McDuffie.

This suggests to me that Didio is not an editor who has any understanding of storytelling basics. He’s like a Shooter manque: “pile on the continuity until they cant’s take no more!”

1. Nearly all of his revamps have failed miserably. Fans wanted Firestorm, he gave them someone in a Firestorm costume, a book crashed and burned miserably. Atom? Blue Beetle?

Acclaimed books but people just ain’t buyin’… maybe it’s just that people don’t want to buy a comic where the main character was changed just to make for a more racially diverse line-up. It’s never worked before, why should these have been different? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. You want diversity, create new heroes but if you don’t replace one, don’t destroy the original in the process.

2. Many of the big name creators he signed on let people down in a big way. Kuberts? Heinberg?

3. The WW relaunch was a disaster with delays and stories printed out of order, which occured in Action as well. To say nothing of the Flash fiasco. Pissed off Wally readers by cancelling his book then tricked readers into investing into the Bart book (with some of the worse writing and art in decades) only to discover he planned on killing that character all along. Piss those fans off and then bring back Wally. WTF?

4. In 1985, DC did Crisis because it was felt that following 5 or 6 earths was too much for readers. What did Didio do to follow up? Undo the work there to unleash 52 new earths for readers to keep track of… but its all part of a big plan to clean it all up.

See comments on The Flash: Make mess, clean it up.

5. He spoiled the ending of 52 before the series was half completed.

6. He brought back Jason Todd then made this shlub of a character part of the spotlight on the spine of the DCU. Is it any wonder why Countdown was so broken?

7. Lastly, far too many of DC’s comics are littered with amateur, fan fiction type stories and art that is just pitifully bad. They feature characters who used to write themselves but are now slaves to the whims of some wannabe-professional fans.

Really, its not just One Year Later.

Again, it’s more like, One Thing After Another.

OYL was a concept with great potential, but just wasn’t executed that well.

And on the Tom Brevoort thing? I think part of it isn’t just disliking change, but change that really doesn’t make much sense. Peter makes a deal to save his aunt’s life…and that gets rid of his organic webs and The Other powers? Most of the complaints I’ve seen about The Other powers is about how they made a big deal introducing them and did nothing with them.

Still, Action Comics has become a must read, along with Booster Gold, Green Lantern, and JSA. Green Lantern Corps is getting good, Manhunter is returning, we’re FINALLY getting a Secret Six series, Gail is FINALLY writing Wonder Woman, and All-Star Superman should be on everyones reading list.

So, just ignore the cross-overs and stick to your regular books and all will be well.

Steve

And she’s a progger at heart. She’s a big fan of Bigelf!!

~

Coat

I can sum up DC’s problem in two words:

Dan Didio.

He may be a heckava guy outside but he’s broken the entire DCU. Which is kind of sad because they have the greatest library of characters in the world… but out of all of them, Didio is appears most obsessed with Dead Jason Todd, he’s been one of the main focal points at DC (and Countdown) since Didio’s Reign of Horror began.

Go figure.

DC’s Tagline? And Evil shall inherit the Earth.

No, just amateurs.

Well yeah, okay… same thing.

“2) by constructing the book as a morality tale with Bill Gaines as the hero and Fredric Wertham as the villain, too much is simplified;”

Reading the book, I never felt that Gaines was portrayed as a hero or as a man I would ever want to look up to. Hadju even includes a quote from a creator who portrays Gaines kindness, one of a handful of positive qualities Hadju gives him, as manipulative. Shoot, half the time Gaines is hopped up on pep pills.

I’m very surprised anyone can walk away from this book feeling that Gaines is a “Hero”.