DC only or any? Outside of DC, Mark Bagley is solid, but it remains to be seen if he meets his DC requirements.

Meanwhile, it’s a very good point that fans are promised long running creative teams only to have them swap out left and right. Can anyone think of a team or even a single writer or artist who’s stuck around as promised without fill ins or swap outs? And if there is a book that did, is it on the canceled list?

It’s worth more now considering that James Robinson isn’t leaving Superman.

ENZ

But I do echo the sentiments of some of the posters here. Regardless of the truth (or not) of this gossip, there is something that just doen’t “feel” like DC going on in the DCU. Marvel stories seem to flow better, the cohesiveness is more apparent, the stories tighter. Not sure why, but it does impact my enjoyment of the DCU when these elements are missing.

ENZ

Sphinx, I can’t tell if you’re agreeing with me or disagreeing with me.

“sean mckeever go back to writing one of the worst runs in titans history and stop kissing the ass of your boss ”

YEAH! or better yet, go back to writing The Waiting Place! That book was great! **messing with McKeever. I haven’t read Titans or much else he’s written other than The Waiting Place which was a great book and everyone should read it. **

Stockholders? Of what? Time Warner, a vast media conglomerate of which DC publishing is a small, hardly noticed facet? Someone with a vested interest in Time Warner is going to get angry about a small part of TW’s business that remains profitable as an IP mine and a publisher for media tie ins regardless of who is in charge of editorial?

I’m all for holding comics publishers to a high standard, but I think it’s fair to say that we’re flying far below the radar here.

Wow, you sure put me in my place, Anonymous Person Without Anything to Add to the Discussion! One more terrible comic coming your way, posthaste!

As I read it, Didio’s not saying Daniel’s taking over Batman, simply that Daniel’s wrangling the overarching thingawhatsit before we get back to actual Morrison. Which I translate as another two-to-three month blip on the far side of Gaiman’s dealy that’s -also- not Morrison. Call it Morrison’s much-needed vacation. I don’t imagine any of it will affect his overall plan for Batman. There was a similar interruption very early on, the Ostrander & Mandrake blip in ‘06, followed by the tepid & pointless ‘Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul’– which many fondly remember as Daniels’ first appearance on art chores.

(sigh)

Because Morrison’s Batman is the only DC title I’m reading now I want to defend Daniels. But I can’t. Every time I find something to appreciate about his work I feel as though I’m denying reality. I’ve even tried to blame it on the inker, but… I can’t unsee the similarity between what he’s drawing now and his debut on ‘X-Force’ in ‘95. The compositions & linework are just as awkward & forced. Not to be unkind, but his art style’s developmentally stunted.

And this is the guy drawing the only DC title I’m reading.

A FLAGSHIP title.

Neal Adams’ old turf.

Sometimes I re-imagine parts of ‘R.I.P.’ as though they were drawn by Michael Lark and weep for what could have been.

…

Anyway, I sincerely doubt Didio’s going to ruin his already tenuous public partnership with Morrison by handing the reins over to Daniel. I hope to god not. My pull box is emaciated as it is…

Well, no, they don’t.

And besides, Rich is very clear about the fact that he’s reporting gossip. You can argue about the ethics of that until the cows come home, but you certainly can’t claim that he’s trying to fool anyone into regarding what the column says as factual.

Did anybody bother to follow up and try to verify those claims? Maybe they’re accurate and maybe they’re not but even Fox News has better journalistic standards than that.

As said above, I do stand corrected. The point is, Action was mainly a book without Superman spotlighting other characters instead and while some might blame the weekly format, it still failed, many believe because the main draw, Superman was not prominantly featured.

And given Dan’s 7 yr track record, its highly unlikely he’ll be able to make the Milestone or Archie characters interesting or successful either. Even if he hires great creators, chances are, they will fly the coup like all the others if they don’t agree with Dan’s direction.

Bottom line about his direction? Dan seems to think his brain is like a Great House of Ideas but given his record, that’s one house that should be scheduled for demolition, or especially in this time, due to abysmal sales, foreclosure.

Gene: I beg to differ. Not saying Jim was perfect (the 1st JLAvengers) and I wasn’t even a huge fan of Marvel during Jim’s tenure, I was more of a DC guy at that point in time but again, say what you will, during Jim’s tenure he gave readers…

- the Classic Claremont / Byrne X-Men (which some may have believed he clucked up killing Phoenix but then, with that, he made that story the infamous tale it is today and we wouldn’t have had the Cockrum, Paul Smith, John Romita Jr art that followed when Byrne left to do…)

- the Classic Byrne FF
- Walt Simonson’s Thor
- Frank Miller’s Daredevil
- George Perez Avengers

And again, among many, his time at Marvel is considered classic, well revered amongst fans and sold pretty darn good. Which the same can’t be said for Didio.

Funky Flashman, of course!

Only Larry Lance, the last of the dead DC characters yet to return, can save us now.

Now…with that REVEAL…doesn’t the Dan DiDio DC Universe suddenly make sense?

I know - see an earlier post of mine from last week.

But the last comic written by Daniel was published in 2005, he’s only written his own creations to date, has never garnered any critical acclaim for his writing to speak of, and the total number of comic books he’s written seems to be below 50 in a span of more than ten years.

You can argue whether that makes him an “unknown quantity,” but bearing all this in mind, in the very least, he’s a very odd choice DC for a major Batman story - particularly in the middle of Morrison’s stuff, who was meant to return to the book after Gaiman’s two-parter.

Also, is Robinson really off Superman?

(Anyone who would like to commit some actual journalism with respect to these questions and others raised by that yentah Johnston is enthusiastically encouraged to do so.)

Historically, some of the most memorable comics runs have come from books with low sales and low expectations. Some examples include:
- Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen
- Neal Adams’ X-Men
- Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams on Batman and on Green Lantern/Green Arrow
- Dave Cockrum’s Legion of Super-Heroes
- Frank Miller’s Daredevil
- Peter David’s Hulk

Right now, DC might be a good place to start creating some bang-up stories. If they could finally get away from the multi-issue crossover epics which totally tank any chance for a decent storyline.

Ditto.

Or should I say Didio.

It is, I think, mainly due to his rather ineffectual overseering of the DC Universe proper (ignoring outside gems like Fables or Ex Machina) that I have dropped title after title over the last several years, only concentrating now on whatever Morrison has been involved in. Should Morrison find himself displeased with having his creativity stifled & altered by Didio’s less than mediocre vision of the future, I see little reason to drop serious overinflated coin on anything that comes from the DCU should Morrison decide to walk.

It’s a real shame that someday in the future, after Didio is gone, that DC will have to resort to yet ANOTHER ret-con of its universe & major characters to undo the damage being done here. You know it’s coming. Maybe they’ll name it The Son of the Return of the Infinite Final Crisis; No Shit, This Time It’s For Reals - Honest!!

Morrison is always late with all his books.
Dini’s Detective isn’t selling well, although the stories are pretty good.

“…letting James Robinson leave Superman…”

He wasn’t going to stay very long anyway. He is Hollywood these days, not comic books.

“Batman gone and no more Superman in Action? Dan claims it will be the first time in the history of Action that this is done. Well, not so Dan because Action was Superman-less when it was a weekly beginning in #601 and that was a failure as well.”

No, ACTION was not Superman-less during the period it was ACTION COMICS WEEKLY. Superman had a 2-page feature in the center of the book, drawn by none other than the legendary Curt Swan.