Oh...DC
I am starting to sound like a broken record. I love...I absolutely LOVE DC characters. Well, except for Geo-Force, but that's just me. And Snapper Carr.
Where was I? Oh yes, I love your characters. They have a Long and Rich history. They have made me very very happy over the years. So why then am I so unhappy with you as of late?
For one thing, treating the writers and the artists who bring these wonderful characters to life for all of us fans, as though they were something you stepped in, is a piss-poor way to run a business. And I fully understand that it IS a business, and that some books, although I may love them to death, don't sell as well as others, and that having an award-winning writer and artist on a book is no absolute guaranty that that book will sell bucketloads of copies.
However.
Openly treating those award-winning writers and artists with contempt and disdain is only going to come back around and bite you in the behind. There ARE other companies out there, who would be more than happy to hire away your award-winning creators and make you look stupid in the process. Or they can self-publish, and do whatever they want with their OWN characters, and without having to go through the editorial nightmare that you all seem to call a great way to run...or destroy...a company.
Also...when your fans are not happy with you, as so very very many fans are NOT, it really doesn't make you look very mature when you have a stock bundle of snarky retorts, that you seem to just pull out of the air, willy-nilly, whether it had anything to do with the original complaint or not. And yes, Mr. Didio, I am looking at you.
And Furthermore...
Mr. Didio says that Heroes are supposed to have miserable lives, and that their whole existance is one of bleakness and pain. Any sort of good thing happening to the average hero, be it a romantic interest, or marriage, or children, or simply getting to eat their Big Belly Burger unhampered, is Wrong, and nobody wants to read about any sort of good things happening. Gloom and Doom must be constant and uninterrupted.
To which I say...poppycock.
There are reasons that books such as the old Justice League International, Nextwave, Blue Beetle, Hawkeye, Young Avengers, Ambush Bug and countless others were critical favorites. There is also that unrelenting love of old Golden and Silver Age comics that will never dim. And damn it, I LIKED the 1960's Batman!
I have nothing against a well-told and well-drawn modern comic book that is dark and edgy. I loved Sandman and Hitman and Hellblazer, and those are pretty damned dark! But they also had superb storytelling, and a certain amount of humor. Black humor perhaps...but humor nevertheless. But when all you can offer up to your customers, is more gore and decapitations, dismemberments and unrelenting misery...well pardon me for thinking that I can find better offerings elsewhere.
Which isn't to say that Marvel doesn't infuritate me sometimes too, and I still haven't quite forgiven them for Civil War. But I have been finding quite a lot of really nice things on the other side of the aisle lately, from Young Avengers, to Daredevil to Hawkeye. Then there is Saga, and I'm really going to try and find Action Philosophers because it looks fabulous,and plenty of other good books out there.
So, to the editorial board at DC. Either get off of your meds, or please try some new ones. I love giving you my money, don't make me stop!
Thank you Hal!
posted by SallyP @ 12:34 PM
6 Comments:
I felt sure I'd see a posting from you about this, Sally. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone miss the point quite so spectacularly as DiDio. Maybe there's a way to make him understand by using terms that he'll grasp:
Dear Dan, there's a REASON that Marvel's movies are slaughtering DC's in the box office. There's a reason SHIELD is on a major network (and will garner BIG ratings), but Arrow is on one of the little ones. There's a reason that Marvel's animated properties are expanding while DC's are contracting.
The reason? Marvel's stuff is FUN. Yes, there are high stakes. But there's still time for Hulk to slug Thor. Robert Downey, Jr. still has time to crack jokes. Heck, the first episode of Avengers Assemble on Disney XD cracked my entire family up, twice.
Ponder that, Dan, and see if you can find some way that it applies to your comics. I think that if you try, you might be able to.
I'll never understand this limited thinking that all heroes have to be unhappy in their personal lives. I'm kind of glad Jurgens never revealed who Rip's mom is since they'd just do something dumb even through Rip's birth is at some unknown date. It might be a moot point since we don't know if their still related but Johns is the one who did that and last mentioned Rip.
Didio just meant Batman related characters have to have miserable personal lives. It's just coincidence most of the others in the line do too...
You're so on point on this Sally/Hal.
I too wrote my own Dear John/Dear DC letter last month. It's heart-breaking to see these characters we loved and love so much be reduced to cheap cut-outs and caricatures of themselves isn't it? And with Dan Dildo's continued zeal for further "towing the corporate line" and making them worse, it's no wonder fans are being driven away faster than they're coming.
As I've long said, it's not until there's a total management sweep from top to middle, with bob harras and dan didio being fired, that any good, relevant changes won't occur.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that things have gone seriously awry at DC lately.
Dale, it didn't really occur to me that Bob Harras may be one of the culprits, but I do remember an awful lot of people were ecstatic when he left Marvel.
Bryan, Marvel is indeed slaughtering DC at the box office. Avengers wasn't the greatest movie in the world, but by God, I liked it...because there were moments of hilarity amongst the mayhem.
And Erin, I miss Rip something fierce.
Booster and Rip, ummmm... Father and Son that idea it was really dumb, i love both characters, but no thanks.
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