News spilled around the Interwebs on Friday when it was rumored Dan DiDio may have been given his walking paper from the company. Turns out it was actually DC Comics’ senior vice president of business development John Nee that left the company.
In a time when sales are slumping (how could Final Crisis #1 not outsell Secret Invasion #2), fans are upset in the direction the company is going with its heroes (certain Batman and Crisis titles come to mind), and some general fanboy hate towards the company, it’s no wonder people are calling for Dan DiDio’s head.
Nikke Finke from Deadline Hollywood Daily attempts to put it all together.
The problem isn’t just that, under DiDio’s leadership, fanboys are disappointed with the directions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and other characters. (How dopey of DiDio to come out with a new series Decisions this September where the superheroes take political stands timed to the election.) Little wonder that fanboys are selling “Dan DiDio Must Die” t-shirts. But also average sales of the DCU line are down more than 20% from a year ago, and DiDio has lost a big chunk of existing readers in a year while deliberately failing to reach out to new ones.
Interesting… Dirk Deppy has a better break down of the situation over at his site. While I generally agree with most of the arguments people are making across the entire universe, I feel the fault is more in a select group of writer who is forcing his (or her) agenda down the throats of his (or her) editors who don’t have the backbone to stand up to that writer for fear of loosing the company’s golden boy (or girl). Then there is that whole advertising thing I mentioned a few months ago that seems to be a slam dunk solution for the company.
What are your thoughts on the whole DC situation, should DiDio stay or go? Will all this be swept under the table when The Dark Knight hits theaters and there is a resurgence of interest in the Batman titles?
Regardless, I’m a direhard DC fan, and if you have seen my latest pull list, it looks like it is me that is keeping the company afloat with my huge DC pull list featuring nearly everything DC has to offer.
9 Comments
Honestly, Dan Didion should go. I’m not going to call for his head, but he needs to go.
Also, Grant Morrison needs to go. The most disturbing thing I have heard about his Batman R.I.P. arc is Martha Wayne be turned into a heroin addict and Thomas Wayne a drunk. On top of that, they’re swingers. And when Grant Morrison is quoted as saying that what he is doing to Batman is worse than death, I think it’s high time the editors step in.
Seriously, what was everyone thinking when they greenlit this? They had to know that the Dark Knight was coming out. Didn’t they? So any potential (and that’s if they even know where to go to get comics) new readers who want to read about Batman are going to be put off by Batman R.I.P.
And I understand the movie driving in new readers is a slim arguement, but seriously, what were they smoking?
Josh, I agree with you completely.
“Also, Grant Morrison needs to go. The most disturbing thing I have heard about his Batman R.I.P. arc is Martha Wayne be turned into a heroin addict and Thomas Wayne a drunk. On top of that, they’re swingers. And when Grant Morrison is quoted as saying that what he is doing to Batman is worse than death, I think it’s high time the editors step in.”
Of course anyone reading Batman RIP knows these allegations come from the Black Glove, the criminal organization trying to screw with Batman mentally.
I, like Sephen, am a diehard DC fan. While I’m poor and wait for the trades, sitting on the side lines looking at the over all DCU, with the help of this most excelent site, there does seem to be something ‘wrong’ with it. I love it, don’t get me wrong, but everything seems off.
I don’t know what it is, maybe all the recent deaths have jaded me, but it just feels like Marvel is running a tighter ship. Maybe DC is trying to be too epic in scope. We probably don’t need a crazy maxi series every year.
Less is more. Maybe things need to be more character driven, like “Blackest Night” next year. That’s the next MAJOR EPIC, but it’s only about the GLC. Sure they’re be some spill over with the rest of the heroes, but at it’s core, it’s a GLC story.
I apologize for rambling, but I’d like the DCU to get fixed. There just doesn’t seem to be an easy answer.
I am also not a didio hater, but I absoluely do hate what has become of the DC Universe, The decimation of Aquaman and the enitre Aqua-family, lack of continuity in stories, the killing off of charachters only to have them replaced in another issue by a poseur with the same name and constume is just direspectful to the medium. And so far “Final Crisis” seems to be making the train wreck that was “Infinite Crisis” look good. I have seriously cut down the number of DC books I buy per month to 1 or 2…how sad
@ Kwaku-
IF that’s the case, then that’ll hopefully turn out fine.
I’m not reading R.I.P. because I wait for trades, but when that is what is reported in “the mainstream” press, then I worry (it was Scottish newspaper, I can’t remember the name but the link was on the Newsarama).
Seriously, I think Morrison is talented, but maybe it’s time he stepped away from superheroes and did his own thing again. It really does seem that he can’t be bothered to play nice within the SHARED universe he’s being paid to play in. Is that his fault, or his editor’s? Who knows.
i’m glad i’m not the only one who thinks G.Morrison needs to learn to play nicer with the rest of the writing staff…. i like lots of his stuff, i’m even reading the Seven Soldiers thing because it’s supposed to be more tied to Final Crisis than “Countdown” was… But he seems to project an air of “Write along with my story, or don’t — i’ll do it anyway”, and that’s not what i want out of somebody who’s supposed to be taking the whole company towards “the future”. Maybe it worked back in the days of Stan The Man, and Alan Moore, but i’m sure even THOSE guys accepted suggestions…
And add my name to the list of DCholics…. i like my crisiseses, i guess?
Well, I for one have no theory on what and who is the problem with DC. I do know Final Crisis left me cold. I found Countdown to be a festering turd. And Geoff Johns seems to be the only guy who seems to do right.
But yeah, the proof of performance is in the sales. At a time when you can’t sell many 20 year old funny books on e-bay for more than 99 cents, when our favorite medium to blog or read about is dying slowly in overall sales, to lose 20 fucking percent of your audience in a year is beyond tolerable, it’s reprehensible.
So yeah, he’s gotta go.
I am a die hard DC fan. I left for a while, but Final Crisis brought me back. I got hooked again. I think one thing that has caused this exodus from DC is the weekly. DC is asking too much of its readers financially and not giving enough in the book itself. The first part is the weekly. I got burned on the weekly. 52, I am sorry, was a slow death that just took damn forever to tell a story. It sure as hell did not have to be a weekly. First nail in the coffin. Second nail was countdown. I thought nothing could be worse than 52. Boy was i wrong! Countdown was worse. Besides this, when I read a book now 1/3 of it is ads. Give us more for our money. What do I collect? JLA and JSA. I started the Titans. I stopped on Teen Titans because the writting started sucking. Sorry I am not giving you writters a long time to do something unless it is damn good. I dont pay much attention to the big three, but hell who has all the funds to collect all the titles they are in. I will wait for trades. Where is the petition to get rid of Didio? I want to sign that one. He needs to go. I hope DC reads these websites because they need to.