Also, Newsarama has confirmed Didio is no longer with the company in any capacity and it was very unexpected as he was still scheduled to appear at C2E2 next week
BlankZoe on
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
It could also be something worse. Like, maybe the reason that asshole abuser Superman editor was allowed to stay around.
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Garlic Breadi'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm aRegistered User, Disagreeableregular
I should read Didio's OMAC run at some point. I heard it was great
I feel like I usually have a better grasp on these things, ugh, there are gonna be so many nerds on my train.
Yeah I haven't been for a few years and a lot of my friends go but man I just don't like spending $35 to go buy stuff anymore. At least at GenCon I get to play games
Well the thing is it seems sudden to us but judging from the crossed wires and messaging with stuff like King's Batman it is clear editorial has been a mess for a while and lots of reports going around at the time mentioned that with the buyout DC was under more of a microscope than before
Spending the first half a year or more under your new bosses fucking up and having sales decrease across the board (individual titles did well but DC is down as a whole) is not a great look
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GustavFriend of GoatsSomewhere in the OzarksRegistered Userregular
The Tom King Batman kerfuffle was just so fucking weird.
+6
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
The Tom King Batman kerfuffle was just so fucking weird.
It was wild
BC Reported it, DC denied it
Then later they confirmed it but spun it as WE DECIDED TO GIVE TOM THE FREEDOM HE NEEDS TO DO BATMAN/CATWOMAN
King says this doesn't affect anything and Bat/Cat will be out the month after his run ends
DC says Batman will go back to a monthly schedule
Then, afterwards:
City of Bane is clearly severely rushed
Bat/Cat is delayed to the point where they are refusing to give a release date
Tynion is announced as the new writer and even after work has started DC changes it to twice monthly and he has to drop other books
So BC, which as always should be treated as rumors at best but have had a pretty long history of accurate DC leaks for over a year now, is reporting that Didio was booted over a combination of talent and staff leaving the company at a high rate and the substantial editorial issues that have plagued DC's various lines for the past year.
Additionally, 5G is now up in the air a bit as it was Didio's big project and he was behind the whole NEW TIMELINE idea.
The lead-in issue also added the subtitle GENERATION ZERO: GODS AMONG US which is...an ominous title for something A) not in that particular universe and not written by Tom Taylor.
My first thought was that I hope this leads to Geoff Johns having more influence over the comic book side of DC, if not outright taking Didio's job. Allegedly, the last half decade of DC Comics has been a competition between Johns' vision and Didio's vision, with Johns slowly losing more and more ground to Didio. They say that Johns was the mastermind behind DC Rebirth, and that Didio was the driving force behind marginalizing or outright undoing most of the changes Rebirth made before they could have any lasting impact. I hope that Didio being let go is a sign that upper management has now realized they backed the wrong horse.
My second thought is that I really hope this means they're not going through with 5G as it is currently envisioned. I've been skeptical of 5G since it was first leaked, as it sounds like a doubling down on an idea that Marvel already proved doesn't work. Now that I know the entire project likely is and has always been a desperate gimmick to save Didio's job, I feel even worse about its chances of success. Some parts of 5G can probably be salvaged as an imprint or even just a mini-series, but implementing it as a line-wide replacement would be foolhardy in the extreme.
That being said, I've been a big fan of many of the things that Didio has worked on, going as far back as the the third season of the animated television show ReBoot. I may not have always approved of his handling of DC Comics, but I do wish him luck in his future endeavors.
Both from the fact that he appears to be shitty in leadership positions (his comics imprint was announced over a year ago and has had zero news, Candace Patton told a story where early on when filming Flash she talked to him [he was a Producer] and said she loved it and hoped she would get to dress up in a super suit some day and he brusquely said Iris would never ever suit up and Diane Nelson seems to hate his guts as she has actively distanced herself from him both on professional and personal levels) but also because he is more responsible for the direction of the DCU over the past 15 years than just about anyone and the good he did with that is vastly outweighed by the bad, IMO.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Feels like every DC popular writer/editor has some astonishingly bad character take that drives me nutty. Johns extreme focus on Barry Allen and Hal Jordan really gets to me. Didio apparently tried to destroy Nightwing harder than Blockbuster ever did. Etc.
the good he did with that is vastly outweighed by the bad, IMO
I guess we'll just have to disagree on that.
I think people forget how many DC properties were at an all time low, on the verge of permanent irrelevancy, before Johns swooped in and saved them. The Flash Rogues, the Justice Society, Green Lantern, the Teen Titans, Aquaman, the list goes on. Booster Gold would be a forgotten character today if Geoff hadn't reminded everyone why he's so great in 52 and his 2007 series. He's proven that he not only knows the A-listers inside and out, he can make the also-rans work too.
DC Rebirth gave us a brief taste of what it would be like to have his style of property rejuvenation applied to the entire line before it was all undone, allegedly by Didio himself. It was working. They should try it again.
Rebirth being Johns' baby is being grossly exaggerated, IMO
He wrote exactly 3 Rebirth era comics:
The Rebirth one shot (which was, admittedly, fantastic)
Doomsday Clock
And Shazam
Of those, one was a single issue, one is a fun series that is actively avoiding being in continuity and super delayed and the other is a huge mess of a book that is both really bad and also was such an editorial clusterfuck it caused DC as a whole to scramble and come up with new directions for their lines and eventually give up on having it drive the universe
Johns may have got the ball rolling with Rebirth but it quickly became something he was barely involved with
Whereas I found just about everything he did with those characters bad, so... I don't think we're going to come to agreement here.
Subjective opinions will always vary, and yours is by no means any less valid than mine, but I think the success of his runs, and the disastrous failure of the runs that preceded them in most cases, speaks for itself.
Whereas I found just about everything he did with those characters bad, so... I don't think we're going to come to agreement here.
Subjective opinions will always vary, and yours is by no means any less valid than mine, but I think the success of his runs, and the disastrous failure of the runs that preceded them in most cases, speaks for itself.
Johns turning GL from a third tier franchise to the tentpole of the line is genuinely impressive and something he deserves credit for
I think the majority of his GL run isn't very good, but it is a genuine achievement
The rest of the things you mentioned
Less so
Flash wasn't floundering before Johns, it was in a bit of a lull but Waid had his lengthy, loved run on the title not too long before Johns as well as the short Millar/Morrison run
The JSA did well but he didn't rebuild them into a huge dynamo, just made their book a consistent seller
And while he did really try to push Aquaman and got the character a spotlight, the work that came after (especially Abnett's run) is so much better it is hard to praise it beyond a "well, he sure did push Aquaman" level
This is also ignoring the other revamps he did like with Teen Titans which put the book into a shock based violent era that it still hasn't pulled out from and the complete mess that was the New 52 Justice League.
Whereas I found just about everything he did with those characters bad, so... I don't think we're going to come to agreement here.
Subjective opinions will always vary, and yours is by no means any less valid than mine, but I think the success of his runs, and the disastrous failure of the runs that preceded them in most cases, speaks for itself.
Johns turning GL from a third tier franchise to the tentpole of the line is genuinely impressive and something he deserves credit for
I think the majority of his GL run isn't very good, but it is a genuine achievement
The rest of the things you mentioned
Less so
Flash wasn't floundering before Johns, it was in a bit of a lull but Waid had his lengthy, loved run on the title not too long before Johns as well as the short Millar/Morrison run
The JSA did well but he didn't rebuild them into a huge dynamo, just made their book a consistent seller
And while he did really try to push Aquaman and got the character a spotlight, the work that came after (especially Abnett's run) is so much better it is hard to praise it beyond a "well, he sure did push Aquaman" level
This is also ignoring the other revamps he did like with Teen Titans which put the book into a shock based violent era that it still hasn't pulled out from and the complete mess that was the New 52 Justice League.
Also lets not forget Power girls reason for the Boob window.
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
Rebirth being Johns' baby is being grossly exaggerated, IMO
He wrote exactly 3 Rebirth era comics:
The Rebirth one shot (which was, admittedly, fantastic)
Doomsday Clock
And Shazam
Of those, one was a single issue, one is a fun series that is actively avoiding being in continuity and super delayed and the other is a huge mess of a book that is both really bad and also was such an editorial clusterfuck it caused DC as a whole to scramble and come up with new directions for their lines and eventually give up on having it drive the universe
Johns may have got the ball rolling with Rebirth but it quickly became something he was barely involved with
Geoff Johns was consulting with every DC writer for the first few months after Rebirth. He was already acting as publisher and editor-in-chief in an unofficial capacity. He didn't tell anyone about it because he knew it would be humiliating for Dan Didio and Bob Harris, and he wanted to spare them that embarrassment.
Turns out Didio was pretty humiliated by it anyway and convinced upper management to minimize Johns' influence, using the enormous early sales of The New 52 as his argument for why he should be put back in charge. Management offered Johns the ominously named Killing Zone imprint as a gesture of good will to show there were no hard feelings.
Considering you're someone who clearly pays a lot of attention to the behind-the-scenes parts of the industry, I'm surprised you don't already know about this. A lot of ex-DC writers have talked about how Johns was pretty much the king of DC in 2016.
Rebirth lasted those 4 years and many of its best titles/stories came after that initial launch and had zero involvement from Johns
Johns absolutely started Rebirth and was heavily involved with the beginning but the narrative you're pushing where he had his influence taken from him makes no sense
Dude was given his own comics imprint, put in charge of a direct sequel to Watchmen that also was originally billed to be the spine of the entire DCU and also Three Jokers.
I do not like Didio, but Johns clearly was still extremely well liked by the company as a whole and chose to step back and do other projects (along with his increased interest in the film and TV aspects of his position) and the idea that Johns selflessly put his entire career on the line for Rebirth and then had it stolen out from under him both doesn't line up with what actually happened and also reeks of gossip/bias
Posts
And supposedly Black Label was his big idea
Sounds like its legit
Also, Newsarama has confirmed Didio is no longer with the company in any capacity and it was very unexpected as he was still scheduled to appear at C2E2 next week
I mean Didio is a scumbag for allowing that to happen, but still
I feel like I usually have a better grasp on these things, ugh, there are gonna be so many nerds on my train.
Eddie Berganza?
who is starting a publishing line with Eric M Esquivel because comics is a nightmare industry
I just find it weird that a performance issue would be this sudden.
It could also be a health thing, for example. I just went to the worst thing I could think of.
Yeah I haven't been for a few years and a lot of my friends go but man I just don't like spending $35 to go buy stuff anymore. At least at GenCon I get to play games
Why would you tell me this
kinda grody to be speculating like this tho, dogg
grody as hell
Spending the first half a year or more under your new bosses fucking up and having sales decrease across the board (individual titles did well but DC is down as a whole) is not a great look
BC Reported it, DC denied it
Then later they confirmed it but spun it as WE DECIDED TO GIVE TOM THE FREEDOM HE NEEDS TO DO BATMAN/CATWOMAN
King says this doesn't affect anything and Bat/Cat will be out the month after his run ends
DC says Batman will go back to a monthly schedule
Then, afterwards:
City of Bane is clearly severely rushed
Bat/Cat is delayed to the point where they are refusing to give a release date
Tynion is announced as the new writer and even after work has started DC changes it to twice monthly and he has to drop other books
Its such a mess
Additionally, 5G is now up in the air a bit as it was Didio's big project and he was behind the whole NEW TIMELINE idea.
The lead-in issue also added the subtitle GENERATION ZERO: GODS AMONG US which is...an ominous title for something A) not in that particular universe and
I feel like it’s way earlier than usual, I remember it being like mid-to-late March most years
My first thought was that I hope this leads to Geoff Johns having more influence over the comic book side of DC, if not outright taking Didio's job. Allegedly, the last half decade of DC Comics has been a competition between Johns' vision and Didio's vision, with Johns slowly losing more and more ground to Didio. They say that Johns was the mastermind behind DC Rebirth, and that Didio was the driving force behind marginalizing or outright undoing most of the changes Rebirth made before they could have any lasting impact. I hope that Didio being let go is a sign that upper management has now realized they backed the wrong horse.
My second thought is that I really hope this means they're not going through with 5G as it is currently envisioned. I've been skeptical of 5G since it was first leaked, as it sounds like a doubling down on an idea that Marvel already proved doesn't work. Now that I know the entire project likely is and has always been a desperate gimmick to save Didio's job, I feel even worse about its chances of success. Some parts of 5G can probably be salvaged as an imprint or even just a mini-series, but implementing it as a line-wide replacement would be foolhardy in the extreme.
That being said, I've been a big fan of many of the things that Didio has worked on, going as far back as the the third season of the animated television show ReBoot. I may not have always approved of his handling of DC Comics, but I do wish him luck in his future endeavors.
Not be a fan of Johns taking power
Both from the fact that he appears to be shitty in leadership positions (his comics imprint was announced over a year ago and has had zero news, Candace Patton told a story where early on when filming Flash she talked to him [he was a Producer] and said she loved it and hoped she would get to dress up in a super suit some day and he brusquely said Iris would never ever suit up and Diane Nelson seems to hate his guts as she has actively distanced herself from him both on professional and personal levels) but also because he is more responsible for the direction of the DCU over the past 15 years than just about anyone and the good he did with that is vastly outweighed by the bad, IMO.
Yeah it's super early for sure. I feel like late March or even April is more standard.
Who wants to be in Chicago in fucking February?
Well Keith Giffen wrote it so that tracks
I guess we'll just have to disagree on that.
I think people forget how many DC properties were at an all time low, on the verge of permanent irrelevancy, before Johns swooped in and saved them. The Flash Rogues, the Justice Society, Green Lantern, the Teen Titans, Aquaman, the list goes on. Booster Gold would be a forgotten character today if Geoff hadn't reminded everyone why he's so great in 52 and his 2007 series. He's proven that he not only knows the A-listers inside and out, he can make the also-rans work too.
DC Rebirth gave us a brief taste of what it would be like to have his style of property rejuvenation applied to the entire line before it was all undone, allegedly by Didio himself. It was working. They should try it again.
He wrote exactly 3 Rebirth era comics:
The Rebirth one shot (which was, admittedly, fantastic)
Doomsday Clock
And Shazam
Of those, one was a single issue, one is a fun series that is actively avoiding being in continuity and super delayed and the other is a huge mess of a book that is both really bad and also was such an editorial clusterfuck it caused DC as a whole to scramble and come up with new directions for their lines and eventually give up on having it drive the universe
Johns may have got the ball rolling with Rebirth but it quickly became something he was barely involved with
Subjective opinions will always vary, and yours is by no means any less valid than mine, but I think the success of his runs, and the disastrous failure of the runs that preceded them in most cases, speaks for itself.
I think the majority of his GL run isn't very good, but it is a genuine achievement
The rest of the things you mentioned
Less so
Flash wasn't floundering before Johns, it was in a bit of a lull but Waid had his lengthy, loved run on the title not too long before Johns as well as the short Millar/Morrison run
The JSA did well but he didn't rebuild them into a huge dynamo, just made their book a consistent seller
And while he did really try to push Aquaman and got the character a spotlight, the work that came after (especially Abnett's run) is so much better it is hard to praise it beyond a "well, he sure did push Aquaman" level
This is also ignoring the other revamps he did like with Teen Titans which put the book into a shock based violent era that it still hasn't pulled out from and the complete mess that was the New 52 Justice League.
Also lets not forget Power girls reason for the Boob window.
Geoff Johns was consulting with every DC writer for the first few months after Rebirth. He was already acting as publisher and editor-in-chief in an unofficial capacity. He didn't tell anyone about it because he knew it would be humiliating for Dan Didio and Bob Harris, and he wanted to spare them that embarrassment.
Turns out Didio was pretty humiliated by it anyway and convinced upper management to minimize Johns' influence, using the enormous early sales of The New 52 as his argument for why he should be put back in charge. Management offered Johns the ominously named Killing Zone imprint as a gesture of good will to show there were no hard feelings.
Considering you're someone who clearly pays a lot of attention to the behind-the-scenes parts of the industry, I'm surprised you don't already know about this. A lot of ex-DC writers have talked about how Johns was pretty much the king of DC in 2016.
That was 4 years ago
Rebirth lasted those 4 years and many of its best titles/stories came after that initial launch and had zero involvement from Johns
Johns absolutely started Rebirth and was heavily involved with the beginning but the narrative you're pushing where he had his influence taken from him makes no sense
Dude was given his own comics imprint, put in charge of a direct sequel to Watchmen that also was originally billed to be the spine of the entire DCU and also Three Jokers.
I do not like Didio, but Johns clearly was still extremely well liked by the company as a whole and chose to step back and do other projects (along with his increased interest in the film and TV aspects of his position) and the idea that Johns selflessly put his entire career on the line for Rebirth and then had it stolen out from under him both doesn't line up with what actually happened and also reeks of gossip/bias
Why
Why even do it at this point
Well fortunately there's two more
it won awards!
yeah it was great when the joker's makeup in suicide squad won an oscar
Deck of nothing but Jokers
52 cards in a deck
52 weeks in a year
Weekly comic
Every week a new Joker
pay me