Why I Continue to Hate DC

Another rant, it has been a little while since I have slammed DC, but thought that it was time again to crucify my ex-favorite comic book company.

I was inspired by the November solicitations.

It starts with the Batman Zero stuff. When this 11 issue arc started I thought, at last a Batman arc that is not going to be cheapened by endless add on books. What the fuck was I thinking? Snyder and Capullo are sales gods for DC and since DC can’t get their act together anywhere else let’s make it market driven. So we get Action Comics, Batgirl (not written by Gail Simone), Batwing, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Nightwing, Detective, Flash, Green Lantern Corps, Green Arrow and Red Hood and the Outlaws are all Zero year tie-in books. As an extra special fuck you they are all also $4. My answer is fuck you DC I will buy only the titles I normally get anyway.

After that we get the Forever Evil series part 3 of 7, which essentially is linked to all three JL books and 3 Forever Evil ancillary mini-series as well as Suicide Squad and Teen Titans. At least a few of those books are just $3.

This month also brings us Tom Taylor taking over Earth 2, which felt like a very personal vision of James Robinson. I’m not sure how this book will fare in my eyes going forward. The rest of the solicitations contain so many lackluster series that I hardly feel they are worth mentioning. I like that Soule is writing a bunch of books, but I know often it is not his vision, as much as he is just writing the screen play for the editorially mandated story. Specifically I’m speaking of the Superman / Wonder Woman book which is unappealing to me at this point. I will give it a try out based on Soule being the writer. We do have Wonder Woman still off in her own world and I have modest hopes for the Harley series but otherwise it is a bunch of pabulum. 

The solicitations are also notable for the lack of a solicitation for Justice League 3000. How many times is DC going to push the new creative team or book and have it fall apart before we even get an issue? The Kevin Maguire debacle, preceded by the Joshua Fialkov mess, the Andy Diggle Action Comics, the Jim Zub Birds of Prey, the etc, etc, etc. This is inexcusable in my mind. As a publishing company you do not need to make an announcement until you have everything well in hand. You have not only looked the fool, but you have unnecessarily dragged creators’ names in the mud or somehow perhaps tarnished them. Of course a DC snub may now be considered a seal of greatness.  

Also of late I have read Jon Layman espousing that he writes Detective Comics like a jazz piece, ready to move and groove to what ever has to be done. Keith Giffen was spouting off crap about how great it is to get Howard Porter on JL 3000 as he (hopefully) unintentionally pissed on Maguire. I know people need to eat and I know you have to swallow some pride to get along in a corporate environment but this stuff reeks of DC telling people to go out and talk up the great stuff about being here or else. Hell Didio and Lee interviews are a fucking joke, what do you expect the captains of the ship to say but double speak. It is a shame because a little honest and an occasion admission of screwing up can go a long way to generating some good will with the fan base.

I like it when Didio says it is just the internet crowd, look at the sales numbers guys, we are the bulk of your audience.

So many things make DC seem like a ship of fools. The 3D cover fuck up, which hopefully will allow me to sell some DC books for decent money, the renaming of Collider, the canceling of some Archives and no communication about when, if ever, it will be re-solicited.  Even inside the comics there are flaws all the time in the new continuity. I was reading Detective and this guy is dealing with Bruce Wayne and he wants to buy the tech that Wayne Industries makes for Batman. Bruce says why would you think I have anything to do with that? How about because of the whole Grant Morrison Batman Inc. storyline?  It is just incredible that Grant had to reshape his story to fit the new 52 and now it appears that it is already being wiped from continuity. Of course DC has no real continuity anymore.

A company that was built on legacy no longer has one. When you tear down the foundation you need to rebuild from the ground up. DC started on the third floor with nothing underneath of it. At this point they have become an easy target and a sad testimony to marketing versus quality. Hey it has saved me money as the three DC books I’m getting for August 14 are Batman, JLA and Astro City. In hindsight I believe this is what Didio has always wanted. He wanted comics driven by events, marketing and if a good story gets made now and again, great. It may work sometimes but DC is a house of cards that could collapse any day. Johns has no pizzazz anymore and is living off reputation and the power he wields being CCO. Snyder is their one star. I think DC has some great talent, but I think a lot of that talent is making bank while they can. I think Layman, Lemire, Kindt, Venditti and Soule would all be doing fantastic work if they were allowed to tell the stories they want to tell, but I do not begrudge they taking DC’s money.

It will not change until Didio, Lee, Harras and maybe even Johns are kicked to the curb. Hell I’m not even sure how you fix this piece of crap.