Surprised no one has commented on this. Initially I was a big fan. Then not so much. I would rejoice but this might spell doom for DC Comics down the road. Reports point to AT n T shutting down publishing comics while continuing to promote their highest profile characters in movies and merchandise. Much of this rests on the shoulders of DC Comics next big thing...the 5th Generation...
I'm glad he's out. Was not a fan. Who knows what they will do next but I heard angels singing when I read he was out at DC.
AT&T has been doing some stupid things, so nothing is off the table - but closing the comics arm would be a big mistake. Comics are essentially crowd funded R&D - it’s where ideas get story boarded, tested out and gauged for popularity. And even if they take a small loss on return, comics are still cheaper than the pre-production costs it would take to come up with those fine tuned concepts. The problem at DC has been Didio and his hang ups on failed ideas like New 52. Couple that with his micro-managing and erratic, change on a dime behavior - well, he should have been pushed out the door a long time ago. What will be interesting to watch is what happens now with his baby 5G? Will it just be scrapped? Turned into an Elseworlds mini-series? I just don’t see it being the line-wide replacement now.
And now this: https://cosmicbook.news/att-closing-dc-comics-5g-ethan-van-sciver If they were smart (and AT&T is not smart), they would license the publishing out to other companies. Even Marvel has already done this by letting IDW print its kid’s line using Spider-man, Avengers, etc If IDW didn’t jump at the chance for DC, I imagine there are other companies like Boom Studios that would love a shot. Don’t see Image doing it, though - they have a unique business model where Image basically licenses out their logo to put on a book (the company itself doesn’t fund much).
Is Van Sciver really a legitimate source, though?(Not a rhetorical question: I really don't know how seriously to take this.)
There’s a chance, but it is suspect given that Van Sciver is largely on the outs with the industry. Who would have talked with him? The other thing is that I really don’t think 5G is even going to happen now - at least not as a line-wide reboot. We might see a limited series or an event taking up a month or two, but I doubt it will be the new standard like Didio wanted. If there’s no 5G, then how could it be used as a judgment? However, AT&T could use it as an excuse for something they wanted to do anyway. The bottom line - it’s surprising to me paper comics have held on this long. Like magazines and newspapers, the end is coming - it’s just a question of when.
OK, I just saw some numbers, and comics are a billion dollar industry. That's tiny compared to movies, TV or video games, but it's not nothing. The big change is in how that money's distributed. Bookstores are selling almost as much as comic book shops these days, and revenue from graphic novels is almost twice that of floppies. (And I see a lot of references to Scholastic being a big dog. They don't do superheroes, but they apparently sell a LOT of books to kids.) So, the industry's changing. Let's see if the companies can change with it.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think there are times when people need to move on, no matter whom, but I wonder how many bad ideas were truly his. I have enjoyed his work with Metal Men so I wonder if that will be cancelled, new writer, or he will get to continue on. And Didio is the one who brought Bendis on so it makes me wonder what will happen with him since his work tends to be polarizing.
Surprisingly, they’re going to let Didio finish it. https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/02/22/dan-didio-shane-davis-metal-men-12/
Its not a big loss for DC but what concerns me is the supposed DC 5G aka 5th Generation of DC which will kill off legacy characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, John Stewart, Barry Allen, and Cyborg. And similar to Marvel All New All Different, 5G will be more PC/woke and also change/replace characters like Night Wing and some of the Robins. Now I heard it will be more of like an Elseworld like the Marvel Ultimate line but then a comic book store owner told me that it will be a reboot again. I don't know about you but the shaking up approach can work at times but after the good that came with the change from The New 52 onto Rebirth, I have a bad feeling about this.
My dream would be for them to sell off DC to Disney. Both companies could keep their separate universes but they could also then spin off a totally separate one that is combined and start it off from Day 1. I know it will never happen, but a guy can dream.
I'm what you would refer to as a "staunch dc traditionalist". if i had my way we would go back to the Crisis and make it so nothing changed. the defeat of the anti-monitor restored the multiverse. the original multiverse remained intact with us moving forward from there. I haven't been happy with DC Comics overall since the New 52, even before that. There have been so many revamps and changes to characters i no longer recognize. in the early nineties i had an idea for a crisis type event that would re instate the multiverse. some of the ideas i had were similar to morrisons "hypertime" with elements of Infinite Crisis and Countdown. That the multiverse was this infinite swirling mass of crossroads that was kind of difficult to navigate and sometimes intersected and sometimes didn't. It actually starts with Power Girls cat (who was the pre crisis earth one streaky) and brings in all the other Crisis players only it would have been Pariah as the ultimate big bad and the multiverse itself coming to life and beating down the anti monitor. Towards the end of the miniseries Nightwing and Donna Troy along with a few other characters would be presumed dead but would instead spearhead their own all new Infinity Inc series with them being lost in the multiverse trying to get home. The series would help map out the rebooted multiverse. Things I would have done would have been reverting the Justice league back to its "big seven" roots. A revival of All Star comics featuring the Justice Society retelling their history and a new title "Earth 2" would have featured modern day adventures set in a post JSA world. A few Shazam titles set on their own earth. Anyway... I do find the "5G" idea interesting...but things are just too far gone. I used to quip "comic book law dictates things will eventually revert to their most classic incarnation"... but who knows what that is anymore.
I feel like 5G is borrowing elements, pre-Crisis E2, Kingdom Come etc. To do something for 5 years seems way too long. And these continuity shifts are getting old: Flashpoint, Convergence, etc. I feel like Marvel will always revert to the classic incarnation, DC would rather reimagine. Reimagining can be good and bad. I think the Perez version of WW was so well thought out that these other takes have not been as good, for example.
Bah. Crisis caused more problems than it solved. When I was a kid, I had no problems telling the difference between the JLA and JSA. It was cool having a universe where the heroes could grow old and retire. Zero hour is a direct follow up of Crisis, after the Superman editor got pissy, and said "you can't refer to Superboy, ever." Then, of course, when Superman meets the Legion, he remembers being a member, because his writer has clout, and they don't because of the previous Superman hissy fit. Every reboot since has just made things worse. Huntresses mom will always be Catwoman, to me. I also didn't like "One More Day."
