DC Comics

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I haven't grabbed Darkseid yet. But it's inevitable. I need a better Darkseid. (there's always a better <X>, right?).

WB like Disney will kill their respective turkey and golden-goose. Needlessly. All for their hubris, lack of vision and social agendas. In that order.
Killing the goose that lays golden eggs is the inevitable consequence of having said goose in the first place. They can't help themselves. Look at Star Wars, the poster child for using movies to sell toys.
 
Killing the goose that lays golden eggs is the inevitable consequence of having said goose in the first place. They can't help themselves. Look at Star Wars, the poster child for using movies to sell toys.
Yeah movies are now going the way of music. There are very few auteur franchises that corporate owned studios are willing to risk financing for originality. They're out there - but their inevitable meddling turns it into art-by-committee where we get some algorithmic pap-smear of an offering.

Tons of remakes. Tons of unoriginality. The inevitable johnny-come-lately to what their marketing department has identified as the "zeitgeist" - and of course they're wrong.

And its killing these franchises.
 
So, at long last, DC Comics just announced a relaunch of the Legion of Super-Heroes by Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook. It will kick off with a two-issue mini-series in September titled Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium. It will showcase how everything between the 21st and 31st Centuries leads up to the formation of the Legion, tying together Batman Beyond, OMAC, Kamandi, Tommy Tomorrow, and Booster Gold. They will all now be in the same continuity, leading to the 31st Century of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

You can read more and see some Legionnaire character redesigns by Ryan Sook here.

So, the Legion had a soft reboot in 1989, a hard reboot in 1994, a second hard reboot in 2004, a second soft reboot in 2007.... Will this make this the Legion of Super-Heroes v4?
 
I loves me some Legion, but Bendis is pretty much the *last* writer I would want attached to it.

(okay, Liefeld would be worse, but still...)
 
I loves me some Legion, but Bendis is pretty much the *last* writer I would want attached to it.

(okay, Liefeld would be worse, but still...)

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly how I feel. Superman, Supergirl, and The Legion have been my favorite DC Comics characters for decades. Now Brian Michael Bendis is writing all of them. :thumbsdown: I stopped buying Action Comics, Superman, and Supergirl when he took over.
 
It’s time for a new generation of writers to put their mark on these legendary characters.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much exactly how I feel. Superman, Supergirl, and The Legion have been my favorite DC Comics characters for decades. Now Brian Michael Bendis is writing all of them. :thumbsdown: I stopped buying Action Comics, Superman, and Supergirl when he took over.
Bendis was at his best writing crime comics.
A friend of mine summed it up quite nicely when he noted that you could predict how good any given Bendis series would be by how many of the following three categories you could say 'yes' to:

1) are the characters creator-owned, as opposed to corporate-owned pre-existing characters? (Bendis doesn't always do well with the latter, as he has no problem with writing them in a manner highly inconsistent with previously established characterization as long as it serves his plot du jour)

2) does the premise lean toward the dark, cynical, and noir-ish?

3) is the main focus on a solo lead, or perhaps a pair or characters, as opposed to a larger, 'team' book?

His early crime books like Jinx and Goldfish were great, if a little rough in spots. Powers was excellent (as least in the early days when it was a priority to him, as opposed to the later stuff when he writing half a dozen books for Marvel and would only occasionally deign to work on the title that helped to actually make him a writer of note). Daredevil (no on 1, yes on 2 & 3) was pretty good, although he hung around for a few more story arcs than he really needed to, and drug out the misery porn waaaaaay too long. Ultimate Spider-Man pretty much worked because it was an alternate reality (so he could do his own take on Peter), and the focus was pretty much crime/street-level stuff. Avengers had some bright spots and interesting ideas, but was overall more miss than hit... and the less said about his X-Men stuff, the better.

Legion of Super-Heroes is a 'no' on #1, albeit a soft one since the Legion has already been rebooted multiple times, and this looks like yet another reboot, so realistically he has some leeway here. #2 and 3 are not only a 'no', but a hard 'no' with lots of exclamation marks for extra emphasis.

* * *

Two extra thoughts: First, those costumes look like ass (and not in a good way). Second, I'm a little surprised and disappointed that they don't seem to be acknowledging the recent Electric Warriors mini, seeing as that explicitly formed a bridge between humanity recovering from Kamandi's Great Disaster and the formation of the United Planets, with individual heroes representing the different worlds thereof.
 
It will showcase how everything between the 21st and 31st Centuries leads up to the formation of the Legion, tying together Batman Beyond, OMAC, Kamandi, Tommy Tomorrow, and Booster Gold. They will all now be in the same continuity, leading to the 31st Century of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
So...unnecessary retroactive continuity connecting together things best left separate and explicating things best left to the imagination.
 
5G, like Bendis before it, is coming! :errr: :crossed: Talk amongst yourselves. :grin: (Run for your lives!:hurry: )

Why does DC pull a "Marvel's yesterdays are DC's future?" :clown:

I have no horse in this race. I just read boutique indies you probably haven't heard of. :shade::coffee:
 
Dan DiDiot's reign of terror at DC Comics has finally come to an end!

From Comic Book.com :

ComicBook.com has learned that DiDio is no longer with the company, with DC Comics confirming the news. They have not yet issued a statement publicly, though it's likely coming soon.

[...]
While we wait to hear about DC's plans for a succession, whether Jim Lee will be joined by someone or if he'll take over the publishing duties solo, it's important to recognize that just one year ago, Warner Bros. brass. made the decision to lay off 240 employees in the comics division.
 
I take no joy in anyone losing a job. That said, I hope whoever takes over the reins doesn't share Didio's many flaws.
 
I take no joy in anyone losing a job. That said, I hope whoever takes over the reins doesn't share Didio's many flaws.

You are absolutely morally correct. :thumbsup: And a former DC-employee-cum-private-publisher-&-youtuber Ethan Van Sciver has nothing but good to speak of the man's professionalism and kindness.

However indulge my crapulence in a round of Hosannahs! :angel: Pretend it is from a previous DC timeline. :hehe::angel:

(Whoever snaps up artist Clay Mann for an Indiegogo will make baaaaaank! :ooh::money:)
 
Dan DiDiot's reign of terror at DC Comics has finally come to an end!

From Comic Book.com :
Huh, I just realized...

Wally West gains near-infinite power, and shortly thereafter Dan Didio is removed from the DC universe.

Coincidence? I think not.
 
I wonder if this is a precursor of AT&T (the owner of Turner Media who also owns Warner Brothers and now DC) cutting ties with comics in general. They're not known for taking financial losses kindly, and given that this is the comic industry's fourth year in decline, it's not looking good.
 
Good question, Chris. I actualy listened to Ethan Van Sciver's take and it made me rethink how positive this development is. Seems like this might be the ending of an age, where capable pros (apparently DiDio could get what you needed as a creative) are no longer needed. Corporations have what they want, the Supers IP, the rest can go hang.

He fears this might be the start of the implosion of USA comics direct market as we know it. :cry: But we will know more by who takes DiDio's place, in his opinion. Maybe a shake up is for the best for a rather moribund turn in the last 5+ years?:errr:

Not a Supers fan, but held mad respect for DC enduring this long and taking legendary risks, like Vertigo. :shade::coffee: Give your local DC fan a hug now.
 
I think regardless of an exec's departure, I think Superhero comics will eventually end as a monthly published format. The only thing even keeping this market alive is the direct market and a dwindling number of comic purchasers. I do think it's only a matter of time before either Warner's or Disney decides it's not worth the expense.

It wouldn't mean the end of comics as an art form as it seems new creators doing things for Scholastic books are getting fans--but that's not superheroes.

The existing superheroes will still survive--both companies have good animation studios, which I believe is how kids first learn about these characters today.
 
I think monthly comics will still have a place as a trial ground for new IP, mostly because they are cheap to produce. They'll probably move to the online services as the main distribution method, too. But the days of them being the drivers for their franchises are long gone.
 
Word on the street is that when a high up AT&T vice president first met the executives of DC Comics a couple of years ago (after AT&T acquired Warner Bros.), the first words out of the mouth of the AT&T vice president during the meeting was, "You still print comic books?!" He was shocked.

So, yeah. I think that AT&T will force DC Comics to quit the monthly business at some point.
 
I think the companies print way too many books. No way most fans can keep up with all the titles. This started back in the late 80s and has never ended. Five Batman titles, ten X-Men titles, etc etc.

That's a tad misleading, however. Back in the 80's and 90's, the market could easily support multiple character titles. The Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Action Comics, Superman, Batman, Detective Comics, various X-Books...

This dovetails with a couple of Movie excuses they like to trot out, this idea of 'Franchise Fatigue', which is a lie. If you keep giving people what they want, they'll buy it, happily. The MCU had at least one movie a year and it was one of the greatest franchises ever. The main reason Star Wars failed was because the fans did not like what Disney was doing with the franchise, the stories were bad, the attention to character was insulting... I could go on.

As long as they make 'good' (which is relative) stories that most of the fans like, they will buy in droves, movies or comics. But lately the various writers/artists and others in the Big Two are too busy attacking potential customers, writing out manifestos or otherwise not promoting their books. It also doesn't help that the various comic based websites enable them either.
 
It did for almost 20 years.

The bottom fell out in 1993. There were 9,000 comic book shops in the US during the speculator boom. Within a couple years, there was 3,000. I think today it’s still around that number. I remember going into a shop in 1992 and seeing new books being bagged and boarded and priced at $50. That store wasn’t around when I moved a couple blocks away a few years later. One of the casualties of carrying a shitload of stock that were worthless.

Chuck Rozanski, who owns Mile High Comics, said that if you want your collection to be worth anything, you have to hold on to it for 30 years. Some of these speculators were trying to cash out in months.
 
The bottom fell out in 1993. There were 9,000 comic book shops in the US during the speculator boom. Within a couple years, there was 3,000. I think today it’s still around that number. I remember going into a shop in 1992 and seeing new books being bagged and boarded and priced at $50. That store wasn’t around when I moved a couple blocks away a few years later. One of the casualties of carrying a shitload of stock that were worthless.

Chuck Rozanski, who owns Mile High Comics, said that if you want your collection to be worth anything, you have to hold on to it for 30 years. Some of these speculators were trying to cash out in months.


It really was a ridiculously depressing decade to be a comicbook fan. It's funny looking back to note how the Death of Superman was inadvertantly nearly was the death of superhero comics.
 
Given that it's just a rumor at this point, I wouldn't even give it much thought. I hope they're smart and just can this whole 5G crap. It sounded dumb from the get-go. Didn't they learn from the last 4 reboots?
 
Chuck Rozanski, who owns Mile High Comics, said that if you want your collection to be worth anything, you have to hold on to it for 30 years. Some of these speculators were trying to cash out in months.
It's also a cruddy ROI compared to any real investment strategy. If someone wants to make money, there are thousands of better ways than buying comic books, sealing them up and locking them away for 30 years, and crossing your fingers in hopes that maybe some of your hoard will be worth more than cover price someday.
 
My retirement isn’t in 401k accounts, it’s in long boxes stuffed in the storage closet in my basement! I’m sure those pre-bagged X-Men comics with the foil embossed covers printed by the millions in the early 90s are worth a fortune by now!
 
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