He seems to be doing more work now that he’s at Marvel, in addition to his other work such as BIONIC COMMANDO and a creator-owned project reportedly.

When it was announced he was going to be on Daredevil, I was surprised people weren’t also surmising that Jock would join him at Marvel to do an arc.

Yeah, so do I…

Shooter’s Marvel gave us Simonson’s THOR and Byrne’s FANTASTIC FOUR and Miller’s DAREDEVIL. Let me know when Didio puts out anything close to that good.

As well as providing a superior ending to what Claremont originally planned for Dark Phoenix saga, putting Roger Stern on Avengers for a classic run, Sincweicz on New Mutants, the Simonsons on X-Factor (VERY underrated 80s run) plus a lot of other great decisions. Comparing Shooter to Didio is just bad in my opinion because yes Shooter burned bridges but improved the quality of the line overall with runs that are considered definitive to this day. Didio just burns bridges to make the product worse. Although he does occasionally strike gold with non-continuity stuff like All Star Superman and New Frontier. Vertigo I credit Karen Berger for, I think Didio’s best contribution there is probably just not getting in the way and letting her do what she wants.

If anyone watches basketball, I think the perfect analogy for Didio is Isiah Thomas from the Knicks when he was in charge. Isiah didn’t make decisions with any long-term team-building plan in place, but rather just seemed to recruit players for marquee power, to fan enthusiasm and buzz among fans and the media and to sell seats by attracting the fans of these players. I also think he tied up players just to keep other teams from getting them, even if he didn’t have much need for them. But he had no long-term viable strategy for integrating these puzzle pieces into a cohesive winning squad, he didn’t care if said players skill set was redundant or actually what the team needed the most to win. He didn’t care if they shared the same philosophy he had in mind for the franchise. He worried about that later. He just wanted to focus on making announcements, generating cheap buzz, having marquee names and short term planning. I think Didio’s the same way. For all his faults, whenever Quesada announces a big name signing, it’s not long before he announces a big property they will be working on, and it’s often a great fit. There have been exceptions for sure, just like there’ve been exceptions with Didio where he occasionally manages not to make a horrible decision or pull defeat from the jaws of victory. But overall, Quesada signs with a long-term plan. Brubaker gets signed, and Daredevil, Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men and Captain America announced soon after. Bendis gets signed and is soon on Ultimate Spider-Man and eventually on Daredevil. Winick is announced and is soon on Exiles, probably his most acclaimed non-creator owned work to date. Millar is announced and is soon on a series of high-profile projects. Diggle gets a good Thunderbolts run and is moved on to Daredevil. Hickman gets announced for FF, plus his Secret Warriors book seems great. Fraction and Aaron seemed to be signed up with a general plan too.

Didio, ever since his first rash of signings when he first was put in charge years ago, when he took a bunch of writers from Marvel like Morrison, Simone, Bruce Jones and others, seems to just sign people just to get the fanbase excited and show that he got one over on Marvel. And from the beginning, just about everyone he signed with the exception of Johns and Rucka, whose styles fit better with DC characters anyway, has done worse quality work when under Didio than they did when they were taken from Marvel.

So in answer to Brian’s question about why DC resigned Diggle when they had no plan, it’s because Didio is like Isiah Thomas…both of them HAVE no ability to plan beyond short term stunts and press releases.

good day

Weirdly, Waid wrote a perfectly brilliant Doom story in Empire; because Waid, quite legitimately, writes villains as a means to explore his heroes and nothing but, he tends to miss a bit when he includes antagonist characters who’ve moved a partially beyond “plain-dealing villain” in terms of their established story roles. Has Waid created any especially memorable ongoing villains in his work on superhero-protagonist books?

Diggle is almost always a limited run guy. so it not like dc could give him many on goings I don’t see Andy staying on either Daredevil Or Thunderbolts for more the a year. the only series I’ve seen him stay on for more the a year was The Losers.

I haven’t seen many of the creators people bitch about because they went exclusive complaining

How much work they will get is garenteed in in there contract before they sighn as well as how much they are expeted to do. it is a pat on the back to the creator that DC or Marvel want to work with you exclusivily. the choice was Andy’s. I haven’t heard him complain about he was treated at DC . some time one needs to change job or die of burn out . so in stead of bitching just in joy the fresh air your favorite creator is breathing in . good day

Christos Gage seems like a writer on the cusp of breaking out, but never quite gets there. He’s Marvel’s go-to guy for fill-ins, one-shots and random event miniseries, but he never seems to get that ongoing or body of work to get him over the top. He recently got a handle on Avengers: The Initiative for himself, but the book was left like a ship without a rudder in the aftermath of Secret Invasion. I’d be surprised if it even survives the year, despite Gage’s best efforts.

Gage is also Wildstorm’s go-to-guy, but that’s another thankless gig. I’ll be amazed if Authority and Wildcats are still around in a year’s time. Gen13 and Stormwatch: PHD certainly won’t be — which is a shame, really, as I’ve been enjoying all of the books in the Wildstorm Universe.

I’m no big supporter of any given EIC (well, I like Lee’s personality), but the fact that we’re just filling in guys from the last five years pretty much proves that it’s possibly the worst job in comics. Seriously, every time Didio shows up at a con and doesn’t just open fire should be seen as near-superhuman feat of restraint and good humor.

As for Gail Simone’s success under the Didio regime, I’ve always suspected that she’s served as useful cover for the rampant misogyny and abuse of female characters at DC: “Sure, we gruesomely killed off all these female characters, but we have a WOMAN writing this book! An actual WOMAN!”

I think it’s probably a bit too soon to say Will Pfeifer never made it big, but it’s looking like that one might slip away.

I always thought Tom Peyer got a bit of a rough end of the stick. He’s a good writer who seriously deserves a good long run on a high profile superhero book.

Um… are we talking about the same Nightwing? Because Nightwing fans are about the most outspoken in comics (witness the shitstorm caused here with the “torture porn” review).

“Maybe Didio’s DC is more like Harras’s Marvel?”

Well, except for the whole “profitability” thing….

Ron Marz is kinda in that place right now – he’s doing very good work with Witchblade, has a good track record, but is essentially persona non grata at DC and never got anything for Marvel since I suppose they pidgeonholded him as a “cosmic” writer. He’s exclusive with Top Cow now, but that’s no real excuse for how barren his cupboard was in the aftermath of the CrossGen flameout.

It’s one thing to say, “Why didn’t DC use that good writer?” It’s another thing to say, “Why did DC specifically sign that writer to an exclusive and then not use that good writer?”

Same answer as always. Dan Didio is incompetent. If Diggle was actually used well, then you’d have an interesting question for us to work with. Mckeever, Bedard, Dini, Diggle, Bruce Jones, David Lapham…Didio is just the anti-Shooter. He gets the worst work out of his talent more often than not. Instead of dwelling on why Didio messed something up, I instead would pose, “How did Didio manage to get so much decent work out of Gail Simone?” Given his track record, I’m quite surprised that turned out so well.