I do not understand exactly what the problem is with just having a bunch of Elseworld books.

Sure, that is not how Marvel does it, but DC isn’t Marvel. The Marvel Universe was created by a tiny handful of people over a handful of years with most of their first generation titles taking place in the same city. That lends itself to a cohesive, shared universe and they have generally done a nice job with it over the years.

DC is exactly the opposite. Not only are many of the characters properties that were acquired from other companies, but even the old Silver Age/Earth One stuff was under the control of editors that ran their titles like fiefdoms. The Weisinger run Superman stuff had almost nothing to do with the Julius Schwartz run Flash outside the JLA. Until 1985, any story that contradicted continuity was explained by the infinite Earths.

As a result, DC is terrible at the shared universe stuff. They always come off as a second-rate version of Marvel when they do the mega cross-over or the BIG DEATH that really, really counts this time.

Conversely, DC puts out uniformly great books when they are not worried about that stuff. “Watchmen” was out of continuity. “The Dark Knight” was sort of a proto-Elseworlds story. Neither “Sandman”, nor “Kingdom Come”, nor “All-Star Superman”, nor “The New Frontier” had anything to do with mainstream DC continuity and all of them are better than anything Marvel has put out in a generation. “Starman” was the best on-going solo superhero title of the nineties and it barely touched the rest of the DCU.

Why shouldn’t DC just treat its on-goings like HBO treats its series. Give them to strong creators who drop a new “season” when they have a story to tell. It is set in its own world and they can use whatever characters they want in whatever way they want. The Brad Meltzer version of Ralph and Sue Dibny don’t need to have anything to do with the Giffen-DeMatties version. Let the market decide which take it likes best.

Why do you think they fired him?

You don’t actually believe the “We didn’t like what he posted on our forum.” line, do you?

It just sounds better than “We want our white buddy to write it.”

I don’t like the current state of DC Comics any more than anyone else, but it strikes me as unlikely that DiDio is running around the offices in his underwear.

To me, it all dates back to “Identity Crisis”. Let me state upfront that I liked “Identity Crisis” when I first read it. It was an entertaining mystery story and (since I picked it up in trade) I read the whole thing in one sitting. What happened to Sue Dibny was upsetting, but I have read lots of books in which horrible things happen to likable characters.

Grant Morrison’s “All-Star Superman” had just pulled me back into comics, so it took me a bit too long to realize this had all happened in a shared universe. That meant this tragedy had supposedly happened to the same Ralph and Sue Dibny that I loved during the Giffen-DeMatties “Justice League”. That was one of those “Dana Plato dies from an overdose” moments for me. The world suddenly and forever had one less simple, innocent place.

That was my first glimmering of annoyance at DC editorial. I understand that the audience is older now, but there are other ways to introduce adult themes. The revelations about Sue Dibny and the JLA made DC less fun in a way that happens to much in life already. Whereas, finding out the Brady Bunch cast was all over each other made that show more fun in retrospect. Considering DC editorial had total control over these characters, it seemed like they should have gone the “more fun” route.

Finally, it hit home that “Identity Crisis” was the cornerstone of what DC planned to be doing going forward. A huge percentage of the things that seemed fun and innocent were now going to be revealed as thin masks covering the horror underneath. Sue Dibny being raped by a third-tier super-villain and provoking members of the JLA to commit various crimes after the fact to cover it up was not just a story, it was a world-view.

Like an untreated infection, that world-view spread until it sickened everything. Look at how often the word “Dead” turns up as the problem McDuffie runs into. Reading mainstream DC comics these days gives me the feeling that the world being depicted is grim and pointless. That makes it progressively harder to work up the energy to care.

And I have to agree with the first post, criticizing DC’s editorial is just too easy. I can see Didio running around the DC offices in his underwear, wearing a jughead hat and carring around a cardboard tube claiming it’s his scepter of power and that he can do anything he wants to the DC universe because he is in charge. It doesn’t have to make sense, or follow established character personalities (and yes I’m still pissed that Green Arrow allowed the brainwashing to happen in Identity Crisis–that wouldn’t happen in a million years even if Ollie himself was brainwashed) or even understand what the consumers like (Didio thinks that countdown was better than 52. how out of touch do you have to be to think that?)

oops, sorry rant. anyway loved the strip.

To be fair, she did have a fair amount off JSA and the Johns and then Palmotti runs on Hawkman.

Then came One Year Later, and that went flying out the window. I was stunned Meltzer put her on the team in the first place considering how much damage had been done by that disaster; I was sure she’d just wind up back in the JSA for Johns to try to rehab. But I guess he needed someone for Roy to hook up with.

DC’s never handled it like that, however. Even before the rotating creative team idea sunk the last volume, the only really JLA-centric crossover was One Million. So even when it was pretty much the biggest book DC published (Morrison / Waid era), it never was used as a crossover motivator.

Whether you like Bendis or not, it at least makes sense that Marvel’s “architect” is writing the main Avengers book.

Read that word balloon with Patrick Stewart’s voice for the best effect. ” But…Batman is DEAD! “

Telling McDuffie what to do with Hawkgirl is, frankly, even sillier. To the extent that Hawgirl has any traction in the marketplace at all, it is from McDuffie and Justice League Unlimited.