Chaos And Order At DC Comics

[Rich Johnston]

So, you know. DC Comics and stuff. Here's what I've been hearing.

Conflict between creative and editorial is on a bit of a high right now. This does vary from editor to editor it seems, but the common thread is that plots and scripts are accepted from writers to an editorial brief... only for that editorial brief to change, and the entire issue needing rewriting from scratch. Again and again. Plot elements suddenly parachuted into already written, and in some cases drawn books.

The problem is not so much editorial interference but inconsistent interference. Minds change, directions change, constantly. This also scuppers long term plans from DC's writers, and they have little confidence that their plots won't be knocked off at a tangent at any stage. Who lives, who dies, it changes at the drop of a hat, it seems to come.

This may be why you haven't heard much about Trinity War of late - as the actual war still hasn't been worked out yet. Books are joined to the crossover and cut on a weekly basis. It's currently onto its fourth version, that I'm aware of. Even the FCBD preview had to have art changes so that it was Baz being attacked, not Hal Jordan. There are big mystery characters, the identity of which keeps changing internally week to week. Villains Month had the ideas parachuted in, but then the details of these changed. And then plots had to fit the new gatefold covers - some writers were given the cover reveal as a de facto plot point and now had to rewrite the issue to reflect the cover.

There are ways to get around this. Be Grant Morrison. To a slightly lesser extent, be Scott Snyder. Or ideally, be one of Scott Snyder's proteges and get some measure of protection by using him as a buffer.

As for Jim Zubkavich, he just didn't have anyone to buffer him on Birds Of Prey, so he got canned. I'm told that DC decided that, given recent criticism, they wanted a female writer on the book. Gail Simone -the natural choice given her history - was considered to take over the book. But Simone wasn't willing to work with with the editor after her experience on Firestorm,which she walked off. Ann Nocenti hadn't performed well on sales of late. So Christy Marx,an old friend of Dan DiDio's from ABC was asked. Marx already works with said editor on Amethyst.

Harras: we all saw what Christy was doing on "Amethyst," and we were looking at "Birds Of Prey" and internally and editorially we were thinking of taking it in a different direction.

Interestingly, while Jim Zubkavich had to go through a competitive pitch to get the book, Christy Marx was appointed without pitching.

Marx: In general, it?s too early for me to say anything more. I?m still absorbing a ton of previous material and doing my initial thinking about the direction.

The first issue is only out in a couple of months...

And then of course, there's Marvel. While DC draws talent from Image and Oni, Marvel just waits a little while and then goes in and has a friendly chat with their favourites. Joe Bennett, Paul Cornell, Mahmud Asrar, Pete Woods and Joshua Hale Fialkov are all recent acquisitions returning to, or coming afresh to Marvel.

Now that the New 52 has been around for a bit, Marvel is suddenly the cool place again. They publish a lot of superhero comic books, with less diversity of content than DC, but there is also less micromanagement right now. The creators are to a better extent trusted to work through the approved ideas and will be given enough rope to hang themselves... or ropewalk to success. As a result, the comics sound like they have more of an individual voice. From Jonathan Hickman to Cullen Bunn, from Dan Slott to Joe Keatinge, their individual voices are encouraged. Even when Kieron Gillen is writing comics with a job to move a character from Position A to Position B for another comic to start, he does it with a clear and discernible authorial voice. People are still hired and fired, but even in retrosolicited changes like the recent junking of the team from the Thanos origin for another higher profile team, the original team is given new work as soon as possible.

Make no mistake here, Marvel is not a barrel of laughs. It's a job. Age Of Ultron has been set since 2011, books have plot points mapped out well in advance at creator and editorial conferences, and the bigger books dominate the plots of the smaller ones. There is less spontaneity as a result, Marvel is more about order right now, while DC is chaos. Marvel isn't spinning on a sixpence... but then again, the creators at DC are getting rather dizzy.

There are of course notable exceptions. Action Comics, Batman, Batwoman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Animal Man, Green Lantern, All Star Western, Aquaman, Swamp Thing, have all felt distinctly like the work of their authors, for better or worse. But too many creators fear either their books are slipping away from them, or the fight to get them back is an exhausting one.

Of course this is often the way of Hollywood. Television studios full of writers rooms with everyone pitching in, constant notes from executives and showrunners storming out from one show to another. Despite all the upheaval, people still seem to rather enjoy The Walking Dead. Order and chaos. It doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, but it can be rather frustrating. And frustrated people leave.

ButI understand that there is the feeling being expressed amongst DC creators I've talked to, from the rebellious to the compliant, that things have to change. That comics writers be given their shot to see what they can do. And specifically challenge those last minute changes to the comics, and the feeling of constantly working in fear of the next mad idea they'll have to accommodate.

But the example I was most specifically given against this argument is that DC doesn't want to have 52 Batman Odyssey's on their hands, the highly idiosyncratic Batman book from Neal Adams that ran this year and last, which though enjoyed by many attracted much criticism.

Mind you, having one or two Batman Odysseys around the place can always shake things up - did you read Frank Cho's Wolverine this week? Mad as a bag of badgers but a welcome addition.

The New 52 was always a mixture of order and chaos. Has it swung too far one way? Can it be swung back?

DC, naturally, did not return emails.

[Barry Convex]

Ann (no "e") Nocenti and Christy Marx, Rich.

[Desaad]

While I do appreciate the attempt at giving us a 'behind the scenes look' at things, I would have liked a bit more substance here.

For the paucity of genuine content in this article, I might have written an identical article having seen (or, in keeping with the typo-culture of bleeding cool, 'scene') creator shuffling and movement from afar.

Maybe you should have percolated on this one a little more.

[SAMURAI36]

This may be why you haven't heard much about Trinity War of late - as the actual war still hasn't been worked out yet.

A) Could it be that we haven't heard about Trinity War, because they are working hard to keep it a secret, and not because of the made up accusations you are throwing out?

B) Trinity War has been mentioned, as recently as this month, in a couple of books, no less.

[Geoff Thorne]

a fish always stinks from the head.

nepotism + nostalgia = shit

[lexid523]

I'm told that DC decided that, given recent criticism, they wanted a female writer on the book. Gail Simone, the natural choice given her history was considered to take over the book, wasn't willing to work with with the editor, after her experience on Firestorm which she walked off. Ann Nocenti hadn't performed on sales well of late. So Christy Marx. an old friend of Dan DiDio's from ABC was asked, who already works with said editor on Amethyst.[INDENT]Harras: we all saw what Christy was doing on "Amethyst," and we were looking at "Birds Of Prey" and internally and editorially we were thinking of taking it in a different direction.

I love what Christy Marx is doing on Amethyst, and look forward to her run on BoP (though I do think Jim Zub would have been great as well), and I'm all in favor of publishers being aware of the presence or absence of women and minority creators, but this makes it sound like choosing Marx was a process of elimination from the "three chicks who already work here". I know they approached Marjorie Liu to write BoP for the New 52, why not try her again? Or, like they did for Jim Zub, scout some great indie talent?

[Andrew72287]

Marvel didn't steal Pete Woods, he did two issues of Avengers Assemble and now he's back at DC for the Vibe series and that's his job going forward.

[AudioPhantom]

Coming from a retailer AND his customers, (and keep in mind this is JUST our area, I'm not talking about other areas or cities), people see DC as falling apart.
The whole 52 titles thing isn't working.
People, and I'll admit myself as well, see them as tv execs cancelling shows that don't have time to be proven or making decisions based on polls.
In other words, the guys who cancelled Firefly.
Our customers don't want to take a chance on a title that isn't well established, like Batman, Superman, etc. because they feel it won't be given a chance and will be cancelled.
Why spend money on something that won't last? They'd rather spend the money on Marvel Now products which are WAY better because it looks like Marvel is caring a whole lot more. New Avengers, Avengers, Captain America (selling more copies than we ever have before), Hawkeye and even Hulk. Heck, we sold out of Thor for the first time since Fractions' #1.
Here's the thing DC needs to know. People DON'T HAVE TO BUY their books. People are LOOKING for a place to jump off and buy other things. We lost a LOT of customers to Spidey 700 because people chose to jump off then. Same with DC titles. As soon as someone is replaced as a writer or artist, people see it as a weakness, not a bonus. They see DC scrambling for position with gimmicks and crossovers. Some have given up trying to follow the entire Death In The Family Joker crossover. Just WAY, WAY too many tie ins for some.
I've had numerous people ask, "When is everything going back to the way it was?".
Another problem is STILL, a year later, people don't know what they're supposed to know. Yes, Superman and Doomsday fought, but was the JLI involved? What happened in those 3 years of Barbara Gordon? What are we SUPPOSED to know and what we are we supposed to forget?
People have had it. They've stopped caring.
And all this from a guy who didn't pick up more than 2 marvel titles 5 years ago. Now, I buy 2 DC titles, Batgirl and JLDark. I read over the others so I know whats going on so I can tell customers, but our DC sales are about half what they used to be.
And where's that line for $2.99 drawn at again? Some people keep asking.
DC needs to stop acting like high class tv execs who live in a bubble and start caring about the titles, not "Quick, cancel it! Add something else! Hurry!"
Just give people good, well written stories, stop writing like the comic should come with an action figure and man up.

[B-Thom]

A) Could it be that we haven't heard about Trinity War, because they are working hard to keep it a secret, and not because of the made up accusations you are throwing out?

B) Trinity War has been mentioned, as recently as this month, in a couple of books, no less.

A)He said "you", not "I" since he mentions it being in its 4th version.
B)It's easy to mention something by name, it doesn't entail to anything.

Interesting article. It is true that we know most of what was said here though the few details here and there are welcome addition.
I definitely have the same feeling right now, that Marvel is slowly going back on top because they give their creators relative free reign on their title. And that's why slowly, titles here and there make their way back on my pull list. There is still plenty wrong with Marvel, in particular regarding their price-policy and more generally their relationship to their readership. But clearly more titles are allowed to develop clear voices than over at DC.
It is actually baffling though, since the best performers are the ones who have free reigns. You'd think that'd give them a hint...

[atrocitus]

I wish editors would stop interfering. Certain things like zero issue and holy sh*t month can't be helped. But there needs to be lesser micro-managing.