DC Spotlight: Didio confuses me

I’m about to add my voice to the list of bloggers who don’t understand how Dan Didio is still working at DC Comics. No, I’m not going to rant about Final Crisis and the other stories. The only DCs I’m getting right now are Billy Batson and Supergirl: Adventures in the Eight Grade. I like my comics fun and there is little if any fun in the DC comics I do see and read about or skim in the comic store or online previews. (However, I’m sorry to have missed out on the recent Tangent crossover, and will look for that trade when it comes out. I love Tangent Joker and Flash.)

Three different articles online, however, confuse me. First there’s the Hero Complex interview with Didio. There are changes in store for Batman and Superman. I can’t tell you if the stories themselves are good or bad (but in the circles I’ve traveled, the results are at least mixed on Batman RIP), but there’s something about the choices that confuse me.

"I've come to warn you about the odd directions coming in your 5000 titles and spin-offs!" "Not now, we're comparing scars."

Batman is getting a total overhaul. They’re making it sound like Bruce is going away. (In fact, it seems he’s finally snapped his twig.) They’re planning this big event (somebody needs to call Betty Ford–the man’s hooked on crossover events) called Battle for the Cowl, which may see a brand new Batman, with who is going to be Robin, Nightwing, and everyone else, up in the air.

Why does this confuse me? Because right now Bruce is red hot. Between the record slaying Batman:The Dark Knight movie and the new Batman: The Brave And The Bold animated series on Cartoon Network, everyone is going to see Mr. Wayne in action. Another time, maybe not such a bad idea.

The only picture I have of Batman 2 and Robin 2 is from the Captain America Elseworlds crossover

I have no problem with character growth, and that includes someday having the hero retire. Many moons ago we would have stories where Dick takes over as Batman and Bruce Jr up there taking over as the boy wonder. With Damian running around this story is now possible. (Which would suck for Tim Drake, the person I think is best suited for the role. He’s really made the alter ego his own while Dick seems better off as Nightwing. And from what I hear, Bruce’s brat needs an attitude adjustment, but I can’t speak from personal knowledge of the character.) Maybe it is time for Bruce to step down, but I would choose a time when the spotlight isn’t on the heroes of Gotham generally and Bruce specifically with the movie and show (and video games like the Mortal Kombat crossover–I’ll probably get to that another time). Sometimes I wonder about the process used for DC and Marvel to pick and choose what status quos to shake up and which ones to resume. Like having reformed villains actually be the victims of forced brainwashing so they can be evil again. I just don’t get it.

I hope DC remembers he can't breathe in space anymore

 Then there’s Superman going off into space. That’s nothing new. He’s done it before. However, there’s this quote from Didio in the article:

In his own book, “Superman,” there will be a dramatic turn as the hero leaves Earth and it seems like he’s leaving for good. We’ll follow his adventures in space more so than his adventures on Earth, and that’s a big and exciting thing.

Um, they may have killed off his Pa in a recent (and stupid) move to add tragedy to Superman’s life (because we can’t have a hero without tragedy, right? :P) but his Ma is still there to worry about him. Then there’s the question of what to do with Kara and the upteen thousand Kryptonians that just popped up and don’t exactly share Kal-El’s view of Krypton (not having been brough up on a little Kansas farm and all), and that’s not including the sympathisers to Zod running loose who might want to turn Earth into Zod’s vision of what Krypton should have been.

Wait, am I missing someone? Oh, yeah his wife!!!!!! Remember Lois Lane? Anyone? Dan? Have you looked into reasons that Superman Returns isn’t as happy a mention among the fans? Might have something to do with leaving Lois alone with his sick kid. I don’t mind an arc set in space, but why leave Earth at such a volitile time? And if he’s “leaving for good”, how will he even have “adventures on Earth” to be overshadowed by his space tales?

He also plans to bring back the old “Adventures” anthology and I belive he has the same idea for the Superman-less Action Comics. Adventure Comics may become the new (old) home for the Legion of Super Heroes.  At least this is what he strongly hints at in the above article.

But this is just the newest”um, what?” moments from Dan that has caught my attention recently. The first was this from October 29’s 20 Questions, 20 Answers over at Newsarama:

5) While we’re talking about new characters coming in, let’s talk about the Milestone characters. The solicitations for November show that the Shadow Cabinet is showing up in Justice League in December…

DD: Right – The Shadow Cabinet and Icon will be appearing in Justice League of America. Static will appear in Terror Titans to start, and then will make his way over to Teen Titans. As a matter of fact, we’re going to have a Teen Titans Annual coming out early next year, and that really gives us a chance to showcase Static, and how he fits into our pantheon of young heroes in the DCU.

6) And like the Red Circle characters, this is told from the conceit of “They’ve always existed, we’ve just never met…”

DD: Right. It’s different from when we came out of Crisis on Infinite Earths after the original Crisis, the concept was that we had this new amalgam world, and all these characters are brought here and they just magically appeared, and have been operating there for a while because that’s what the new world’s rules were. In this case, both with the Milestone and Red Circle characters, we’re saying that this is the first time that we’re meeting them. The only reason we haven’t met them before is that we haven’t come across them before.

Dakota will be a part of the DC Universe for the Milestone characters – we just haven’t had a reason, until now for the characters to meet. Also, it’s not to say that these “new” heroes have been operating for multiple years – they could have been operating for months. In that regard, I’m trying to stay away from an actual timeline that will say, “Five years ago, this happened, ten years ago, this happened, 20 years ago…” I would much rather look at the generational aspects of the DCU, and right now, we’re entering into the fifth generation of the DCU, and part of the fifth generation is that these heroes are starting to spring up and take their place among the other heroes.

Haven't we seen this before?

Oh, that's right...

A familiar source known collectively as “New York comics industry employees talking in bars” tells me that the last issue of “Final Crisis” is further delayed as it is suffering from serious rewrites. It appears that DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio was unhappy with the way the story concluded and the implications for the DC Universe for a while and had ordered changes from a, naturally, rather unhappy Grant Morrison. Considering this is the way he wrote the pitch for the book. 

As a result, creative teams working on a number of spinoff and affected books have also had to stop work while the “Final Crisis” ending is reworked.

 Expect more lateness, more annoyance and less likelihood of Grant Morrison doing DCU work in the near future

Might not be true, but this was titled “IT’S ARMAGEDDON 2001 ALL OVER AGAIN”, so make of it what you will. Seems likely to me considering the above.