Podcasts: "Not the 'Saga' Episode" on 5by5's Giant Size

So...Since my last update, the list of DC Comics' "departures, firings, and bridge-burnings" has gone viral . It's been a strange experience seeing comic pros I follow on Twitter (and whose careers I've followed for years as a fan) share the link to something I wrote, and it's certainly not how I ever wanted to end up on DC's radar, but here we are. Thanks to everyone who's spread the link, and special thanks to the dedicated comics bloggers who are reporting the changes in the first place. My day job and personal life get in the way of regular updates here at G&P, but you can always follow me on Twitter at @gholson and the site at @gutterspanels.

I talk about the list on the latest episode of 5by5's comic podcast Giant Size, but it's not the main focus of the show. The real reason I'm in-studio with host Moises Chiullan is to discuss our all-time favorite books from Image Comics, both old and new. You can listen to the show here or subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.

WTF? According to DC, Superman Is Batman's Brother?

I was alerted to this bit of weirdness by Michael Nixon on Twitter. This is from DC's official page for Superman...

Superman has super-everything—strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, X-ray, heat vision…and a world-famous brother. What the world doesn’t know is that Clark’s mother, Martha, once changed her name from Wayne to Kent. Martha was the real target for the mob hit the night that her husband Thomas Wayne was murdered. While in the ambulance it was discovered that she was still alive, and the doctors were able to save her. She signed over guardianship of their son Bruce to the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in hopes that Bruce would be protected, and she was put into the Witness Protection Program and sent to Smallville, Kansas—a quiet town where nothing ever happens.

There Martha met and married the local farmer Jonathan Kent. With a new inability to carry a child due to the bullet wound, Martha and Jonathan were unable to have the baby they so longed for. However, their prayers were answered when out of the sky, a rocket landed in a nearby field as the couple was driving by. There was a small baby in the rocket who they adopted and gave the name Clark, and who would grow up to be Superman!

This new information is backed up on Batman's page as well...​

Millionaire Bruce Wayne was just a kid when he watched his parents get gunned down during a mugging in Gotham City. The crime would define his life, as he dedicated himself to becoming the world’s greatest weapon against crime—the Batman. What the world doesn’t know is that Bruce’s mother, Martha Wayne, was the real target for the mob hit the night that Bruce’s parents were murdered. While in the ambulance it was discovered that she was still alive, and the doctors were able to save her. She signed over guardianship of Bruce to the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in hopes that the young boy would be protected, and she was put into the Witness Protection Program and sent to Smallville, Kansas—a quiet town where nothing ever happens.

There Martha met and married a nice young man named Jonathan Kent. With a new inability to carry a child due to the bullet wound, Martha and Jonathan were unable to have the baby they so longed for. However, their prayers were answered when out of the sky, a rocket landed in a nearby field as the couple was driving by. There was a small baby in the rocket who they adopted and gave the name Clark Kent, and who would grow up to be Superman!​

Um...WHAT? Is this an April Fool's joke that DC forgot to take down or is this New 52 canon? If it's a joke, and DC takes it down (ED NOTE: They did - the very same day this made the rounds), I've saved the screens for posterity below...​

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Captured on 4/2/2013

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​Captured on 4/2/2013.

The DC New 52 Timeline of Departures, Firings, and Bridge-Burnings

I'm writing this piece because I wanted someone else to do it and no one else had (that I know of). I wanted a living document of the events that seem to be unraveling one of the oldest and greatest comic book publishers.  I love DC Comics, though I fear you'd never know it looking at this website. I've expressed my disappointment with the company many times here, and unlike a lot of fans, my complaints aren't about them wiping the slate clean with the New 52, but about the public appearance of a hostile, poisonous working environment for comic book creators. I'm really hoping the ship rights itself. I'm hoping that I can stop updating this list because DC's creators are happy and the books are healthy.

As it is, this list will be updated as major changes continue to happen. I tried to limit the list to big events (some of them strictly to give context) or surprising and sudden changes. I am not listing the kind of typical writer or artist changes that occur when a book has been given a chance to sell or when the creators want to move on because their arc is finished. If there are any major events I've forgotten, let me know in the comments section and I might add it to the piece.

(To be fair, and to show that this isn't the way things typically run at a major comic company, Marvel has announced and then canceled one book in the past year before its first issue [John's note: from the time when this was originally posted] . Thanos, to be written by Joe Keatinge, was sidelined when Marvel changed their mind on the project, post-Avengers film.)

DC Comics logos, through the years, courtesy of DesignBuddy.com.

9/2009 - DC Entertainment is formed. Diane Nelson is named President of the newly labeled company, which includes DC Comics, but also all DC-related multi-media ventures and licensing. Nelson's background is not in comics but in brand management. The timing of DC's restructuring is of note, as it comes just a couple of weeks after Disney's $4 billion buyout of Marvel.

2/18/2010 - Dan DiDio and Jim Lee are promoted, sharing the title Co-Publisher. DiDio was DC Executive Editor (basically Editor-In-Chief, since the position didn't exist during DiDio's tenure) and Lee was Editorial Director of his own WildStorm imprint, which moved from Image to DC Comics in 1998. Writer Geoff Johns was promoted to Chief Creative Officer, a position created to allow someone from within DC the opportunity to oversee and exercise some measure of creative control over DC products like films, television, and video games. 

9/21/2010 - DC splits their offices between New York City and Burbank, CA.  Lee is a West Coaster anyway, and this allows the company to have more direct physical contact with Warner Brothers' TV and film.

9/27/2010 - Bob Harras is named DC Comics' Editor-In-Chief.  Harras held the EIC position at Marvel Comics from 1995-2000.

12/16/2010 - Nick Spencer is the first notable casualty in DC's new "fired before the first issue hits" practice, when he's announced as the new writer for Supergirl, then replaced on his very first issue by "co-writer" James Peaty.

8/31/2011 - The New 52 launches with 52 new monthly titles starting with all-new #1 issues, wiping the slate (mostly) clean and hoping to entice new readers with easy reading entry points.

9/16/2011 - Writer John Rozum quits Static Shock. due to disagreements with editor Harvey Richards and artist Scott McDaniel. The series is eventually canceled after just eight issues.

9/19/2011 - J.T. Krul is replaced on Green Arrow the same month as its first issue is released. 

9/30/2011 - Writer-artist George Perez announces his departure from the flagship Superman book the same month its first issue is released. Perez completes his first arc, but is the first to dish on behind-the-scenes problems, "Unfortunately when you are writing major characters, you sometimes have to make a lot of compromises, and I was made certain promises, and unfortunately, not through any fault of Dan DiDio, he was no longer the last word, I mean a lot of people were now making decisions; they were constantly going against each other, contradicting, again in mid-story."

10/12/2011 - Editorial conflicts and strong differences of opinion with co-writer and artist Ethan Van Sciver cause writer Gail Simone to step away from Fury of Firestorm. 

11/14/2011 - Ron Marz leaves Voodoo after his script to issue #5 is tossed out by editors. The series is canceled after ten issues. 

1/19/2012 - DC Entertainment shows off their new logo. This fan wonders why the new logo didn't debut with the New 52 re-branding. 

​Cover to Before Watchmen: Comedian, art by Jim Lee. DC Comics.

2/1/2012 - DC officially announces Before Watchmen, directly against the wishes of series creator Alan Moore. Rights to the Watchmen property were to revert to Moore and co-creator David Gibbons a certain number of years after the series was out of print, but DC has kept the book in print since its release (and for good reason - it's a perennial best-seller). Though Moore swore off DC in the late 1980s, some creative entanglements with DC continued, with work on V for Vendetta and titles under the WildStorm line. With Before Watchman, Moore fans realize any chance of reconciliation is permanently off the table.

4/20/2012 - Vertigo writer Chris Roberson (iZombie, Fairest) leaves DC and publicly burns bridges with the company. "Sorry. In a better world, characters like the Legion would be owned by a more ethical company, but sadly not in this one. The short version is, I don’t agree with the way they treat other creators and their general business practices."

8/23/2012 - Rob Liefeld leaves all of his DC duties - writing and drawing Deathstroke and writing Grifter and Savage Hawkman.  He cites major conflicts with editor Brian Smith, and says of his time at DC, "Reasons are the same as everyone's that you hear. I lasted a few months longer than I thought possible. Massive indecision, last minute and I mean LAST minute changes that alter everything. Editor pissing contests... No thanks. Last week my editor said, 'Early on we had a lot of indie talent that weren't used to re-writes and changes. [That] made it hard.' Uh, no, it's you."

12/3/2012 - Long-time editor Karen Berger steps down from Vertigo, DC's "mature readers" publishing imprint. 

12/9/2012 - Writer Gail Simone is unceremoniously dumped from Batgirl, a book with solid sales and a strong fanbase, with no apparent explanation, through an email from editorial.

​Cover to Batgirl #1, art by Adam Hughes. DC Comics.

12/21/2012 - Gail Simone is re-hired on Batgirl after massive fan outcry. 

1/14/2013 - Robert Venditti, the announced writer of the all-new Constantine book, is replaced by Ray Fawkes before his first issue hits the stands. 

1/14/2013 - Jim Zubkavich, hired to write Birds of Prey, is removed from the book and replaced by Christy Marx before his first issue hits the stands.  Nick Spencer, who had a similar experience on Supergirl in 2010, finally speaks out, "Seeing lots of ‘that’s how it is in this business,’ stuff in regards to the day’s news. It really isn’t, and it certainly shouldn’t be. To be a little more direct: the way DC treats a lot of their freelancers is absolutely abhorrent. When it happened to me on Supergirl, I didn’t say much, because I didn’t want to dwell on the negative. But when you see it happen to so many good people, and the damage it does to their careers, their incomes, etc…It’s just not okay. I don’t understand the need for it, and I wish it were otherwise. I love DC, love the characters, and I know I did some of my best work there. And I’m very happy for my friends who have been successful there. But I would tell any creator - especially newer, younger ones - to be extremely careful in doing business there."

1/16/2013 - Superman Family Adventures duo Art Baltazar and Franco discover that their book has been canceled when that month's Previews catalog lists the latest solicitation as the book's final issue.

1/25/2013 - Keith Giffen leaves Legion of Superheroes after just two issues. The pairing of artist Giffen with writer Paul Levitz was to be a re-united "dream team" for Legion fans, since both creators brought the book to critical and sales heights in the 1980s. 

Cover to Insurgent #1. DeSanto & Farmer/DC Comics.​

3/13/2013 - Insurgent , a creator-owned 6-issue sci-fi mini-series (from screenwriter Todd Farmer and F.J. DeSanto), is axed after three issues (especially stinging considering the series was shelved for nearly three years due to the DC purchase of Wildstorm). Sales were low, but cancellation of a mini-series is almost unheard of, as publishers will typically ride out the low sales knowing that they have no obligation to continue the arc past its already-established finite number. Some explanation for the first issue's low sales might be blamed on the fact that the title appeared under the "DC Kids" section of the Previews retailer order form despite being made for adults.

3/20/2013 - Josh Fialkov quits both Green Lantern Corps and Red Lanterns before his first issues hit the stands. Rumors swirl that editorial wanted to kill off the Green Lantern John Stewart, but if it was ever planned (DC denies it), the company has decided against it...for now.

3/20/2013 - Andy Diggle, who was to take over the reigns on Action Comics after Grant Morrison's departure, leaves the book before his first issue hits the stands, citing "professional differences." DC announces Tony S. Daniel as his replacement, but... 

3/22/2013 - Tony S. Daniel leaves Action Comics the same week he gets the new writing assignment.

3/26/2013 - Bleeding Cool notices that writer Mike Johnson, already scheduled to leave Supergirl, bows out much earlier than expected, with his name still on the cover of a book he was supposed to write and didn't.

3/29/2013 - Bruce Timm, Supervising Producer of WB Animation and the man behind every DC animated project since Batman: The Animated Series debuted in 1992, steps down, disinterested in the increasingly popular direct comic-to-film adaptations that the company produces. In this fan's eyes, Timm's contribution as a "welcome wagon" to the entire DC Universe can not be overstated. He kept DC characters on TV for 20 years in lively, well-made shows and is responsible for a whole generation of DC fans.

4/9/2013 - DC replaces Mico Suayan as artist on Red Hood and the Outlaws after the gruesome cover to #19 leaks to Bleeding Cool.  Unchanged credits on the book reveal that the decision may have been a last minute one.

5/17/2013 - Long-time DC writer James Robinson leaves Earth 2 and DC Comics. The move comes as a surprise as Robinson's enthusiasm for the book and long-term plans for the Earth 2 version of Batman had been heavily publicized. "I'm no longer working at DC Comics," Robinson tweeted.

8/1/2013 - DC heads Dan Didio and Jim Lee address the editorial troubles. "I think it’s actually been a little bit less in the last decade than it’s ever been," Didio said, which dodges the question of just what the heck is going on over there right now. Jim Lee is more direct, but throws creatives under the bus a little for not being able to properly collaborate, "To me it’s the normal course of business in that not everyone’s going to agree creatively what to do with a book. The company has to reserve the right to control the destiny and the futures of the characters, and the creators have to decide if they’re willing to work in an environment where they’re telling their story but in the framework of a universe that has continuity and you have to work with all of these other different creators and editors that would want to control the directions of the characters." This doesn't explain how these same creatives are able to collaborate as work-for-hire elsewhere.

Lobo redesign by Kenneth Rocafort

8/9/2013 - Justice League 3000 was to be a "dream team" book reuniting writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis with artist Kevin Maguire.  Somewhere along the way, DC got cold feet with the lighter direction of the book (before the first issue had hit the stands, of course, because why wait for the fans' reactions) and fired Maguire, replacing him with Howard Porter. "I'm still a bit perplexed as to how it got to this point," said Maguire, reflecting the feelings of many fans who wondered why DC would even hire the beloved Justice League International veterans in the first place if they didn't want a book that was anything like Justice League International.

8/23/13 - DC launches a third version of the New 52 Lobo, the only character in the New 52 to experience three reintroductions since the company rebranding just two short years ago (first by Rob Liefeld who was told to drop Lobo's biker look, then a more traditional take by Jim Starlin, and now an all-new take on the character, who retroactively replaces those versions, designed by Kenneth Rocafort). Regardless of fan outcry over Lobo's slimmed-down, younger look, the third Lobo reboot stands as an example of conflicting editorial direction with no guiding vision over the New 52 universe.

9/5/2013 - Citing last-minute editorial meddling on approved storylines (and not because of an anti-gay marriage stance from DC Comics, as some spreading the news would have you believe), J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman stepped down from their duties on Batwoman. Williams stated on his site, "All of these editorial decisions came at the last minute, and always after a year or more of planning and plotting on our end. We’ve always understood that, as much as we love the character, Batwoman ultimately belongs to DC. However, the eleventh-hour nature of these changes left us frustrated and angry - because they prevent us from telling the best stories we can. So, after a lot of soul-searching, we’ve decided to leave the book after Issue 26."

Comics I Love - Green Lantern: New Guardians

​Now's as good a time as any to mention that I kinda love New Guardians. Tony Bedard is leaving the book, nearly two years after its launch as part of the New 52, and I have a sense that things aren't going to be the same. I'll be honest with you, and I know I'm going to sound like an insane person, but this is the book that kept me from dropping the entire DC line from my pull list a few months ago (as written about here, and DC has only gotten loopier since then).

Yes, I guess Batman is a "higher-quality" book overall, but Batman's always going to be Batman. I could skip a handful of issues in Scott Snyder's excellent run, return after a couple of months, and find that all of the pieces of that world would still be intact. He has to maintain a certain amount of status quo because Batman's got nearly a dozen books to support (Batman, Detective, Batman Inc., Batman and Robin, Batman: The Dark Knight, Nightwing, Batwoman, Batgirl, Batwing, etc, etc...). He's almost carrying the entire DC line on his broad shoulders right now, but enough about Batman...

New Guardians was a title starring a character who should have served no purpose in the New 52 - Kyle Rayner. I mean, if you're going to relaunch an entire universe, why keep the 90's replacement Lantern around anymore?​ The gimmick of the New Guardians, at least through the early solicits, was a "rainbow" team of Lanterns trying to get along through all of their conflicting personalities and philosophies. What the book has really been great at is finding a distinct reason for Kyle Rayner to exist, especially when Hal Jordan is clearly back for good as Green Lantern.

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​Panel detail from Green Lantern: New Guardians #16, art by Aaron Kuder. DC Comics.

​This was the book I couldn't give up on, and thus, I couldn't give up on DC. Bedard was never aiming for a hip re-invention of the wheel, but a propulsive, cosmic action-adventure that managed to capture the flavor of the old DC during a time in which NEW! NEW! NEW! was being forced down all of our throats. Every month was a simple pleasure - unique characters in unique situations, solving problems. The first problem was figuring out why a handful of various Lantern rings were being drawn to Kyle Rayner, and the second big problem was Rayner's struggle to master each individual color in the Lantern spectrum. Both stories were expertly plotted, dishing out just enough intrigue to have me saying, "dammit, I guess I'll pick up one more."

I said this month after month, with the book always on the cusp of falling off my monthly pulls (because who cares about a New 52 Kyle Rayner, right?), and every month I'd get hooked back in for another issue. At some point (probably the #0 issue* - a highlight in an otherwise abysmal month of muddled origin-themed comics), I had to seriously consider why New Guardians was winning me over like this, when I'd already dumped more critically-acclaimed titles like Action Comics and Aquaman. What was it about this C-list book that had me so addicted?

Part of it was the unpredictability. Like I mentioned above, Batman's always going to be Batman, but anything could happen to anybody in New Guardians. There's no Arkillo and Robin, no Larfleeze-Girl, no Kyle Rayner Inc. to worry about. As such, when Bedard raised the stakes, they mattered, because this was a title that was still forging its own identity. It had to bear the trappings of the Green Lantern universe, but other than that, anything was game and no one was safe. Rayner's eventual conquering of the spectrum to become the White Lantern wasn't something that seemed inevitable when the book began, but the process to get there was organic and a natural extension of the events that had been taking place since issue one.

Now, the Bedard era on the book is coming to a close, and I'm a little sad about it.​ I found it to be one of the few books in the New 52 line to actually get better over time (others have been more consistent across the board - whether good or bad; most got worse). New Guardians never let me down, and it surprised me more often than it didn't. Underrated and overlooked, the Kyle Rayner book proved to be the best of the Lantern line, and fans who wrote it off after an issue or two deprived themselves of a grand little space adventure. I look forward to re-reading them in a marathon session someday**, at least to remind myself that I'm not insane for loving this book.

*(I think the #0 may have been Aaron Kuder's first issue and the collaboration between this soon-to-be-a-superstar artist and Bedard is when the book really started to sing. Not to take anything away from Tyler Kirkham, but Kuder's more in line with my sensibilities.)​

​**(I started last night, and, boy, issue one is pretty threadbare. I don't blame folks for never sticking with it. It got much, much better fairly quickly.)

The Year in Comics: Biggest Disappointments of 2012

3. Suprise Over Girl Geeks

Are we still having this "girls are geeks too" conversation? Yes, because as long as folks like Tony Harris demand some kind of hard evidence as to a woman's completely unquantifiable geekdom (which a lack thereof is apparently 100% forgivable if she'll just put out), then it's definitely a conversation that still needs to happen.

It's tough for me to evaluate here in Austin, where all of the local comic shops have female employees (and most have more than one!) and any given trip to a store will see a 50/50 gender split. When I hear "girls are geeks too," my knee jerk reaction is to say, "well, duhhh." Girls are sports fans. Girls like roller coasters. Girls enjoy MMA. I don't think any of that is weird. Girls are people, and people like different stuff, to put it moronically.

Sites like The Mary Sue are fighting the good geek fight (and beyond that, providing great content regardless of gender), but I'd like to see the conversation come to an end. Not because I don't think it's a big deal, but because I don't understand why, in 2012, this is still a big deal. Fans come in all forms, with varying degrees of interest in the stuff that interests them. I'm hoping for a future in which "...for a girl" stops ending fanboys' sentences; one where "I'd do her" isn't the Official Dude Seal of Approval for celebratory cos-play. Let's stop being fanboys and start being fanmen. Ahem.

2. Digital Pricing

I can buy an actual, physical comic for $2.99 or I can "rent" a digital copy of the same book for the exact same price. I can't loan this book out, and there's no guarantee that my digital copy will exist in any form if the company that provides the technology to read it either changes the tech or folds entirely. I understand that on one level, the price point is to provide an even playing field between the digital realm and the brick and mortar local comic stores, but in the app world - where sophisticated video games sell for a buck - that $2.99 price tag seems unreasonable.

The bad good news? Comixology boasted that they were the third highest-grossing application of 2012. That means a lot of people are reading digital comics, maybe more than the big two are letting on. That also means that their price points are working, and they have no good reason to drop the price. That's a shame, because in truth, I think I'd be sampling more books, supplementing my regular off-the-rack purchases, a little more often if the price made more sense to me. Surely I can't be alone.

1. DC Comics

There was a lot of behind-closed-doors weirdness at DC this year. I don't know why Karen Berger stepped down from Vertigo. I don't know why Gail Simone was fired (and re-hired). I don't know why a slew of creators, from Rob Liefeld to George Perez (and a handful of others), felt hamstrung by the editorial staff, to the point that they cut ties with the company. I was mortified when Brian Azzarello was informed by an embarrassed podcast host that DC had no interest in continuing his new Vertigo book Spaceman beyond its initial mini-series. I don't know how the cancellation of certain titles was leaked to the press before the public or, worse, even before the books' creators were notified.

What I do know is that Before Watchmen was a middle finger across a burned bridge, with the quality of the books being irrelevant in a greater discussion about a creator saying, "please, don't" and the people in control ignoring those wishes in the pursuit of a cash mountain. I know that "Zero Month" was a bust - a slew of confused, if not downright rancid, origin issues - meant to be a jumping-on point for new readers that actually halted the momentum of their respective titles and provided many readers an excellent opportunity to jump off. I know that the New 52 introduction of Shazam may be one of the most off-putting reboots of all time - transforming eternally wide-eyed orphan Billy Batson into an insufferable shithead.

I've never considered dropping an entire publisher before, but I love DC, I really do. I read at least a half-dozen of their books on a regular monthly basis. But when it comes down to it, I'd choose a smooth-running ship where creative voices are valued to any particular brand loyalty, and DC isn't giving off the appearance of a smooth running ship. My advice? Give up this ludicrous devotion to 52 monthly books. It's a meaningless number now that the re-launch is over, and the market just isn't supporting that number of superhero monthlies from a single publisher. Next step, don't put the properties before the talent. If you put the talent before the properties, then the properties shine (case in point, Grant Morrison on Action, Snyder & Capullo on Batman). If you put the properties first, where it doesn't matter who's on a book - just that the book is getting made every month, you end up with weak, directionless comics that exist only to keep a brand name on life-support.

Note that this isn't a "worst of" list, just a disappointed one. Nothing would please me more than to see DC re-evaluate their current situation, strengthen their line, and come back swinging in 2013. Here's hoping.