DC Comics Heading for Major Shake-Up?

After more than a twelvemonth of fall sale and write up that bequeath readers and critic cold , DC ’s summer 2008 flagship comic Final Crisis was seen by many to be the one volume that could fix all problem and return the publisher to the # 1 billet in full term of fan conversation , vital plaudit and sales . After all , it had a fan - preferent originative team ( XTC - Men , JLA , Invisibles and We3 writer Grant Morrison and 52 cover creative person JG Jones ) and promised to not only render thematic closure to , but also enfold up long - scat subplots from , the last four eld ’ worth of DC comics . Where could you go incorrect ?

Well , the first issue of the series ( which appeared last month ) could have reviews like this one , fromwell - respected comics critic Tom Spurgeon :

The general feeling that I had in the midst of interpret it is a strange one , and not something I ’ve seen anyone else examine to put into row . The whole work feels arbitrary in a way , if I can explain it like that . For something that come out of a shared universe and the last four years of hard plot maneuverings made by the company total , much of the secret plan in Final Crisis # 1 feels strangely impressed on top of the book like an overlayer .

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Or this , fromformer DC editor in chief KC Carlson :

I had to find out from the internet what Anthro was force in the George Sand , and it ’s a good thing I did , because I also found out that the account really ramps up in its third take ! Meaning I have to be 12 bucks into the story before anything exciting happens ?

While there were some positive recapitulation , this review fromComic Book Resourcesseemed to summarize up the general feeling towards the launch :

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This is n’t a disaster just yet , but six more outcome of this quality and this could spell the end of the gross sales power for a party event at DC Comics . “ Final Crisis ” , indeed .

Part of the bad feeling citizenry had for the book was due to the weekly 51 issue prologue series , Countdown to Final Crisis . After a twelvemonth of ostensibly hastily put - together chronicle that sacrificed consistency and coherence for the power to fulfill deadline , everyone was more than slightly surprised to see that Final Crisis not only seemed to ignore Countdown ’s plot of ground , but also outright negate it in places . To make subject worse , Final Crisis writer Morrison gavean interview about the discrepancythat hint at disharmony with what was break down on behind the scenes at the publishing company :

Final Crisis was part - write and broken down into rough issue - by - issue plots before Countdown was even conceptualise , let alone write . And J.G. was already play on designs and former layouts by the time Countdown begin . There was n’t really much opportunity , or desire , to qualify our content at that stage . [ W]hen Countdown was in the first place being discussed , it was just a typesetter’s case of me saying ‘ Here ’s emergence 1 of Final Crisis and a bumpy breakdown of the undermentioned six issues . As long as you guys leave things off where Final Crisis begins , we‘ll be fine . ’ apparently , I would have preferred it if the New Gods had n’t been highlight at all , let alone quite so intensively before I got a chance to bring them back but I do n’t run DC and do n’t make the decisions as to how and where the characters are deployed … If there was only me involved , Orion would have been the first dead New God we see in a DC comic , pop off the chain of events that we see in Final Crisis … The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘ semen ’ material from Final Crisis and in some case , in all likelihood due to the pressure of fulfill the pages of a hebdomadary al-Qur’an , that seeding number to entire plotlines curve off in directions I had never envisaged , forebode or planned for in Final Crisis .

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But , of course , it does n’t matter how you make an omelette as long as it tastes good , right ? And Final Crisis was the most successful comic book of account of last month , as intended , right ? Well … not exactly :

Secret Invasion # 2 was the bestselling risible book of May , comfortably edge out the first issue of DC ’s big summertime case , Final Crisis .

How well ? Well , the second issue of Marvel ’s privy Invasion betray 5 copies for every 4 copy sold of Final Crisis , which tends to supply up when you ’re talking in the tens of thousands of written matter ( Comic Book Resources ’ estimatesa 41,000 difference between the Book ) . In fact , May was a very bad calendar month for DC overall , with master rival Marvel having 50 % more marketplace share than them , and seven titles in the top 10 merchandising comics of the month to DC ’s three .

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and

I ’ve worked under tyrant and I can say that I ’d prefer to process under a talented , learned autocrat with a successful plan than a aimless gladhander with a ouija board any day of the week .

Nothing like a happy work environment and former employees willing to talk your extolment , is there ? Not that things look set to get better anytime soon ; with confirmation on Monday thatconcern that JG Jones wo n’t be able-bodied to meet deadline on Final Crisis has led to another artist being assign to draw parts of each futurity issuebringingyet more callsfor DiDio to pace down or be terminate , it ’s beginning to look likethe rumour that DC is count for a fresh guy to turn the publishing company around and rebuild bridge with creators , retailers , fans and anyone else who ’s still ante up aid when DiDio ’s current declaration expires in October(or perhaps even in the beginning ) may be true after all .

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joe want the E.I.C. job and go after it while we were doing Marvel Knights … and he was the perfect bozo for the job … Its obvious to everyone . I never wanted the job then because i want to create new characters and start writing … and to do that , i had to start from the background up again to make it work .

Interesting purpose of past tense there , Jimmy : “ I never want the business then ” ? “ I wanted to make raw characters and start write ” ? Has something changed , perhaps … ?

Other than Palmiotti catch sideways involved in the on-line chattering , it ’s notable that no current DC Godhead have spoken out in support of their boss on this subject ( In comparability , when Marvel ’s Quesada was being called out for removing Spider - Man ’s wedding via deal with the ogre , Marvel ’s top writers publicly stand behind him on message board and news web site ) , adding yet more fuel to the uncomfortable ambience fire .

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