The Four Color Media Monitor

So despite how Dan DiDio alone may be leading to the failure of DC, they decided to renew his contract. I must say, they really are looking for failure alright. It says here now:

That, despite DC's disappointing performance under DiDio, they may be forced to stick with him due to the lack of anyone else within the company with the experience and/or ambition to step into the position instead.

If they continue to stick with him, I figure that in the end, they'll only have their audience reduced to but a shadow of its former self, or less. No, I don't think that's a sensible answer. The best one is they're irresponsible.

Of course, Jimmy Palmiotti isn't exactly my choice for whom to replace him, if that's whom some thought might be a possible replacement, probably because he's been writing Jonah Hex, one of the more violence-prone books DC's got to offer. No, it's got to be someone else, and maybe that would be Bob Rozakis, who'd left them about a decade ago.

Now I suppose if there is any good possibilities here, it's that contracts can be cancelled and withdrawn, so I hope that's what can happen with DiDio when they realize that it's just not working out. The Titans Tower webmaster figures that the audience has begun to learn why it helps to vote with your wallet, and if sales continue to go down, and some more writers begin to speak out, it's possible that they can finally be convinced to withdraw their contract with DiDio.

Best of all though, would be if they were to get some more bad press, like what Nikki Finke gave them, which could be of help. However, while the blogmaster of Variety's Bags and Boards admits this, I think he's off base with the following:

That said, media interest in comics is massively disproportionate to the number of people that read them, and the one thing that may prompt WB execs to scrutinize DC’s efforts is bad press. Fan discontent, while vocal, can quickly turn around with a couple of hits. And DC arguably has a few of those, such as the popularity of Geoff John’s run on Green Lantern and Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. crossover, though it could use a few more. The pendulum of fan favor has long swung back and forth between DC and Marvel, and while it’s right now mostly on Marvel’s side, it will swing back at some point. Of course, coming up with a new hit series is increasingly difficult — witness the constant recycling and reviving of old characters, and the struggles new series starring even such well-known characters as Flash and Wonder Woman have had in recent years.

I don't think he's quite that accurate there. Green Lantern is selling well under 100,000 copies, ditto Batman, and even if they were selling above that, it'd still be a far cry from sales up to the early 90s. Is he trying to sugarcoat the situation?

Update: Comics Worth Reading asks a good question: why not get some more new blood, or even an employee who'd been driven away before?

Labels: bad editors, dc comics