DiDio's writing credit alone is one of the reasons why Sideways flopped the same direction

Looks like DC's "new age of heroes" is going sideways along with the titular character starring in one of the books, whose real name is Derek James. While I think the idea of a new hero of different race (he's Latino) is a great idea in itself, and that's the correct way to introduce new superheroes, some of the reasons this Sideways series was basically a failure include the following, beginning with a certain writer/editor who receives co-creators credit:

• Dan DiDio, the one and only, was a co-creator/scripter on the series. It's already well known he's disliked among fandom, and if he was seeking validation after all the harm he's still causing the DCU through Heroes in Crisis, whose 2nd issue sold less than 89,000 copies, he made a huge mistake. Especially since he never apologized for what he forced onto the DCU by ways of Identity Crisis.
• His co-writer, Justin Jordan, blocked a lot of Comicsgate supporters, a very strange move for somebody supposedly interested in entertaining the audience. Seems he couldn't keep his leftism out of his PR approach any more than his next book, the Curse of Brimstone.
• As if things couldn't get botched enough, I'd discovered that by the 5th issue, the stories involved modern left-wing social justice elements when the Showman villain came about. Not a very good way to prove they're avoiding partisan political allusions.

So in the end, is it any wonder this didn't draw a massive audience? I'd say no. The people attached to the story were little more than a recipe for failure, and if DiDio can't own up and admit he's capable of making mistakes, or avoid making more as has happened recently with Heroes in Crisis, that's why everyone who stayed away from his "New Age of Heroes" did the right thing. Besides, the new Damage wasn't much more than a tepid Hulk clone.