For those of you who are speculating about Dan DiDio's reasoning and motivations and are also blaming Tom King, I think that Patrick Gerard's post from the " Jeph Loeb's Superman Run Being Collected Soon--- Thoughts on hs run?" in the Superman forum clearly explains everything so that fans no longer need to question themselves or speculate. Gerard was an aspiring writer for DC at the time of the Our Worlds at War event and later and saw a lot of inside stuff from before DiDio's hiring and after.
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post4317583
Here are the relevant paragraphs:
- So, basically, it might not be fair to blame Tom King for this as, like Brad Meltzer, he may have had a "kill list" from DiDio to work off of.
- DiDio is a troll who LIKES to piss off readers because he feels that reader apathy and ambivalence is worse than readers hating him or the comics.
In a way, this is true. DiDio specifically initiated the Rebirth direction because he said that at a Comics Convention where he was on the panel, when it came time to talk about the future of the DCYou initiative, fans either got up and left or didn't care. He said in interviews regarding the Rebirth One-Shot that fan apathy was "palpable." And, let's face it, the DCYou line was NOT really polarizing or controversial in any way. It was just dull. So, it might be true that nicey-nice fun comics just don't sell. Otherwise, the Bizarro comic would be on its 50th issue.
Well, given that most people haven't read HIC 8 yet, the fan reaction is already anything but apathetic. So, in that sense, he is getting people talking.
However, I feel that there is a limit to the number of times you can tweak the fans' collective nose and have them keep coming back for more.
I'm very curious to see how many people who say they are swearing off DC will really do so. With
Batman: Last Knight on Earth and
Year of the Villain coming up, it will be interesting to see if fans really penalize DC for HIC or if they just shrug it off by assuring themselves that in comics nothing is permanent and that Wally will be back one day fully redeemed.
I'm also very curious what Geoff Johns feels about all this because Johns says he only wrote the DC Rebirth special in the first place on the condition that he was able to bring back Wally.
I'm also starting to wonder if the delays on Doomsday Clock have anything to do with the events in Heroes in Crisis. Maybe Johns got wind of what HIC is doing and wanted to delay DClock so that he can write an ending that brings Wally back and undoes HIC.
One thing is for sure. The remainder of the year will be very interesting at DC -- more for any behind the scenes fallout than anything else.