Make DC better

[Jon Clark]

Follow the example they are using with MAD and stop producing new work. Simply put out reprints of stuff from the last 80 years every so often and let the TV shows, movies, and other merchandise exist to keep the characters in the public mind.

That is the only way to improve it short of getting DC sold off to people who see the characters as more than stuff to be packaged and sold like candy bars, table lamps, and T-shirts

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Follow the example they are using with MAD and stop producing new work. Simply put out reprints of stuff from the last 80 years every so often and let the TV shows, movies, and other merchandise exist to keep the characters in the public mind.

That is the only way to improve it short of getting DC sold off to people who see the characters as more than stuff to be packaged and sold like candy bars, table lamps, and T-shirts

Uh.....I really think this is incredibly drastic.

[Starter Set]

Isn't Mad closing shop?

[Vampire Savior]

Hire great writers and artists, stay out of their way except for keeping them on time.

____________________

This comment has been screencapped and archived on my hard drive.

This type of thing sounds good, but it isn't always the way to go, especially with long running characters those writers and artists didn't create. This is how you wind up with things like Punisher being some kind of avenging angel and fighting demons.

Rather, I think it would be perhaps more crucial to get very competent editors. When you have strong editorial staff, you tend to get good quality comics. My personal favorite editor was Jim Shooter. Creators may have had problems with him, but Marvel was quite arguably at their best under his watch, and it had a lot to do with him specifically. I don't think there is anyone I actually respect in comics more than Shooter, actually.

Editorially, DC doesn't seem particularly competent at the moment. Jim Lee doesn't have a good eye for what makes really good stories or characters, and outside of Batman, he doesn't even seem like a creator who really fits the DC Universe very well, so it's a little weird to me that he's at the top. As for Dan DiDio, he's too caught up in his personal preferences, which are weird and divisive. I also believe their efforts at reaching new audiences aren't bold enough.

[Restingvoice]

My answer's the same as the other threads. Even though there are, right now, 3-4 big writers that determine the trajectory of the universe, don't ignore the others, because the impression I got was a very unbalanced job where the top dogs steer and the lesser writers have to follow regardless of what idea they have at the time, as ordered by the management.

This type of storytelling would be fine if you like the prioritized books, but if you only like the smaller books that are connected to the big ones by event, it gets annoying having outside forces you suddenly change the direction of the story.

At least if you want to change the status quo in my book it should be done by the author of that book, not by the author of another book, enforced by management.

This kind of management forces people to read the big book first and trickle down to the others if they have extra money if they don't want outside interruption.

[golgi]

LOL Scott Snyder is great and does a lot for DC. His Justice League is utterly wonderful.

Agreed. Also, Bendis's books have been solid for the post part.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Just a wild guess, but... when you tell a joke at panel in a convention expecting lots and lots of laughter but are instead met with silence and annoyed faces, do not turn that joke into a nine month, all characters encompassing event.

Not a fix, but a good start.

[Vakanai]

Keep going full steam ahead with the one offs and Elseworld-y lines and books like Black Label, do more crossovers like the Batman/TMNT stuff, keep pushing kids lines like the former Zoom/Ink lines (now just Kids/Teens lines I guess). Largely the best DC stuff is the non-continuity stuff, so definitely keep that side of things strong. As for things I'd actually change? Just end the mainline continuity/universe and make everything separate continuity miniseries and the like. Just push for quality content, no need to try for this ongoing endless 80+ year history thing any more. Which is not saying that I'm axing any books, most titles like Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman/Flash/so onare still going to be monthly titles, but every writer change is a new, self contained story with no need to beholden to what the last guy did or anyone else did. Every run is basically its own universe. Boom.

[Godlike13]

the suggestion I hear often is a complete overhaul of the leadership at DC, since it seems like the people in charge have consistently been either wishy washy, asleep at the wheel or both and having to do damage control. We need people in charge who are actually in-touch with contemporary storytelling culture (which stories to tell, what story needs to be told, how to best tell those stories and get them out there) and won't be so reactionary

This is where im at.

[nhienphan2808]

Keep going full steam ahead with the one offs and Elseworld-y lines and books like Black Label, do more crossovers like the Batman/TMNT stuff, keep pushing kids lines like the former Zoom/Ink lines (now just Kids/Teens lines I guess). Largely the best DC stuff is the non-continuity stuff, so definitely keep that side of things strong. As for things I'd actually change? Just end the mainline continuity/universe and make everything separate continuity miniseries and the like. Just push for quality content, no need to try for this ongoing endless 80+ year history thing any more. Which is not saying that I'm axing any books, most titles like Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman/Flash/so onare still going to be monthly titles, but every writer change is a new, self contained story with no need to beholden to what the last guy did or anyone else did. Every run is basically its own universe. Boom.

I share this view. The long timeline of 80 years better stop in 2011. Stuff like Elseworlds and Lil Gotham are such a success because they don't care about contuinity, just like the Batman films of the past.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I share this view. The long timeline of 80 years better stop in 2011. Stuff like Elseworlds and Lil Gotham are such a success because they don't care about contuinity, just like the Batman films of the past.

Yeah, which is why the New 52 was so successful.....

Oh, wait.

[Starter Set]

Yeah, which is why the New 52 was so successful.....

Oh, wait.

Well, they did sell paper.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Largely the best DC stuff is the non-continuity stuff, so definitely keep that side of things strong. As for things I'd actually change? Just end the mainline continuity/universe and make everything separate continuity miniseries and the like. Just push for quality content, no need to try for this ongoing endless 80+ year history thing any more.

No, no its not. There are great non-continuity stories from DC, but there's just as much, if not more, great in-continuity stuff. Whether or not a story is in-canon does not have a causal relationship to its quality. You are just as likely to have a Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come as you are to have a Long Halloween or Sinestro Corps War. Likewise, you are just as likely to have an All-Star Batman and Robin as you are a Cry for Justice. So, yeah, that's a fallacy to think that making a story non-continuity just magically makes it better.

However, you would probably do real damage to the company if you axed the main shared universe (that endless 80+ year history). That's what fans are invested in. The stories of these characters going on years and years and their evolution and their interactions with each other is the reason why there's a comic industry in the first place. Its why we even have things like the MCU. How many stories from the main Marvel Universe have they borrowed in making the MCU? Dozens. Its why we even get animated DC movies like the Death of Superman and Batman: Hush.

Consumers come for the characters, but they stay for the universe. I mean, hasn't anybody learned that lesson from the New 52's failure?

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Well, they did sell paper.

For like a year and then the sales took a severe downturn.

[Vakanai]

Yeah, which is why the New 52 was so successful.....

Oh, wait.

Invalid argument - New 52 was terrible regardless of continuity. So many awful decisions and stories. Now, if 52 had actually been good and still done as awful you might have an argument, but saying that letting go of an 80 year old continuity was what did it in is very disingenuous - anyone can come back with the counter argument that the lack of quality is what killed that initiative.

No, no its not. There are great non-continuity stories from DC, but there's just as much, if not more, great in-continuity stuff. Whether or not a story is in-canon does not have a causal relationship to its quality. You are just as likely to have a Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come as you are to have a Long Halloween or Sinestro Corps War. Likewise, you are just as likely to have an All-Star Batman and Robin as you are a Cry for Justice. So, yeah, that's a fallacy to think that making a story non-continuity just magically makes it better.

However, you would probably do real damage to the company if you axed the main shared universe (that endless 80+ year history). That's what fans are invested in. The stories of these characters going on years and years and their evolution and their interactions with each other is the reason why there's a comic industry in the first place. Its why we even have things like the MCU. How many stories from the main Marvel Universe have they borrowed in making the MCU? Dozens. Its why we even get animated DC movies like the Death of Superman and Batman: Hush.

Consumers come for the characters, but they stay for the universe. I mean, hasn't anybody learned that lesson from the New 52's failure?

A few things...
1. I never said there weren't great in-continuity stories, but a lot of the big ones aren't in continuity you have to admit. And even most of the ones in continuity don't have to be, how many of the best in-continuity stories really relied on needing to be in continuity to be good? Most of them could have been told as they were without being in the main continuity or ever affecting another book.
2. If fans were as invested in that 80+ history as you say, comics wouldn't be a dying medium.
3. Consumers come for the characters, but they stay for the stories.
4. Again, ditching the 80+ history wasn't the New 52's failure, being an awful universe with an awful direction and full of awful stories was New 52's failure. Pray DC learned that lesson over anything about continuity.