Marie Javins named new Editor in Chief of DC Comics

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That seems a tad overly harsh on monthly comics and the creators who work on them.

Don't get me wrong, I love monthly comics, but I've been reading them for decades and most of them aren't very good. There's some absolute gems, which is why I keep coming back week after week, but they sit upon mountains of forgettable mediocrity. Sometimes the average is higher and sometimes it's lower, but that's the reality of creating art. There's generally less hits than misses.

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Clueless corporate execs...monkey wrench? What kind exactly? No more Titans?

Titans is a profitable brand, so I don't think it's going anywhere, but it may not be the Titans that the average middle aged comics fan wants. I mean, Teen Titans Go! is vastly more profitable and popular than anything DC Comics has done with the property since the 1980s.

[Hypo]

My favorite creator reaction:



It's real:

[The Darknight Detective]

Titans is a profitable brand, so I don't think it's going anywhere, but it may not be the Titans that the average middle aged comics fan wants. I mean, Teen Titans Go! is vastly more profitable and popular than anything DC Comics has done with the property since the 1980s.

True, but the TV audience isn't remotely the same as the one for comics.

Anyway, good luck to Marie!

[Frontier]

Don't get me wrong, I love monthly comics, but I've been reading them for decades and most of them aren't very good. There's some absolute gems, which is why I keep coming back week after week, but they sit upon mountains of forgettable mediocrity. Sometimes the average is higher and sometimes it's lower, but that's the reality of creating art. There's generally less hits than misses.

Again, I feel like that is being too harsh on monthly comics, even if narrowed down to the Big Two.

I mean, there are bad monthly comics out there and characters not being written well, but I would never treat that as the norm.

Titans is a profitable brand, so I don't think it's going anywhere, but it may not be the Titans that the average middle aged comics fan wants. I mean, Teen Titans Go! is vastly more profitable and popular than anything DC Comics has done with the property since the 1980s.

Although the Young Justice cartoon is very popular and that is probably more in-line with what modern fans expect from the Titans.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

True, but the TV audience isn't remotely the same as the one for comics.

Anyway, good luck to Marie!

And expanding that audience so that they aren't so different is something that I hope Javins is able to accomplish. If comics are to survive, they can't just appeal to a small niche audience.

[The Darknight Detective]

And expanding that audience so that they aren't so different is something that I hope Javins is able to accomplish. If comics are to survive, they can't just appeal to a small niche audience.

I don't disagree, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[John Venus]

I heard good things about her from a lot of creatives. Hope this means that the DCU can finally get back on track.

[John Venus]

She is a New Zealander as well.

As for her editing experience, she was all over Marvel in the 80s. Not only that, but she was assistant editor to Mark Gruenwald for a long, long time. Everything she learnt editorial wise, she learnt under him.

Did some more digging into Javins and she was the one who got Priest on Deathstroke. She also edited Yang’s Superman Smashes The Klan, both of those in particular were some of my favorite stuff to come out of DC lately. Hopefully that means Priest and Yang will get more work.

Sounds like she is exactly the kind of person DC needs right now.

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Again, I feel like that is being too harsh on monthly comics, even if narrowed down to the Big Two.

I mean, there are bad monthly comics out there and characters not being written well, but I would never treat that as the norm.

I think there's a difference between bad comics and mediocre ones. A mediocre comic is just forgettable. It's just good enough to convince the reader to pick up the next issue and nothing more, or worse, not think about it at all after reading it.

There's a lot of comics put out every week that do this. This isn't a knock on the creators who work on these comics. Often, they're doing their best to fulfill some editorial directive or set up some crossover or the artist (or writer) was on a tight deadline or any number of things can occur that results in another mediocre comic that you'll forget about after reading it. That's the harsh reality of creating any kind of art.

This isn't to say that the stand-alone comics are necessarily going to be all hits either. Some of them are going to be duds, too. But, hopefully, the extra time afforded to these projects and not needing to fit into whatever's happening with everything occuring in a dozen other books will allow these comics to have a higher batting average than the monthly grind has produced.

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I don't disagree, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The audience for superheroes is clearly very large, given the popularity of the genre, and there's also clearly a large audience who still want to read comics that Scholastic has managed to tap into (to say nothing of the giant Manga readership).

DC (and Marvel) just have to get out of their own way and figure out how to appeal to readers who aren't already deeply invested in long-running superhero continuity.

That said, with so many other alternatives to consume superhero entertainment these days, I don't think the traditional approach is going to do it. For instance, I stopped reading The Flash comic years ago because I could watch The Flash every week on the CW. Comics have to do something the other mediums can't.

[Frontier]

I think there's a difference between bad comics and mediocre ones. A mediocre comic is just forgettable. It's just good enough to convince the reader to pick up the next issue and nothing more, or worse, not think about it at all after reading it.

There's a lot of comics put out every week that do this. This isn't a knock on the creators who work on these comics. Often, they're doing their best to fulfill some editorial directive or set up some crossover or the artist (or writer) was on a tight deadline or any number of things can occur that results in another mediocre comic that you'll forget about after reading it. That's the harsh reality of creating any kind of art.

This isn't to say that the stand-alone comics are necessarily going to be all hits either. Some of them are going to be duds, too. But, hopefully, the extra time afforded to these projects and not needing to fit into whatever's happening with everything occuring in a dozen other books will allow these comics to have a higher batting average than the monthly grind has produced.

I feel like that's looking too much at the medium in abstract and not in-depth regarding the actual quality of the work, but of course what makes a comic forgettable is going to differ from person to person and probably depend on whether they care about the character, the story, and what happens to them.

I don't really see it as so much different from seasonal TV in terms of making viewers want to continue to see the adventures on a weekly basis, but that doesn't make the episodes inherently mediocre or forgettable.

That said, with so many other alternatives to consume superhero entertainment these days, I don't think the traditional approach is going to do it. For instance, I stopped reading The Flash comic years ago because I could watch The Flash every week on the CW. Comics have to do something the other mediums can't.

On the other hand, The Flash comic can do so much more than what the TV show can do through the medium and continuity.

[superduperman]

She has a good resume and everyone seems to like her. That's definitely a good sign. Working on Akira is a plus in my book!

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I feel like that's looking too much at the medium in abstract and not in-depth regarding the actual quality of the work, but of course what makes a comic forgettable is going to differ from person to person and probably depend on whether they care about the character, the story, and what happens to them.

I don't really see it as so much different from seasonal TV in terms of making viewers want to continue to see the adventures on a weekly basis, but that doesn't make the episodes inherently mediocre or forgettable.

They aren't inherently mediocre or forgettable, but most episodic television absolutely is and few professionals working within the entertainment industry would deny that. While there are certainly great and wonderful episodes of television being produced week after week, the majority of shows on television are pretty mediocre and forgettable. Granted, your mileage may vary. It's entirely possible that what you may think is a perfectly entertaining episode of "Bland White People Get Into Trouble!" would likely make me want to claw my eyeballs out

On the other hand, The Flash comic can do so much more than what the TV show can do through the medium and continuity.

Exactly. As Morrison rightfully pointed out decades ago, comics are not bound by SFX budgets or have their scripts endlessly rewritten by armies of clueless studio execs (although editors have certainly ruined many a comic by doing this). DC Comics need to lean into what makes them unique and special if they are to expand their audience beyond readers like us who've been obsessed with them for years. We're already hooked. The trick is understanding that what hooked us isn't necessarily going to be the same thing that will hook a wider audience.

[OopsIdiditagain]

My favorite creator reaction:



It's real:

Not all heroes wear capes. She has good taste, congrats to her.