Are we still in the AT&T era? The Discovery era? A weird transition era?

[Buried Alien]

Earlier this year, ownership of DC Comics shifted hands from AT&T to Discovery. The AT&T era lasted only a few years, but most fans view it as a dismal era. Current discussion on the forum seems to indicate that DC remains in this dismal state, but what are we really presently seeing? Is the current state of discontent the result of AT&T or the aftermath of its unsatisfactory stewardship not yet having been cleared out? Or is this simply the natural result of the confusion and lack of direction that is expected to occur in the period that immediately follows such a change of ownership (e.g. DC isn't fully AT&T anymore, but it's also not fully Discovery yet either)? Or, perhaps most disturbingly, are we already in the Discovery era and are seeing that Discovery's stewardship of DC is no better than AT&T's was and looks like it might even be worse? What are the prospects for the long-term future?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Vordan]

We’re in the Discovery era overall but it’s only just begun. For the comics however we’ve been in the Javins era for over/about a year now and I think it’s fair to make critiques. While her approach is less incendiary than Didio’s was, she does not go out of her way to antagonize people, she is in many ways a continuation of the Didio era. Like Didio she is attempting to expand DC outside the direct market as seen with her Webtoons initiative, and she continues Didio’s YA book push. Like Didio she overwhelmingly relies upon Batbooks to fund the line, and franchises that lay fallow under Didio like the Titans or the Legion have not improved under her reign.

Unlike Didio however she relies less on old talent and instead is trying to bring in new people. Didio continuously fell back on the same couple of writers: Morrison, Johns, Rucka, etc. She did manage to patch things up with Waid but he’s the only “old” creator who has made a big return to DC. Otherwise it’s been new blood, some of whom have shined and others who have failed. Whereas Didio was big on there is ONE main mantle holder, Javins is trying to make shared mantles the norm. YMMV on how well that’s worked out. LGBT content has gotten way more focus under her than it ever did under Didio. Wonder Woman has gotten a push with more books featuring her Mythos.

As a Superman fan I’ve been pretty happy with her reign. It’s been good for me, plenty of books that I like have been put out. The DCU as a whole however is in a sorry state of affairs. Never before has Batman eclipsed the rest of the DCU this thoroughly. Used to be GL or Flash or JL or SOMETHING besides the Batbooks would be in the spotlight but right now if you look at DC’s most popular books it’s all just Batman and Batman adjacent. GL has fallen hard from the Johns era to the point it can barely support a single book despite DC insisting on debuting more characters. Flash has been well received with the return of Wally, but DC failed to grow Flash as a franchise the way they did GL. Aquaman’s ongoing sales have not benefitted in any way from his billion dollar movie Titans keeps being dogshit and honestly should just be mercy killed to free the characters up to form new teams that maybe can actually compete with the League. The Suicide Squad push has failed. Williamson’s Dark Crisis seems to be selling ok but is creatively bankrupt with only the promise that MAYBE the new blood will get to be the main JL team coming out of this keeping me invested (that and I like his Jon).

Efforts to push the new characters has mostly failed, only Jon and Jace still have their own books, and I can only see Yara getting a shot at another book. Kaldur flopped badly. Jo is an unknown because her Far Sector book was well received and seems to sell ok on Amazon. Jess Quick hasn’t even arrived on Earth 0 yet.

The line lacks any sense of direction or commitment. There’s no sense that we’re building towards something, Williamson’s efforts have resulted mainly in indifference from what I’ve seen. Batman continues to chug along strongly from what I can tell, but DC needs a line wide relaunch with a new architect to get people to take notice. They need a Hickman to revitalize multiple franchises the way he revitalized X-Men.

[Robanker]

We’re in the Discovery era overall but it’s only just begun. For the comics however we’ve been in the Javins era for over/about a year now and I think it’s fair to make critiques. While her approach is less incendiary than Didio’s was, she does not go out of her way to antagonize people, she is in many ways a continuation of the Didio era. Like Didio she is attempting to expand DC outside the direct market as seen with her Webtoons initiative, and she continues Didio’s YA book push. Like Didio she overwhelmingly relies upon Batbooks to fund the line, and franchises that lay fallow under Didio like the Titans or the Legion have not improved under her reign.

Unlike Didio however she relies less on old talent and instead is trying to bring in new people. Didio continuously fell back on the same couple of writers: Morrison, Johns, Rucka, etc. She did manage to patch things up with Waid but he’s the only “old” creator who has made a big return to DC. Otherwise it’s been new blood, some of whom have shined and others who have failed. Whereas Didio was big on there is ONE main mantle holder, Javins is trying to make shared mantles the norm. YMMV on how well that’s worked out. LGBT content has gotten way more focus under her than it ever did under Didio. Wonder Woman has gotten a push with more books featuring her Mythos.

As a Superman fan I’ve been pretty happy with her reign. It’s been good for me, plenty of books that I like have been put out. The DCU as a whole however is in a sorry state of affairs. Never before has Batman eclipsed the rest of the DCU this thoroughly. Used to be GL or Flash or JL or SOMETHING besides the Batbooks would be in the spotlight but right now if you look at DC’s most popular books it’s all just Batman and Batman adjacent. GL has fallen hard from the Johns era to the point it can barely support a single book despite DC insisting on debuting more characters. Flash has been well received with the return of Wally, but DC failed to grow Flash as a franchise the way they did GL. Aquaman’s ongoing sales have not benefitted in any way from his billion dollar movie Titans keeps being dogshit and honestly should just be mercy killed to free the characters up to form new teams that maybe can actually compete with the League. The Suicide Squad push has failed. Williamson’s Dark Crisis seems to be selling ok but is creatively bankrupt with only the promise that MAYBE the new blood will get to be the main JL team coming out of this keeping me invested (that and I like his Jon).

Efforts to push the new characters has mostly failed, only Jon and Jace still have their own books, and I can only see Yara getting a shot at another book. Kaldur flopped badly. Jo is an unknown because her Far Sector book was well received and seems to sell ok on Amazon. Jess Quick hasn’t even arrived on Earth 0 yet.

The line lacks any sense of direction or commitment. There’s no sense that we’re building towards something, Williamson’s efforts have resulted mainly in indifference from what I’ve seen. Batman continues to chug along strongly from what I can tell, but DC needs a line wide relaunch with a new architect to get people to take notice. They need a Hickman to revitalize multiple franchises the way he revitalized X-Men.

Tough, but fair.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I don't think DC is going to have a clear direction until Zazlov picks his Feige-esque DC head and I have no idea if whomever that may be will want to keep Javins or go with someone else.

Unfortunately, Javins's tenure has been marred by the corporate confusion that finally did Didio in. Now that AT&T is gone, I hope she'll be given the opportunity to keep going, but with less reliance upon Batman, Batman, and more Batman.

If nothing else, I will give Javins credit for finally prioritizing Wonder Woman, giving LGBTQ characters the spotlight, and continuing the push towards the YA market, because that's where the future of the comics industry will most likely be, not with the hobbyist market.

And I'm overjoyed to be able to read a legit fun Flash comic that isn't mired in dead family members or angst.

[Buried Alien]

And I'm overjoyed to be able to read a legit fun Flash comic that isn't mired in dead family members or angst.

Of course, continuing that momentum depends on DC resisting the urge to kill off any Flash in DARK CRISIS.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Ascended]

The ink is dried on the Discovery deal right? Zaslov's name is on the door? That means we're technically in the Discovery era....but we haven't started to actually see that in the books yet. Like political policy, it takes a business of this size quite a while before effects from the top are felt at the bottom and it'll be several more months, at least, before any changes Discovery make find their way to the LCS shelf. You figure a comic takes about four-six months to produce from script to shop. Starting a project from scratch can take even longer, especially if you have to go through a deep approval process, which most line-wide relaunches and remixes need. And before any of that can even start to happen, somebody has to be put in charge of the print division/s, figure out how they wanna approach things, then get that plan approved by whoever's above them...which usually takes a lot of discussion as details are argued over, ironed out, etc.

It'll be a year or more before we see "Discovery's" DCU, just like it took about a year to see what AT&T would do. And while we wait in this weird quasi-limbo, the books will likely just be treading water, just like they did during the AT&T transition.

And I have no idea what things will look like, once we do start to feel any changes Discovery introduces. We could look at data and trends, consider relevant markets and basic business practices that deal with situations like this, and try to guess what Zaslov will do. We know Zaslov is hyper focused on the bottom line, we know there's a certain amount of debt that's been built up and Zaslov is gonna want everything churning out profit to help pay it off. And all of this does give us a very broad avenue of likely options. But really, we won't know what they'll do until they announce it.

We also need to consider the state of the markets DC works in. These Discovery people aren't operating in a vacuum; they can't just say "We have too much Batman in the LCS, let's cancel some of those books and set up JSA and Titans and Outsiders!" They have to bend around what the direct market is capable of, it won't just do what they want it to do. They need to be aware of the limits of the markets and the demographics that make up the consumer base.

And in that, the direct market is very much at odds with most others. AT&T reportedly saw a lot of adaptation potential in characters like Jon Kent and Yara Flor, and they weren't necessarily wrong. Twitter loves Jon and Yara was an instant hit among the cosplay crowd. But thinking that those characters would flourish in the direct market showed a remarkable misunderstanding of the audience. Generally speaking, the Wednesday Warrior buys the books they've always bought, supports the characters they've always supported, and resists any effort to bring in new characters, whether they be originals or legacies. So maybe a Yara Flor Wonder Girl film or show would do great.....but as we learned, that doesn't mean **** for the LCS.

[John Venus]

We are in a weird transitional era. We only have the vestiges of the old regime left.

New era would begin once Zaslov names the new head of DC and they announce the new slate.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Of course, continuing that momentum depends on DC resisting the urge to kill off any Flash in DARK CRISIS.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I doubt it, but if they do, I doubt it would be long term as well.

[Buried Alien]

I doubt it, but if they do, I doubt it would be long term as well.

If we can get out of DARK CRISIS without a Flash casualty, I'll consider it a win. Well, the Flashes and Dick Grayson. He's the one non-Flash character I worry most when DC gets bloodthirsty with its own characters.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[CaptCleghorn]

If we can get out of DARK CRISIS without a Flash casualty, I'll consider it a win. Well, the Flashes and Dick Grayson. He's the one non-Flash character I worry most when DC gets bloodthirsty with its own characters.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Killing Dick Grayson would be a story point that makes national news. Whether DC feels that's a good thing or a bad is unknown to me at least. The possibility is higher for a big name casualty if Dark Crisis (DCOIE) isn't the last multiversal shifting story planned. Another event following this means the heroes take a hit and need to come back. If DCOIE is finally it, then Dick should be coming out smelling like a heroic rose. The heavy legacy slant for DCOIE puts Dick front and center.

As for a Flash death, it does seem Crisis is Latin for "A Flash Dies" in DC's world. I'm not overly familiar with a lot of the newer Flash characters, but Jay sacrificing himself for the multiverse seems like it would fit in quite well here, no matter how distasteful many of us would find it. Jay dying being the spark for a new JSA series is something that DC might do.

[BohemiaDrinker]

If we can get out of DARK CRISIS without a Flash casualty, I'll consider it a win. Well, the Flashes and Dick Grayson. He's the one non-Flash character I worry most when DC gets bloodthirsty with its own characters.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Dick is safer than Barry and Wally. Williamson pretty much made Slade say some Didio nonsense like "you were a always the big prize" or something.That's pretty much foreshadowing for Dick being better than safe. At least for now.

(On a related note I'm ready to move on from Dan Didio meta commentary, hope DC is too, after this)

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Of course, continuing that momentum depends on DC resisting the urge to kill off any Flash in DARK CRISIS.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Unless Grant Gustin goes crazy and joins Ezra Miller to pulls something so egregious that the Barry Allen character is as toxic as Chloe Sullivan, I don't think Barry's going anywhere and I don't believe Javins would squander the good will that Adams run has built up with fans of Wally.

But, I've been very, very wrong before about how dumb DC can be when it comes to Flash

[BohemiaDrinker]

But, I've been very, very wrong before about how dumb DC can be when it comes to Flash

In your defense, all you did was assume they'd use a modicum of logic.

[MajorHoy]

Then again, AT&T use to stand for "American Telephone and Telegraph", so I have no idea what the letters stand for now (if anything).

[Bored at 3:00AM]

In your defense, all you did was assume they'd use a modicum of logic.

Yes, I'm often quite naive when it comes to assuming people have the best intentions in regards to the stories they're crafting. I'm forever underestimating the power of being petty.

Ain't gonna stop me from still hoping for the best, though

I mean, Adams' Flash is so much fun. If only he'd find an artist whose style was as good a match for what he was doing as Ringo's was for Waid. I suspect that's the secret ingredient missing that is keeping the current Flash run from being more financially successful.