Examples of Editorial Sabotage that happened in DC comics

[Kid A]

The overall statistics don't bear with what you are saying. The long term DC sales for OYL were a massive downturn compared to the very strong sales for Infinite Crisis. If anything the entire OYL line proved the weakness of his editorial philosophy: putting in new writers and artists (often untested at the expense of the old creative teams), using his editorial mandates to give a temporary sales boost and trying to minimize continuity between the books. The continuity between the books was one of the strengths of the Infinite Crisis crossovers and its lead-ins.

If anything it proved to me that the person that should have been promoted to executive editor wasn't Didio, but Pete Tomasi since he was responsible for the two tentpole books of the post-IC/OYL era namely Morrison's Batman and Johns's Green Lantern.

And stuff like Countdown to Final Crisis and Cry For Justice only confirms that.

Tomasi was a great editor; OTOH, not a huge fan of his writing.

[GlennSimpson]

Captain Atom was the only one that didn't have an Armageddon Annual.

I believe he appeared in the Justice League Europe Annual at the time. Waverider touched him to see his future and clearly saw Monarch's mask in it.

[ShazamHusker]

Here you go: http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogsp...1_archive.html

Scroll down to the post titled "We need a rape". It's from someone who worked in DC during that time.
[/QUOTE]

I read it. Do we know who it was, if the story is accurate, and if there are other discussions on it? I glanced at some of the other blog posts and it certainly seems like she has had a very rough time.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Stuff that really bugged me:

- Dwayne McDuffie JLA. The first issues were great, and then....

- Zero Hour; I remember reading that original plan was to bring back some semblance of the multiverse, with a new Earth 2 and Earth one (for the silver agers).

- Wally West from 2005 onward.

[Buried Alien]

The final two years of the Silver/Bronze Age FLASH series was something of a trainwreck (but an oddly addictive one) because DC had informed Cary Bates that Flash (Barry Allen) would need to die in the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS event in 1985 two years before the event reached the market.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Lucette]

I always think too much is made of editorial "interference". Look, these are corporate properties, pure and simple, that thousands of aspiring writers would like to write. Anyone who signs up to write a character at DC or Marvel should know that there are going to be things they can do and things they can't. Marvel had exactly the same problems in the late 70's when Jim Shooter tried to make their line more cohesive. ... SNIPPED ... everyone knows that - you either become a big enough name to do what you want with characters or do your own independent stuff.

True enough, DC isowned by WB and Marvel by Disney. Though, these are American companies and, if the story is set outside of the USA, one can get away with small things without them noticing.

Guess what, if you try to make Batman a peace loving hippie who rallies against vigilantes it's probably going to get struck down. Frankly, the characters are bigger than the current writers, so if DC wants to go a certain direction then that's how it's going to be. Everyone knows that - you either become a big enough name to do what you want with characters or do your own independent stuff.

That is a different issue. Even if WB wanted to do that with Batman, even in the case of the Adam West Batman, that would not be true to character - unless you take it to an alternate reality. Tie dyed hero suit - like the wolfman from the Hillarious House of Frightenstein.

Saw a funny cartoon on FB today of Batman coming to the house of an elderly lady in a printed dress who had a house full of cats and doilies and saying that she was not what he was thinking of when he pictured Catwoman. She actually would make a good super villain - see cartoon movie Hoodwinked.

Then again, I can picture Harper's wife as a Catwoman villain - one where she aids a robot in trying to take over the universe.

[Lucette]

Here you go: http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogsp...1_archive.html

Scroll down to the post titled "We need a rape". It's from someone who worked in DC during that time.

I read it. Do we know who it was, if the story is accurate, and if there are other discussions on it? I glanced at some of the other blog posts and it certainly seems like she has had a very rough time.[/QUOTE]

I have no way of knowing whether the story is true or not that the higher ups wanted a rape. What I do know is that, as far as I know, you donèt get many male superheroes who look like male strippers or have been on the receiving end of a rape.

[Lucette]

please delete duplicate

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Here you go: http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogsp...1_archive.html

Scroll down to the post titled "We need a rape". It's from someone who worked in DC during that time.

That is both disgusting and disgustingly unsurprising. Well, at least DC didn't just loose its collective mind back in 2011. Yaaaay.

[ShazamHusker]

That is both disgusting and disgustingly unsurprising. Well, at least DC didn't just loose its collective mind back in 2011. Yaaaay.

I did end up googling some and came up with the author, etc -- actually read a lot of those blog posts. It would be nice to see some names of the accused, etc.

I think the thing is about not doing comics anymore, but I think she is still in comics?

[dancj]

I'm completely confused by your post. Just out of curiosity, I would love to see a credible link to a story relating that editorial said that to Moore about Killing Joke.

http://www.lonelygods.com/w/bat4.html
"As Moore recalls, "I asked DC if they had any problem with me crippling Barbara Gordon - who was Batgirl at the time - and if I remember, I spoke to Len Wein, who was our editor on the project...[He] said, 'Yeah, okay, cripple the bitch.' It was probably one of the areas where they should’ve reined me in, but they didn’t."

[nightrider]

James Robinson on Earth 2.
Blackman and Williams on Batwoman.

The replacement wasn't that bad...

Simone on Batgirl...fired and rehired.

Wasn't big on Simone's batgirl

Swierczynski on Birds of Prey.

A pity.

Layman on Detective and Eternal.

Haven't read it but I heard it was good.

George Perez on Superman.
Rozum on Static Shock.
Higgins on Deathstroke.
Liefeld on all his books.

For the better.

[GlennSimpson]

It's probably worth noting that a bunch of the time, the editor is the person who hires the writer to work on a book. So any time you really really enjoyed a writer on a book, it was probably the editor you have to thank for bringing over that writer.

[Double 0]

There is absolutely no way in hell what happened to Rozum was "for the better". Unless you just straight up hate Static/Milestone.

Static flopped like a dead fish, conceptually and sales wise. That had everything to do with McDaniels and editorial.

[The Darknight Detective]

http://www.lonelygods.com/w/bat4.html
"As Moore recalls, "I asked DC if they had any problem with me crippling Barbara Gordon - who was Batgirl at the time - and if I remember, I spoke to Len Wein, who was our editor on the project...[He] said, 'Yeah, okay, cripple the bitch.' It was probably one of the areas where they should’ve reined me in, but they didn’t."

Yes, Alan, they should have reined you in.