Quote Originally Posted by Ascended View Post
I think we're likely too deep into the 5G stuff to put the brakes on completely. Creators are already probably well into their plans, and it takes time to change direction. 5G might not end up lasting, but if it gets tossed, then that's just another huge shift/reboot/direction change within ten years. That's not good for the industry either.
I don't know about that. If they walk in Monday and say 5G is not happening, it would not be that difficult to tweak. The only real midstream change we'd see would be Wonder Woman. They could still put out all the Generation books and then just let things continue on without changing the main line. Let 5G either die on the vine or spin it off into something self contained like an Ultimate line. I think that is probably the most likely scenario actually. Particularly if the rumors about people like Snyder not even really wanting 5G to impact their books.

I think they've known for a long time the direct market is a dead end that'll kill us all. The problem is escaping it. Didio might be a traditionalist but he's the guy who brought us same-day digital, the earth-1 OGN's, and imprints designed to cater to new fans. He knew we needed to get away from the Diamond Deal, he just couldn't pull the entire company out of it. And really, expecting one guy to be able to do that is asking too much of anyone.
We have same day digital, at a price point that makes no sense - and that has been imposed specifically to protect the direct market. There is no logical reason a digital comic should cost as much as a physical one other than to protect the direct market. Amazon would sell them for $0.99 and kill the direct market in a heartbeat. Comixology is probably salivating at the thought right now. It's possible Didio didn't want to go far enough and those higher up, whether Lifford or some AT&T suit, finally had enough of that. Stuff like Earth 1 has had a negligible impact really. The recent younger reader OGN's seem to be far more important and successful independent of the direct market than Earth One ever was. Selling 30,000 or even 150,000 direct market books to diamond likely is barely a factor for AT&T.

I know everyone is excited about this, but let's hold off on breaking out the good scotch. We don't know how it's going to end, who will replace Didio, nothing. Y'all gonna be super happy when Harras or Lee takes over?
Harras is supposedly the one who was all about protecting people like Berganza. So yeah, he definitely needs to go. I'd be shocked if he sticks around. Jim Lee just seems like he's content to go with the corporate flow and I've gotten the sense he wants to follow Johns trajectory given he's been involved more and more in the TV and movie side of things.