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Thread: Dan Didio era

  1. #1
    Mighty Member
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    Default Dan Didio era

    There's been plenty of posts about the 2002-2020 era of Didio being trash, like killing off Roy, removing Wally, putting the brakes on Rebirth...but was it all bad?


    I gotta believe there were some highlights

  2. #2
    Always Rakzo
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    Bad decisions, forced events, lack of plannification, lots of unnecessary misery because "that's what sells", etc.

    However, I was never able to really hate the guy. He was always kind in the interactions I had with him, it seemed like he really liked the industry and in many occasions saved books with poor sales because they were fan-favorites. Sure, he made a lot of mistakes but there was still good stuff under him.

  3. #3
    Fantastic Member gambit2051's Avatar
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    Highlight: Blackest Night...and just allowing Johns to do everything he did with GL from Rebirth through Blackest Night. GL was never as good as during that period imo with the World Building it did for that franchise.

    Lowlight that he definitely had control over: Everything that happened with the Flash Franchise.
    If you are going to refute, you need to do your own research.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by CTTT View Post
    There's been plenty of posts about the 2002-2020 era of Didio being trash, like killing off Roy, removing Wally, putting the brakes on Rebirth...but was it all bad?
    His tenure was an absolute failure. Marvel under Quesada pretty much ran circles around him. He bled DC of their best talent, fired people for disagreeing with him and filled DC with his sycophants. His handling of Countdown to Final Crisis and Convergence showed that he was terrible at his job and that he only got so far by taking credit from the successes of other people. He fostered a workplace where sexism and racism was rampant. And his decisions such as with 52, New 52, Flash and Rebirth was defined by arbitrariness and pettiness where he tried to kneecap projects that he felt threatened his position and fired people so that he could give jobs to his friends. DC under him was run like a fan club instead of a business and characters like Superman and Wonder Woman was chronically mismanaged. He is pretty much the Carly Fiorina of DC in that his 15 year reign pretty much has left DC's publishing unit a husk of its former self and barely holding on. The only positive of his reign is that Marvel pretty much cemented themselves as the top comic book company because of his incompetence.

    The good comics that were produced by DC under him were usually stories that he had no hand in creating. For example 52 that was edited by Wacker, Sinestro Corp Wars, Johns run on Aquaman, Seven Soldiers or Morrison's Bat Trilogy (Batman/Batman&Robin/Batman Inc). The constant shuffling of writers under him with random arbitrary departures meant that creators simply didn't have the freedom (compared to their Marvel counterparts) to create lasting creative runs on book. Creativity under him at DC suffered and it shows with DC just wrapping up its 10th Crisis with another one around the corner with most of DC's top writers having stepped away from the company.

    His legacy is pretty much the utter ruination of DC Comics.
    Last edited by Bruce Wayne; 03-02-2021 at 06:25 PM.

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    Extraordinary Member superduperman's Avatar
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    New 52 was a good idea that was poorly executed largely due to Didio's stupid "nothing can ever change" rules. DC needed a hard reboot. But saying nobody can ever get married or age or mature in any way held it back. He also had a personal vendetta against any sidekick over the age of 12. Which means even when he had a good idea, he sabotaged it himself. Comics are a business. They shouldn't be run by fanboys. Jeannette Kahn understood this. Didio didn't.
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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by superduperman View Post
    New 52 was a good idea that was poorly executed largely due to Didio's stupid "nothing can ever change" rules. DC needed a hard reboot. But saying nobody can ever get married or age or mature in any way held it back. He also had a personal vendetta against any sidekick over the age of 12. Which means even when he had a good idea, he sabotaged it himself. Comics are a business. They shouldn't be run by fanboys. Jeannette Kahn understood this. Didio didn't.
    Well said and agreed.

  7. #7
    Mighty Member LifeIsILL's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CTTT View Post
    There's been plenty of posts about the 2002-2020 era of Didio being trash, like killing off Roy, removing Wally, putting the brakes on Rebirth...but was it all bad?


    I gotta believe there were some highlights
    And 2020-2021 has been good? Death Metal, DCeased seem to be the only 2 books people seem to care about.

  8. #8

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    In the 80s and 90s, DC put out a lot of comics that redefined storytelling. Even though Marvel always sold better, you knew if you wanted to get someone to take comics seriously, you'd give them Swamp Thing, Sandman, Starman, Watchmen, Dark Knight, etc. You wouldn't hand them "Maximum Clonage."

    With DiDio, the era of evergreen DC classics was over. Besides perhaps DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke, there really wasn't anything at DC that could sit comfortably on the shelf with those 80s-90s classics.

    Under DiDio, we got bad sequels and prequels to the good stuff from the pre-DiDio era.

    Under DiDio, Vertigo was driven into the ground and Karen Berger was forced out. That alone would tarnish his reputation in comics forever.

  9. #9
    Three Legged Member married guy's Avatar
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    While he seems like a lovely enough bloke, I HATED what he did to Wally West.
    The mandate of Barry Allen or nothing ticked me off, when all of Wally's lore was then grafted onto Barry while the rest of the Flash Family were shunted off into limbo, I quietly lost my sh*t.
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  10. #10
    Extraordinary Member Restingvoice's Avatar
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    Of course not, but I don't know specifically which was his decision and which was not. Though I guess if he's chief who has to approve everything that means he's responsible for approving everything.

    So the goods that he approved are
    - Bringing back Multiverse
    - Dick Batman and Damian Robin
    - Red Hood and The Outlaws general concept
    - Batgirl Barbara Gordon despite possible ableism and other characters erasure because she is the most popular Batgirl to mainstream audience that they say New 52 want to reach, so marketing wise that decision is sound
    - Geoff Johns Green Lantern and Aquaman
    - Barry Allen's alive again because his death was apparently a previous editorial mandate and you know how much I hate if it's not the writer's idea
    - Kate Kane Batwoman
    - Gail Simone on twitter said he's a supporter for LGBT characters
    - The New 52 bringing back titles and characters I never heard of such as The Movement, Dial-H, I, Vampire, I Zombie, Demon Knights, the war stories, even though not all of them lands, but I like that they try to expand to different genres.
    - Justice League Dark
    - Getting Harley beyond Gotham
    Last edited by Restingvoice; 03-02-2021 at 10:49 PM.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by LifeIsILL View Post
    And 2020-2021 has been good? Death Metal, DCeased seem to be the only 2 books people seem to care about.
    2020 to 2021 having its own duds doesn't make DiDio's era better.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Restingvoice View Post
    Of course not, but I don't know specifically which was his decision and which was not. Though I guess if he's chief who has to approve everything that means he's responsible for approving everything.

    So the goods that he approved are
    - Bringing back Multiverse
    - Dick Batman and Damian Robin
    - Red Hood and The Outlaws general concept
    - Batgirl Barbara Gordon despite possible ableism and other characters erasure because she is the most popular Batgirl to mainstream audience that they say New 52 want to reach, so marketing wise that decision is sound
    - Geoff Johns Green Lantern and Aquaman
    - Barry Allen's alive again because his death was apparently a previous editorial mandate and you know how much I hate if it's not the writer's idea
    - Kate Kane Batwoman
    - Gail Simone on twitter said he's a supporter for LGBT characters
    - The New 52 bringing back titles and characters I never heard of such as The Movement, Dial-H, I, Vampire, I Zombie, Demon Knights, the war stories, even though not all of them lands, but I like that they try to expand to different genres.
    - Justice League Dark
    - Getting Harley beyond Gotham
    Iirc, he also pushed to have Jaime Reyes's book keep running for a while.

  13. #13
    It sucks to be right BohemiaDrinker's Avatar
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    This is not a black and white issue, but I don't have the time to post all it deserves right now.

    Let's just say that Dan had a lot of strong suits, but let his weak suits overshine them.
    ConnEr Kent flies. ConnOr Hawke has a bow. Batman's kid is named DamiAn.

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  14. #14
    Extraordinary Member HsssH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Restingvoice View Post
    Of course not, but I don't know specifically which was his decision and which was not. Though I guess if he's chief who has to approve everything that means he's responsible for approving everything.
    This is the thing isn't it? Some people say Didio was responsible for every bad thing and had nothing to do with the good stuff.

    Here a random quote from Wikipedia:

    In an interview with Matt Brady from Newsarama, Grant Morrison said that they were contacted by DC Vice President Dan DiDio and asked "if I'd like to come back to DC to work on a Superman project with an artist of my choice". They mentioned it worked out well since they were also planning to return to DC "to do the Seven Soldiers project and the Vertigo books".
    I mean, he personally contacted Morrison to return to DC and do All-Star Superman and that lead to future Morrison's projects at DC. But hey, Didio was not responsible for anything good.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by CTTT View Post
    There's been plenty of posts about the 2002-2020 era of Didio being trash, like killing off Roy, removing Wally, putting the brakes on Rebirth...but was it all bad?


    I gotta believe there were some highlights
    Off the top of my head:

    Johns' GL Run
    Morrison's Batman run
    52
    Flashpoint
    All Star Superman
    Batman: Black Mirror
    Court of Owls
    Johns' Aquaman run
    The New Frontier
    Kate Kane's Batwoman
    Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle
    The return of Hal as GL, Barry as Flash, and Babs as Batgirl
    Last edited by TheBatman; 03-03-2021 at 12:34 AM.

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