Hire Bendis.

They should make a comic about all of them sitting down figuring out how to save the company! And then have Superman come in fighting Lex Luther and ask them all for help!

REFERENCES!

Oh, give up guys and just copy Marvel:

Boobies, angsty teens, and strange ideas of how the human body is put together.

Marvel still publishes comics? I had no idea.

DCU is #1.

Its possible for DC comics to be #1 when disney is discussing how to destroy marvel comics.

DC continues to collapse under the exasperating yoke of continuity. But they can't have their cake and eat it -- they need to either accept A) the state they are in, take some risks, reboot some titles and shiatcan some continuity, and NEVER EVER LOOK BACK, or B) accept that redoing "Crisis" in some form or fashion every 6-8 years is a shiatty idea.

Just ask yourself "What would Lex Luthor do?", then do it (and here's the key part) successfully.

A good one would be to put high-profile books on hold unless they can get someone decent on them. JLA and Batman are really, really terrible because some scrub is writing them right now before a half decent writer can do something with it. These are books that should never be this terrible.

/Also Didio should not be close to the creative process on any level.

Simple. Turn Vertigo loose and let them make R rated comics again...

Kill off all the characters and then resurrect them a few months later.

[Rolls dice...]

Super-pets are back!

Buy Marvel?

Bring back ANT-MAN!

Remake everything retro-70's-style. Glitter and gawdy costumes will bring them back.

Get Alan Moore and Grant Morrison together and let them go wild.

Man all that blackest night self congratulation is a little worrisome.

Having the same "dead people from our past show up and fight us" story shoehorned into every DC comic is annoying as hell and I hope to god they have more ideas then just having big crossovers steamrolling individual titles, because that's just an old idea that has always sucked.

Better distribution and marketing.

I just bought Blackest Night #1. Is it worth the time and money?

What a meeting of DC's new bosses may look like.

/hot like Giganta

FishStampede get's an internet!

@Gunny Highway: Yes...unless you haven't been keeping up with Green Lantern for the past 5 years. If you haven't, um...take a day or three and read through some trades at a Barnes and Noble or something (free reading FTW!). Catch up on GL and then read Blackest Night, totally worth it.

Pipkin E: @Gunny Highway: Yes...unless you haven't been keeping up with Green Lantern for the past 5 years. If you haven't, um...take a day or three and read through some trades at a Barnes and Noble or something (free reading FTW!). Catch up on GL and then read Blackest Night, totally worth it.

Thanks for all the suggestions, will do. Cheers!

Gunny Highway: I just bought Blackest Night #1. Is it worth the time and money?

Kinda too late now, isn't it?

moar supergirl panty shots

two words

BART SEARS


/what the hell ever happened to him?

ShawnDoc: Gunny Highway: I just bought Blackest Night #1. Is it worth the time and money?

Yes, but just stick to the main miniseries. All the cross over stories are essentially the same story, just swapping the names of the heroes/villains around.

This, for the most part. Though the last issue of BN:Flash may have had something important in it.

Isn't it a little early to call BN a success though? We haven't seen how this ends yet. If the ending really sucks, it would be a momentum killer for DC.

They can start by putting Jason Todd and Barry Allen back in their coffins.

Then they can do smaller self-contained stories with good writers, like Identity Crisis (yes, I liked it!).

Possibly reboot, for real this time, the entire DCU. Or start a NEW DCU (ala Ultimates).

Put more work into the more younger-reader comic universe.

Put together a cohesive movie plan with connections between movies series (like Marvel).

Nude. Wonder. Woman.

comslave: Nude. Wonder. Woman.

I'm curious about her invisible plane. How does she park it? I would love to have access to her landing strip.

Bruce Timm

Marvel, now owned by Disney, is going the Pirates and Adventure route (pulp fiction). If DC goes hardcore sci-fi / superhero + expand the Vertigo line, it could seriously attract the fanboys. Bendis was awesome because he went in a direction that Disney's not going to go.

Go the Bendis / Morrison / Gaiman / Moore route, keep the comics writer-centric, and DCU could easily come out on top. 10:1 Marvel becomes formulaic enough for the fanboys to turn to DC in 2 years

Make nice with Gaiman, Morrison, and (if you're really daring) Moore.

Pay creators for their creations properly.

Let the writers write.

Cut down on the Superbat books (you only need two of each - one for teens/adults with an ongoing story, one with stand-alone stories for kids).

Torrentius: Kill off all the characters and then resurrect them a few months later.

Get that man a sack of money.

One with a dollar bill sign on it.

Abstruse: Make nice with Gaiman, Morrison, and (if you're really daring) Moore.


I don't know of any heat they have with Gaiman, and Morrison's been writing Batman for a few years now.

Moore would be impossible.

Warren Ellis on DC's new power arrangement.

In other news, the role of Publisher at DC Comics has apparently been split between five people. I am reminded of when the role of Editor-In-Chief at Marvel was split between five editors. The kindest thing they were called was "the five families of New York," GODFATHER-style. It did not end well.

One hopes things will go better for these people. I must admit some surprise that Diane Nelson appointed five guys. Also, that the Five Swell Guys are really considered managers and doctors of the extant library, rather than generators of new IP: Jim Lee hasn't created a new property since 1997, I think Geoff Johns has only one created property in his oeuvre. I think there's a definite signal that the next few years are all about exploiting the library and managing what they've already got, rather than generating new IP. Which may well turn out to be a smart move, I dunno. I'm far from the smartest guy in the room about this sort of thing, as the clear visibility of the light smear of brackish water in the bottom of my bank account can attest.

Still, I like Jim and Dan DiDio immensely (I've only met Geoff Johns once, very briefly, and for all I know that nice-guy smile was hiding a small chunk of baby melting under his tongue), and I wish them all the best in a gig that is, frankly, not going to be the easiest job in the world.

Let the guys at Southpaw Studios run things.

make a Nextwave series for the DCU and i'd start reading

/bring back Gotham Central, the absolute best DCU book i've ever read

RaptorRed: Get Alan Moore and Grant Morrison together and let them go wild.

Morrison's work in DC currently is farking horrible. In fact, for the past several years his work has been horrible. Final Crisis sucked. RIP sucked. He can't write Dick Grayson, Damien Wayne is farking annoying as hell. They need to put writers where they goddamn fit. Winick gets Jason Todd back, give Dick Grayson to Fabian Nicezca, etc...I'm pretty sure Moore would rather set himself on fire. Stephanie Brown needs to go away. I don't care where. And Ted Kord comes back.

lolmadillo: /bring back Gotham Central, the absolute best DCU book i've ever read

This. Please bring it back.

But they are bringing back the JLI, hopefully Morrison is off soon, and Giffen and DeMattis are taking over Booster. I'll spend all of May high. I can't wait.

No more "epic" events.

DC has been bouncing from one catastrophic, universe-shattering disaster to another, since before Superman "died" and it's gone way past being pathetic.

The ghost of Irwin Allen is haunting their bullpen.

Get back to the basics.
Give a good plot.

Batman - grim, kick ass
Superman - shrug off anything...except K and Magic
Wonder Woman - hot, kick ass
Flash - run farkin fast
JLA - all of the above...with gueststars and some humor

And let Vertigo loose like a Mo-Fo

simple

I *tried* to read Blackest Night, but honestly it was a messy shiatstorm of bad writing, janky art, and a felt a lot like a bad rip-off of Marvel Zombies that was trying, desperately, to be "serious" and "grim" when it was sort of boring and pathetic.

I read almost all of Marvel's flagship titles, and the reason I keep going back is because Marvel is fun. They do get serious sometimes, but they also make me laugh. Reading a Marvel Comic is a good time. Reading the average DC Comic today is a long, hard slog through the continuity bog.

I've tried keeping up with Batman, but this whole "Dick as Batman" thing sucks, and Damien is a psycho that doesn't appeal to me in the least. Red Robin's a complete joke. Batgirl doesn't even need to exist. Batman comics have lost the "detective" vibe and become like a bat-suited version of "All My Children".

I hated what JQ did with One More Day, but since then Marvel has been pretty awesome. ASM is better than it's been in years. The Avengers is messy, but fun. The whole Dark Reign storyline has been a blast, and Siege/Fall of the Hulks are capping it off nicely.

Marvel's characters act like real people, and like real heroes. DC's characters are more like a pantheon of gods who are completely out-of-touch with the common people of their universe. DC's so bogged down in cosmic bullshiat that they can't write characters like Batman with any skill anymore.

I think they need to clean house at DC. Next Crisis, they need to COMPLETELY DO AWAY with their crazy, high-powered and super-cosmic characters from their main universe. Put guys like Superman, Darkseid, The Flash, the Green Lantern Corps, etc into another universe, and leave guys like Batman and Green Arrow in a more "common" world where they actually make some sense.

Vertigo rocks, but mainstream DC is a convoluted mess.

ZeroCorpse: I think they need to clean house at DC. Next Crisis, they need to COMPLETELY DO AWAY with their crazy, high-powered and super-cosmic characters from their main universe. Put guys like Superman, Darkseid, The Flash, the Green Lantern Corps, etc into another universe, and leave guys like Batman and Green Arrow in a more "common" world where they actually make some sense.

So basically they just need to quit writing about the DCU, right?

Braindeath: RaptorRed: Get Alan Moore and Grant Morrison together and let them go wild.

Morrison's work in DC currently is farking horrible. In fact, for the past several years his work has been horrible. Final Crisis sucked. RIP sucked. He can't write Dick Grayson, Damien Wayne is farking annoying as hell. They need to put writers where they goddamn fit. Winick gets Jason Todd back, give Dick Grayson to Fabian Nicezca,

Peter Tomasi is a much better choice.

I, for one, welcome our new comic book overlords.

Bring back Bruce Wayne.

Then Bruce lets Dick Grayson stay as Batman too, and they start to work together as equals.

But Dick insists that Bruce should take back the shield...

proletarian: ZeroCorpse: I think they need to clean house at DC. Next Crisis, they need to COMPLETELY DO AWAY with their crazy, high-powered and super-cosmic characters from their main universe. Put guys like Superman, Darkseid, The Flash, the Green Lantern Corps, etc into another universe, and leave guys like Batman and Green Arrow in a more "common" world where they actually make some sense.

So basically they just need to quit writing about the DCU, right?

Well, yeah. Kinda.

More like breaking the DCU into two DCUs. The crazy one and the not-so-crazy one.

bill4935: Bring back Bruce Wayne.

Then Bruce lets Dick Grayson stay as Batman too, and they start to work together as equals.

But Dick insists that Bruce should take back the shield...

ha! no one would go for that!

in other news, i am really happy about this. i was worried Johns would stop writing, but now that i i know he will continue, i am 110% in favor of this

Great comics always represent the times they're in. Right now, we have a huge crisis of trust in the older generation, as they seem to be screwing everything up six ways to Sunday. Therefore, if you want to target the lifelong comics audience, you've got to start new.

What's missing from American youth that used to be taken for granted? I'd argue that it's freedom and imagination - the expectation that you had to entertain yourself, rather than have it regimented for you. A character that could grant a reader this sense of freedom, one that could literally remake the world how he or she wanted, but still faced many compelling challenges - that's the one that I think would resonate greatly among children, teens and adult readers.

I think that's why origin stories still draw in the massive audiences - they still manage to have that level of wonder and joy, before being a superhero becomes another job. The real trick would be to create a character that had this sense of adventure in every single issue. An example of this would be the old Tintin comics, where every story brought the reader to new, exotic places where nothing was certain. While having recurring elements in stories isn't necessarily a bad thing, there comes a point where it's recognizably running out of ideas.

So to me, the best thing a comic book could do is throw away years of convention, and embrace the denouement. Yes, I realize characters are "brand identities", and valuable in and of themselves. However, as far as both marketing and story value go, there's a point of diminishing marginal returns. Creating a timeless character, wrapped in an unforgettable story, and letting it stand on its own - that may be the strategy of the future. The characters live on in the imaginations of readers, the story is packaged for massive levels of marketability as a cohesive whole, and in a few years, where the world has changed enough to where that character's interactions with it are suitably compelling once more, new stories can be fleshed out.

Basically, DC - stop flooding the market with crap, and let your artists be artists, creating whole works. It makes good business sense.

Infinite Crisis got my attention. The Green Lantern stuff has pretty much all been good. I'm enjoying "Blackest Night" immensely.

For anyone whining about DC's continuity, it's their greatest strength for a creative team that is versed in it and has the ability to play around with it. Basically it's the same idea as the DCAU - take what works, retconn what doesn't. I mean, to make the "yellow impurity" make sense, they had to add five other ring colors and even managed to tie it in to how dead DC characters get resurrected. Good stuff.

Jarhead_h: Infinite Crisis got my attention. The Green Lantern stuff has pretty much all been good. I'm enjoying "Blackest Night" immensely.

For anyone whining about DC's continuity, it's their greatest strength for a creative team that is versed in it and has the ability to play around with it. Basically it's the same idea as the DCAU - take what works, retconn what doesn't. I mean, to make the "yellow impurity" make sense, they had to add five other ring colors and even managed to tie it in to how dead DC characters get resurrected. Good stuff.

I'd take a comic book version of the DCAU over the regular DCU any day. Dini and Timm handled DC better than anyone else in the past 30 years.