Heard Dan Dido on Fanboy Radio...

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I actually thought Final Crisis #1 was pretty interesting, but I've read enough Morrison stuff to not expect everything to make sense right away. However, the editorial cluster-**** that has surrounded it with Countdown and Death of the New Gods has me scratching my head in regards to exactly what Dan Dido is doing these days. So, when I saw that Dan Dido did a brief interview with Fanboy Radio, I checked it out.

Unfortunately, the interviewer pulled his usual shtick of gratuitous ass-kissing of whomever he's interviewing to a nauseating degree, then proceeding to say what he really thought afterwards. However, despite the fact that the guy interviewing him didn't have the spine to bring anything even remotely negative up and fell over himself trying to pretend that everybody loved Final Crisis #1, Dido still managed to acknowledge some of the criticisms that have been leveled at Final Crisis and how redundant, pointless and contradictory Countdown and Death of the New Gods look now.

Essentially, the explanation was this: (keep in mind I'm paraphrasing here) DC has got a lot of books to keep track of and sometimes things fall through the cracks and inconsistencies show up. Sometimes, continuity has to be kept tight and sometimes it has to be relaxed to keep things accessible.

So, there you have it. If this has already been devoured by the fanboy feeding frenzy and spit back out again, I apologize. But I figured you'd want to know.

To my mind, Dido's explanation doesn't hold water. Yes, DC has a lot of books being published, but if Morrison had already written the script or at least the outline for Final Crisis a year ago, how the hell does Countdown and Death of the New Gods end up looking like they were written with no knowledge of it whatsoever?

In the end, the fault for this can't really come down on Morrison's head. He was hired to write this thing and he did. Dido knew what he was getting. He knew what Morrison had planned. He knew what was coming. So if nothing makes sense. There's one guy responsible for all this, and that's Dan Dido.

Countdown looks like a colossal waste of time.

Death of the New Gods looks like a shorter, less expensive waste of time.

[Will.S]

I actually thought Final Crisis #1 was pretty interesting, but I've read enough Morrison stuff to not expect everything to make sense right away. However, the editorial cluster-**** that has surrounded it with Countdown and Death of the New Gods has me scratching my head in regards to exactly what Dan Dido is doing these days. So, when I saw that Dan Dido did a brief interview with Fanboy Radio, I checked it out.

Unfortunately, the interviewer pulled his usual shtick of gratuitous ass-kissing of whomever he's interviewing to a nauseating degree, then proceeding to say what he really thought afterwards. However, despite the fact that the guy interviewing him didn't have the spine to bring anything even remotely negative up and fell over himself trying to pretend that everybody loved Final Crisis #1, Dido still managed to acknowledge some of the criticisms that have been leveled at Final Crisis and how redundant, pointless and contradictory Countdown and Death of the New Gods look now.
Scott's continuous ass kissing is what really continues to bother me about that show. He has great conversations with his guests but he rarely brings up any of the criticisms that they receive, the worst one being the Didio interview that you mentioned for the reasons that you stated.

I don't disagree with your sentiments here, Didio is clearly at fault and he totally dropped the ball with everything leading up to it as well as the handling of the creative team by not having J.G. do all of it. I'm still wondering why no one has taken him to task about all the Final Crisis stuff even though Newsarama did so with Morrison in a somewhat unfair fashion so hopefully someone will at some point when it's all over.

[Fatguy]

"Sometimes things fall through the cracks"?? This is THE event for the DCU, not some storyline in Shadowpact. That's ridiculous. If there's one thing you dont want to screw up, it's the series you spent a year building towards and are billing as universe changing and setting the standard for the future of your company.

It's laughable how bad DC looks after making their weekly series and hype book good for nothing more than hamster cage liner.

[Dorsai]

I don't think the explanation holds up. DC Editorial (Didio) essentially told readers that if they threw down the $3 a week for 52 weeks, they would have everything they needed for FC. The title of the book was even changed to Countdown to Final Crisis.

Asking readers to spend $160 for a build up to a 7 issue mini series and not actually having them match up in the continuity or content seems rather tough to defend if you are the EIC.

[Maestro]

Isn't his job to cover those "cracks"??

[bjtrdff]

I wonder why DC's chare is 13% lower than Marvel's every month, and they often don't get a book in the top ten.

And that says a lot considering who runs Marvel.

[XPac]

In all honestly, I thought DC did a pretty dam good job with Infinate Crisis (certainly a better job than marvel did with Civil War). What the heck happened with Final Crisis?

I think the weeklies and the spin offs of the weeklies just made DC greedy and sloppy or something... basically all the build up for Final Crisis should be ignored.

[The Cool Thatguy]

In all honestly, I thought DC did a pretty dam good job with Infinate Crisis (certainly a better job than marvel did with Civil War). What the heck happened with Final Crisis?

I think the weeklies and the spin offs of the weeklies just made DC greedy and sloppy or something... basically all the build up for Final Crisis should be ignored.

Yeah, really. Even if you didn't like Infinate Crisis, you had to admit that they definately knew where they were going with it. But here, we have mini series that tie directly into the main series plots yet it went totally wrong.

Do Grant and Starlin just not believe in email or something?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Yeah, really. Even if you didn't like Infinate Crisis, you had to admit that they definately knew where they were going with it. But here, we have mini series that tie directly into the main series plots yet it went totally wrong.

Do Grant and Starlin just not believe in email or something?

I agree. Whatever you think of Infinite Crisis, the build-up for it was really well-done. The careful foreshadowing and ever-increasing momentum really worked. I just don't understand how all that was completely forgotten when it came to Final Crisis. Either they just got really lucky with Infinite Crisis or something changed in DC Editorial that made this one a complete mess and an embarassment to everyone involved.

[Oblivion87]

I think the weeklies and the spin offs of the weeklies just made DC greedy and sloppy or something... basically all the build up for Final Crisis should be ignored.

Yeah thats the conclusion I arrived at after I read that Grant Morrison interview over at Newsarama, I mean Final Crisis seems make more sense when you ignore Countdown.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I agree. Whatever you think of Infinite Crisis, the build-up for it was really well-done. The careful foreshadowing and ever-increasing momentum really worked. I just don't understand how all that was completely forgotten when it came to Final Crisis. Either they just got really lucky with Infinite Crisis or something changed in DC Editorial that made this one a complete mess and an embarassment to everyone involved.

Seriously.

Honestly, I'm amazed at how communications have broken down between comic book writers even as communications has gotten so much easier. I remember Infinity War and Crusade, how well writers fit their stories inbetween the larger one. Everything was coordinated to what today would be an amazing degree.

Can someone tell me why/how communications between writers has fallen this far? Death of New Gods wouldn't have been a waste of money if like...five emails...were exchanged.

[TradePaperbackTraitor]

Bah... there was nothing that slipped through the cracks. DC was just trying to milk this event. Crossover events these days are freaking ridiculous with how many spin-offs they spawn. It's less about the story and more about the quick sales boost.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Bah... there was nothing that slipped through the cracks. DC was just trying to milk this event. Crossover events these days are freaking ridiculous with how many spin-offs they spawn. It's less about the story and more about the quick sales boost.

Yeah, but they can milk more money if the minis and such are actually relevent. By ignoring them, they lose far more fans than they gain and for what? That extra bit of effort shouldn't be too much to ask.

[Super Buddies Forever]

The DCU was never as tight as it was in the years leading up to Infinite Crisis. You could look at the events in one book and clearly chart when it took place with every other book in the line. The build-up and escalation to IC just kept growing too, incorporating more and more of the DCU. While I know loving continuity is viewed with negativity by certain portions of the fanbase, it really was a fun time to be a continuity nerd.

Needless to say, I was very impressed by DiDio's vision at that time. What the heck happened? One Year Later hit and the DCU has been a mess ever since (with a few notable exceptions, 52 being the biggest). Did everyone burn out after IC? Was there really no long-term plan after their meticulous multi-year planning of Infinite Crisis was complete? Apparently not.

[Paul Dee]

Yeah, but they can milk more money if the minis and such are actually relevent. By ignoring them, they lose far more fans than they gain and for what? That extra bit of effort shouldn't be too much to ask.

Not really though - it only became 100% apparent how irrelevant Countdown and Death of the New Gods were after they'd wrapped up. Yes, people had their suspicions during the stories but it was only when Final Crisis #1 hit the stores that people knew for a fact that the last year had been a waste of time. And at that point a lot of books had been sold.

[Magneto Rocks]

The DCU was never as tight as it was in the years leading up to Infinite Crisis. You could look at the events in one book and clearly chart when it took place with every other book in the line. The build-up and escalation to IC just kept growing too, incorporating more and more of the DCU. While I know loving continuity is viewed with negativity by certain portions of the fanbase, it really was a fun time to be a continuity nerd.
.

Exactly. It was like a giant puzzle with every book featuring in, events being reflected in different books,- you could literally pick a plotline and follow it through various books, as the ripples spread logically. Yes, sometimes it was confusing and we got "Red Skies"- and I understand it was bad for new readers- but for a long-term fan, it was magnificent to behold. Hell, people were literally able to construct a day by day account of the Infinite Crisis including every tie-in book and the main series. Things slipped through the cracks, sure- but they were things actually slipping, not taking a stunning leap through a colossal hole. So Robin may be in the wrong place here, or Superman's in two places in two books at chronologically the same time, but that is NOTHING compared to the end of Countdown/Death of the new Gods/DCU0/Final Crisis 1. I don't blame Morrison for this at all- if anything, the whole Morrison thing makes it worse because the end was written already. It's one thing to miss beats along the way, it's entirely different to have an ending written, work towards it and then manage to leave almost nothing in place for the final piece.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Not really though - it only became 100% apparent how irrelevant Countdown and Death of the New Gods were after they'd wrapped up. Yes, people had their suspicions during the stories but it was only when Final Crisis #1 hit the stores that people knew for a fact that the last year had been a waste of time. And at that point a lot of books had been sold.

Yeah, the books were sold and the fans were burned. Somehow, I doubt screwing fans is as productive as rewarding them by continueing the plot lines of both books in the main series. That's likely why Secret Invasion, of all things, beat Final Crisis.

[Spiffy]

Didio and Quesada BOTH use these lame excuses, that basically boil down to the fact that while editorial interferance at a high level may be at an all time high, that on lower levels it appears sometimes that Editors DO NOTHING. They don't check facts and continuity. They don't exchange information and reconcile books with each other. Or if they do, they make a big deal of it instead of it just being a natural assumption that's supposed to be WHY they have a job at all. Spellchecking software can do a lot of the more mundane "editing" work, you know...

I actually don't blame Morrison. Using him for Final Crisis means they knew what they were getting, and if they used him they should have known preparation was necessary. The editors should have talked to Morrison, talked to the Countdown team (the Death of the New Gods team too...), and made someone adapt. In other words... done their job. If separate teams were sent out to write stories that were supposed to eventually complement each other, no matter WHAT the sequence of the writing, the information was there to be shared at SOME point where it would have done some good.

[thehod]

I agree. Whatever you think of Infinite Crisis, the build-up for it was really well-done. The careful foreshadowing and ever-increasing momentum really worked. I just don't understand how all that was completely forgotten when it came to Final Crisis. Either they just got really lucky with Infinite Crisis or something changed in DC Editorial that made this one a complete mess and an embarassment to everyone involved.

The problem was that it should've stopped at Infinite Crisis.

I'm all for a long build up to a major event. In fact I love it. When its done well it can be bloody increadible. I can remember the a Judge Dredd storyline in 2000ad that had the first seeds sown three years before the final story started, and the core of the story ran pretty much for six months in weekly parts. Just brilliant.

And then it was over and there was a definite sense of anti-climax, not because the story was bad, but because it had to end somewhere and all that excitement of the past few years had to be replaced with normality once more.

I think this was the issue with the ending of Infinite Crisis, Countdown and Final Crisis. DC editiorial saw that all their carefully and, lets give credit where credit is due, well executed build-up was coming to an end and there was a desire to try to continue that on. I don't think it was entirely done from a financial perspective, more from a storytelling point of view, but I'm sure the feeling was that the additional revenue wasn't going to hurt any either.

So the ending of Infinite Crisis was changed ever so slightly to allow for some continuance and 52 was born, and blow me down if that didn't work too. A weekly comic, which had never really flown in the American superhero market was a success. Grant's off writing the "final" (we really mean it this time) chapter to an arc that was long since over, a weekly comic is selling well and is a critical success, how do we keep this going?

Anyone who's ever run anywhere ever will tell you that you can't keep going forever, you have to stop and catch your breath, otherwise your just going to fall over. This is what's happened at DC. They've been so focused on keeping this momentum going that they've forgotten that they need to slow down from time to time and focus on where they are rather than where they are going.

Countdown was a bunch of people running hell for leather and not realising that they were running in the wrong direction.

Dan Didio is not terrible at what he does, the build up to Infinite Crisis shows that he knows how to point a publishing universe in a single direction. I just think he's become so caught up in going from one big thing to the next big thing he's lost track of what it is he really wants to do.

He needs to get Final Crisis out of the way, and slow the DCU down for a bit. Green Lantern is building up to something good in 2009, let other titles do that on their own for a while. Concentrate on regaining the confidence in the individual titles. Get your editors to do their jobs so that there is consistancy in the titles and the characters before crossing them over into a zillion other stories that don't match up. Get enough work in the bag before soliciting titles that'll only see three issues a year.

Get the basics right.

And then start laying the groundwork for the next big event. Crisis like events should only come along every five or six years or so. Trying to do two in three years is whats caused this mess. Done, I'm sure, with the best of intentions, but its lead to an awful big mess, most of it all over DCs face.