What is DC doing wrong? How can it be fixed?

[Kevinroc]

Yes, that is what I am saying, and no, I am not wrong.

Yes, you are. But let me ask you one thing. What current super hero storylines do you think are good? The editorially mandated crap that killed Bart Allen and contributed to Countdown?

[Samy]

Action Comics: "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes"
Brave and the Bold
Booster Gold
Green Lantern: "Sinestro Corps War"
Wonder Woman: "Ends of the Earth"
Astonishing X-Men
X-Factor

All seven give me more enjoyment than Brubaker's Captain America. Hell, even TITANS gives me more enjoyment than Brubaker's Captain America (but I'm not including it in the above list because I don't think it's *good* per se, whereas the above ones *are*). You're just going to have to face it: not everybody has the same tastes as you.

[Paul McEnery]

Yes, you are. But let me ask you one thing. What current super hero storylines do you think are good? The editorially mandated crap that killed Bart Allen and contributed to Countdown?

Not to disparage the Cap story -- I hear people are enjoying it -- but I think it's just another superhero story for people who've been following those characters.

But I dunno. Maybe it's more than that. Sell it to me. Give me the one-line high-concept pitch.

[CBR News]

Dan Didio isn't worried about losing his job as editor-in-chief of DC Comics. Judging by the response from Saturday's DC Nation panel at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina, nobody else wants it anyway, unless the offer comes with a closet of shoes.

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16895

[The Batman]

Do you think that if he was worried about it he'd come out and say it?

[Samy]

If I were DiDio, I'd be more worried about staying on. Leaving would be a relief.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

The leak or the continuity stuff up?

If the leak, then the biggest recent one is the Armageddon 2000 one.
Basically, a big crossover featuring a mystery character called Monarch who was going to end up being a DC Hero gone bad.
Originally, the Hero in question was going to be Captain Atom, however the word got out and, at the very last minute, the character was changed to Hawk, of Hawk and Dove.

This made absolutely NO sense, and was pretty much universally reviled.

At the Sydney Supernova Con I picked up most of Milligans 90's Detective Comics run, and in one of the letters pages, Denny O'Neil has a column going on about how hard it was to keep the secret for so long as to how Monarch was, and how only seven people at DC knew, and how they had to keep it secret for months.... at the end he was like I can finally say it 'Monarch is Hwak!!!'
And the more I read, the more my respect for him lessened.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

So do you think that the Raquel Montoya Question will get her own series and sell better than the original Vic Sage version?

Nothing sells as well as the comics back then, but with Rucka writing, an on-going with her would probably sell - more than another rehash of Vic Sage anyway, as all attempts have failed.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Johns has much more respect for continuity, accessibility, the characters, and the fans.

Really?
REALLY?

Look at Morrisons opening arcs of a series, like New X-Men or JLA.

Look At Johns opening arcs on a series, Teen Titans or JSA.

Morrisons win straight out the gate on accessibility, and we can argue the others.
He doesn't feel the need to retcon character back into 80's versions of themselves though, so I think that shows more respect for continuity, character and the fans.

But bugger my little examples, you tell me how this is so.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

I don't know if he's full of himself, but it's gotten to the point that Morrison really only reference stories he himself has written and ignores anything that other writers do. Like ignoring Countdown to Final Crisis in the actual Final Crisis, which I understand, yet highly referencing Seven Soldiers, an equally mediocre story from half a decade ago that frankly I'd never even heard of, which confuses me as to what train of logic he used to get to that dicission.

Final Crisis was written before Countdown.

Seven Soldiers had a huge push, was a critical success, and wasn't 'half a decade ago' - it was the same time as Infinite Crisis, and that still gets referenced.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Not to disparage the Cap story -- I hear people are enjoying it -- but I think it's just another superhero story for people who've been following those characters.

But I dunno. Maybe it's more than that. Sell it to me. Give me the one-line high-concept pitch.

Of course it is, but it is quite good.
I'd never brought a Cap issue before, but I tried the first trade and found it really enjoyable.
Steranko's Nick Fury meets Sleeper.

Although Paul, if you want to dip your toes, check out the Union Jack mini by Christos Gage and Mike Perkins from a couple of years ago - shows how to do a 'modern' superhero story, without losing the fun of the past - realism without grittiness.

[Nick Soapdish]

I believe it was during the early 90s, before Morrison's JLA launched, before she became a cast member in PAD's Aquaman.

She had one in Justice League Europe (or maybe it was Justice League International at the time.

Not entirely sure what happened with it or even who the father was. She had had sex with Hal Jordan, but it could've been mystical. She had some mystical Atlantean powers for a while (or rather, the baby had them and was using them while she was pregnant) and I think that the baby got hyper-aged and then disappeared.

[Samy]

Nothing sells as well as the comics back then, but with Rucka writing, an on-going with her would probably sell - more than another rehash of Vic Sage anyway, as all attempts have failed.

Have there even *been* any attempts at a Vic Sage series in the last, say, 15 years?

And I don't recall Crime Bible selling all that high.

[Kevinroc]

Action Comics: "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes"
Brave and the Bold
Booster Gold
Green Lantern: "Sinestro Corps War"
Wonder Woman: "Ends of the Earth"
Astonishing X-Men
X-Factor

All seven give me more enjoyment than Brubaker's Captain America. Hell, even TITANS gives me more enjoyment than Brubaker's Captain America (but I'm not including it in the above list because I don't think it's *good* per se, whereas the above ones *are*). You're just going to have to face it: not everybody has the same tastes as you.

Well, you just said Titans gives you more enjoyment than Brubaker's Titans. So you can't claim this is a matter of taste here. :)

And for the record, I did enjoy a number of those comics you mentioned but they are all nowhere near the quality of Brubaker's Cap run. (And certainly not Titans. Yikes...)

Not to disparage the Cap story -- I hear people are enjoying it -- but I think it's just another superhero story for people who've been following those characters.

But I dunno. Maybe it's more than that. Sell it to me. Give me the one-line high-concept pitch.

The death of Cap story had been the culmination of two years worth of build-up and stands as the Red Skull's big step to overthrowing the American Government.

To fully understand Brubaker's story, one has to realize something that he said following Marvel Civil War (I am paraphrasing this line). Captain America hadn't lost touch with America, America had lost touch with Cap. That is basically the "one-line high concept pitch" of the book.

The book is now about the supporting cast (Bucky, Sharon Carter, Tony Stark, Red Skull and others) moving ahead in a world without Steve Rogers. Despite Cap being dead, the book is in many ways more about him than ever. Of course this being comics we all know Cap won't stay dead (he is Captain America, after all) but Brubaker is turning in quality work here.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I think he's feeling the heat....so he won't come out and be all scared. Thats not how someone who deals in the public work.