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COUNTING DOWN WITH DAN DIDIO: THE FIRST THIRD
It’s time for another weekly installment about Countdown. Series Editor (and regular Counting Down sparring partner) Mike Carlin was tied up with scheduling issues for the past couple of weeks, so, while we had Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray talking about their issue earlier this week, this time out…we’ve got Dan DiDio. And no – he’s not talking specifically about this week’s #37. Dan wanted to talk about the big picture of Countdown, and address a few misconceptions about the series, its story, and the stories surrounding it. Newsarama: To start with Dan, we’re about a third of the way through Countdown. How’s it going, both process-wise and expectation wise, from your chair? Dan DiDio: Process-wise, it’s been another learning experience, which is the interesting thing about Countdown. Because we changed the structure of the way we do this series compared to 52, things that we changed to help improve the situation helped improve it in regards to product flow, and the speed with which the books were done, but they also created a new set of challenges along the way, which are things that we’re working through as we move forward. NRAMA: Story-wise…as we spoke many times during the course of 52, both with you and the writers, that story was described as something that was organic and changing, in that, while you ended at the same place, the journey was not firmly set, even when the writers were a little ways into the stories. Is that a similar situation with Countdown, or is the story more “set,” given its connection to the larger DC Universe? DD: Actually, there have been changes along the way. What we needed to do originally was that we had to wait for some of our key players to come free. That’s one of the reasons why Holly and Jimmy Olsen featured very prominently in the early issues – we were waiting for Karate Kid’s story to wrap up in JLA and JSA, or for Kyle Rayner to break free from the Sinestro Corps War. To be honest with you, speaking of the organic nature of the series and story, one of the conceits I had in place was trying to create a month-by-month continuity in regards to DC. Again, because of the organic nature of the storytelling, and the wonderfully surprising success of the Sinestro Corps War – that started to expand a little more – so we had to make sure Kyle was available for the Sinestro Corps War, and not remove him too early from that storyline while still having him available to us. So we’re actually putting Editor’s Notes in to explain the flow of the story and events where it doesn’t fall as cleanly as it could in a month-by-month schedule. NRAMA: So that would explain how Kyle can appear here while currently, he’s seen doing ____ in another book? DD: Right. It’s to clarify the order of his appearances. You’ll see that Kyle’s story breaks in Green Lantern #26, I believe, and from there, he moves to an issue of Countdown, and then appears in an issue of The All-New Atom. That’s not the order that those issues will be released, but those are the order of his appearances. I didn’t want to get into a situation where, like we did during Infinite Crisis, we started delaying books in order for them to fall in the right order. But in this particular case, and I know that some people will say that we’re giving away what’s going on with Kyle Rayner, but the reality is in this case, it’s a progression and flow issue. When it comes down to that, we’ll put Editor’s Notes in to clarify the flow of the stpory and the appearances. NRAMA: Speaking, not necessarily of Editor’s Notes, but in terms of Editor’s in general, I want to get you to justify something that you said back at the beginning of all of this. In February, you said, speaking of Mike Marts: the best part about Mike, and I use this as a real plus now, is that he was unfamiliar with so much of the DC Universe. Being a Marvel guy for so long, which we’ve forgiven him for [laughs], he wasn’t as familiar with our characters and our stories. The best aspect of that is that in creating a weekly book, we’re hoping to attract new readers – so here’s the guy who’s running the project that actually has a fresh set of eyes, and is unfamiliar with some of the characters and the stories that took place prior to this. Since then, we’ve seen Mike Marts replaced by Mike Carlin. Nothing against Mike Carlin, of course, but as one of DC’s senior staff, he has absolutely none of those qualities that you said made Mike Marts the best editor for Countdown. Can you explain the change, and how it still fits with your view of an Editor for Countdown, if it does? DD: Okay, let’s clear a couple of things up right from the start – the reason why we changed from Mike Marts to Mike Carlin had nothing to do with anything Countdown-related. It was simply due to the fact that the Editor’s seat on the Batman books came open [Due to Pete Tomasi stepping down] and Mike Marts really wanted to work on those titles. This was something that Mike was very interested in doing, and I gave him a choice – work on the Batman books, or work on Countdown. Batman is something he saw as a long-term investment at DC, and he wanted to work on those books, so he chose that. Because of that, I had to hand a series that was up and running at full steam – and encompassing the entire DC Universe – and at that particular moment, it made sense to hand it over to Mike Carlin, because he was so intimately involved with everything that was going on. It just made for an easier transition. That’s the reason why the change took place. NRAMA: Right – and to clarify, I want’s suggesting that the move was experience or performance related, but it struck me that you made a point of explaining the characteristics that Mike Marts had that made him perfect for the job, and then switched to an editor who didn’t have those characteristics, and was, in terms of those particular qualities, about as opposite as you could get within the DC Editorial staff… DD: But one of the things that made him a great choice in that regard is that his were the fresh set of eyes at the start, so you felt like you were entering a world where you felt like you could understand what was going on, or at least be introduced to the characters properly. NRAMA: And now that the characters are introduced, and the storylines are set up and running, the “fresh eyes” isn’t as necessary of a requirement? DD: Right. Now we’re off and running at full steam and we can’t deny the fact that it’s touching other stories across the line, so we want people who are able to coordinate well, work well with others, and that know the material so that everything falls into place as we’re moving. As we get deeper into Countdown, you’ll see how intricately things tie in around the DC Universe. NRAMA: Touching on that intricate and inter-related nature of the story, and noting that you did say you were going to start using Editor’s Notes – let’s take a specific example from issue #38 – the Deep Six. Slig named himself and a few others, but there was nothing beyond that in terms of context or information for anyone who didn’t know who they were… DD: That’s something I’m trying to be extremely careful about – to make sure that every character is named in every issue. Bringing in the Deep Six is not an Editor’s Note type of thing – knowing where they last appeared isn’t really important… NRAMA: Sure, but knowing who they are at least. Otherwise, they’re relatively anonymous fish-men… At least a “* Part of the New Gods family – Greta Carlini” ? DD: See, but I don’t consider that an Editor’s Note type of thing. I consider that an Editor’s Note should explain how story flow works, rather than who characters are. Realistically, you’re asking the correct question of “who are these guys?” and you’re asking for the right information, and that’s our job to tell that in the storytelling more than to put a box in a panel or put a page at the start or the end of the issue to explain who the cast is. I think it’s just good storytelling and good writing if we put all of that information in the story, and we work very hard to try and do that. In some cases, we miss the mark, because of the size and importance of the characters to the story, but you’re right, we should be making every effort to make sure that everybody is clear on who the characters are, and what their purpose for being there is. It is a valid point you’re making. The thing is, right now, we’re getting to a point where what might appear to be random tie-ins are starting to fade away as we get back to the main thrust of the stories and the characters themselves. As I said, because we’re trying to line things up clearly across the DC Universe, there were bits where we might have been vamping with a particular story while we were waiting for a particular character to come free. That’s the problem of trying to work within the entire schedule of the DCU, and we’re trying to work within it to the best of our ability. We had questions, for example, about Black Adam in the early stages of the book - we just came out of 52 where he lost his powers, and suddenly, he had them back. NRAMA: Right – and the miniseries that was set up, apparently to explain that was still months away. DD: Right. To be perfectly frank, those two events were supposed to be coming out closer together, so those questions wouldn’t have been so pronounced, because you didn’t know that there was a Black Adam miniseries coming. But in that case, we had to wait for the Black Adam miniseries to get into position where we could roll it out. It just started later than we thought, to be perfectly honest. And once you’ve got a machine like Countdown up and running, you’ve got to push that machine to the best of its ability. If we wait too long in certain areas, it’s a detriment to the storytelling, and a disservice to Countdown. What we did was decide to push the Countdown story to work the best for itself, and keep it moving to reach its own speed and make sure the rest of the DCU lined up within the best of its ability. NRAMA: Okay – you’re offering a rational explanation of things that fans have caught on to and complained about, so lets go through that door of fan reaction to Countdown. You and I have talked about this before – that online fan response and reaction is different from personal fan response and reaction, and neither is necessarily connected to sales for any given project. I don’t want this to get into a discussion of the validity of the groups of responses, but rather, and again, from your chair, what have you heard, and what channels is that coming through? DD: The channels that are carrying a lot of the reaction that I’m seeing are coming from the stores themselves and from fans that I’m at conventions with. I attend multiple conventions throughout the course of the year, and I’ve gotten a very positive reaction to what’s going on. Given that there seems to be a very vocal – and I don’t know its size – group of fans online that is counter to that hasn’t really affected sales at all. I find it humorous that information that comes to me from online is erroneous in regards to the actual sales figures. I find it humorous that certain retailers decide to make blatant statements about how they’re going to be striking back at the book by making returns, when in fact the portion of books that they’re actually returning is less than 0.01% of the books that we sold. The reality is that the sales are there, the strength is there, and I have a lot of faith in regards to how the series works and how it’s moving forward. From my standpoint, there were stumbles along the way, just as there were stumbles with 52, but the best part about it is that we were able to sit down with the talent and figure out how we would be able to make course corrections during the series, which we did. We recreated the pacing, and we put the focus back on Countdown again, which is what it is about. It was going too far abroad in regards to making sure everything lined up perfectly, and when you do that, something was going to be serviced improperly. I want to make sure that Countdown is serviced properly. Countdown, as I said, is the spine of the DC Universe, but it works better if it stands on its own, rather than stands on the strength of everything around it. I feel very confident in where the series is going, I’m very excited about where the story is going, and the best part about it is that it’s where we thought it was always going to be, so we haven’t had to change that much along the way. This really speaks to why I wanted to do this – I wanted to correct some of the inconsistencies of the statements are being put out there. There problem with the online community is that they jump on something that someone says, good or bad, and it gets amplified and added to, most often, without the knowledge of whether its true or not, or the larger picture. Things that are said get taken, bent out of context, and then twisted to tell any story that they want to tell. That’s why I stay out of those conversations, or reading them. We’ve got a large number of both fans and retailers who are excited about the series and enjoying it – that’s what I know. NRAMA: Back to the larger Countdown picture for a moment – as you’ve said the story is moving along as it has been planned, but what about near constant stream of tie-ins and miniseries that are being announced? We did a count a little while back, and you’re approaching or have surpassed the number of actual Countdown issues with the number of tie-ins and spin-off miniseries and projects… DD: Let’s take this in two parts, and I apologize if I’m speaking logically about all of this – it’s just something that I feel is needed when it comes down to discussions of Countdown - we at DC Comics produce a certain number of comics on a monthly/yearly basis. We are not producing any more books than we have in any other year or the previous year. We have chosen to produce books that, we believe, can capitalize on the success of things that we have going on with the hope that they sell better than books that don’t capitalize on things that are going on. It’s very simple – no different than the logic that any other company would employ when they have something that is successful. You want to build on that success. Dark Horse has Buffy and Star Wars – they know they can put out more Buffy and Star Wars because that’s successful to them. The same thing with Marvel and Civil War and World War Hulk - they put out more product tied to events that are successful in the hopes that the product tied in to that will be successful as well. We are building off of our successes right now – we are not creating additional product, we’re not flooding the market. We are just replacing the books that we feel would not sell as well as the books that we hope will sell well. The audience and fans will prove us right or wrong on this, but I have to stand behind our material and what we’re doing, and to tell the truth, I get excited about the books that we’re doing. I get excited about a Countdown: Arena, you know why? It’s a goofy, crazy fun fest. It’s fan-fiction at its finest. It’s taking Elseworlds characters and having them battle it out to find out who’s the strongest and best. It’s fun, as I see it, and I think it’s fun for the fans. And that’s the second part - when we do books like Arena, or like Countdown to Mystery, these aren’t books that tie in tightly to Countdown, but they take characters from Countdown and expand their stories, because they’re not the primary leads in the story. If you’re interested in them, you can follow them. Want to know more about Forerunner? Follow her over here. Want to know more about Eclipso? The space heroes from 52? We’ve got stories for them too. Also, because Countdown runs through the Multiverse, we don’t have time to stop and explore each one of the Multiverse worlds in Countdown, but we can look at them more in depth in the specials. In the stories that spin off from Countdown, we’re looking at some of the most interesting Multiverse worlds out there, found a way for the team to visit them, we learn a little bit more about our team, and we learn a little bit more about the Multiverse. Again, it’s just expansion on what people’s interests are in the DC Universe. What I’m hoping is that we’re giving people what they want, not making them feel that they have to buy it, but that they want to buy it. NRAMA: Is that a way to say that there are more tie-ins and miniseries coming? DD: Actually, I think we’ve announced all the primary ones. There might be a few that are “post” stories – following up on how the stories end. Not all the stories in Countdown will be wrapping up simultaneously. Some of them end as early as the end of this year, and they start to wind up through April. They’re all ending at different times, so, by the time they end, if we feel there’s a need – because those scripts haven’t been written yet – that there’s more story to be told, or follow-up up or expand upon, or show the next steps of that character after their story ended, then we’ll do that. That’s exciting to me – that’s what comic books are all about. This is a periodical business. People say thing like “I hope this is the last book of this.” Really? Even if there are more stories? We’re a business that puts out books on a regular basis, and we’ll continue to do so, and we’re going to continue to put out books that hopefully people are excited by and people are vested in by using characters that they love and have an emotional attachment to, based upon the stories and events that took place prior to that. NRAMA: Going back to looking at the big picture of the tie-ins and miniseries again though – how do they come about? Had they been planned all along, or are they coming out of areas that you’re seeing or expecting strong fan response to? DD: Let’s take it back before that – you asked about the Deep Six. You wanted to know more about the Deep Six before they appeared in the story. NRAMA: Well, not exactly, but let’s continue anyway… DD: Well, coming up, we have Lord Havok and the Extremists appearing with Monarch in an upcoming story. Some readers will remember them from their appearances in the older Justice League series, and they’ll be new characters to others. In either case, we’re betting that people will be interested in them. Rather than placing a caption in the panel, or putting their whole story in Countdown and pushing the Countdown story aside for however long it would take, we found a way to tell what’s happening with Lord Havok and the Extremists in their own miniseries. Is it essential that someone who’s reading Countdown buys the miniseries for Lord Havok and the Extremists? Probably not. But if you like those characters and are intrigued by them and want to know more about the DC Universe or the multiverse, you might want to pick it up, and you might enjoy it. And I’ve got Frank Tieri and Liam Sharp on it. That’s a good looking, well-written book about some bad guys. NRAMA: You clearly had some stuff you wanted to get off your chest… DD: [laughs] Yeah – and I hope this doesn’t come across as combative, because that’s the last thing I want to do. I want this to be clarifying and give an insight to why we’re doing what we’re doing with Countdown. For me, Countdown is the best-kept secret success we’ve got going right now. It’s a book that people are enjoying, reading, and looking forward to. I still have people telling and showing me that they like the weekly comics. People are not “tired” of weekly comics – they buy comics on a weekly basis as it is. This is just one choice to make every week, that’s all. If you love the weekly nature of comics, love periodical storytelling, love DC, this is the comic for you. If you don’t, then I understand. No hard feelings. For me, I love that weekly, periodical feel. I still find excuses to go at least once a month to go into the store. There’s something fun about it. I remember how disappointed I’d get if I couldn’t find anything to buy on a particular day because nothing struck my interest, or my favorite books weren’t out at that time. The idea behind 52, and behind Countdown, and if we ever do a third weekly series, would be that you have that one destination book – the one thing that justifies your trip to the comic book store. Hopefully, Countdown brings you into the store, you enjoy it, and you know what? Here are two maybe three other books that you’d enjoy, either because they star a character that’s in Countdown, or because they tell a story that is connected to the events in Countdown. That’s what this is about. It’s no different than what any publisher does when they’re trying to build a strong fanbase and bring people into their fictional universe. NRAMA: Just to start wrapping things up and bringing it back to Countdown specifically – the biggest beat coming up, as you’ve announced, the title changes to Countdown to Final Crisis with issue #26… DD: Yeah – we were always planning on the title change. We didn’t want to put the words “Final Crisis” on the cover one year out and exhaust everybody before we got there. We didn’t want “Final Crisis” on the cover before we even announced Final Crisis. Additionally, once we hit that halfway point, everything about Countdown goes into high gear. Some of the storylines will be resolved, as I mentioned, and some of the new storylines will be kicking in, and more importantly, you’ll see, clearly the direction that things are headed, not just in regards to where Countdown is going, but Salvation Run, Death of the New Gods and a lot of great things across the DC line. If this is a marathon, then Countdown #26 is the point where everyone starts sprinting toward the finish line. NRAMA: Going back for one second, you said that you want to have a “destination” book out there. I’ll hit you on your “if” there’s a third book, where you’ve said elsewhere that there will most likely be a third weekly series after Countdown… but looking at now, two years of weekly books, and a probably one coming…even Lost or 24 or Heroes take breaks… DD: But soap operas don’t. NRAMA: Okay – right. But still – is there a potential for fatigue among the audience? DD: Okay – let’s take it to where you’re going – we stop creating a book, what does the audience do? I’ve heard this before – the audience needs a break, so we stop, what do they do? Stop buying comics for a month? Two months? And let’s be sure we’re on the same page - 52 is not Countdown. 52 up until the World War III specials didn’t have any ties ins, and existed outside of the month-to-month continuity of the main line of books. Countdown is tied in and reflects the month-to-month continuity, and does have tie-ins that are connected to it. If we did a third book, I can tell you that the formula will be much more in line with what the formula for 52 was than whjat Countdown was. If there was a third weekly book, it would feel much more like a 52-part story than it would feel like something that was laid across the entire DC Universe. But I’ve heard the criticism – people considered it an event book because they had to buy four issues a month, and were looking at it as “If I have to buy four of the same things in a month, which is just like an event, then it’s an event.” The truth is, both 52 and Countdown was and are weekly books – they have no choice but to come out four or five times a month. You can’t put out a weekly book three times a month. NRAMA: With the success of 52, the success of Countdown, with what you said about if you’d stop and where readers would go…is DC, for lack of a better term, locked into doing weekly series forever? DD: I would love to say yes. Even if the book did half as well as we’re doing with Countdown, it would still be a success. Again, fans and critics look at the weekly nature of it, but I look at it as putting out four issues a month that sell well. In that sense, I’m hard-pressed to come up with four titles that can sell as well as Countdown on a monthly basis. That’s one of the things that we have to do as a publisher – we have to examine our entire publication schedule. There is a limit to the number of books that could put on a shelf without breaking editorial and burning through the talent, but also breaking the internal production systems and procedures that we have inside this building. There is a limit to what we can do. So when we evaluate our production schedules, and we evaluate what we do as a publisher, we have to make the choices that we believe are the best choices, not just in regards to the commercial viability, but also in the value that a given book produces for us. If I could create one weekly book that gives me such great value for the DC Universe, then that’s probably a better investment on our parts than to try and create four monthly titles that will deliver the same weight to DC. The bottom line is that, as long as people want them, we will create them. That’s the simple answer. The fans determine what we do by their buying power and strength. Right now, we’re getting a rousing response that is supporting the weekly books. There is not one piece of information that I have received contrary to that. NRAMA: So no breaks? DD: [laughs] But the breaks in the shows you mentioned aren’t what they want. You mentioned Lost - yes, they take breaks, but that’s because of their production schedule. They produce as much as they can. If they could produce more, they would produce more and have it on the air. They are producing to the best of their ability the amount that they can produce. As a publisher, we are producing to the best of our ability the best that we can do. My background comes from animation and from soap operas. Soaps are produced day-in, day-out, Monday through Fridays. They don’t repeat. They don’t take breaks. That’s one of the joys of the book that you rarely see, even in the soaps – with Countdown you can give characters a rest for one or two weeks while you bring someone else to the forefront. That’s where reader exhaustion can come in if you’re not careful – “Oh God – I have to read Jimmy Olsen six weeks in a row!” That would give anyone Jimmy Olsen burnout. Jimmy can’t support a story five or six weeks in a row, let alone 52 weeks in a row. That’s why we go with as many leads as we do – we can change the focus, change the attention, change the tone, and change the tenor. That changes from issue to issue so it doesn’t feel exactly like the same book from week to week. It feels like the same big story, but not like you’re reading the same people, week-in, week-out. With a weekly comic as we’ve set it up, we can keep things changing, different – we can create that cliffhanger, and create that momentum that will push people into the stores. As long as we meet that goal, and can keep that enthusiasm among the readers that feeds anticipation for the next week’s issue – as long as we can continue to do that, there’s nothing wrong with a weekly comic, and we’ll be out there every week doing one. Next week in Countdown #36 |
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#2 |
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i love countdown ...yeah go figure
however i am patiently waiting to see KATAR HOL show up dammit !!!!!!!!!!!! first post !!! |
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#3 |
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Great interview. And nice tukhas on that there Poison Ivy.
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#4 | |
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I guess regular Newsarama readers know which retailer he's talking about. Still, the comparison he's making (assuming it's true, and not exaggerated for effect) isn't very relevant to begin with. It doesn't really matter if those particular retailer's returns are less than 0.01% of all copies sold; what's more important is knowing if other retailers are doing the same thing, and how many copies are they returning in total. Rodrigo http://comicscommentary.blogspot.com |
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#5 |
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how long until someone actually adds up the number of titles DC put out last year compared to this year...
Sounds like DD is hearing/reading some of the complaints/concerns raised about Countdown and the many crossovers/spinoffs... I have to give him props for at least discussing the situation, perceived or not |
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#6 |
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Countdown has bored me silly!
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#7 |
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I see we're back to horrible art next week.
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#8 |
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I'm not a guy who bashes Didio at every turn, and his comparison of the constrant stream of interlocking "event" books to soaps is fine, except one thing... people don't have to pay to watch soap operas.
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#9 |
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My only comment on this whole thing (and this is coming from a buyer of Countdown and all the tie-ins):
Could you please speak to Marketing then about making them stop having every tie in sound like if you don't buy it you won't get the whole story? If you're saying they're not needed overall for the general reader that's great. But the solicits are making the fans sound like if they don't buy them they're screwed. Be more honest in the promoting. You may find the same number still buying them anyway. |
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#10 |
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Normally I don't like Didio's interviews because it seems like he is talking down to the audience.
But this one was actually very good. Don't agree with him on some things, but it was still the best interview by him that I have read. |
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#11 |
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All nicely put, Dan. I've yet to hear about a tie-in that I wasn't interested in, so I've got no complaints on the number of books.
The connection to animation I knew about (Reboot) but not the Soap Opera connection. I've said many times the narrative style they're using in 52 and now in CD was close to the Soap Opera format, and I've thought it worked very well. The one change I've seen between the two series so far is how the stories have been covered in each. While they sometimes took almost entire issues to deal with a major point of one character or plot in 52, they've yet to do that in CD. The result is that we're getting just little bites of all the stories, which seems very disjointed. As opposed to in 52, where a certain plot might not come up for one or two issues, and they you'd get a good-sized chunk. To me, that's a bad change. Too much like we're flipping channels between shows. I'd rather see it broken up and spaced out a bit. I'm still quite interested to learn how the plot points are introduced into the different books. Does John Rogers know why he was asked to add a Mother Box in Blue Beetle, to pick an example? I think I'll try and get a bit more about that at Baltimore. |
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#12 |
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My main problem with Countdown is the sotries dont seem to eb going anywhere. It's like they just pulled 4 mini series ideas out of a hat and spread them out over a year. Looking at the preview to next week it doesnt look like thats going to change anytime soon.
The Rogues clash with other vilains as they try and hide.There was no real point to their story to begin with and the point finally came with an issue of another comic. Mary is being seduced by the dark side of magic and meets up with various magic characters. Jimmy gets some powers we dont know why neither does he. The Challengers of whatever just keep meeting alien races who have met Ray Palmer. Holly and Harley banter about Athena. Thats it. It's like the old HUlk series where he has this problem and just keeps going from town to town never resolving anything. To be perfectly honest Im bored. I really thought DC were a little more open to listening to what the fans had to say but this sounded more like a Joe Q interview. There is no real excuse for the Countodwn story to be told in so many minis and yes they are part of the overall story as we are already seeing. If they had ben honest about that from the begining i really wouldnt have commited to buying a boo which has become a way of spinning off more minis and ending stories from other titles. 52 was nothing like this and much more of a joy to read. |
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#13 |
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THE ART SUX BIG TIME, GOTTA DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT DAN, I LIKE COUNTDOWN BUT THINKING ABOUT DROPPING IT BECAUSE OF THE SUCKY ART.
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#14 | |
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It looks quite DC-ish to me....... but seriously I'm enjoying CountDown even though I'm a wee bit behind in reading 7 commenting on it .... |
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#15 |
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Yet another unnecessarily smug Dan Didio interview, especially the mini-litany of what he finds humorous. It was interesting to hear his logic, but his logic seems flawed at best -- Arena may be "fan-fiction at its best", but why would I want to read published fan-fiction? He seems to handwave away any complaints about Countdown's actual quality. He says that it's the book for people who like weekly comics and the DCU -- but I love those things, and I love crossovers, and the low quality of the art, dialogue, plotting and pacing totally ruins it for me. It's not the idea of the book I have a problem with, it's the execution.
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#16 | |
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Welll, there's the Soap Opera channel, but I know what you mean. If you want to get technical, you're paying for everything you choose to do, even if that payment is only in your time. People don't HAVE to spend an hour a day to watch General Hostpital or All My Children, or per week to watch Heroes or Lost, but they do, if the story is good enough. There's not enough money in my wallet / hours in the day to enjoy all of this stuff - it's a similar (in the geometric sense) complaint. |
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#17 |
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Right now, DC is dead to me.
I won't be purchasing another DC comic until Final Crisis. The Didio era has been atrocious. |
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#18 |
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He's right, Jimmy Olsen can't support a story for that long, but that's what's heppening in the Superman books right now.
52 had a really special feel to it. It felt like a major event, that I wanted to follow along with. Countdown feels forced. I feel like they are milking us for money with this book, rathre than telling a really compelling story. The increase in the cost, the number of tie ins. the death of characters who i don't even know, let alone care about. All of it feels just forced. It doesn't feel like the spine of the DCU either. It feels more like a reaction to the DCU. There hasn't been any real major event in countdown, just mentions of events like Bart's death and Amazons Attack. I think the idea of exploring the Multiverse, and it's impact on the DCU is great, so I'm going to pick up some of those tie ins, but for the most part, I don't feel for the characters in Countdown like I did in 52, and I've buying the book because of this. Finally, I was pretty vocal last week at Chicago about my dislike for some stories, especially Jimmy Olsen. When I said at the DC nation panel how Jimmy Olsen is a character and a story that I can't relate to. There was crickets churping when Didio asked people to defend Jimmy's story. |
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#19 | |
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I guess Dan doesn't realize that referring to stories produced by professional writers as "fan-fiction" isn't exactly a compliment. Then again, compared to bad fanfic plot devices like Yellow Fear Demons, Superboy Wall Punches and Mr Mind eating continuity, I suppose "fan-fiction at its finest" can be considered a compliment. |
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#20 |
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I, for one, like Jim Californie's style of art. Maybe it's just 'cause I've gotten used to his style at Marvel, but I've seen MUCH worse. I can only imagine what's going on in those panels...looks like Ivy's trying to seduce Hatley, and Trickster probably fires back with the fact that he's gay based on Ivy's look of shock. I can only imagine Ivy's reaction to someone she is probably incapabale of seducing.......
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#21 |
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Holy Carp!
Is that the combined army of Charaxes from 51 worlds I see? Uh...DC does realize that Charaxes is dead and Killer Moth is back to human form, right? Still on the fence about this series. I really want to like it, but it just seems disjointed and confused with fluxuating characterizations. Even from issue to issue it feels like I'm not getting the whole story. Anyone else feel this way> |
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#22 |
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I hate when people like DiDio and Joe Q throw sales numbers out to justify supposed quality of a book. Annihilation and Sinestro Corps are probably the best two "events" of the past 5+ years, yet are no where near top 10 sales numbers. Stuff like Fallen Son or Wolverine Loeb run selling 100k per month does not make them good by any definition known to man. Dark Knight Strikes Again sold incredibly well, but no one considers it a quality book or anywhere near the originals level. Onslaught Reborn outselling Blue Beetle or Checkmate or so on does not make it a good book. Just try to find me one major (ie, not from a DC message board or something) reviewer on any comic site that is giving Countdown favourable reviews and tell me that the sales make it a good title. Simple fact of the matter is that Countdown is dropping down to the 60k sales levels and is almost out of the top 30 for books as of July's numbers. 52 never dipped below 90k.
As for continuing the weekly format, I am all for it IF they have the talent behind it and a decent story. It does not have to be 52 issues long every time. Why can't they just tell a 13 or 26 week long story? If you ask me, Countdown would have been much better if they had just taken Black Adam mini, Booster Gold and Metal Men books and combined them into a weekly with the Donna Troy / Monitor storylines. The chalkboard scene in Booster's first issue has given more info and insight into the Final Crisis than all of Countdown so far and that's pretty sad all things considered. The Black Adam story could then move onto the corruption of Mary and been a much better build up. Instead they just threw a bunch of random events from multiple books together to make Countdown to merely continue the weekly audience and make more money. They should have took a little time off instead of forcing the creative team to be ready to laucnh soon as 52 ended. That is why they get so much hate over Countdown. |
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#23 | |
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...As far as whether or not he's paying attention to our complaints/criticisms/etc, I'll believe it when the prices drop. |
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#24 |
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Does anyone else find that Dan Didio is trying increasingly to sound like Joe Q in his interviews?
It's a shame he can't pull it off in terms of personality, and it's an even bigger shame that his products can't either. |
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#25 |
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It's good for my wallet that Kyle hasn't shown up yet.
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