The WarnerMedia branch of Warner Bros. was hit with a ton of layoffs today, and things seem especially dire this evening for the Warner-owned DC Comics. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a number of high-ranking people at DC are now out, including editor-in-chief Bob Harris, several senior VPs, and some editors (including executive editor Mark Doyle, who was in charge of the publisher’s edgy new Black Label graphic novels). Furthermore, THR’s sources say the layoffs have come for “roughly one third” of DC’s entire editorial staff as well as “the majority” of the people working on the DC Universe streaming service, and the DC Direct merchandise brand has been completely shut down after 22 years of selling Batman toys.
The DC Universe layoffs seem particularly noteworthy, at least as far as tangible chance for the general public goes, since they almost certainly portend some bad news for DC Universe itself. The platform has been on shaky ground for a while now, going back to when Warner Bros. decided to air Stargirl on The CW despite it initially being one of DCU’s high-profile exclusives, and since then HBO Max has swallowed up Doom Patrol and Harley Quinn, picked up a bunch of DC superhero movies, and decided to throw a ton of money at the Justice League Snyder Cut—the Holy Grail of dedicated DC fans. DC Universe has looked increasingly redundant while all of that was going on, and now “the majority” of the people working there seem like they’re being sacrificed for the benefit of HBO Max.
And just in case this couldn’t get a bit darker: The DC Fandome, Warner’s replacement for its usual Comic-Con announcement events, is happening on August 22. We know the studio behind the Arkham Batman games is going to formally announce a new Suicide Squad game there, which should be interesting, but let’s not forget that AT&T is supposedly still looking to dump Warner’s entire video game division. A big celebration and announcement-heavy event could be exactly what DC fans need during the pandemic, but it could be a much more grim celebration than anyone expected now that so many people associated with the company are either losing their jobs or being left to wonder if there’s even a place for them at Warner Bros. going forward.
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This is absolutely devastating, though not surprising given the state of things at the moment.From the sounds of it Jim Lee has survived but will transition out of being publisher, so god knows what that means. Hank Kanalz, one of the others who apparently got axed is reported a really good guy – he was there during the early days of Image (famously scripting Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood 1)
(famously scripting Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood 1)
I’m sure he’s a good guy, but I’d leave this off resumes if I were him.
From memory (and this is going back to near-30-year-old issues of Wizard), Liefeld axed him from the book (despite him being one his oldest friends), as the scapegoat after the absolute shellacking Youngblood 1 took from critics.I remember reading Youngblood 1 at age 15 and thinking it was one of the coolest comics I’d ever read. Liefeld, for all his faults, really tapped into the visceral violence and energy that hormone-addled 15 year olds go crazy for.
I was . . . let’s see, 16, and was a Liefeld fan. And I read it and was like “what . . . what was that?” Like I loved all the footless character designs, and thought wrinkles and speedlines were dynamic. But the characters just do . . . nothing. There’s no plot. There’s no action. They’re just sort of introduced and then nothing. Maybe there was action scenes and I’m forgetting in my old age, but it felt just flat.I loved WildC.A.T.s and all the other Image titles, including other Liefeld titles like Prophet (and don’t get me started on the music I listened to), so I was certainly not ahead of the curve or anything. But even before I started learning about comic art and writing, I, for then-undefined reasons, was unhappy with it.
I mean…Harras, DiDio, and Lee had been running DC into the ground for 10 years, alienating a good chunk of the top talent.This gives us a chance at Waid on Nightwing!
For sure. There’s plenty of top-level creators (Liefeld included) who were pulled in to work on New-52 and came away deeply disillusioned with DC. Was that part of why Grant Morrison largely pulled back?
I thought the New 52 was actually shocking short on talent. Scott Lobdell was writing 3 books. David Finch was writing. Francis Manapul, Ethan Van Sciver. I actually look at the New 52 very unfavorably, people remember Snyder’s Batman and Swamp thing, Lemire’s Animal Man, Azzarello’s Wonder Woman. Most of it was very, very, very, damage the characters for years bad.
I really liked Francis Manapul on flash. Admittedly most of that was for the artwork. Ironically that stripped back new 52 run was what made me a giant flash fan. I understand how it must have been horrible that Wally and half the supporting cast were erased for a while, but Manapul did what he could to make the new 52 run fun. I look back on it fondly at least.
Perhaps I unfairly lumped him in, he is a great artist. I didn’t hate his run, but I wouldn’t list it among my top Flash runs.
I agree with you on that. I did eventually read the Waid and Johns runs, and those were vastly better. But I think the intent with Manapul and the new 52 flash was to kind of make the character a bit easier for new readers. As someone who always found flash daunting, I fondly remember that run.I’m pretty sure Francis Manapul himself is happier now as an artist, since writing isn’t really his major talent. Oh another one to add to your excellent point about poor early new 52 writers: Tony S Daniel on Detective comics. Now THAT was a bafflingly bad run that went a whole agonizing year. The first issue was when Joker cut his face off and then the run somehow got rapidly worse from there. I don’t Daniel has ever written a comic since that nightmarish run. His art is often fine, but personally not for me.
The first issue was when Joker cut his face off What’s the opposite of the Futurama “take all my money” gif?
“Shut up and keep your comic!”
I remember liking Manapul’s Flash and enjoyed Justice League, Morrison’s Action Comics, Liefeld’s Hawk and Dove and Snyder’s Batman.George Perez’s Superman started well but I remember him getting screwed around badly by DC and left the book after six issues.
I could argue with your list, but I think we can all remember at the upper limit 10 pretty decent books- but there were 42 other books beyond that and they were mostly trash.
I don’t think Morrison ever had a bad experience, at least, he was never public about having a bad experience. He got his fun action comics run, and while he was limited by some new 52 stuff, he got to finish his Batman epic largely how he wanted. Multiversity also slipped in pretty neatly. Morrison kind of pulls back from major superhero stuff into creator stuff now and then. He was already winding down from DC before the new 52 hit.
On the plus side, the much hated Bob Harras is finally gone. On the negative, the really great Mark Doyle (who seems to have built Scott Snyder into a super star) is now gone.
Wasn’t even 20 years ago when AOL TimeWarner began to unravel and was hit with its first round of layoffs. Looks like AT&T is doing its best to repeat AOL’s mistakes.
Remember Bill Jemas’ Marville – the comic that spent a lot of time mocking DC as AOL comics. Just terrible.
Also, IIRC, it was made in part because of a bet between Jemas and Peter David.
Jemas was also partly to blame for Trouble…
Twelve months ago, every was feeling sorry for Netflix and all the competetiiton they were about to get.So far, only Disney has managed not to shit the bed somehow.
Which is weird because the only thing of note Disney has released (aside from one-off things like Hamilton and Black is King) is The Mandalorian and possibly the final season of The Clone Wars. Disney+ has basically gotten by largely on its back catalog. But I could tell that HBO Max was going to be mediocre from the start (and not just because of the terrible name) when they focused heavily (even pre-pandemic) on having shows like Friends and The Big Bang Theory. I associate HBO with television that has a cinematic quality, I associate reruns for network sitcoms with TBS. They should have used Warner in the title and just pushed HBO simulcasts and original programming the way Disney is doing with FX on Hulu.
HBOMax’s main draw right now is the film collection which is indeed pretty great (Ghibli alone is a big draw for me), but their television lineup is pretty lackluster.I always thought that Warner’s biggest problem was they stupidly distributed their fairly good back catalog over three different streaming services (HBOMax, DC Universe, and the oft forgotten Boomerang). A streaming service with a lot of original and legacy super hero programming; a ton of classic Hannah Barbera, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network cartoons; HBO’s acclaimed shows; and a ton of acclaimed and popular movies could be really successful even without much original programming.HBOMax is close to that, but it’s being hamstrung by DC Universe and Boomerang. I always thought that it was a matter of time before they were folded into HBOMax, and I’m saying that as a DC Universe subscriber.
Warner’s HBO Max.
I could tell that HBO Max was going to be mediocre from the start (and not just because of the terrible name) when they focused heavily (even pre-pandemic) on having shows like Friends and The Big Bang Theory. I associate HBO with television that has a cinematic quality.It’s the Eternal Law of Corporate Takeovers – the new executives are always convinced they’re smarter and know more than the old executives. So if HBO had a strategy before – even if it was a solid, proven strategy – the new AT&T guys are going to want to throw it in the trash, piss on it, take selfies of themselves pissing on it, douse it in gasoline and set it on fire, and then use what’s left for kitty litter just to prove that they’re smart, solution-focused, and focused on synergies. All of this is to the end of boosting themselves up the corporate ladder; making quality television is way, way down their list of priorities.
Be fair, for Disney+ that’s one hell of a back catalogue to sell your service on.
Don’t count out Quibi just yet!Count out Quibi about three months ago.
Oh shit! I forgot to count out Quibi!
There was a serious fear that it was going to be the TV/Cable wars all over again with various groups competing for the same market. What it’s shaping up to be is Netflix, the big-3 broadcasters, and maybe HBOMax if they can figure it out. Right now, it seems inevitable that one or two of the big-3 broadcasters services will fail or become significantly cheaper or even free in exchange for standard commercial access.
Twenty-five year old Rogue was laughing too much when he read the news about the AOL-Time/Warner merger. I had a lot of friends in tech and they all thought it was great. I literally asked them if the Kool-Aid was good. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for DC. They’ve made more than a few bad choices in how their characters are presented (and fuck all you Snyder fan boys), but if they would just stop trying to replicate the Marvel system and just do one-offs and maybe do a trilogy like it seems they’re going with in regards to WW, I’m cool with that. The Chris Nolan Batman trilogy was really good, but didn’t play into other movies. WW could easily do the same. DC needs to stop thinking it can re-invent the wheel and be bigger than Marvel in the superhero movie wars: Stick with trilogies, maybe, maybe a tie in with whatever the next big project is at the end of the third movie. tl/dr: I still haven’t seen Aquaman. WW was great though, and I really wanna see WW:1984 sooner than later.
AT&T had no business getting into the TV/comics industry.
Carriers should NOT make content.
Yup. Buying DirecTV was really dumb too.
[huddled on floor in fetal position]Zack Snyder will make it all better….Zack Snyder will make it all better…
I don’t see the practicality of dumping $30 Million on a film only a niche portion of the fandom wanted when you haven’t even negotiated getting the streaming service its going to be on onto Firestick or Roku.
I won’t watch it unless it’s cut up into ten minutes portions and streamed on Quibi.
I mean, maybe only a small group of die-hard Snyder fans (ugh) were clamoring for it, and I didn’t really care at all one way or another… but I’ll definitely be watching it when it comes out, like on the release day.
Also, I would think that having the Snyder cut would only help negotiations for Firestick and Roku. People are going to want to watch the Snyder cut, even if it’s to hate-watch.
This wouldn’t have happened without the COVID shutdown. HBOMax needs original content. $30 mill for a project that is mostly already shot and will generate a lot of buzz is a pretty smart investment under the circumstances.
We just need to recognise that Zack Snyder is a superior creator who needs to be able to pursue his own interests in film-making without being limited by less creative people.
The world will soon know for certain if Zack Snyder is a superior creator, or if (as his filmography spanning two decades suggests) he is a one-note hack who consistently misunderstands the source material he’s adapting.
If the world hasn’t figured that bit out yet, we’re doomed.Maybe, if the Snyder Cut lands with a wet fart, he’ll go on strike, denying the world access to his invaluable talents. Kind of a Zacklas Shrugged situation.
I suspect a fairly large portion of the world already knows or at least suspects this at this point.It’s his rabid hardcore fanboys who need persuading.
I make the mistake of frequently some DC Facebook pages, and the amount of people who acclaim Snyder for being “comic accurate” is astounding and sickening. As a DC fan, Snyder makes me very sad.
Nothing petty about this post at all.
“Comic accurate” is the dumbest shit, these comics have been around for close to a century now, anything you could possibly imagine has happened in a Superman comic. Superman kills dudes? Yep. Superman never kills dudes? Yep. Superman turns into a lion? Yep. Superman becomes a witch-doctor and forces Jimmy Olsen to marry gorilla? Yep.
See, you get it!
I have insane Snyder people defend the idea that Batman should carry a gun and shoot people to death, because he did that like 3 times back in 1940. They’ll ignore the 80 years of history in favour of what suits them. You’d be surprised how often your joking superman argument comes up as a legitimate defense. Snyder people will say that superman has killed before in the comics, and then point to a single obscure 1970’s issue or something to make their case.
Seriously, this is the Man of Steel and Batman vs. Superman guy. What motivates anybody to imagine his cut would be any better than the theatrical version … or even AS good?
At this point it’s a combination of the sunk cost fallacy and run of the mill tribalism.
That’s what I wanna know. I guess I was wrong about how much people like his other movies?
His directing skills peaked with the opening credit sequence of Dawn of the Deadedit: fine…with the opening credit sequence of Watchmen. maybe he should just stick to opening credit sequences.
And coincidentally, the opening credit sequence of BVS is the best part of the film.
The man is an excellent visual story teller. I just don’t really dig on the stories he chooses to tell
Its the consistent vision of one person. It may or may not be a good vision, but it should be a more tonally consistent one.
Maybe it’ll approach some kind of 300-style nihilism and come back around as a dark side?
Well the director’s cut of BvS was a lot better than the nonsensical theatrical release, but that is the faintest of praise
It’ll be just as good as Watchmen or Superman!
Eh, they’re releasing his version to make some waves and bring his fans to the streaming service. It’s really no big deal, but I feel like those who hate him or his movies are making a much bigger fuss than his fans do.
I have seen far more examples of people decrying the release of the Snyder Cut and ripping those clamoring for it, than I’ve actually seen anyone clamoring for it.To me, it’s a curiosity. I watched maybe 20 minutes of the theatrical release on TNT and it couldn’t hold my attention, and I’m the person who leaves “Road House” on every time I come across it on cable.I’ll probably check out the Snyder Cut when it comes out, but I’m not up in arms about it one way or the other.
Uh, it’s a pretty big deal. Fired directors aren’t given even more money to make their cut of the blockbuster they were fired from, especially if, like Snyder, their previous film had also disappointed critically and commercially. And it’s because his fans made an epic fuss about it that this is happening.
That guy sure lives rent free in your heads doesn’t he? Are you also blaming him for the corona epidemic as well?
The billionaire still looks perfectly happy. Points for accuracy.
For anyone who was confused, as I was, “Bob Harris” is Bob Harras, the former Marvel editor-in-chief who was appointed EIC at DC in 2010. (The typo is in the THR story as well — well, the second reference to Harras is “Harris,” but not the first.)
Wait the guy who was responsible for how bad the Clone Saga ended is now EiC for DC?
Well, he was … but yes, that’s the guy.
Among a series of other incredibly questionable decisions taken in the mid-late 90s.Bill Jemas sacked him in mid-2000 when he came to power at Marvel and replaced him with Joe Quesada which proved to be a strong partnership until going totally off the rails in 2003.
Not anymore. I don’t like him anyways.Dammit, I’ve been reading a ton of comics on DC Universe. I doubt they’ll keep a monthly comics service if they shut it down, which is the only reason I’m on there.
Well, at least he can fall back on those Suntory whiskey ads in Japan.
I recently bought a bottle of Sunotry blended whiskey (which is very nice) called Toki. That happens to be the Japanese word for “time”, which makes it seem like someone at the company has a sense of humour.
His solution to the Superman editor being a sexual harasser was to not hire any women on the Superman books. Disgusting that it took the company falling apart to get rid of him.
they better not touch doom patrol :/
This is terrible. DC’s stable of talent hasn’t been this strong in a while. I have no clue what Warner’s endgame is here Re: DCU: Just pleased, Christ, at least keep the comic book service. I’ve been reading through a bunch of old runs and stories, and it’s been worth the price.
There’s been some massive moves behind the scenes. The removal of Dan DeDio and COVID blew that whole 5G whatever the fuck that was apart.
🙂 Yeah, that was so shocking about Didio leaving 🙂 🙂 and 5G as well? 🙂 🙂 🙂 that’s done? 😀
Yeah, that’s my hope too, that it will continue to be a comics service. I’m just about done reading all of Wonder Woman V2 and Flash V2, and it’s been such a blast.
The endgame is the same as it always is; drain as much profit as they can in the short term and fuck everything else.
On the comics end, the black label imprint seems worth protecting. I completely fell off the monthly wagon and have seen little to draw me back (though I did ride out Tom King’s Batman run for better and worse).
tom king’s batman is the nadir of the franchise
I stuck with it almost purely for the art because good lord he worked with some sensational artists on that run. I’ll be controversial and say that King’s run annoyed me far less than Snyder’s run and everything King is light years better than the slop that Tynion is currently putting out.
I imagine the comic service will remain but the streaming service will be folded into HBO Max which makes sense. There isn’t enough comic book titles to really be priced as a streaming service unto itself. If they said for $2 more on top of HBO Max I could have DCU, I would opt in…but instead I waited and all the shows I wanted fell into my lap (Doom Patrol, Batwoman).
Well Marvel Unlimited costs just about the same I think and I’d say it’s well worth the money, DC would should just beef up the comic selection and make it a comics only service.
I keep looking at Marvel Unlimited, is it really worth it? Is everything up there? >.>
Not *everything* but nearly everything (I haven’t found anything I wanted to read missing), and they add new back issues every single week.
They want to keep the IP and get rid of everything else.
When they said they’re gonna drain the swamp of DC, this is not what I had in mind.
Are you saying you’re the one to blame for them canceling Swamp Thing?
… and I’d been considering signing up for a quick bit, because I have a want to view Justice League Unlimited again. I think I can hold off a bit and see which of the various HBO____ platforms it ends up at.
but let’s not forget that AT&T is supposedly still looking to dump Warner’s entire video game division.No longer true:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-08-09-at-and-t-looks-to-have-changed-its-mind-about-selling-its-gaming-studiosAny other writer would’ve done some quick-look research before hitting “post” on an article, but this is Barsanti so it’s to be expected.
It’s not fully confirmed what At&T has planned for the game divisions, but it does thankfully look a bit more positive than it was a week ago. But then they abruptly fired major HBO Max executives, so nothing and nobody is really safe.
AT&T has actually said that they’re not going to sell WB Games anymore. Likely because nobody wants to pay the asking price just for Mortal Kombat and Scribblenauts.
Also, the idiots are already demanding Disney buy DC, as if AT&T would actually be willing to sell the entire thing. Even with the layoffs, DC is one of the most valuable things under Warner Media, alongside HBO and Crunchyroll. Fuck, I’d actually argue DC is more valuable than WB at this point.
The problem always has been, DC the brand is immensely valuable to Warner Media. Astronomically valuable. DC the comic book company? Not so much. If things really turn to hell, they can essentially gut the comic division like a pig and make mostly prestige graphic novels and still make billions off the movie and Tv rights.
I don’t know what these idiots think would happen if Disney buys DC. Marvel and DC as comics universes would just get less interesting after the initial shock of having everyone smushed together. It would be too many overlapping characters and guaranteed someone’s favorite character would be diminished, and less product overall being produced. (There’s no way Disney would glut the marketplace with as many MDCECU movies as we get individually from the MCU and DCEU)It happened already when DC absorbed the Fawcett and Charlton comics (which had comics universes that were nowhere near as extensive). Captain Marvel has always had a hard time finding his niche in the same universe that Superman exists, and Charlton characters just kinda became side notes (when they weren’t serving as the models for Watchmen)
One of the best things they did with Captain Marvel in recent decades was Geoff Johns and David Goyer bringing Marvel and Black Adam into the JSA. Those stories were amazing.
R.I.P. Young Justice, season 4. ☹️
I really, really hope not, but it’s starting to look more and more likely which sucks.
Hopefully, HBOMax would pick it up if Universe folds.
The guy who headed DC’s YA line has also been let go
Justice League —the Holy Grail of dedicated DC fans.Absolutely untrue. Whiny Snyder fans online != DC fans.
This really sucks, and I really really hope DC doesn’t stop printing comics of these characters. Superman the character has been printed monthly with very few interruptions for 81 years, and it would be a shame for faceless corporation to end that.
People, people, people, I think it’s obvious what happened here. THE SJWS KILLED DC!!!!!!111111oneoneone GET WOKE GO BROKE!!!!!1111111oneoneone BLARGH!!!!!!11111oneeoneone
Pouring one out for my homey, Spider Pig.
I guess no one’s really surprised that DC Universe is being killed off, but it still sucks. I plunked down for a year in December when they discounted it to $60, and I definitely feel like I got my $60 worth from it. HBO Max is triple the price if I remember right ($15/month, $180/year) and I’d be paying for a bunch of stuff I don’t care about and not have the comics at all (I think the scale of the layoffs means their not going to keep DC Universe around as a comics-only service).Fandome is going to be really interesting – they’d better have a lot of really great news to offset this!
I would be very surprised if Warner’s/DC doesn’t maintain a comics archive service. The main cost is digitizing all the old material, which is already done for many, many issues.
I guess it depends on who “the majority of the people working on the DC Universe streaming service” includes. Even if the digitizing part is done, they do still need tech support & all that kind of thing. I’m really not optimistic that they’re going to keep anything. I do think there’s a chance they’ll relaunch some kind of comics service down the road, but I don’t think it’ll be DC Universe continuing on.
I’ve never subscribed, but my understanding is that DC Universe was two products in one — a digital comics archive of existing material, and a home video streaming service producing original programs (as well as serving a back catalogue). The second part of that takes many, many, many more people than the first part. Making something takes more people than housing something, and making TV takes literally 20 times as many people as making comics does.
Disney be like…..Now give me the DC/Marvel crossover 3-part movie event I have been waiting 40 years for.
Actually, Disney be like, “the tanking of Warner Bros is proceeding exactly as planned, O Frozen Head Of Walt Disney. Soon, you will own all this world’s entertainment IP.”
I really hope this doesn’t mean the end for the Doom Patrol tv series, I know the second season was also shown on HBO Max as well as the streaming service, but I’m not sure who funds it. Either way, if you haven’t seen it and you can, you really should as it’s enormous fun and for my money the best superhero tv series yet made.
This is really sad. Worse, to have this play out just before DC Fandome, is callous and shitty. It may actually have been worse to do it after Fandome. There is no good time for a company to have a huge promotional celebration for itself, and layoff 800 people.
I also think this is just the tip of an iceberg, the U.S. and the world, may be headed towards with 300,000 dead by winter, and a crashing economy. It all looks like we are getting by fine on the surface right now. But people aren’t working. I haven’t had a job since mid-march, and the industry I have worked in for 20 years (municipal and private event production) is NOT coming back in the near future. More layoffs & corporate bankruptcies are coming. Personally, I have been denied any government financial assistance, no stimulus, no unemployment, no PUA (I am exhausted from appealing in FL), I haven’t gotten my tax refund either… The IRS indicates that someone else filed my tax return. I keep trying, but essentially no one is reachable, in any agency. I can’t be the only one in this specific situation.
Thousands of people are being evicted from their homes, can’t pay their utilities, or feed themselves… I owe six months of bills, with no income. I have been working small jobs as a handyman, and selling everything I own that is not nailed down on various selling platforms. Yes, there are jobs available, but I don’t want to have to get work that exposes me, or my family members to Covid. I went to a job interview, and they refused to wear a mask! (again, I am in FL) I had not gone food shopping for two weeks, this week I got a gig, sold a few things, and paid my car insurance & a utility bill. The thing is, once the real financial crisis hits, the one that effects everyone (except of course the weathy), no one is going to be buying my tiki collectables and vintage ceramics.
Even though I am writing this, I too, am keeping myself entertained, and avoiding thinking too much about the consequences of the last four years, the last six months, and the next election coming down on us all. I think we are in for something much worse than The Great Recession of 2008, and 800 people laid off isn’t a drop in the bucket. As bad as I feel for the layoffs at DC, I feel worse that more is coming. The possible failure of a streaming service is just the beginning… I really hope that isn’t the case, but because Our Great Leader the Cheeto says everything is great and fine, I know it isn’t.
Sorry, I am starting to freak out… 🙄Anyone need a longboard, a Concept2 Rowing Machine, or set of Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbells & Stand? 😁
One problem. HBO Max is not available on Roku or Amazon, so it’s pretty useless.
First off, fuck AT&T for laying a bunch of people off in a pandemic, especially after getting them to move to Burbank only a few years ago. Figuring out how to pay sky-high rents and mortgages in Southern California at at time when no one’s hiring, especially in entertainment, is going to be brutal.
The DC Universe comics stuff will all be added to Comixology Unlimited, if that material isn’t in there already.
The general public should be more concerned about the comics getting hollowed out like this. Almost all of the MCU movies everyone has loved have been 21st century comics runs adapted by Fiege and company.
If the DCEU is going to genuinely turn things around, after only one genuinely good film and one OK one (“Wonder Woman” and “Shazam,” respectively), they need to have the same (relatively) low cost test bed for future film storylines. (There are entire comic companies that largely exist to create comic books for properties that will then almost immediately get purchased for films. It’s a great system for a lot of reasons for Hollywood.)
The DCEU’s renaissance can’t rely on comics from the 1980s and 1990s, no matter what certain creators hope; they’re just too dated, as the super-icky adaptation of The Killing Joke showed (and which Paul Dini strangely doubled down on).
I would be more concerned that AT&T intends to sell DC Comics to Disney or some other investor. While 12 year old me would be over the moon at the idea, I think having two major rival comic brands has actually been great for both of them over the years, and I think the homogeneity that would result from bringing them both in house would be a terrible thing.
>including executive editor Mark Doyle
Big oof.
Not for the first (or, I suspect, last) time, I find myself thinking that the alternate universe in which Jim Shooter succeeded in acquiring DC Comics from WB in the early 90s would have been altogether better for comics as a medium and for fans of the DC characters specifically.