DC: You’re Still Doing It Wrong
Comic book creator Gerry Conway recently did something that not too
many people would have the courage to do.
He actually apologized for something he said.
Conway had initially
issued a scathing article about the policies of DC Entertainment when it
came to royalties over the characters that Conway created. Specifically the character Caitlin Snow,
otherwise known as Killer Frost, who is currently seen on the CW series “The
Flash”. Although Conway’s version of the
characters is not the same as currently seen in the comics, and certainly not
the same as seen in the TV series, Conway believed that DC did owe him some
money in royalties. DC, however, said this
was a “derivative” character, and thus not enough to justify paying
royalties. This was the same justification
DC issued when it came to another one of his more famous creations, the
fan-favorite (and mine) Power Girl.
Conway pointed out that DC has been on a tear of late turning
long-established characters created by artists no longer associated with the major
publisher into “derivative” characters, supposedly so they wouldn’t have to pay
royalties to their creators anymore.
“According
to DC, Sterling Gates and Derlis Santacruz didn’t create Caitlin Snow,”
he
said on his Tumbler account. “Don Newton and I didn’t
create Jason Todd. Ric Estrada and I didn’t create Power Girl. Jerry Siegel and
Joe Shuster didn’t create Superboy. Bob Kanigher and Carmine Infantino didn’t
create Barry Allen. These characters
just appeared out of nowhere. But the
money for their exploitation goes directly into DC’s bank account.”
Since that scathing accusation, Conway has been in touch with DC brass,
and apparently had a “Come to Jesus” meeting with them so
now he’s saying that the DC people are supposedly trying to do right by
him.
“While I stand by at least one of my basic points... I need to walk
back pretty much everything else, especially my characterization of the motives
of the men involved in developing, explaining and implementing DC’s creators
equity program.”
Well I’m glad you had your “Come to Jesus” moment, Mister Conway. But that still doesn’t fix the other problems
that DC has with the people that have been reading and appreciating the comics
over the years.
Let’s get brutally honest here... while DC Comics (and DC
Entertainment) have been doing a bang-up job on TV when it comes to their
newer live-action shows (except
for “Constantine”, and that I blame directly on Comcast-owned NBC),
their comics have been failing on so many levels. They may try to do right by Conway, but they
aren’t doing right by the readers that pay for the comics that they can then
pay royalties to people like Conway, never mind generate the fan base that will
then watch and support those TV shows.
This isn’t a recent fail, either.
This is something that has plagued DC like a cancer for years, slowly
eating away at its readers, and causing them to smack their foreheads in
frustration. These are things that haven’t
really been addressed, simply imposed on and told they need to “accept”.
Here are the key problems that need to be addressed.
Eternal Crisis Syndrome: Yes, “Crisis
on Infinite Earths” was a ground-breaking and all-important storyline that
allowed DC to hit the “reset” button and fix some problems that were decades in
the making.
Unfortunately they have not stopped using the “crisis” storyline, nor
have they stopped hitting that damn “reset” button.
In fact, it’s gotten worse.
Overlapping Crisis Storylines:
First there was the “Fifth Week” problem, when a special “crisis” would manifest
itself simply to fill a “fifth week” release schedule. Then there was the “Fifty-Two Week Crisis”
idea, spawned from the “52” miniseries, which told a little bit of the story
every week over a 52-week period. But
while the original “52” was designed to fill in the gaps over a missing year,
the “Fifty-Two Week Crisis” idea was transformed into a build-up to yet another
“Eternal Crisis” story. The first one of
that idea was “Countdown”, which became “Countdown to Final Crisis” and led
into “Final Crisis”.
But one special build-up wasn’t enough.
There was also “Amazons Attack”, which led into “Countdown”. And then there was “Death of the New Gods”,
which was also very loosely connected to both “Countdown” and “Final Crisis”. Oh, and let’s not forget “Countdown: Arena”, “Countdown
to Adventure”, “Countdown to Mystery”, “Countdown Presents The Search for Ray
Palmer”, and “Countdown Presents Lord Havoc and the Extremists”. All of which tied into “Countdown” and led to
“Final Crisis”.
Most recently there was “Future’s End”; a weekly mini-series that
turned into a springboard for the current “Eternal Crisis” event, “Convergence”. Not only that, but there was “Earth 2 – World’s
End”, in which the very same Earth 2 that DC Comics re-imagined and defended
was unceremoniously destroyed and some of their characters ended up being
dumped into the main story arc of “Convergence”. Why?
Apparently it’s “because shut up!”
Oh, but that Earth 2 is not the actual Earth-2 that readers
remember. Somehow that got saved as part
of “Convergence”.
Then there is...
Disjointed Side-Stories: Again,
this isn’t new. “The Kingdom” had
several side-stories that really had no connection to the main storyline but
used characters from “The Kingdom”, which was based off the classic “Kingdom
Come” miniseries. Basically anything that could be used to further develop a
main story was split off into side-stories, which readers then have to buy to
get the full story.
Wanted to know how Batman got Wonder Woman’s lasso needed to free the
Justice League in “Forever Evil”? Go buy
“Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S.”. What
happened to the Teen Titans after confronting Johnny Quick in “Forever Evil”? You have to read their comic series to find
out.
“Convergence” has actually gone one further in coming up with multiple
side-stories based off characters and settings from DC’s past – the very
settings and characters that fans loved and wanted back – and then dropping
them off on a strange world where they have to fight other characters from
other past stories in order to survive.
And they don’t appear to be connected to the main story in “Convergence”. A lot of these appear to be “fairy tale”
sendoffs, giving readers a chance to say good-bye to their characters.
Remember when Lois Lane was happily married to Superman? Well say good-bye to that and congrats to
their new baby and we’ll now return you to the dysfunctional barely-existing romance
of Superman and Wonder Woman, and to Lois Lane’s eminent douchebag move of
exposing Superman’s secret identity to the world.
That bring us to those...
Radical departures: Remember
when Lois Lane was a professional journalist?
Kiss those days good-bye with her outing of Superman as being Clark
Kent! Oh, and he’s back to wearing jeans
and a tee. And he has a new power which
expends all his energy so he’s human for twenty-four hours. And he can’t fly anymore.
You want a flying Superman? Well
there’s Val-Zod... yes, a dark-skinned Kryptonian named Zod... or perhaps you’re
looking for Calvin Elliot, President of the United States, who bears a striking
resemblance to Barack Obama, and was the Superman from the “Multiversity”
miniseries. Or maybe you want the
Hispanic-raised Superman also named Zod in the forthcoming “Justice League:
Gods and Monsters” animated movie?
Remember when there was outrage over Wonder Woman wearing pants? You’ll beg for those days as she’s now going
to be wearing super-complex battle armor.
Or maybe you want the red-haired New God version of Wonder Woman from “Gods
and Monsters”?
Bruce Wayne is dead, but Gotham has a new Batman... and it’s
Commissioner Gordon in anime-style Gundam armor. Or perhaps you want a vampire Man-Bat from “Gods
and Monsters”?
Remember Wally West? Well he’s
not ginger-haired anymore.
Oh, and remember Power Girl? Not
the same busty blonde young woman that Conway created. Now she’s a sassy teenager who is neither
blonde nor busty.
It’s almost as if the DC hierarchy is saying “Okay, you want your
favorite characters? Well, we’ll bring
them back, but on our terms only and we’ll pervert them so you’ll never be able
to connect them to the characters that you remember!”
And that’s the part that still makes me wonder if this is all part of
DC’s plan to not pay royalties to people like Conway. It certainly explains the ongoing effort to
redefine and remake old characters into completely different ones. Conway may be content with what DC is doing,
but I’m certainly not, and I suspect I’m not the only one either.
And then there’s one more thing that DC has been doing that they really
need to stop. And that is their...
“Hunger Games Fetish”: When DC
re-launched their “New 52”, one of their first cross-title storylines was
called “The Culling”. It took three
groups of DC characters and pitted them against each other in one-on-one
battles for survival.
In other words, it was their first attempt at reenacting “The Hunger
Games” series. And it sucked. It was a waste of time and money and it
ultimately did nothing to help advance the characters involved.
Well that’s what the side-stories for “Convergence” are. They’re all “Hunger Games” stories. Each “city” that was preserved is told that their
champions have to fight the champions from another “city” in order for that
city to “survive”. If they refuse, then
their city is destroyed along with everyone there. If they lose, then their city is destroyed
along with everyone there. In other
words... “Hunger Games”, with Telos as President Coin.
Now it’s one thing to go to the “Hunger Games” plot once. But to use that same plot again on an even
larger scale when it failed the first time around, that’s just laziness.
I get that DC Comics needs to make money. They’re a big corporate entity and part of an
even bigger corporate conglomerate. But
they’re not going to do that if they continue to alienate the very readers that
have been supporting them all these years.
That’s precisely what they’re doing with these continual and overlapping
“crisis” storylines, with radical departures that seem to have no reason behind
them other than “because shut up”, and side-stories that seem to be nothing
more than a naked grab at more revenue for people that look for answers to
those already-confusing “crisis” storylines.
It’s strange that the comics are failing the fans when DC’s live-action
TV ventures are doing so well. If they
keep this up, maybe the TV writers will end up working for the comic
publishers. Then at least there would be something that the fans could come
back for.
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