DC at SDCC: A Lesson in Good Business Strategy (Part 2, Friday)

[turtlefu]

I am back! This day had probably one of the worst moments at the con, but it did have some good news. Also, we had one panel where DC DIDN'T brag about diversity! Too bad it was the Green Lantern Panel. But first, legality!
 

WE HAVE A BLACK GUY NOW!!!!!

 

DC’s ‘The New 52’ Panel (Friday Morning)

Lee says that having a beautiful wife made it too easy for Superman, and they wanted to restore the idea that Superman can’t get everything that he wants.

“Aaaaaand, right away, equating wives as prizes for their husbands. Also, NOBODY LIKES angst-y Clark!”

DiDio says that they de-aged characters because they had already “matured” and wanted the characters to be able to grow and self-discover, etc. He thinks that Oracle was in her mid- to late-30’s.

“DC doesn’t understand at all. I for one, LOVE Oracle BECAUSE she has grown and matured and developed. Apparently, people older than 35 aren’t interesting. I guess that means most of the DC staff isn’t interesting? Oh, that’s right, so it must be true.”

DiDio reiterates that Stephanie is going to come back. Also, Berganza (Ex. Editor) says that Oracle was a “big decision” but to have confidence in Gail. Also, there isn’t going to be a magic handwave.

“Yes, that would be nice. Too bad I don’t believe them one bit. With the compressed timeline, new younger Barbara, and the implication that her recovery won’t be instant, it looks like the Oracle character is going to be significantly truncated and changed

Jim Lee implies that Wonder Woman won’t be single.

“This can go both ways. It can show a Woman in a happy stable relationship where she is equal with her partner. OR, they can go the Classic/Heinberg route and hitch her up with a complete jerk!”

 

DC’s Superman Panel (Friday Afternoon)

JMS is running with the “Man of Steel, Woman of Tissue” idea in his next Earth-1 OGN. The woman will be okay with Clark being naked

“I wish somebody would retire that misogynistic idea. On the other hand, I wish they would portray women as more well-rounded than the Madonna-Whore complex towards sex, and I think showing a woman as wanting sex but not being consumed by it is the right direction.”

Johnson describes Supergirl as kind and funny and smart, but untrusting and in a backwards civilization.

“Okay, that sounds pretty good to me

 

DC’s Justice League Panel (Friday Later Afternoon)

Johns says that by having J’onn on the JLA, there is redundancy because Clark is already an alien.

“This shows exactly DC’s attitudes towards diversity. It’s all about quotas and tokenism.”

Wallace says that Terrific’s supporting cast will be very racially diverse. He says he wants his writing to reflect the real world.

“Well, good on you, but I still don’t like your writing. Also, I think it’s important to add that Wallace is one of (the only?) black creator for the new 52

Lee implies that the Atom is Ryan Choi when asked about diversity in the JLA.

“See, I love Ryan, but I feel like they only chose him over Ray because Ryan fulfills their Asian diversity quota”

Johns says Power Girl is still around, Wallace implies we’ll see Karen Starr in Mr. Terrific. Philip Tan says he can’t say whether Hawkgirl is still around. Berganza says “never say never” to Secret Six returning.

“Mostly good news, but now for the really bad part!”

A female fan in a Batgirl costume says she is upset about how the female character are not featured centrally in the Justice League books. The panelists say they are taking diversity “seriously”. Then they got into a little argument with the fan disagreeing. Lee mocks her by asking if she wants female characters to be “dead center or off-center” on the covers. According to the report, the audience was definitely against her.

“DC says they are taking diversity seriously, and then proceeds to use their male privilege to mock a fan who is rightfully upset about their hypocrisy. Furthermore, the audience, who is likely mostly male, is against her voicing her concerns. However, I applaud her for her bravery and courage. We need more people like her in the business. It reminds me of what Gail was before she sold-out. And she's completely right, because there used to be a time when we had a "Trinity" with Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman as the Big Three. It seems to me that GL has now taken that position and Wonder Woman is going to be less important in the team books. It's also funny how the League supposedly has several heroines as members but only Wonder Woman shows up on the cover. And even in JLI, the guys are clearly larger/closer to the foreground and more central than Ice, Vixen, or Fire.”

DC’s Green Lantern panel had no talking about heroines or diversity

Comments

[greenmask]

I can't help but be hopeful. There are indie creators who make a living NOT putting out such prejudice-biased work, aren't there?

Maybe DC just needs to let go of the profit margins that they used to achieve. Maybe you just can't make that much money putting out comics nowadays.. but you can make SOME money, and also not be crap?

[bittercupojoe]

That would be nice, but it's not how corporate America works, and WB is going to go with what maxes out their profits. They're willing to lose a little bit of cash in order to do "community outreach" or other charitable things that reflect well on the company, but with as little money as the comics pull in, what you see is likely what you're going to get for a while. Ultimately, you have to assume that the people at DC and Marvel would like to keep their jobs.

[greenmask]

You just don't understand my commitment to this blue lantern wot I have here~

Hmm. Maybe a turquoise ring would be the best thing, willpower forcing hope to turn out to be RIGHT

[cleome45]

IIRC, Turquoise will also protect you from falling off a horse.

[greenmask]

That will not be the most helpful to me; I am allergic to horses.

[cleome45]

But you might need to use one to escape a horde of zombies or something, allergies be damned!

[greenmask]

Hmmm. I GUESS. I just hope that my zombie-fleeing steed doesn't fart as much as the last one I rode.

EVERY. SINGLE. DOWNWARD. MOVEMENT. Faaaaaaart.

[cleome45]

Maybe the methane emissions will help repel the horde, though. You just have to make sure the breeze is blowing the right way...

[greenmask]

!! I could light them! Zombies HATE fire!

[cleome45]

I think we've just accidentally penned the Mad Magazine version of The Walking Dead.

o_0

[greenmask]

We're very creative.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

FUND IT!

[icon_uk]

Unfortunately, horses tend to be a mite pyrophobic too.

[greenmask]

Then they will run faster!

Besides, I am horsefart-o-phobic, and that did not stop the beast. }:[

[shadowpsykie]

fellow blue lantern here :D teehee

[endis_ni]

Well, hello, Blue Lantern roll call!

[shadowpsykie]

me too. coming from a gay male latino point of view.

with most writers i have read about, Gail almost always writes in LGBT friendly content (i am pretty sure she has written at least one gay character as supporting if not primary cast into each one of her books, including wonder woman) Cornell is definately gay friendly. Lobdell in a recent interview has a love for Wonder girl.

reallh for me, it comes down to how the writer executes everything. The higher ups can dictate terms and conditions, but the writer can find ways to work around that.

i'm cautious, as i have been from the begining, but still hopeful.

[fifthie]

but you can make SOME money, and also not be crap?

There's really no reason to take arguments from sales on their own dishonest terms. The fact is that DC can't make any money by being crap, as the last seven-odd years of failure and their present willingness to upend their business model pretty aptly demonstrate. They're choosing to be racist misogynists because they're racist misognynists; all the dutiful intonations of MORE MISOGYNY = MORE SAYULZ amount to a religious dogma that persists no matter how many times reality proves it's a load of garbage.

[greenmask]

Right, exactly! They think they can go back to the old profits eventually, but they literally can't, so why keep trying in this bum way?

[marco]

That kind of makes me think of some things in the gaming industry. It was mentioned that one company says they don't want to localize their JRPGs because they don't sell here.

However, they're counting on selling numbers that a lot of games here don't make anyway. So it's more an issue of unrealistic sales goals (or them that just making unrealistic numbers to justify themselves).

I think the situation sounds like DC a lot. Like, with bookstores closing (sadly) and a lot of people going digital to read even (another thing I personally don't care), they probably need to readjust how they see their sales.

On top of that, with the animated stuff, there is zero advertising that I know of. If people hadn't of mentioned the Wondy movie (and I didn't find it at Walgreens at one point), I would have never found out about it. Or the GL, Red Hood or other movies. It's just a very silly bubble they're living in to me.