Smallville Season 11 #15

[superfangirl1]

Barbara crushing on superman.










First blood meeting with red sunlight gloves.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

I'm one of his interviews he says "That's something they should never have done, they shouldn't have done that."
Something along those lines

Ah here it is http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/28/talking-to-dan-didio-about-stephanie-brown-and-rob-liefeld/

[q99]

:\

What crap.

He's arguing they shouldn't be used because they're only moderately popular? Wanna know how you turn moderately popular to very popular? You use characters.

(Also Cassandra sold better than Babs, Babs was never that popular as Batgirl, and 'waiting for the right story' is clear code for 'we're not using them under my watch')

[shadowpsykie]

He reiterated the blame THREE TIMES....

[q99]

I think he's just bitter about the stuff around the characters and makes up excuses.

[mrstatham]

Again, Dan Didio likes to think he's in a position to tell us what we should be buying, when the market thrives around the principle that WE tell THEM what we want. His completely messed up agenda to shove Barbara down our throats at every opportunity is just becoming obscene, though; If we count her appearance in Earth One - where she's blatantly destined to become Batgirl - that was, I believe, her appearing in five titles at once. Nearly as many as Batman himself.

I understand it in some instances - put her in BOP to get something resembling the older lineup, even though Barbara has zero history with Dinah now, use her in the Ame-Comi stuff because Cass certainly didn't fit the role in that book, but when it comes to Smallville, I can't read that stuff in anything but Miller's Steph-voice, frankly. It wasn't incredibly present in that first issue, but here? Definite Steph with a dye job and some photoshopped glasses.

[q99]

Dan's pretty clearly running things based on personal preference rather than business. If he likes a character, they'll continue on even as their book drops well sub-20k.

If not, a run largely in the 30s and 20s is a sign only a minority likes them and they shouldn't be used, period.

[mrstatham]

Bang on. He's careful to avoid obvious favouritism, which is why his own OMAC book promptly disappeared (although I was actually a bit depressed that one got cancelled), and the same will likely happen if Phantom Stranger isn't popular enough, but.. Absolutely. I think they keep some titles on a lifeline because they consider them necessary, but personal preference definitely comes into play at times.

[q99]

And a lot of the ones he says are the reasons we can't have the other versions... aren't doing *that* much better and had the advantage of a *massive* relaunch.

I think the best Wally book still well outsold Barry's new stuff, Cassandra is without a doubt the best selling Batgirl of all time, Wonder Woman has had better sales than the reboot (either Odyssey or the new one) within the past decade, etc..

[mrstatham]

As always, going to have to disagree with thoughts on Wonder Woman, since I feel that is a step up in quality from the JMS/Simone/Picoult/Heinberg run, and that's kind of a separate argument from the legacy characters. Outside of her origin, I also don't feel Diana's personality has changed massively - at least in her own title.

[q99]

Regardless of thoughts on quality, I'm just pointing out the sales argument.

In the last 10 years, the best selling WW books are the start of the Heinberg run and the end of the Rucka run.

[msrobin]

The sad part is that sometimes, he'll fixate on a good character who'll be badly handled. Barry Allen comes to mind. So does Jaime Reyes in his current book.

It's obvious that DC's brain trust conceived this reboot as a reboot by them for them.

[q99]

Yesss. Even when they like a character, they have a few default things they do to them. Make them the 'one true X,' destroy their relationships with supporting cast, and retcon in an angstier past.

[wake_the_dragon]

Well, that's just great.

I like how he felt the need to keep saying it was the creative team's fault. And his argument made no sense; Barbara was never Nightwing either.

[mrstatham]

Didio has always had that lovely culture of 'everyone but me is to blame', though, even in circumstances where it makes him look like a dunce. Case in point, his classic 'Countdown was 52 done right' argument; I understand the need for editorial, but the second THEY start dictating the stories to creative teams? Why not just write the damn things themselves?

[q99]

-'everyone but me is to blame',-

Combined with 'you do what we saw' creates serious disconnect.

[mrstatham]

Again, the guy's contradictory. I think he likes to put on a good show and make like he's not in the wrong in the eyes of fans, but.. Given the guy's position in the company, he arguably has to be to blame for certain decisions and the like.

[q99]

I think he lacks self-awareness of how he's acting, especially when it comes to some specific topics.

[msrobin]

Again, the buck stops with you, Mr. Didio. Everyone went in believing that Stephanie was approved for use. Sack up and deal with it.

[junipepper]

I especially like the part where he says Steph was never Nightwing, so there was no reason to put her in for that part. Thanks for clearing that up, Dan. I guess I just failed to notice Barbara Gordon's incredibly popular previous stint as Nightwing.

[mrstatham]

She's the iconic Nightwing. Didn't you get the memo?

She's also the iconic Robin, the iconic Huntress, the iconic Spoiler. Basically, any Bat-related role you can remotely think of putting a female character in? Barbara Gordon. Who else do you need?

[junipepper]

There is no one else.

But I don't know, I think Damien is now the official 'iconic' Robin. Because, you know, so many non-comics readers are familiar with him from his decades-long history in the role, especially the 60's TV show, that they'll only feel comfortable picking up Batman books if Damien is Robin. (Oh wait, that might have been someone else... probably Barbara Gordon.)

In my mind I picture Didio's thought process: 'I shall decree that the iconic Nightwing is Barbara Gordon, and the iconic Robin is Damien Wayne. Damn it, I didn't get to kill off Dick Grayson in Infinite Crisis so I'll just use editorial fiat to make him increasingly irrelevant. No one likes him anyway.'

[msrobin]

Didio doesn't even have much of a comic book background. He cut his teeth on TV. How he was hired for a top editorial post at DC is beyond me.

[ablackraptor]

Note: His previous work included overseeing Beast Machines, one of the most disliked series of Transformers, noted for turning things so dark that Optimus Primal became a borderline cult leader. He also oversaw some other stuff, but I'm not well versed in the details to that. You'd think that would be enough to keep him away from big businesses.

[mrstatham]

But Smallville is all about Superman and not Batman, so why put Steph in?

OH WAIT I KNOW - THE FUCKING TV SHOW HAD EVERYONE FROM CYBORG TO AQUAMAN AND PAID NO MIND TO MIXING STUFF UP LIKE PUTTING IN THE MIA DEARDEN VERSION OF SPEEDY AND BART AS THE GODDAMNED FLASH.

Jesus, his excuses border on insane troll logic, these days. I wouldn't mind if he just up and admitted he has a blatant character bias rather that lying to our faces; The fact of the matter is that Miller had it written in mind with Steph, had done interviews about it - and enough to the point that it was in TV Guide and internet stuff like IGN - and Didio's like 'hurrrrr yeah they'll buy it when I say this shouldn't happen'. God..

[msrobin]

Who's "they," Dan? Bryan Q. Miller received full approval to use Stephanie Brown. The buck stops with YOU. If there was any miscommunication, then the fault lies with YOU. Not BQM. Not his editor. You don't look so good by hanging the creative team out to dry and acting as if they were trying to sneak something past you.

Especially since BQM GAVE AN INTERVIEW talking about Steph.

Again, all this is on YOUR watch.

If I worked there, I would hate to deal with the blame games, micromanaging, and dishonesty. It must be such a stifling, unhealthy environment.