DC Entertainment - All Will Be Well! ~ The Blog of OA

2/20/10

DC Entertainment - All Will Be Well!

2/20/2010

On Thursday, February 18th, Diane Nelson made the announcement that a new five person executive management team would be joining Nelson in steering the ship of Warner Brothers' new company in an attempt to do a better job of realizing the worth of the wealth of characters and stories in the DC Comics catalog. DC Comics is a part of the larger DC Entertainment company and the immediate need was to fill the shoes of Paul Levitz, who stepped down as publisher of DC Comics.

Front from left, Jim Lee, Diane Nelson and Dan DiDio; rear from left, Patrick Caldon, John Rood and Geoff Johns. Photo via New York Times.

Succeeding Levtiz is Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, two familiar faces who are now sharing co-publisher duties. Whether or not this mean Didio will be stepping down as Editor in Chief or not remains to be seen and Didio has remained nebulous about that issue at this early stage of the game.

John Rood was named as the Executive Vice President in charge of sales, marketing, and business development, returning to Warner Brothers after working at Disney/ABC for several years. Patrick Caldon will be in charge of finance and administration.

Geoff Johns has also earned a new title in this new endeavor, that of the Chief Creative Officer. Johns will, in essence, be given the keys to the kingdom to make sure that the toys in DC's sandbox are played with nicely, as well as having a role in the ongoing stories being generated by DC Comics as well as the Vertigo and Milestone brands. Using his experience with Richard Donner, Johns will be working with Warner Brothers to develop and advise on film and television productions featuring DC's characters.

Some good news for Green Lantern fans is that Johns has met with director Martin Campbell and actor Ryan Reynolds about the upcoming Green Lantern film and he's done some work with the script and met with various departments of the production. So I'm hoping beyond hope that the insipid scene where Carol and Hal's kiss recharges the ring has long since been exorcised from the script since that first draft leaked on the Internet. Johns made an interesting comment that Green Lantern is sort of a model for what they want to do going forward and commented on the film, Blackest Night, and "everything spinning out of that", a comment that I find intriguing since Geoff has made several comments on big things coming down the road.

So what does this mean for us? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I think it comes down to what you think about DiDio and Johns and the work they've done so far. Personally, I think it's a good thing. While I may not agree with everything that either of them have ever done, I like how DC Comics have been overall since DiDio came into power and Johns has evolved into one of the best writers in this generation.

It's my opinion that DC is in the best hands it could be in creatively with the formation of DC Entertainment. I think that the fact that Warners looked within the company to choose its creative leaders shows that they understand that the people who've been doing the job are the best people to lead the charge. And for all the doubters I would ask them to name their picks for people who have anywhere near the passion that Lee, DiDio and Johns have for DC's stable of characters.

My initial concern with this announcement is that Johns would be cutting back on his writing workload. But Geoff has said that was also one of his concerns during the negotiations for his new role and that he would continue his work on Green Lantern, the new Flash series, Brightest Day and the Batman: Earth One series of one-shots. That's a huge relief in my book since I think that John's run on GL has been the best I've read in the thirty five or so years I've been following the characters.

My hope in this is that Nelson and Warner Brothers have found the right mix to bring DC to the forefront in a number of arenas besides the publications of the monthly books. DC really needs to embrace the digital age with digital comics as another choice for getting the content in addition to the print medium. And games like "Batman: Arkham Asylum" shows how these characters can so easily transcend the printed page and stories can become interactive entertainment experience when both the intellectual property and the audience is respected. We need more of those kinds of games to keep the DC universe alive for the next generation to appreciate, not games like "Justice League Heroes".

Likewise it's the same kind of pro-fan attitude that needs to be used when they bring any of the characters to film through tv, motion pictures and direct-to-dvd products. There's no surprise that "Smallville: Absolute Justice" did so well in the ratings with fans - the characters were handled with the respect for which they are due and we as fans embrace that.

I think we've had a dynamic shift in how today's audiences respond as compared to my generation. In my day we got drawn into comics through the comics themselves because it was pretty rare to see superheroes in other mediums. Sure, we had Superfriends, Power Records, the Superman films and a few tv shows, but not the broad variety of media forms that this generation has access to. And for many of them video games and all the other things that are out there are what bring them into comics - the comics are their gateway to the characters. So it's up to the leaders in the industry to find creative ways to harness all the different types of entertainment to draw people to the original printed media in order to keep it alive.

The comics industry faces some huge challenges as the audience of my generation dwindles. The only way is to embrace all the new forms of media distribution and use that as a strength, harness the mass appeal that they offer and put the characters out there for them to get the audience that they need to continue to thrive.

With that in mind I think that Nelson has done a great job in getting the right people for the job. Admittedly I know nothing about Rood and Caldon, but I have faith in what DC Entertainment is going to do and how they are going to do it. With an attitude of "no fear" as Nelson has used as her catchphrase for this new era, I think, in the words of the Blue Lantern Corps, "all will be well."