Zub Off BIRDS OF PREY, Venditti off CONSTANTINE… Before They Start! And More DC Changes!

OK, this could get complicated, so let’s just run it down.

  • 1358176691 Robert Venditti (X-O Manowar, Surrogates) is no longer writing Constantine, the reboot of Hellblazer in the regular DC Universe. He’ll be replaced on the first issue by Jeff Lemire co-plotting, and Ray Fawkes co-plotting and scripting. DC said Venditti’s still working on other projects.
  • Jim Zub (Skullkickers) is no longer writing Birds of Prey.ย He’ll be replaced by Christy Marx, who writes Amethyst. DC didn’t go into it as much, but it seems more like they just wanted to go in a different direction.
  • Peter Milligan is no longer writing Stormwatch, which will be taken over by Jim Starlin, the mastermind behind Marvel’s cosmic universe, whose credits are far too many to list in a parentheses.

1358176447You can learn more by reading this interview at CBR with Bob Harras and Bobbie Chase, who used to run Marvel, but are now running DC.

Also, Saucer Country from Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly will be ending with its 14th issue, also out in April.

It’s… difficult not to infer that DC is going through some things, from the various rumors of editorial interference, and conversations I have that I can’t share with you. The thing that’s most disturbing about these announcements is that these were some of the only new writing talent DC was bringing in amongst a lot of veterans. But at the same time, this is the big leagues, and it’s how the game is played.

It’s certainly interesting to watch from the sidelines.

UPDATE:

It looks like you can add I, Vampire and DC Universe Presents to the cancelled list, both ending with issue #19, as well as Superman Family Adventures which will end at #12.

Comments

  1. Jim Starlin on Stormwatch?

    That could be pretty fun. Or pretty funny.

    Wonder who’ll be drawing that.

  2. Were this a regular business type job – you know – your at some multi-national corp sitting in your cube or office with a few hundred others like you – and then all of a sudden – RE-ORG! People getting fired, new people coming in, bunch of people given new jobs – a few people shuffled off to the side and given half-a-job (do this for 6 months while we figure out what to do).

    Anyway – Change is good, instability and uncertainty is not.

    • Keep in mind that they’re freelancers, not staff positions. That’s very different.

    • But they’re still hired emplyees right? And them getting fired left and right has gotta cut morale down alittle in terms of job security.

    • Pretty normal for the comic book industry. There’s no such thing as job security in freelance comic book writing and drawing.

    • Freelance or not – a job is a job – and when management starts swinging the axe around – you start ducking.

    • @ Josh – if it were pretty normal, then why is it news?

      Seems to me this what’s going on at DC these days is actually pretty atypical of what we’ve seen in the past 5-6 years. Sure there have been shake-ups – but how many times did we see the kind of turmoil going on at DC? The Liefeld thing, Simone, pre-first issue firings – even JMS makes it to the first issue before dropping.

      This isn’t turnover or change – this is upheaval. This is Florida Marlins after they win the World Series.

    • It’s not unusual that freelancers got switched around. It happens all the time. You usually don’t hear about it. It’s notable that this happened publicly, after the issues were solicited, but before any issues came out, and that it happened at the same time, just after the Gail Simone debacle, and it’s one more set of “new” guys who didn’t hack it at DC according to whatever their standards are.

      It would be upheaval if those were successful books, which they’re not. Or if they were going to be, we won’t know.

    • It’s not even simply a freelance / comic book thing – it’s the general business of serialized writing in the entertainment industry. Happens in TV, too.

    • @Josh – I have to agree with other comments here & suggest that what’s occurring at DC is not the norm, even for them. No freelancers in any creative business have job security. We know that & that’s not the point. The point is that the levels of disruption & talent mis-management occurring at DC are noteworthy & depressing to behold.

    • I think I need to clarify what I meant earlier by “job security”. I know that alot of writers are freelance and what that entails (or a rough idea), but I meant that DC and them have some understanding of “ok, you’ll work this many issues” or some such. They have this span of time of employment, and have security in that regard. Not that their position isn’t irreplaceable or permenant by any means. And lately it seems that DC is cutting them loose prematurely and at the drop of a hat, and that has to be creating a growing sense of unease among the other employees that don’t know why it’s happening.

    • maybe its not ethical to treat your employees or contractors like crap…

  3. And so far, DC Comics Presents and I, Vampire are being canceled as of issue #19!

    I’m not surprised, but it’s a shame, because I thought I, Vampire was excellent in every aspect!

  4. I think it actually is interesting to watch, especially as I don’t have a horse in the race. Like a lot of folks (around here at least), my DC pull list has shrank considerably as the New 52 has rolled along. I’m sure if I was still reading any of the books going through these seemingly capricious changes, I’d be annoyed and disheartened.

    I hope that in 20 years we’ll all be talking about a fascinating Sean Howe-like book about this era in DC history.

    But “conversations I have that I can’t share with you”? Josh, you tease.

    • I’ve said too much!

    • My DC pull list is just Batman – and I jumped on with Joker coming back. That said – I’ve not been a huge DC fan at all in the last – jeez – 15 years – having only read a handful of titles over that span – again mostly Batman/Green Arrow related.

    • My DC list went from reading 24 titles in the first few months down to SIX, Batman, Batman Inc, Action Comics, Swamp Thing, Animal Man and Wonder Woman, and I plan on dropping Action when Morrison leaves and Swamp thing/Animal Man when Rot World ends.

      That being said I only ended up dropping Flash, Justice League, Frankenstein and Aquaman after my initial culling because I hit a budgetary wall.

      TL:DR – In my opinion there are 10 worthwhile books at DC, 3 of which are either being canceled or having major creative team changes soon.

  5. Interesting that Jeff Lemire is co-writing Hellblazer, which will hopefully be a somewhat Vertigo book. But then again maybe Lemire’s interpretation of John Constantine is selling and DC wants the Hellblazer book to be consistent with JLD? Although I’m very sad that Robert Venditti got passed on the job since I’m sure he could’ve turned out some great stories on Hellblazer.

  6. Damn, with Saucer Country ending and American Vampire on hiatus, it looks like Lemire and Snyder’s new books may ending up deciding the ultimate fate of Vertigo. As it is they’re down to two Fables books and the Unwritten and that’s it.

    • Yeah, I’m worried about Vertigo, because a lot of really cool stuff has come from them over the years. I have all 3 of the ongoing books on my pull list, but they used to have a bunch of titles each month. Kinda sad.

  7. With Paul Cornell back at Marvel, it was only a matter of time before Saucer Country was cancelled. While it didn’t really live up to the hype, it was still an interesting read.

    • I really enjoyed Saucer Country I really hope Paul doing some Marvel work wasn’t the reason for it being Cancelled.

    • I really like Saucer Country, but it feels like a series that should end around the issue it will. Good news to me, am excited to pick up the 2nd and 3rd tpbs when they come out. Thanks to all the talented creators.

    • Well, now that I read Cornell’s comments (thanks!), I withdraw my comment about the premature ending.

  8. I don’t understand why they announce new teams, and then fire them before the first issue has even gone into production. What’s the point of that? Its as if they just want to publicly embarrass creators (i know they aren’t doing that, but it seems like it) Seems very erratic and unorganized. I feel bad for Jim Zub, who seemed very excited, and just got the rug pulled out from under him. Must be tough to handle.

    • I was excited for Jim Zub! Skullkickers is an awesome book and I was looking forward to his take on Birds of Prey.

    • I have to wonder if this goes back to the rumor that was bouncing around the internet recently that DC Management wants to disassociate creators from characters/titles in readers’ minds. That way, you’re less likely to get up in arms if your favorite creator gets sacked from a title, and you’ll continue to buy it anyway.

      By changing the creative team of a title, then changing it again a few months later, then resoliciting it under a completely different creative team (“We wanted to take the story in a different direction”), it seems like one way to accomplish that very thing.

    • It’s how the whole solictitation process with Diamond works. They solicit stuff 3 months in advance. Most of the time, they haven’t started drawing anything yet. I think they just have an outline and probably the first issue scripts. DC Editorial seems to be changing their minds about story directions on a daily basis. They also seem to have multiple people pitching for the same book. Solicits have errors all the time. Usually just the artists are changed up and not writers.

    • yeah Jim Zub is one of my favorites as well, and i was glad to see him get a chance to take it to the next level. oh well.

      I’m sure DC is trying to do that, but good luck with that. They can’t change the culture of comics all by themselves. Seems their pushing towards a more generic house style, which is what’s pushed me away from almost every single one of their books save for Snyder’s Batman.

      Seems the only thing all these changes are accomplishing is showing the readers everything is always up in the air, so that’s kinda bad if you want people to jump on for the long haul.

    • I hope this isn’t some silly attempt by DC’s part to turn their fan base into zombies that by characters instead of creative teams. A comic is only as good as the people creating it. I think it’s silly to continue to buy a comic that you know isn’t very good only because you like the character. I had to make this very choice a few months ago when I dumped World’s Finest.
      I like Powergirl and Huntress as characters but this title lacks a lot of the elements that make those characters interesting.

    • @newway12 — I think that’s EXACTLY what it is

    • @skruff wallthegreenmonster. I do remember listening to WordBalloon interview with Greg Rucka a couple of months back when he was explaining his quick departure from DC was the new editorial staff believe comic fans will buy the titles based on loyalty/like of a character than on a creator (or even quality of the work). Therefore, DC decided to focus less on building a strong creator foundation on a title, which was one of the reason why Rucka left DC.

      Really sad..

  9. Avatar photo DDangelico (@DavidDangelico) says:

    I, Vampire got cancelled? ๐Ÿ™

    I’ve heard he got to end it the way he wanted to–so I guess that’s the upside…

  10. Sad to see I, Vampire go. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be pretty good. DC doesn’t seem like a happy place to work these days with all of the firings.

  11. If two titles are vanishing, what two are filling the void to make it 52 again? Threshold and…?

  12. I hope they put Josh Hale Fialkov on another book, I enjoy his work output with I, Vampire, Last of the Greats, and Echoes.

  13. “… Bob Harras and Bobbie Chase, who used to run Marvel, but are now running DC.” … into the ground.

    Jesus Christ. What the hell is going on over there? I know we’ve all seen this a million times but it’s always kinda saddening. Especially when one Big is doing so much better the other. This stuff is cyclical of course, but as a DC native, it’s tough for me to watch.

    As far as the actual titles go, I dropped the last one of them a long time ago (and no dreamteam could make me pick up Constantine Light), so it doesn’t affect my pull list. Starlin on Stormwatch got my attention though. That could be interesting.

  14. What concerns me is that this sort of action will stop people (well… me anyway) picking up titles that don’t look like they’ll last long enough to wrap up their stories properly. I’ve enjoyed Saucer Country a lot and I can’t see how Cornell will finish it with any satisfying sense of completion. I’m still holding out in hope that the New 52 is all happening in some pocket universe and that everything will go back to how it was. I miss 2 years ago when I read only DC and loved it all – 52, Countdowm, Blackest Night. I now buy more Marvel (and love all that now) – they look positively David Allen in comparison.

  15. Dang. I, Vampire was a good book. Art was great. It was always sort of weird and really didn’t fit in the DCU very well, which is probably why it worked as well as it did. I was always surprised with each round of title cuts that it made it through. It seemed a little too “Vertigo” to last.

    Saucer Country was also a good series. Again, not surprised its getting cut with the way things are going. Seems like anything less than a hit that isn’t directly tied to a marquee book is doomed.

  16. I think, after the next issues of Animal Man and Swamp Thing (which I’m relatively sure is the end of that arc?), I’m just going to take a break from DC, and come back when they’re done with whatever it is that they’re doing lately.

    Maybe all of a sudden they’ll be cool again in the mid-2020s. Or gone. Or some strange appealing combination of both!

  17. mehhh… its a bit of a lifeless universe. All these creator changes seem to only be adding to that. Its weird… even the books that i did have some type of minor interest in, be it for hero or art, i just could not find one reason to care about anymore. Down to batman, batman and robin and swamp thing… and im off swampy when snyder leaves. Its like the whole line just lacks…juice. And also…. why does the new 52 seem even more of a mess than before 52? It shouldnt as we have for the most part of a fresh start… but i think that speaks more to the overall presentation and heavy line wide edditorial hand. hardly anything distinguishes these books apart, each a bit more boring than the next.

    oh i buy wonder woman also. the new3 for me.

    • i feel the same way about the books. They are ok at best. They all look and feel the same…kinda like store brand generic at the Grocery Store. As a result i’m only getting one or two nowadays.

    • Well put, Wally. That’s it precisely. So bland and lifeless.

    • I’m with you guys. Marvel’s kept all the continuity and yet feels much fresher than DC. DC’s books have been so bland and I’m never excited about them. If they went all in and started writing new beginings I think they could have done some cool things with the New 52.

    • I definitely agree with you guys. It’s amazing with how disorganized DC seems to be how consistently bland the output is. You’d think with all the last minute changes something would slip out that would be a little more interesting in either a “this is offensively bad” or “this is awesomely good” kind of way. Instead, it’s just bland.

    • i feel that Marvel is a bit better at hiring creatives and letting them do their thing, whereas DC wants to mold talent to make them work in a house style. Total opposite creative philosophies. I think Marvel is doing it the right way.

  18. @Josh – I think you mean DC *UNIVERSE* PRESENTS, right? I’m kind of sad about this title getting canned. I mean, it was pretty much DOA thanks to that endless Deadman arc (coincidence?) that started us out. But I still love the idea of an anthology series which features DCU characters not big enough to have their own ongoing titles. Had this one been given more planning and promo – and corporate respect – it could have been a real winner.

    • I think they missed a lot of great chances to do things like they did with the Kid Flash issue.
      They could have done something with the Night of the Owls and maybe Stephanie Brown (Don’t know why DC editorial hates her so much).
      They could have done something with Mera or one of Aquaman’s former team mates that took place during their recent story arc.
      They could have taken ANY of the multiple team books and given a character a stand alone issue.

      It’s a real shame in my opinion, but business is business.

      But that’s just what I think.

  19. They must know how all this looks, mustn’t they? I suppose we are the only people looking.

    How many of the New 52 are going strong these days?

    • Of the original 52 titles launched in August/September 2011, 36 remain.

      Since the majority of the titles are still ongoing, here is a list of the cancelled titles, 16 total:
      DC Universe Presents
      Mister Terrific
      Justice League International
      Captain Atom
      Hawk and Dove
      Static Shock
      Blue Beetle
      Legion Lost
      Grifter
      Blackhawks
      Men of War
      OMAC
      Voodoo
      I, Vampire
      Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
      Resurrection Man

    • I don’t think that’s what Jim meant. Yes, 36 titles remain. But how many of those are GOING STRONG? I say three; Batman, Wonder Woman, and Earth 2. WW and Earth 2 are the only two titles to accomplish the mission statement set forth by the relaunch, and still manage to be entertaining. Batman’s been great but the relaunch has nothing to do with that. It actually would read even better if the relaunch had never occured. I’d give honorable mentions to Aquaman and Justice League, but that’s it for me.

    • 36 may remain but how many have gone through multiple changes of direction? Like Green Arrow, Stormwatch, Supernman, Justice League Dark, Dark Knight, Firestorm, Hawkman, Grifter etc etc?

    • @Bluestreak I agree with you and meant to add a note on that as well.

      Of the launch titles, there are those that have gone through significant creative changes. By “significant” I mean complete changes in the creative team and/or new direction for the character/story. For example, I am not including titles that have had fill-in artists, unless those changes have seriously impacted the direction of the book. Justice League and Batwoman would be examples of this. Of course, this is purely based on my opinion (especially in cases of titles I am not, or have stopped, reading), and therefore subject for debate.

      Here is my list of launch titles that lost their direction, and whether they seem to have found their footing or not, after changes have been made:
      Firestorm
      Green Arrow**
      Savage Hawkman**
      Detective Comics*
      Batman: The Dark Knight*
      Catwoman
      Superman*
      Superboy
      Deathstroke**
      Stormwatch**
      Justice League Dark*
      Demon Knights**

      Titles with (*)- I believe have found their footing under the current creative teams
      Titles with (**)- Are to be determined with new teams just coming on, or due to come on in the coming months
      Titles without either of these qualifiers I believe are due for new creative teams, or cancellation altogether, in the near future.

      So, an additional 12 titles that are, or were, on shaky ground. So, I say 24 titles still going strong, and an additional 4 that are back on track.

  20. Wonder Woman, Batman Inc, Earth 2 and Action Comics are the only DC books I buy at the moment. And two of those are going away soon. :-\

  21. This isn’t exactly unprecedented in the history of DC. Green Lantern (Vol. 3) #48 was solicited as being one thing but was scrapped at the last minute. That issue (and the ones following it) were rewritten quickly and they became the Emerald Twilight storyline that found Hal Jordan going crazy and killing the entire Green Lantern Corps.

    I’m sure there are other examples. That’s the first that springs to mind.

    • True enough, but has it ever happened in such a condensed amount of time? I mean, we’re what, a year and some change after the big 52 launch, and how many creator changes have there been? I almost expect any new writer at DC these days to get a handful of issues before getting the boot.

  22. I immediately checked Paul Cornell’s blog after reading this. He has a good post on the cancellation. Basically he won’t be rushing to end the entire story. Which is great because I’ve seen that ruin the tail end of other books (Crossing Midnight for example). Also, he gets the rights back soon and plans to finish the story some day:

    http://www.paulcornell.com/2013/01/the-end-of-saucer-country.html

    • Well, that’s some good news on the Saucer Country front, here’s hoping that it actually happens. ‘Til then, I hope that Marvel finds him something more exciting than Wolverine for him to do — I’d like to have at least one Cornell title in my monthly shopping . . .

  23. I’ve always been more of a Marvel guy, but this is really distressing. DC has such a rich history and all these great characters that they just can’t hit the target with. Someone needs to roll through and do what Joe Quesada did for Marvel. Who that person is though, is beyond my scope. Geoff Johns as CCO obviously is not working. Bob Harass as EIC obvious;y isn’t either.

    It’s a shame, and it makes me sad.

  24. Hey, here is an incredibly creative idea: put Milligan on Constantine.

  25. *Sigh* Well thats just a damn shame about I, Vampire it was so good every month. Not going to lie this one hurts a little I look forward to this book every month.

    Congrads, to Christy Marx she been doing great work on Amethyst and deserves more books.

    *scratch head* I wonder what is up with Constantine I was looking forward to Venditti at least he’s still on Demon Knights. Right? Also, is that good still around right? Just checking because they keep cancelling my books. I guess I’m in the minority of people who love DC magic characters.

  26. https://twitter.com/MarkWaid/status/290926493431889921

    “On behalf of dear friends: It is UNCONSCIONABLE for publishers to fire creators through the pages of PREVIEWS. At least pick up a PHONE.” – Mark Waid.

    Ssssoooooo yeah…

  27. On a more positive note, I’m thinking of all the money I’ll be saving from the few titles I won’t be buying from DC Comics anymore.

  28. Superman Family Adventures too ๐Ÿ™ I was buying it all digitally. Perfect for fun phone reading!

    • Err or WAS perfect for that at least. :-/

    • Yeah, I was buying this to read with my son, his first comic book. I guess he gets to learn the disappointment of being a fan at age 3. Hope Art and Franco end up on something else soon, big fan of those guys.

    • Tiny Titans was better, but this was still damn good. Lots of bad news up in here.

    • It was recently touted as THE book to hand to a kid to get them into comics. *Shrug* DC must go through a lot of crutches, what with the rash of foot shootings going on over there.

    • i gave my first 6 issues of this and Green Lantern Animated to my young cousins. I did end up dropping the titles because of budget reasons, but not because of content, they were great for ALL AGES.

  29. I hate to see Jeff Lemire being stretched so thin. Shame about I,Vampire. I just really got into it.

  30. Bob Harras is jeopardising the future of DC Comics. He is discrediting the brand.

    I think 2013 will see editorial tinkering continue to reach new levels of ridiculousness. I don’t see this year being anything but “disappointing” for DC.

    Harras needs to be fired. Quickly.

    • Here’s what I’d like to know though; is it JUST Harras? Or is he being handed orders from his highest ups now that there’s a DC Entertainment?

      Either way, DC is certainly losing momentum fast. I myself have been dropping a number of titles and will likely drop more in the not to distant future.

      Oddly enough, Marvel NOW! is doing some things that have me looking closer at titles I haven’t really checked out for ages: Fantastic Four, and Hulk being foremost there.

    • I honestly doubt it’s just Harras, However, the week-on-week apparent chaos, last-minute turnabouts in direction etc, I would certainly attribute to him. He’s the E-i-C! Unfortunately.

  31. What happened DC? At the start of the New 52 i was getting 11 titles off you. Now it’s gone down to 2 and that’s Morrison and Snyder’s Batman.

  32. OK, so, yes, I am befuddled by how DC went about delivering all this news today, but, honestly, some of it makes sense. Why not have the same writing team on both Constantine’s team & solo books? Venditti still has Demon Knights, plus some unnamed future project. Meanwhile, he’s still writing for Valiant, so perhaps his plate did get too full of monthly titles? I haven’t been reading Amethyst, but have heard good things about it. Perhaps Marx truly had a better vision for the title . . ?

    And, am I the only one intrigued by the idea of Jim Starlin writing Stormwatch? I find it interesting that no one is commenting on this news. I haven’t read Stormwatch since Cornell left, but I’ll be checking it out again, once Starlin comes on board . . .

    Saucer Country’s premature ending is disappointing; after a slow start, I felt that the title has really been picking up in the second arc. Hopefully Cornell will get the chance to finish his story at another time, in another place.

    That said, I do agree with the criticism of how DC has handled all this from a HR/PR standpoint. Yes, it’s perfectly fine to field simultaneous pitches for a title — it’s less so to switch writers after making your official solicitation. And while, I have positive hopes for Venditti taking over Demon Knights, I must admit that I am worried about the future of DC’s Dark line, which was originally the strongest subset of New 52 . . .

    • I would be excited for Starlin taking over Stormwatch, but this nagging voice in my head tells me he’ll be off the book sooner rather than later, due to being taken off or having “creative differences” with editorial. Couple that with the fact DC really doesn’t seem to know what to do with those characters anyway, and I find my excitement of Starlin writing a new book definitely dampened.

    • I have to echo @nbcabaniss regarding his tempering of excitement for Starlin. For me, I think it comes down to there being good Starlin and bad Starlin. And, I am afraid most of good Starlin is over 10 years ago, and I worry about his ability to write a “modern” comic book. To me, this is more Harras bringing in old Marvel writers, which hasn’t exactly worked out so far.

    • @cosmo — I’m actually kind of disappointed that Jim Starlin is being brought on board for Stormwatch. The stuff I’ve read by him in recent years has left me… cold… for lack of a better term, and I don’t see that changing.

      Even more, I think this has been one of the key problems with The New 52 from the beginning: A reliance on using big creative names from the 70s-80s-90s to write comics in the 2010s, when the whole point of The New 52 was to REVITALIZE the characters and the DC Universe. Don’t misunderstand me, many of these creators are legends and rightfully so, but if your goal is to reinvent the DC Universe, then you can’t rely on creators steeped in nostalgia to build this new, exciting universe.

      Jurgens on Superman… again?
      Levitz and Giffen on Legion of Super-heroes… again?
      Lanning and Abnett on Resurrection Man… again?
      For that matter, Johns on Green Lantern…. still? (he’s doing a good job, and I’m still reading it, but allowing his story to continue mostly unchanged while nearly everyone else had to reboot? That’s a recipe for confusion for old and new readers alike)
      Then you also have Liefeld, Perez, Lobdell, DeFalco, a handful of others and now Starlin being used to revitalize other comics, and quite frankly, very few (if any) of these have really clicked with readers, because of the creators themselves, editorial mismanagement or a combination of both.

      Granted, some of the newer writers haven’t really struck a chord with enough readers (Fialkov on I, Vampire was an unexpected hit with me, but clearly not with enough readers), and some of the legends clearly have some truly great stories left to tell, but I think DC really lost an opportunity to reinvigorate their universe when they decided to rely so heavily on past legends to create a future comics line.

  33. Hate to see the best Superman book on the stands being cancelled. Superman Family Adventures is one of the few comics I can read with my 9 year old son. Way to go DC!!! You screwed up again!! You have been screwing up every since the crapola that is the new 52!!!!

  34. Well….okay I can’t sugarcoat this this. All of this looks really bad. At first, when books were dropping or creative teams were leaving, I thought nothing of it. It’s was 2012 and now a days I just think it happens all the time. But to drop people off a book before it even comes out AND when previews were already created….That’s just bad. I have no idea what DC is thinking here and even I have to admit this is just bad on all fronts.

    I’m still a fan of DC and I’m not boycotting them or anything. But they really need to get their act together before they turn into Marvel quality wise from last year. Cause Marvel is quickly improving after a poor showing last year.

    • Yeah, but Marvel is still overcharging and double shipping – that is enough to keep me away from almost anything they do.

      But I agree the new 52 seems to be spinning out of control. I think there are still a bunch of good books, but they have lost momentum, and seem to be losing direction. If DC is just seen as a wall of editorial interference, I don’t see how many writers and artists are going to overcome it and produce good books.

    • Yes marvel is charging 3.99 but people are using those digital codes like currency online and getting a chance to sample other books digitally. If you play your cards right a $3.99 book is basically a BOGO.

  35. I am dropping 1 or 2 DC/New 52 titles a month.

    At this rate, I’ll be down to only Batman and Batman and Robin.

    (I do have high hopes for Green Arrow based n the review of issue 17, though.)

  36. I like the idea of Jeff Lemire on Constantine & Jim Starlin on Stormwatch much better anyway….I am a little bummed about DCU Presents being cancelled, I’ve been enjoying the current Black Lightning & Blue Devil run and its kinda fun to not know what characters or story they’ll be telling next.

  37. They’re canceling my favorite Superman book!

  38. I am certainly not a DC basher, more of a DC defender, but a lot of this news is rubbing me the wrong way. Not a fan of Christy Marx, not sure about Jim Starlin, have no idea what’s going on with Constantine, will miss Superman Family Adventures a lot.

    It just seems to be a big mess at DC. ๐Ÿ™ I love DC.

  39. Once again, it all comes back to…”The Rob Was Right”.

  40. Remember before th Internet when we had no clue his kind of ting was going on!

    • Back then, I used to actually go to cons, and troll John Byrne with “Hey John, Jim Shooter seems to have a pretty good handle on things, hunh?”

      We DEFINATELY knew it was going on! ๐Ÿ™‚

  41. Saucer Country gone. Awesome. Can they just stop torturing me already and close Vertigo’s doors. It would be less painful than watching my favorite titles get picked off one by one.

  42. The only upside here in my view is Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes working on a project together, both powerful creative voices. Also glad to learn from stasisbal up there that Saucer Country won’t be forced into a rushed conclusion, since the story was clearly intended to unfold in a longer format. Too bad for Zub though who I’d love to see get more of the limelight (skullkickers and pathfinder have both been awesome!).

  43. What happened to the Gail Simone tweet that sheโ€™d be writing her favorite โ€œladiesโ€ again? I thought that referred to BoP, which would be freakin sweet.

    DC seems to be in some disarray. They need to get their shit, and their PR machine, together.

  44. Nick Spencer chimes in now:
    http://imgur.com/14Qu9

    • Nice catch. I had forgotten that Nick Spenser also got treated poorly by DC, too. There’s another young author who will likely never work for them again. It is a shame.

      I think an argument can now be clearly made that DC is accelerating the movement of creators to Image.

  45. Superman Family Adventures is not a massive loss for me as Im to young to have children who could read it and to old to read it myself. Saucer Country sounds interesting and ill have to pick it up in trade. While i didn’t buy I Vampire i found the opening arc to be one of the best out of the new 52. Im slightly disappointed to see it go and will pick it up in trade.
    DC Universe presents was to me one of the best things to come out of the new 52, at least in theory. The artwork is great and its nice to have both a comic you can pop in and out of every few months, and one that gives the spotlight to more obscure characters and happenings. Shame they took the obscure part a bit to far. while I’ve enjoyed the stories in varied degrees the lineup of characters they chose from story to story was never going to pull in the readers they where looking for. On the bright side the last few issues look good.

  46. Jim Starlin on Stormwatch is a match made in heaven.

    As a writer who can do cosmic (‘Cosmic Odyssey’) as well as dark (‘Death in the family’, ‘The Cult’), he’ll actually have access to a book that, at its best, allows for both.

    Plus, in my eyes, he’s funnybook royalty and always worth a read.

    I loved Paul Cornell’s SW run because it was cheeky, cinematic and clever, but I really didn’t like Milligan’s lukewarm take on the team at all. I felt that, on Milligan’s watch, the series floundered and became ‘just’ another superhero book starring characters that failed to interest me or hold my attention. In my opinion, Stormwatch worked at first because it was something ‘other’ in the DCU, as in “super-heroes are amateurs, we are the professionals” (from somewhere in issue 1). It could go to places where the more conventional books couldn’t.

    Anyway, Jim Starlin is the perfect writer for the book, if I could have hand-picked a writer to take over, it would have been him. Honestly.

    I will be subscribing again come April.