MICHAEL DAVIS WORLD

You can't make this stuff up, so we don't!

Not Shocked, By Danny Donovan – Mad Science – #2

January 19, 2012 Danny Donovan 7 Comments

I want to take a minute to say I have officially end my campaign for the 2012 presidency…

There, now maybe I’ll make it on the front page of Huffington Post. Also it seems like the thing to do with people dropping out o the race, faster than Newt Gingrich can get married…

There will be more of that next week after the conclusion of the South Carolina debates. I have a LOT to say about this year’s political crop…

But onto more important things:

COMICS!

Well it looks like DC decided to cancel Static Shock, who’s last issue will be #8. I have a strong affinity for the Milestone characters, in fact it was through them I connected with MOTU himself, Michael Davis.

(I still have my Icon and Rocket poster he sent me!)

Also, one of the biggest influences in my career, Static’s creator, the late Dwayne McDuffie. Over the course of time I have gone to Dwayne and asked him 100 different questions ranging from what do you do when you fall out of favor with a big publisher, to how to be a better story teller.

When he was the story editor of the Justice League show on cartoon network, he even invited me to send in a spec script, to which I got about 2 minutes in and allowed fear to not follow through with it.

( I was a kid in my early 20’s who was achieving things so quickly, I got scared of the other shoe dropping, and then fulfilled my own prophecy)

I will always regret not sending that script in. It probably wouldn’t go to air, as I was set on using the Jack Knight Starman as a guest star, and DC doesn’t 100% own Jack Knight. But it could have opened a door to something else, but what’s past is past, and I have learned my lesson about allowing fear to rule my life

In full disclosure, when John Rozum left the book, I did e-mail Static editor Harvey Richards about possibly submitting work for an inventory story or fill-in while they searched for the new ongoing writer.

(If I did a good job it could have been me! #wishful thinking)

Of course I didn’t get a response back, nor did I truly expect one. I have been out of the game for quite some time, so to walk in and pick up a choice assignment would be a bit like making snow cones in Hades, not impossible, but very difficult.

But that is really beyond the point.

DC dropped the ball with Static in one key element. They thought of him as a “B” character, ala an Animal Man or something. This isn’t the case. Static, or the more recognized franchise “Static Shock” was a very popular cartoon that ran for 4 seasons, consistently winning decent ratings both in new and repeat airings and most likely would still be on the air now if WB still had a Saturday morning line up.

(That’s a rant for another time however)

I remember some months before the relaunch, I was in a Barnes & Noble looking through the graphic novels and over heard a black teenage girl asking her mom if she saw any Static books. I felt bad, because I knew outside of the re-release of the first trade there weren’t any out there.

I interjected kindly and told them Static was in the Teen Titans at the time and told them he would be getting his own series soon, and gave them directions to a very nice comic shop about 8 blocks from the mall we were in. They thanked me and I was on my way.

But it made me think of all those potential readers who know, and better yet IDENTIFY with Static that could be new readers. Now Rozum did a great job with the dialogue but the major problem was the execution.

There is a double edge sword in starting a new series and acting like the series had always been running. You start hitting the ground running, yes, but the other side of that is that people come in and go “what did I miss?” start looking around for other trades only to find they don’t exist.

After the end of Milestone imprint in the late 90s, outside of a few Static mini series set to capitalize on the cartoon’s resurgence of popularity of the character, the two volume mini series helping to integrate Milestone with the DCU, and Hardware’s appearance in an issue of Brave and the Bold alongside Blue Beetle….

(DC’s way of saying “We’re diverse! We have a black guy teaming up with a Mexican kid!”)

Milestone has been something of an afterthought.

I mean yes, there was the period when Dwayne was writing the JLA and had the Justice League and Icon, Rocket, & The Shadow Cabinet team up, but I know that didn’t go the way it was SUPPOSED to, as Icon was supposed to replace Superman on the JLA while Supes was busy doing something else (also in the event DC lost the rights to Superman during their battle with the Shuster estate)

And the Xombie book ran for 9 issues.

(with a Brave and the Bold issue as well)

So what’s the solution?

What would I suggest as an answer?

Glad you asked me, I was wondering when you’d get around to it.

First, give Static a different threshold to perform in, Static’s general audience is not really the one that knows that comics come out on Wednesday and know exactly where the local comic shop is. They’re the audience that have seen it on Kids WB! and then later on Cartoon Network and know they sell comics, manga, and TPBs at the Barnes & Noble in the mall.

Marketing wise, they should have done it similarly to how Marvel did their Tsunami line, (while learning from Tsunami’s major mistakes) there were the individual issues (ie: Runaways) but the story arcs were rather quickly collected and published as manga/Archie style digests and sent out to bookstores across the country.

Hell, get together with schoolastic and offer them as part of those things you can buy at s part of your reading assignments. I remember when I was in sixth grade and you could pick like 3 books from the catalogue, one of the things was a years subscription to Amazing Spider-man at a reduced rate.

But that just gets you half way. Story wise, why start him out in a new city with some weird plotline about a cloned sister? Not to mention that isn’t even the MAIN plot. It was a subplot. As I said, out of the gate they threw too much out there. Static has Hardware as his go to tech guy, the “Sharon clone thing”, the new city, the new villains, where he stands within the context of the new universe…

Do any of those stories where he was a member of the Teen Titans count?

Probably not.

What happened to Dakota? Why’d he Leave? WHY THE HELL DOES HIS SISTER HAVE A CLONE?

DC dropped the ball on what could be a shining example of using this new universe to create a great teen franchise. And with the new DC Nation block on Cartoon Network it would be a great way of getting a new Static Shock show on the air.

It seems like there is something missing in this new universe… DC had the balls to relaunch everything start anew, and not only that but give Animal Man a book. ANIMAL MAN! Not only that Mr. Buddy Baker is a critical darling and doing gangbusters!

Recently I was talking to other folks, who have a hard time understanding how a character can have a popular cartoon series and not have a popular comic book. Well it’s simple.

They are two different audiences.

On TV you have a diverse audience of hundreds of millions of potential viewers, in comics you have a majority demographic of about 25-55 white males. That demo makes up about 75% of the comic buying audience (conservative estimate) – and your threshold to keep a book running is keep it somewhere over 20K in sales.

Well, that’s easier said than done when you look at what’s competing for your dollar, things that overall speak to that core 75% audience better than a minority hero that had a cartoon that ended in 2004.

You need to go outside the market and bring in fresh readers. This is what they did to get JLA to do nearly one million sold. Could they have done similar for Static? Maybe, but your budget is only so big and if you want YOUR characters to be the one on top.

Now, if I am wrong I am sure Michael will correct me. But when I spoke to Dwayne about the Milestone deal, it seems as if it’s more than licensing and less than full partnership but the bottom line DC doesn’t “own” Static.

Which by and large is one reason why they didn’t try harder or give it longer than the first arc to prove itself. Not only did it fall short of the publisher’s goals but it also cost them more money than say, Swamp Thing, because DC owns Swamp Thing.

There is a definite missed opportunity here, a stronger focus and attempt to get the animated audience would have helped shape what I could see as a very popular franchise. Static could have been like DC’s “Spider-man” a flagship character that connects with the average person.

Which goes to the point of the right concept for the right character. I hope DC decides to give Milestone Characters another chance, hell maybe Scott Lobdell can get Static over in the Titans now, and if Dan Didio wants anyone to do a Shadow Cabinet book, you have my address…

Previous Post

Next Post

Comments

  1. Larry White
    January 20, 2012 - 12:40 am

    Excellent article Mr. Donovan! Well done!

  2. Danny Donovan
    January 20, 2012 - 12:54 am

    Thanks Larry! I appreciate it! Glad people are enjoying the columns so far!

  3. J.R. LeMar
    January 20, 2012 - 9:14 am

    A very good article, Danny D. I agree with you 100% (especially the part about how stupid you were not to finish that JLA spec script ^_^). Static definitely had the best potential of all DC Superheroes of Color (I’d say Batwing is only surviving due to the hardcore Batman fans who want to collect everything), and should have treated like an A-list character, with a huge push.

    But, of course, I’m not in the least bit surprised that this is how it turned out.

  4. Danny Donovan
    January 20, 2012 - 9:45 am

    Thanks J.R. You know, I was ready to jump on the Batwing hate wagon when it was announced because I was like “wtf? how is this a launch book, I don’t know this cat.” But I read it and I really do like it.

    I think it fills a void that’s missing. What heroes in less blessed (for lack of better word) parts of the world do in the face of atrocities. And opening the subject of the child soldiers that are such a part of the African reality. I am shocked how interesting this character can be if given the time to develop and not try to be to squished into the batman mythos. I was not thrilled with the Batman Inc. concept but some of the characters that can spin out of that are interesting.

    It’s not like Mark Millar’s Ultimate Captain program, where alongside established Captains America and Britain, you had Captain Mexico, Captain Ireland, Captain Ukraine, etc

    But Batwing isn’t the only surviving character of color, IF you count all non white characters. Jaime Reyes is still ticking along in Blue Beetle (unless he was recently announced as cancelled) and one half of Firestorm is black, so is Bugg from Teen Titans, Voodoo is black as well, (or Creole to be specific) you have Diablo who’s Hispanic over in Suicide Squad, members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I think Aqualad is still the Young Justice version, but I don’t think he’s made an appearance yet.

  5. John Rozum
    January 20, 2012 - 10:15 am

    I went into Static Shock with a lot of high hopes. Among them was showing that Static wasn’t simply an A-list character, but one of the most powerful in the DCnU. I really wanted this series to be fun and exciting and to bring the same degree of creativity to it that I put into Xombi balanced with making Virgil’s personal life at least as engaging as his superhero life. I also saw Static Shock as an excellent gateway through which to pull the rest of the Milestone characters into the DCnU.

    I quickly learned that none of these plans were going to see fruition. I wound up being shunted to the sidelines as the writer while Scott McDaniel’s “high concept” criminal syndicate made up of Power Rangers and a big monosyllabic thug took center stage and Harvey’s ideas of the 2 Sharon’s and slicing off Static’s arm were implemented as desperate means of trying to draw attention to the book.

    I tried my best to keep it from being a total turd, but as I said, I was completely sidelined. My main contributions were the Pale Man character, Guillotina, naming the school after Dwayne McDuffie, and including Hardware, along with random lines of dialogue. I decided it was unethical to stick with a title that a) I thought was garbage b) that people were buying because of my involvement, due to Xombi, when really I had nothing to do with it c) because I wasn’t being utilized on the title.

    Frankly, Static deserved a lot better.

  6. Russ Maheras
    January 20, 2012 - 10:17 am

    I think the real problem is economics, accessability and bad timing.

    By the time comics truly started emphasizing diversity, the newsstand market had shriveled up to nothing. And since there just aren’t that many comic book stores in mostly minority neighborhoods, while the product may have been more diverse, it just wasn’t readily available to a diverse audience. Economics-wise, minority customers tend to come from lower economic background, and since comics have increased in price at a level four times the rate of inflation during the past 40 years, just as publishers were reaching out to more diverse audiences, they were inadvertantly pricing them out of their customer base.

    In short, what appear to have been sincere diversity efforts were doomed by a perfect storm of higher prices and less accessability.

    TV, on the other hand, was, and still is free (or can be), and it was, and still is, accessable to everyone.

    Not so with comics.

    Even though, by accident of birth, I happen to be a white guy, I grew up in a low-income environment. And there’s no doubt in my mind if I were growing up in my old west side Chicago neighborhood today, the odds of me stumbling across comic books and developing a passion for them would be virtually nil. I doubt there’s a comic book store within five miles of my old neighborhood — which, to a young kid growing up in the city, may as well be the same distance as it is to the moon.

  7. Danny Donovan
    January 20, 2012 - 10:50 am

    John thank you for your comments and clearing things up. I really respect you as a creator, and knew you had problems on the title but didn’t know the extent of it. I knew you had the ability to be better, but didn’t know if you had been promised a longer run and able to ‘world build’ in that very cluttered way or what.

    I think DC Did a disservice to the character in that regard, as I said, throwing too much in a launch is not the best way to win over an audience. I don’t think anyone was ever able to truly get to know who Virgil Hawkings was, outside of his Static persona. That is truly where he lives. He’s not Batman person who lives his costume, he’s a kid trying to make it in the world and sometimes puts on a costume and uses his extremely awesome powers to do good things.

    I hope we see more Milestone characters coming out of the woodwork soon. I think there is a capacity for strong franchises there.

    Russ, very good points! However, with the digital revolution I think we can overcome the economics of it. Most kids have access to a computer/game system/smart phone/iPod. Because those are the status symbols of our time. If there was a comic reading app for XBOX, Wii, or PS3 the same way you can stream Netflix on those things you could very well see yourself broadening your audience.

    I was fortunate to be coming up in the late 80s early 90s so comics were still available at my local grocery store, and drug store. Priced affordable enough at the $1.50 mark.

    We do see a high interest in comics/graphic novels from what is observed at book stores, libraries, etc. I have done a number of speaking engagements at my local library about comics and comic creation and you’d be amazed how many kids turn out. We DO have a market there, its just reaching those kids that don’t see an analog to their lives within the pages, and when they do have no access/funds to purchase them.

  8. J.R. LeMar
    January 20, 2012 - 11:20 am

    For the record, I don’t have any “hate” for Batwing. I’m simply stating that out of the three DC titles that featuring Black male leads, I’m not surprised that it is the one still standing, due to its connection to the Batman titles. That gives it a “hook” that Static and Mr. Terrific didn’t have. While Voodoo has T&A as its hook.

    And as for surviving non-White characters, I’m specifically speaking of the one’s with solo titles. A few tokens here and there on their various teams don’t impress me, they’ve always had that. I don’t count Firestorm because, as you point out, he’s “half-Black” now, after DC caved into the old White fanboys who demanded Ronnie Raymond back, which was shameful enough.

    As usual, Geoff Thorne sums it up way better than I could:

    http://redjacket.blogspot.com/2011/09/everything-old-is-new-again.html

  9. Dwight Williams
    January 20, 2012 - 11:50 am

    *grimaces in sympathetic pain*

  10. Danny Donovan
    January 20, 2012 - 11:53 am

    I didn’t mean to imply you were hating on Batwing, I was merely stating I was of that mindset to not give it much of a chance thinking it was more of gimmick than anything with teeth, but I read it as I read any of the other #1s to see what surprises this universe had in store for me, and found it to be.

    Blue Beetle is still a solo character of color. As for Firestorm, the fact is he’s always been a unification of two people. The “black firestorm” also melded with his white girlfriend, and the white hero Flamebird in the past to make the firestorm matrix work.

    Ronnie needed Dr. Stein to work, so this firestorm needs his ‘other’ as well. However, there is a unique aspect of this as now there are two firestorms that exist outside of each other instead of being two consciousnesses in one body.

    The book itself has its scientific faults, but it does try to spotlight both Firestorms equally.

  11. Russ Maheras
    January 20, 2012 - 11:59 am

    Danny — I agree that low-cost/free online availability of comics like Static may someday be the “new TV” for those who just don’t have the means to lay down $4 for each and every comic book.

    Here’s hopin’…

  12. J.R. LeMar
    January 20, 2012 - 12:05 pm

    The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. I’m a Black male with over 30 years of comic-book buying under his belt. For me to continue buying DC comics, including their latest public push of “diversity”, expecting that this time they’re taking it seriously this time, and that the books will be being given solid promotion and support from The Powers That Be, would be , in my opinion, insane. I’ve seen it before, and I’ve seen exactly how it turns out every. Single. Time. And no matter how you slice it, the re-integration of Ronnie Raymond was a demotion for Jason Rusch. I bought the last Firestorm series, beginning with #15 until the end. Stuart Moore and Jason Igle were doing a great job (as did Dwayne McDuffie, on the final 3 issues), with Jason IN CHARGE of Firestorm, no matter who he integrated with. But the fanboys couldn’t have that, so now we get Ronnie back. This is just the latest step backwards and, even with that, I predict that Firestorm will be canceled soon enough, as well, along with Voodoo and Blue Beetle. And DC will say “hey, we tried.”
    Frak ‘em.

  13. Danny Donovan
    January 20, 2012 - 12:24 pm

    You should always vote with your wallet. I am 100% in agreement with that. It was Jamal Igle that drew the last Firestorm book.

    I don’t think the reintegration of Ronnie Raymond is anymore racial than any other return to the original. Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, etc etc. Fact is the original version of the hero is always going to eventually return. Sometimes sooner than others, Kyle Rayner got at least 10 years as GL before Hal booted him back out.

    I think the biggest problem is the idea of publishing for diversity’s sake. If we have proper stories that engage the audience instead of just trying to punch a card, “We got a white guy, a black guy, a hispanic, a gay guy.. wait, we need an asian!”

    John showed us what happened with his experience with a company trying to mold something instead of letting the stories sell the character. I feel something similar in the way of that new Spider-man. To me, Miles Morales won’t be Spider-man, Peter Parker is Spider-man! And its not a racial thing, as I said the same thing during the Ben Reilly thing.

    Whenever you replace a character with an established fan base (no matter how big or small) unless its iconic and earth shattering, the base will always want “their guy” back. However, if you have a person who is an original character you have the ability to try it out, let it live or die on its own merits not tied to someone else’s history, and should it not work out the potential to relaunch in a more suitable economic climate.

  14. Russ Maheras
    January 20, 2012 - 12:29 pm

    One more note about comic book distribution. Even during the late 1960s, when comic book newsstand distribution was in its pre-Direct Market heyday, there were only about three places in my regular neighborhood stomping grounds (about two or three square miles in size) where I could buy comics. And believe it or not, all three places carried a different mix of titles. I finally settled on making my regular purchases at a drug store about six blocks away from my house — at the far end of one of my two paper routes.

  15. J.R. LeMar
    January 20, 2012 - 1:14 pm

    *It was Jamal Igle that drew the last Firestorm book.*

    Typo, obviously.

    *I don’t think the reintegration of Ronnie Raymond is anymore racial than any other return to the original.*

    Clearly, you stayed away from the DC forums during the duration of Moore/Igle’s run. “Thugstorm”

    *Fact is the original version of the hero is always going to eventually return.*

    All the more reason to give up on the tired old mainstream publishers.

    *I think the biggest problem is the idea of publishing for diversity’s sake.*

    Except the only way it will really happen is if it’s forced on them. How long have DC been in existence? 70+ years? How much longer are we supposed to wait for it to happen “naturally”? Fact is, it will never happen until they’re forced to do it.

    * If we have proper stories that engage the audience instead of just trying to punch a card, “We got a white guy, a black guy, a hispanic, a gay guy.. wait, we need an asian!”*

    I’m sorry, but that’s the cop-out the old fanboys always use. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. You can create and push non-White characters AND make them interesting. Why do you think John Stewart and Hawkwoman were added to the line-up of the JL cartoon? For diversity’s sake. And…what a surprise, it worked! Because you had talented writers who didn’t write Stewart as “the Black guy” or Hawkwoman as “the extra female in the group” And it got millions of viewers. Gee, you’d think the comic-book side of DC would have learned something from that.
    It reminds me of when Tom Breevort rejected the premise of a Black Avengers team. He, and tons of internet fanboys, kept saying “I wouldn’t want a team that’s only together just because they’re Black.” To which I ask, why is that so different from a team being together just because they’re all mutants? Or just because they’re all teen sidekicks? I can easily come up with a reason for a bunch of Black superheroes (or Hispanic superheroes, or GLBT superheroes, etc.) deciding to team up, like a super civil rights activist group. Fighting against discrimination, and to provide positive images, just like the X-Men do for Mutants. And then you make them each interesting compelling characters, and tell good stories. It’s not that hard. Heck, you mentioned Shadow Cabinet, from Milestone. That, along with Blood Syndicate and Heroes were all multi-ethnic teams. And I loved all of them.

    *To me, Miles Morales won’t be Spider-man, Peter Parker is Spider-man!*

    And Miles Morales still isn’t Spider-Man. He’s Ultimate Spider-Man. And to me this sort of thing is long overdue. I think, for all its changes, the Ultimate Universe was too conservative, they should have changed things more from the beginning. Miles Morales, or a character like him, should’ve been the original Ultimate Spidey. Like Ultimate Nick Fury was always Black, and Ultimate Wasp was always Asian. Remember, Bob Harras originally wanted Ultimate Captain America to be Black, but back off on the idea, due to pressure from “fans..” That’s why, as much as I trash DC, Marvel only gets a slightly better pass from me. @ least when they do try, they seem to really want to do it, even if they fail most of the time. But, seriously, now that 616 Peter Parker is back to being young and single, it makes sense to do something radically different with the Ultimate version. I don’t read it, because I’m not a fan of Bendis’ writing, but I’m glad he’s making the effort, and seems committed to making it work.

    *However, if you have a person who is an original character you have the ability to try it out, let it live or die on its own merits not tied to someone else’s history…*

    You just described STATIC. And we see how that’s working out.

    Anyway, it was a good article, but I need to drop out of this now, it’s started to feel like every other message board thread I’ve seen about race. All that’s missing is for some White guy to show up and accuse me of being the “real racist” for even thinking about race. Ho hum.

  16. Danny Donovan
    January 20, 2012 - 2:12 pm

    Obviously it was a typo, but Jamal’s a friend and since I am getting a lot of looks here, I wanted to make sure if anyone DID want to look up his run on Firestorm and read the original version of the Jason Roush character (I always forget his name honestly)

    I do tend to stay away from message boards because while I love and encourage debate, I don’t like ad homonym attacks, which is basically all message boards are.

    I am still wary of the Ultimate Spider-man thing because honestly the other version of Ultimate Spider-man was the closest thing I got to a well written Peter Parker. Even now, there is very little of the Peter I remember from my youth…

    But the comment about Stewart and Hawkwoman in the JL cartoon also proves my point. You had a writer who knew what to do with them and utilized them as characters first, and not tokens. Too many times tokenism ruins good concepts.

    I think we are arguing the same point to an effect. I support your effort to vote with your wallet as I said, but just keep in mind there are a lot of good creators that get hurt that way too. I say support BOOKS, not companies.

    Also we did have an all black super-team (mostly) It was called Blood Syndicate. :p And yes, I know I described Static, and that’s my point. If Milestone published books without needing/using DC, perhaps you’d see Static still flying high, but all it really takes is one voice to change a narrative.

    To quote/paraphrase our President, we need to be the change we are calling for. No one will do it for us until we prove it works.

  17. Illustrated Woman
    January 20, 2012 - 6:28 pm

    DC just needs to hire editors that love what they’re working on and want to be there as editors and aren’t looking to break into writing themselves. With all the Liefeld and Lee-involved titles, though, I doubt quality will be going up anytime soon. It’s very disappointing since failure in the new 52 most likely means the character will at least be partially shelved in the near future for some time.

    P.S. Don’t throw Animal Man under the bus. He’s pretty amazing and has always deserved a new title. If anything, you should be annoyed at the fact there are approximately one billion (this is a guesstimate) Batfamily titles.

  18. Danny Donovan
    January 20, 2012 - 6:34 pm

    Hey Illustrated Woman, don’t get me wrong I didn’t throw Animal Man under the bus, what I did was use him as a way to take a character that resided in basic obscurity (outside of the Grant Morrison Vertigo series that most people missed out on, and the wider readership probably wasn’t aware of) AM and Swamp Thing (another example I used) are my favorite titles!

    My reasoning for spotlighting those two characters is to show what you can do with a hands off approach and let creators have the room to create, let the story bring in the audience. I always loved Buddy Baker!

    I don’t know if it’ll be shelved for too long, at some point they will need the Milestone guys, like they needed them in the 90s to offer diversity when their viewership is at the highest.

    (I am available for weddings, bat mitzvahs and series assignments!)

  19. Reg
    January 20, 2012 - 8:16 pm

    HOW COOL IS MDWP???!! Cool enuff to have JOHN ROZUM droppin’ science in the HAAAUWWSSE!!

    Can Cowan, Priest, Wayne be far behind?!

    Be still my heart!

    Now that I got my nerdgasm out and can express the following with a modicum of dignity…

    Mad Respect, Mr. Rozum. To you and the rest of the criminally unsung pioneers. To each and every participant in the Milestone Truth. Real talk.

  20. JosephW
    January 21, 2012 - 2:45 am

    Minor nitpick here, but in “I don’t like ad homonym attacks,” it should be “ad HOMINEM attacks.” (Sometimes, spellcheck is not your friend while a good dictionary will always have your back.)

  21. Danny Donovan
    January 21, 2012 - 3:31 am

    You are right Joseph! I spel guud. Sorry, I was multi tasking. Sort of responding to e-mail’s/working on a script/planning a busy week.

    Somethings slip through. Glad you were there to catch that!

  22. Cwena
    January 21, 2012 - 2:33 pm

    This article encompasses my feelings entirely! Static is absolutely one of my favourite characters and I am really gutted to see his title being cancelled, but for any new readers (apparently what the whole DCnU was about!) the story was just too confusing and had too many loose ends to really start the story with a bang.

    I may be biased, but I adored the cartoon when I was younger, and Static has always been one of my favourite characters, but getting into comics recently, there’s always been such a glaring lack of him. I was so happy to see him getting his own series and it sucks so bad that it was so miss handled and has to end like this. I also agree that for a company screaming about how diverse they are, DC has just failed entirely to live up to that promise.

  23. Danny Donovan
    January 21, 2012 - 2:53 pm

    Thanks Cwena, I still have to defend DC a bit here, for the most part I do like the new 52, and the JLA will be gaining Cyborg and Mr. Terrific as members soon. Firestorm is half black, so is Voodoo, Batwing is actually African.

    Not to mention Blue Beetle is Hispanic. So there is diversity there, but the main point is the poor story choices of this launch book. When launching a whole new world that’s supposed to bring in outside viewers, you want to start with your strongest case on why this character deserves your dollars, I don’t think DC did this with Static.

    I am hoping they’ll give it another bite of the apple soon, but probably not for another year or so sadly.

  24. MOTU
    January 21, 2012 - 3:41 pm

    I did not like the book and when I read that John was off the book I stop reading it all together. I had a feeling that it was not John directing the book but thought it would be bad form to mouth my negative concerns. Some people seem to attach added value to creators who come out and talk shit about how their creations are being handled.

    I’ve never done that in the almost 20 years that Milestone has been around and starting now would be the dictionary definition of hypocrisy.

    hypocrisy |hi?päkris?|
    noun
    The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform; pretense.

    Also see; Newt Gingrich aka lying motherfucker.

    I mentioned in a post on Comicmix that there are some who think that DC cancelled the book because Static was black but somehow fail to acknowledge that DC published the book in the first place.

    I love people who don’t let little things like the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

    I’ve been a big fan of the new DC 52 but have recently changed my mind. Below is the reason why. I mention Static briefly for anyone interested.

    http://www.comicmix.com/columns/2012/01/17/michael-davis-shock-to-my-system/

  25. Danny Donovan
    January 21, 2012 - 3:46 pm

    Well said Michael!

  26. Geoff Thorne
    January 21, 2012 - 10:02 pm

    Please show me an instance where “tokenism” in comics “ruined a good concept.” And I’d like a clean definition of tokenism along with that.

    I’m with Mr. LeMar on this one.

    One of the worst business decisions DC ever made was NOT using the most well-known Green Lantern, John Stewart as their standard-bearer in the comics. That single decision led to the fiasco that was the GREEN LANTERN film. And, for the record, the ORIGINAL Green Lantern is Alan Scott so, if originals “always” come back to take the mantle from the newbies, why is Hal the go-to guy?

    Another stupid decision was bowing to the racists in their audience (and perhaps on their editorial staff) who “demanded” the return of the white Firestorm even before the first issue of the black version hit the stands. Returning Ronnie Raymond not only makes no logical sense, it requires several ethical and dramatic bends that stretch credibility beyond suspending our disbelief about the existence of super powers.

    Within a few months, Jason will be gone and Ronnie will be the only Firestorm on the block. Bet on it. Why? Because we must have the original and no other will do? Who says so? A dwindling audience of man children who won’t move out of their mom’s basements? Who needs ’em?

    The job of an entertainment company is to put as many asses in the seats as possible, not to cater to the fanboy nostalgia of those who discovered the medium in the mid-1970s. Nostalgia is death.

    DC comics was, is and likely will continue to be the Republican Party of the so-called “mainstream” comics world. That’s fine but thy should own it instead of pretending.

    Apologizing for DC’s obvious and long-standing failings in the area of diversity may be a good way to keep certain folks smiling but it flies in the face of their track record which is well-documented.

    The reason DC wants Static is purely financial. The thing made a lot of money and fans DESPITE them and they thought they could cash in. They also thought they knew better how to float the character which is obviously what led to the editorial interference (the same brand of interference, btw, that got Dwayne McDuffie let go from JL even though Dan Didio is on record saying he would be on the book until “he wanted to go.”).

    The Black Thing is just one facet of the larger issue which is the permanent low status status of any character that isn’t a straight white male at DC. They will interfere with otherwise sound project not to make them better but to make them more palatable to their core audience which is, apparently, chock full of racists and sexists. Nice.

    Contrasted with Marvel (not a true winner on this front either but, by comparison, a Benetton ad) whose current spate of mainstream characters is heavily “tokenized” and yet continues to SPANK DC 9 out of ten times in the marketplace. Coincidence? nope. Marvel is tapped into pop culture, actual pop culture which includes a LOT more than straight white men. DC is tapped into its navel. It’s a death spiral which why all this :stunt publishing” is going on.

    The “new” 52 isn’t. It’s the retread 52. The retro.

    Yes, diversity for diversity’s sake. Absolutely, Hell to the yes.And for the sake of commerce and competition as well. And, while they’re diversifying the characters, they can diversify their writing stable to include something other than cronies and fanboy heroes.

    A true meritocracy would solve 90% of what’s wrong AND increase their marketshare.

    Voodoo won’t be around next year (and, frankly, that’s a blessing). Bat-Wing won’t either. and they will say it’s because “black books don’t sell” rather than “because even a great artist can’t save a poorly written book and about a crap character.”

    Then where will the apologists stand?

    Put down the crack pipe.

  27. Danny Donovan
    January 21, 2012 - 10:31 pm

    First off, while Alan Scott may be the first character to be called Green Lantern he is not a member of the Green Lantern Corps and his powers are magical based, not science based and he is not a corpsman.

    His DAUGHTER counts, she was inducted into the Lantern Corps but still, Alan was only tangentially connected to the lanterns, remember he found the lantern, the ring didn’t choose him. One day I’ll get around to pitching the story of how that connects with this world.

    Second off, Alan doesn’t exist on this earth, but most likely Earth 2, with the rest of the JSA as the heroes of the new 52 have only been around for about 10 years and there were no mystery men in WWII.

    Thirdly, in the last few months DC beat Marvel in marketshare and saying they “kicked their ass” is a lot like bragging over being the worlds tallest midget. What does it matter if someone sold 100,000 copies or 995,000 copies. Does that really make a company feel good when they used to sell in the millions?

    (Remember, X-MEN #1 (1992) made it to the Guinness book of records for number of copies sold)

    The book itself sucked. John said so, Michael said so, its not because Static was black it was because the book was no good and didn’t perform for a number of the reasons I point out above.

    Voodoo, will more likely be around for awhile for the very reason they are changing teams every six seconds and the same reason Witchblade is still published. Black, white, red, purple, tits are tits.

    Also, it’ll be easier to sell the character to Syfy along with Booster Gold, and she’s a creation of one of the co-publishers. You want to know why Hal is the go to guy? Geoff Johns is Chief Creative Officer, and he made his bread and butter on Hal.

    Taking out of the running that Hal is not the current GL, Sinestro is. However do you know who is still an earthbound GL? John Stewart.

    There is no conspiracy as to why Hal was the pick for the movie, as I said DC Comics has nothing to do with that. Warner Bros. is. And Warner Bros already had a commitment from Ryan Reynolds who was a Hollywood IT boy of the moment, and they needed a new franchise to replace Harry Potter that they own and don’t have to give a share to some British chick who cribbed her ideas from Neil Gaiman’s books of magic.

    I am not an apologist, it’s just the cancellation of one book does not a conspiracy make. It makes a BAD move by a company that needed to make more money off a character than they would someone they owned but that’s it.

    Here’s the thing, in one of my indie gigs, I was able to secure bookstore/newsstand distribution for one of my clients. Did a little too good of a job and they had to cease publication because they oversold their print run and couldn’t keep up on demand, but its possible with a little leg work and sacrificing the quick dime in favor of the slow nickle you can actually get the product in the hands of the masses.

  28. Geoff Thorne
    January 22, 2012 - 12:16 am

    Of course you are an apologist. Your entire article and subsequent responses simply parrot the same crap DC Editorial has spewed, off and on, about once a decade for the last three or four decades. before that, they didn’t bother because who gives a damn about what a bunch of brown folks and chicks think about anything?

    Your initial assertion, that it was a fait accompli that Hal would eventually come back is nonsense. A decade-long “gap” is not a hiatus. it’s a new direction.

    The other assertion that the “original” always eventually replaces the copy is, as I said, demonstrably false. I gave you one example but you can choose from a random assortment.

    You did not explain the return of Ray Palmer over Ryan Choi. you do not explain the “need” for Ronnie Raymond to return to the role of Firestorm.

    And let’s look at Mr. John Stewart’s career in comics, shall we?

    Stereotypical “angry black man” when introduced (1970s). Screw-up, “arrogant” planet killer (1980s). Screw-up b-teamer (1990s). There was, for a brief time, an attempt by Gerard Jones and Cully Hamner to rehabilitate the character with MOSAIC but it was cancelled from above.

    Not for lack of sales, mind you, but because someone “upstairs” didn’t like it.

    “(A)s I was told at the time, it didn’t fit with DC editorial vision (whatever that means). Sales didn’t matter, fan support didn’t matter; the first issue sold about 210,000 copies and my last issue sold about 70,000, so there was plenty of support for the book. It was marked for cancellation when issue #5 came out, and they allowed Gerry Jones a year to wrap it up, but there was no doubt that it was being cancelled because somebody upstairs just didn’t care for it. ” – Cully Hamner, penciller, Green Lantern: Mosaic.

    Contrast that with the treatment Warner Animation gave the character, an inclusion that was railed against as tokenism by DC’s so-called mainstream fans. Ditto the inclusion of Hawkgirl for similar reasons.

    This is an example of the bosses realizing they needed some diversity and IMPOSING that diversity on the creators in order to increase market share. Said creators make those tokens superior to their comic book counterparts, creating an audience that dwarfs anything any comic book could hope to achieve.

    Rather than take that success and spin it back into the comics, perhaps due to Mr. Johns love of Hal jordan or perhaps because they were, as a unit, simply too short-sighted to understand cross promotion and increasing market share, DC never tried to synch its print universe with the animated version. Instead, they returned Hal to the big chair and bent the animation and films to match.

    Was it a mistake? The Box office says, “Yes.”

    Which, as I said, is monumentally stupid. Since we know none of these people are stupid, we have to look for reasons other than stupidity for them make such idiotic choices.

    It’s a short list.

    It’s easy to parrot the party line if you’re not willing to look at the actual history and the actual facts.

    DC has a pattern in this arena and it’s not a good one.

  29. Danny Donovan
    January 22, 2012 - 12:45 am

    Except for the fact Stewart was the GL in JLA for many years and over various incarnations. Outside of lead up to the recent relaunch, Hal hasn’t been a member of the JLA in good standing for over a decade.

    Stewart was GL in the mainline books for a good chunk of the time Kyle as Ion.. But never let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy.

    Do some people prefer some incarnations to others? Yes, kind of the perks of sitting in the big chair. Again, DC, & Warner are run separately.

    The movie GL failed, (barely failed) not because the guy was Ryan Reynolds but because the movie did little to build the lantern world. It was made to be a trilogy, and as such was 2hrs of set up. I personally liked it. Never been much of a Hal fan, I was always of the Kyle camp. But I enjoyed it for what it was.

    Could you say the same thing about the Halle Berry Catwoman movie? Did that fail because the audience wasn’t ready for a black catwoman (despite Ertha Kitt in an era that such a conspiracy WOULD be valid) or was it because it was a terrible movie?

    As for Ray Palmer, I wasn’t aware he was back honestly. Last I remember there was an asian kid as the Atom, but I never really read that book. Read the first issue, couldn’t really get into it and forgot about it. As for Ronnie Raymond, actually I did explain the need for him as a character.

    The Firestorm matrix needs TWO PEOPLE. And you know what? as I said, even when Jasons was the lead, there was always a white person in the mix. Ghenna, Flamebird, I think even Killer Frost once…

    The Jason/Ronnie thing is more about Jock vs Nerd, similar to the Ronnie/Stein role than it is black vs white.

    Firestorm has ALWAYS been about mixing a well meaning idiot with a genius and watching an “odd couple” style situation. Would this still be an issue if it was anyone other than Ronnie or is it just the reference to the old one that makes you annoyed?

    As for the term apologist, I am not apologizing for anything, I am commenting on the business practices of how we have let the limitations of our industry shoot us in the foot. Yes, playing to a very whitebread audience with little diversity, and limiting the amount of places people can view our products.

    I don’t think there’s anything TO apologize for, because it’s not as if we’re talking “Sweet Christmas” Luke Cage, or “Blackula” Blade

    You want to take it back to John’s original “I’m gonna get you sucka” style, then there are more than just that sin that needs to be addressed. But I think over the years that stereotype has all but faded into the memories of hipster filmmakers like Quentin Tarintino.

    Static was not the only book to die as a result of the culling, but as John said, he deserved better than he got in his series.

    Men of War, Omac, Hawk and Dove, etc all hit the chopping block. and yes, also Mr. Terrific, another title that was somewhat unreadable. I made it through all 5 issues of the series, but I have to admit I am still left wondering what the thing is about?

    A LOT of the books suffered from this, not just the ones with a black lead. I could name a few that the only reason they weren’t off the cliff as well, is because they played to big of a role in their respective universes, and/or they can accept the loss to have a book for ‘controversy’ sake.

    Geoff, I know you are out there doing your thing, and I respect the hell out of you for it. But you wanna prove people wrong? Do it on the sales chart. Hit them where it hurts. Make your books the rule not the exception.

  30. Geoff Thorne
    January 22, 2012 - 1:52 am

    Skip the advice. I’m not a noob. I know what to do and am doing it.

    You’ve asked me to prove the pattern and I will. As I said, it’s not hard. Tedious but not hard. More on that later as it will take time to compile in one place.

    As for the other books-

    Hawk and Dove was DOA. I predicted it as soon as I saw who was making it as did lots of other people. What happened to the creator who failed to make it go? I hear he’s got two other books coming out. Odd choice to reward failure with more chances. I don’t think there are many creators of color who could say that. Not at DC. probably not at Marvel either. it must be love.

    But, okay, let’s examine.

    OMAC- couldn’t say. i dropped the DC line (except for Mr. Terrific) around FLASHPOINT time. It was probably a bad choice to try any kirby character as there’s usually only one guy who does them well and he’s dead. Dynamite is making a solid stab but, really, the only modern book that apes Kirby properly is GODLAND. This was obviously somebody’s pet project. Crash and burn. oh, and retro. both GODLAND and KIRBY GENESIS are looking forward. OMAC is looking back.

    MEN OF WAR- also a book anyone could have predicted would die, no matter how well-written or drawn. War comics are a thing of the past. There are a couple of exceptions in recent history but they were nearly all written by the same guy who did not write this one.

    BLACKHAWKS – see MEN OF WAR

    MR. TERRIFIC – I have no data to support this assertion but I would be willing to bet that the version of that book we saw differs WILDLY from the one Mr. Wallace thought he was going to be allowed to write.

    STATIC- one of the most successful independent comic book heroes in the last two decades, spawn of an award-winning series WRITTEN by a gifted writer who was on the shortlist of the even more gifted writer who created the character in the first place and DC couldn’t bring that home? They had to meddle? I wonder who will be blamed for that fiasco? The fans perhaps.

    Yes, those other books tanked. Yes they deserved to go. They compete on an even field. No one in the so-called “core” DC fan base is clamoring for them to die because they failure the wrong kind of person in the costume. There are no cries of tokenism in Hawk & Dove.

    How much editorial interference, for instance, did OMAC get when its writer is the EIC? I’m going to guess, zero. Anybody meddling with Geoff Johns over on the GL universe books? Doubtful. yet Mr Rozum got a version of the same treatment Dwayne McDuffie got when he was on Justice League. That Gerard Jones got on Mosaic. How many incidents is sufficient for you to accept a pattern? How many decades have to be spanned before it’s not chalked up to “that’s just how it goes?” Give me a number.

    When the field is flat, when nobody has their finger on the scale, that’s *not* how it goes.

    The issue isn’t limited to race and gender but to editorial ethos and activity.

    What is different is the treatment of the non-white characters at the inception point, during the actual “attempts” and, then in the post game. What is different is the near total absence of writers who are not, in some way, personally pally with the bosses prior to “getting the job.” Croneyism + incompetent interference and business sense = failed books. Jaundiced attitudes about race and gender lead to the fiasco that was the last Static book, the whole Starfire flap and Catwoman having fetish sex with Batman.

    Case in point, the first books to fall. Keep watching, Lots more will follow. Not because the market won’t bear them but because the market had nothing to do with why they were created or who by. Stunt publishing can create a spike for a quarter. Maybe two. But it’s not a substitute for acting like a real entertainment company.

    Unlike creators like Rob Liefeld, and characters like the Atom, Booster Gold, Firestorm and their ilk, who get multiple times at bat despite, in many cases, hard skidding, trench-digging crashes and burns, the [insert minority] characters and, more importantly the [insert minority] creators, get, as a rule, one shot. at best. And it’s not a real shot. Not in a universe where we are constantly reminded, over and over, that Mr. Terrific is the “3rd smartest man on Earth.” And when the EiC claims to be casting a wide net for creators but somehow consistently fails to contact people I can list off the top of my head (or even ones that look like them).

    NOT because they happen to be black in this case, or female, but because they’ve done work that is just that good. I can do it as a reader but the EiC of one of the Big Two keeps casting a net that misses these people? And the roster he DOES arrive at is composed of the greatest hits of the last decade. Nothing against those guys. Everybody has to take the gigs they get but, let’s get real.

    Sorry. I was born in the morning but it wasn’t *this* morning.

  31. Geoff Thorne
    January 22, 2012 - 1:54 am

    edit:

    because they feature the wrong kind of person in the costume.

    typonese.

  32. Danny Donovan
    January 22, 2012 - 2:07 am

    wow. Well sorry if I offended you with my “advice.” Good luck on the whole mad at the world thing.

    I’d rather hope for the continued betterment of our society and entertainment through calm rational conversation.

    I hope you find what you are looking for, but if you find enemies at the end of every outstretched hand I don’t know what to tell ya man.

  33. Larry White
    January 22, 2012 - 3:11 am

    Geoff,

    I don’t agree with everything you said but you are MORE than welcome to say it here anytime you want.

    BTW-your website is badass!

  34. Geoff Thorne
    January 22, 2012 - 3:49 am

    Yeah, see, that’s what we in debate world call a dodge.

    I present a reasoned argument to refute your apologist take and sidestep your condescension in favor of the actual conversation and you attempt to frame me as a reactionary or, to use the vernacular, a hater. An angry black man. Yawn.

    Nope. I’m not that guy. We’re not enemies. We aren’t anything but two guys talking about a reasonably serious issue. There’s no emotion at work here. Not from me at any rate. There’s nothing remotely personal about it. If you’re detecting anything it is the basic irritation I have with intellectual dishonesty. Not from you, necessarily, but from the cloud of it around this issue.

    What you’re in is a rational conversation, complete with theses, assertions, refutations and, oh yes, factual examples.

    Multiple creators at DC have described, time and again, various editors interfering with their works, watering them down, making them ugly or removing them for no rational reason at all, for decades, all on the basis of race. This is a fact.

    As editors come and go, this is also evidence of a pattern or what’s commonly known as a “corporate culture.” Individuals need not be racists or sexists themselves in private life to carry out racist and sexist policies that are part of a culture they’ve been hired into .

    That’s how all businesses used to work in this country and, sadly for many, still do. It’s by no means a radical notion to point out the similarities between this pattern as evidenced at DC and say, the NFL’s old pattern of letting minorities play but never allowing them to be quarterbacks or coaches. Y’know, because those are the thinking positions.

    DC’s track record of not only creation of “minority” characters over the decades but the depiction thereof has been, at absolute best, lackluster and, demonstrably hostile for the bulk of the time of the company’s existence. This despite the efforts of individual creators attempting to go the other way. Also a fact.

    DC has canceled and then revamped and relaunched books staring white characters, so-called “icons” (although characters like Booster Gold and Firestorm stretch the concept of icon nearly to breaking) but, as yet, have not done so with any non-white characters. Also a fact.

    DC has hired only a handful of black or female writers in its entire history despite the fact that considerably more than a handful have demonstrated the ability to write profitable adventure fiction in other venues up to and including motion pictures. This is a fact.

    When the odd attempt to introduce a black character into the DCU has been made a small but vocal group of so-called core fans, raise hell about tokenism and, quixotically, affirmative action gone wild. That is unless the character is appropriately put down or kept in the backfield. This is a fact easily supported by DC’s track record.

    The disparity of treatment between female writers or writers of color and their non-female, non-colored counterparts is, again, not a matter of conjecture but of arithmetic and testimony. Facts, in other words.

    Obviously I could go on this way, but it’s late. The point is that there is a discussion to be had on this, a real one that doesn’t involve kid gloves or condescension. Or, I’m sorry to say, apologies.

    Once you have enough facts to describe a pattern, you are able to draw conclusions from that pattern. Some of the conclusions may be unpleasant but that doesn’t mean they should be put away. Quite the contrary.

    For instance, if a company claims to be pro-diversity but confines said diversity to particular hiring areas that are never power positions, said company can legitimately be called to task for that hypocrisy. In fact, it should be.

    Are all these same things true of Marvel comics? Possibly. But we’re not talking about them right now.

  35. Danny Donovan
    January 22, 2012 - 11:06 am

    Exactly Larry.

    I am really happy that this article has become as popular as it is, and I hope next week’s is just as well viewed and commented on. I seem to be off to a good start.

    I am glad this has opened a larger debate and urge everyone to offer their points of view, maybe if there’s enough of a consensus we can get see some of the changes we are looking for.

  36. Rene
    January 22, 2012 - 4:33 pm

    DC has retconned Cybord as a founding member of the JLA. That doesn’t appear racist to me.

    I think it is less a matter of race, and more a matter of DC (amd Marvel) not really being much of a haven for new ideas and new characters in general, regardless of race.

    I’ve read someplace that the DCU and the MU are like pantheos of pagan gods. As the mythos “solidifies” it becomes harder and harder to introduce new gods and make them stick. It’s like creating a new Greek God when people only want to hear about Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite…

    And, unfortunately the DC and Marvel Universes solidified in a time when there were few non-white characters.

    It’s easier for a new character like Invincible to thrive in a creator-owned title than a similar concept being introduced in the MU, like Gravity.

  37. J.R. LeMar
    January 23, 2012 - 1:36 am

    wow. Well sorry if I offended you with my “advice.” Good luck on the whole mad at the world thing.

    I’d rather hope for the continued betterment of our society and entertainment through calm rational conversation.

    I hope you find what you are looking for, but if you find enemies at the end of every outstretched hand I don’t know what to tell ya man.

    ****************

    Wow. Talk about condescending and arrogant. I knew I should have stayed away from this post, but reading the rest of your ignorant comments exposes your mindset enough where know I know to pay you any further attention on this or any other topic. And the fact that Michael Davis is endorsing this nonsense, and also excusing DC’s documented behavior, is enough to remove this site from my bookmarks.

    “DC has retconned Cybord as a founding member of the JLA. That doesn’t appear racist to me.”

    Way to miss the entire point. SMH.

  38. Danny Donovan
    January 23, 2012 - 2:20 am

    I am sorry you feel that way J.R. especially given the length of time we have known each other.

    I don’t see how it’s racist to put characters of color onto super teams. For one, it’s elevating a character that hasn’t otherwise been featured prominently and two I didn’t say “Cyborg is on the JLA that’s proves we live in a post racial society.”

    Fact is, DC cares about green. Not black, not white, not anything else. And they are content to being a big fish in a small pond similar to other publishers. If tomorrow the entirety of the comic buying populace became gay latino’s you’d see Bunker having more titles than Wolverine or Deadpool.

    Fanbase is 96% white male, you get majority white male heroes.

    I don’t know what is condescending about what I said. Everything I said expressing my point of view was met with an angry diatribe about how there is a conspiracy and I am part of the problem.

    Sorry, I don’t respond well to doom and gloom. Want something done? Fix it. No amount of grousing online or making a grand conspiracy is going to make people do stuff that doesn’t make money.

    Also, don’t blame Michael for something you don’t like in MY column. Michael had similar views in his own column, tho he said it more sarcastically and tongue in cheek and as he said, HE has room to be up in arms about the cancellation.

    But you don’t see him screaming about conspiracy, he’s laying it out as a business person would. “product didn’t make money, it got cut.” I can guarantee no one said “the black kid’s not selling, lets get rid of him.” Sales, not color, caused the downfall.

    Editors, not writers caused the downfall.

    I hope you will continue to read, next week should be fun and non comic related, and I hope you tune in to listen to me over on Black Tribbles on Thursday, but if not I am sorry and wish you all the best. I still consider you a friend and hope you will continue to do the same.

  39. Geoff Thorne
    January 23, 2012 - 8:43 am

    Your analysis is thin and it presupposes racism in a way that, apparently, you don’t understand.

    You say the audience is 96% white, meaning that said audience will not accept or purchase stories featuring a black superhero.

    Yet the audience for the BLADE franchise is also predominantly white and that film was supported in enough numbers to warrant multiple sequels and a TV series.

    No one posited a failure on the part of the writers. In fact it was ALWAYS the assertion that it was editorial meddling that caused the problems. This is a well-documented phenomenon at DC, dated back to the Silver and Bronze ages.

    you want to ignore the pattern and chalk it up to “conspiracy theories” because, on some basic level, you hope one day to work for DC comics. You’ve said so.

    But it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to see an obvious pattern of behavior and editorial attitude on this subject. Mr. Rozum has taken pains to say his case was isolated, the work of a perhaps overzealous editor working outside the framework of what his superiors set.

    he was there so, on some level, one must bow to his proximity to the events if nothing else. But that’s why we have logic.

    Does it stand to reason that the same people who forced Dwayne McDuffie out with their meddling, the same people who micro manage multiple books in their line over periods of years, would somehow NOT be paying close attention to what would have been their flagship minority comic book?

    You would have it that they REALLY wanted the book to succeed. All right. Then that means, logically, that they REALLY had eyes on it the whole time. Does ti stand to reason, with those eyes on the book, that NO ONE above the immediate editor was signing off on the changes that drove Rozum out?

    No. it does not.

    Furthermore, i had it from Dwayne himself that the use of Milestone’s properties and all potential modification of those properties would have filter through and be approved by him.

    He died.

    Does ti stand to reason that the same company, the same PEOPLE, who forced him out and gave his creations short shrift while he was alive would do better with them after he was gone?

    it does not.

    I don’t scream. I state. I’ll stack my resume as a “business person” up against anyone who comes to play.

    You don’t get to dismiss me. Sorry. You’re taking a big bite here, one that flies in the face of a mountain of opposing evidence. Your logic is corkscrew, circling back on itself to serve an a priori conclusion.

    It’s not “just about the money.” it never has been. Any student of the corporate culture in the USA would know that and would, at the very least, observe these goings on through that lens before making big statements about the basic equanimity of the decision-making here.

    No, it was not market forces that drove these decisions because many of them, the most egregious ones it seems, were made BEFORE the market had a chance to vote.

  40. Daryll B.
    January 23, 2012 - 12:17 pm

    Mr Donovan, I only touched on these briefly on my blog but I have to hand it to you for going more in depth with why Static and to a lesser extant, Mr. Terrific were doomed to fail. I mean, you are rebooting a universe and you are presenting 2 characters with essentially their histories ripped away from them. Think about it, longtime Static readers, returning after hearing about the relaunch would go “New York? What about Dakota???”; “Sista Clone? What the..?”

    And let;s face it, most current comic readers couldn’t care less about Virgil. After all, they have had plenty of chances to support Static in the past and failed.

    I may not be totally on board with all of your points, Danny but I can appreciate the thought and effort you put into this. Plus it got Mr. Rozum’s attention and he’s one of the most thoughtful guys in comics. Keep up the thought provoking work Man!

  41. Reg
    January 23, 2012 - 6:33 pm

    Just a brief step into the turbulent waters…

    I first want to say that I’ve got nothing but mad respect for Geoff ‘The Red’ Thorne. He is an immensely talented man with whom I count it an honor to support his mind-blowingly creative work, and the great pleasure of sharpening my reasoning skills against on the late and deeply lamented forum of the Maestro. We disagreed with one another just as much as we agreed. Yet each interaction that placed us on opposing sides of the coin was always framed with this type of cogent, relevant, and deeply incisive commentary.

    The scythe sharp analyses that Mr. Thorne brings to his arguments are not for the faint in heart or the unprepared. And in this one, (imho, and as he is wont to do in the manner that I greatly appreciate)he is speaking unapologetic TRUTH to power.

    Respect.

  43. J.D. Boucher
    January 24, 2012 - 9:25 pm

    I was disappointed with the new 52 when it came to Static Shock, it could’ve been so much more, but it was not the only case where the animated universe was neglected.
    I know of one girl who was excited that starfire had her own comic, and she knew her from teen titans.
    Starfire from teen titans was kind and innocent, while the one in the comic sleeps around. Not exactly what they were expecting.
    I started really going to comic stores around when the new 52 came out, and apart form Static Shock, I was also excited for Batman Beyond, but while everything else was at number one, batman beyond was at number 8. I really think DC missed out on a huge market and disappointed many of their fans.

  44. Danny Donovan
    January 24, 2012 - 10:22 pm

    Okay…

    Again, DC Comics and the Animated universe are two separate things. The cartoon Starfire is nothing like the comic starfire had been for 25 years.

    This new 52 Starfire isn’t TOO different, yes, there are some divergences, but we don’t know her full story yet. It’s hinted that this sex kitten Kory is a cover for something much deeper.

    People do need to stop having short attention spans. Keep with it for the rest of the arc, if it doesn’t do anything for you, drop it. But you HAVE to allow things to happen naturally.

    Static failed in its attempt to throw 30 million things at you from the word go.

    If you want the Teen Titans cartoon Starfire, go read Tiny Titans. There are a number of animated universe books out there but they are not part of the main universe and do not fall under the New 52 universe. None of the animated books affect other continuity so nothing that happens in Batman Beyond has any affect on anything in Detective Comics. or vice versa.

    Thanks for everyones comment both good and ill. I hope you will all stay with me in future columns, and check me out on the Black Tribbles on Thurs.

    http://www.facebook.com/blacktribbles/posts/257170411020691

  45. Danny Donovan
    January 25, 2012 - 11:37 am

    The official link for those wanting to hear more about this Static thing:

    http://www.gtownradio.com/

    Thursday, January 26th, 2012 9pm. (est) Be there!

  46. MOTU
    January 25, 2012 - 2:55 pm

    I just wanted to be the 5oth comment.

    Comment.

1 2

Comments are closed.