Oh, my, DC seems to be in a state of implosion, doesn’t it.
It’s reached the point where there is now a well-reasoned blog entry on CBR about where DC Comics is going wrong. Much as I’d love to disagree, I really can’t. In fact, this blog is saying a number of thoughts that I’d wondered about myself. Please take the time to read this if you really want to understand where the problems are, and why DC fans are in an uproar right now.
However, I’m going to take an issue with only one point of this article. Specifically this:
“Right now — as I write this, anyway — no one knows anything. At least no one who’s willing to talk about it. DC and Dixon are both keeping mum. (In fairness, the reasons are none of our business…but clearly, something went wrong somewhere.)”
None of our business? Really?
Now, I am not going to act like a self-important fan and think that we should be privy to every contract detail at DC. Of course not. There are certainly a lot of things that the company and the employees have every right to keep private. But I hear this “none of our business” stuff a lot around the web when it comes to this issue… and I have to respectfully disagree.
The reason why this “none of our business” stuff irritates me is that as fans, we spend our money to buy a product that we think will come out on time, as scheduled, to a certain level of quality. Because this is a product that we pay for, when something happens to affect the quality of our product, it IS our business. It SHOULD be our business. I think it’s fair for the fans to have assurance that their money is spent on a quality product. The writer is a huge factor in the quality of a book. When a writer on a title like Robin– the key reason that many fans enjoyed it, in fact– is summarily dismissed from the book without an explanation, I think it absolutely is the fans’ business. They have every right to demand some kind of an answer from DC.
To date, DC has told us absolutely nothing. They declined to comment to all the major news outlets. The only real information we have, in fact, comes from Chuck Dixon himself. (And for the record, I respect Dixon for keeping a lid on the reasons… I have no fault with his approach to this. It’s understandable, especially given his relationship with DC.) Keep in mind, we are not talking about just any writer on any title. We are talking about the man who wrote the defining run on Robin being kicked off the book that he created. That’s a big deal. That deserves a pretty good reason. And there may be one, to be fair… but if so, the readers do have a right to an answer in this case.
Now, personally, I am not asking for a detailed explanation from DC over every single point of contention. But don’t you think the fans of Robin and Outsiders deserve some kind of official statement from DC, even if that statement is “due to creative differences, Chuck Dixon is no longer employed by DC”? We don’t need more than that, and I would not ask for more than that.
But this wall of silence from DC right now is disturbing. There clearly is some kind of editorial problem going on behind closed doors, and it’s big. Given how big it is, I can’t help but wonder how involved Dan Didio is with this. But this is speculation, and I don’t want to go too far into this. I don’t expect a detailed explanation of that stuff either. We don’t need to know that.
The problem is when DC fails to tell us about things we should know about. Even if it’s damage control. Much as Marvel’s damage control policy angers me with its arrogance, lies, and refusal to admit responsibility for error… at least they give an explanation. When you don’t give any explanation at all, then you open the floodgates for rampant speculation, usually in the way of worst case scenario. I think that DC has only made this situation worse for themselves for not at least giving an answer… even if, as I suspect, the answer is “creative differences”. The fans need the security of an answer… even if they’ll hate it, even if it makes the company look bad.
Right now, the fans need to trust that DC is doing the best they can to make good comics, and that they’re treating their writers appropriately. As things are, this situation creates instability. After all, who knows when the next writer will be summarily ousted because of some internal problem? The Outsiders book now has a history of two writers being summarily kicked off in less than a year. Can we trust that the next guy won’t get the same deal? And that’s why disclosure is so important. The fans need that bond of trust and stability, and right now we’re not getting that from DC.
DC, please do the right thing. Give us some kind of answer. It doesn’t have to be a long answer. It doesn’t have to even be a good answer. But for heaven’s sake, at least give your fans the basic courtesy of an explanation about things that affect our buying choices.
Because that IS our business. And if you don’t play straight with your fans, they may be taking that business elsewhere.
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