DC Cancels Nightwing, Robin & Birds of Prey

DC confirmed to Newsarama that they were canceling Nightwing, Robin & Birds of Prey, with February being the last issues to come out. DC did not confirm why these books were getting canceled, but I have a few thoughts on the matter.

First thought that comes to mind is the timing of it. Didio has said that the DCU will reflect what happens in Final Crisis starting in March. Also, the R.I.P storyline in Batman is almost completed. After its completion, a "Battle for the Cowl" storyline has been hinted upon, and teased, as shown by the promotional buttons I received at The Zone. (There was also one picturing Hush, but I did not feel like finding it for the picture.) Also, sales on these titles have been solid. Not necessarily good, but solid. This leads me to believe that the cancelations are story-driven.

Now, from a story-driven cancelation, there are two likely possibilites. These books are canceled, and new books are launched, starting with issue #1. (I personally do not understand the fascination with #1 issues for the sake of giving someone a place they feel like they can jump onto a title. Likewise, I do not buy the excuse for not getting into a book because it has too much history. I do not pick who I talk to based on the amount of history I have to learn about them. But I digress.) The rumor I saw floating around is that after "R.I.P." two books would be launched, titled Red Robin and Batman & Robin, with the mystery (as of this writing) of who would be in what position, this could work. Another possiblity is that the books are only going on a hiatus for a little while, and then starting where they left off.

Either of these scenarios is possible, and would not be new for DC. When Bart Allen became the Flash, they started Flash: Fastest Man Alive, and this book lasted until his death. When Superman "died," his books went on hiatus for a few months to convince people that Superman was dead.

So, what is the better scenario? Beats me. Anyone that proclaims they know that one of these options will be bad before reading anything is a moron, and does not know what they are talking about. However, I will make a bold prediction. The people that post on the comments pages of CBR and Newsarama will not like whatever Dan Didio says is going to happen. Call it a hunch.

Is Titans really that big a franchise?

As far as needless title launches go, I had to give it to DC with Titans - an ongoing with the old-school Titans joining together for no particular reason. Not a lot of setup - just a Titans: East teaser and there you have it!

My problem with this book (and why I decided not to add it to my list) was because the book really doesn't seem to matter. Nightwing is busy in his own book and in the Batman world. A big part of Flash's story in JLA has been his lack of time for his family (in Flash) and the JLA, let alone the Titans, yet in Justice League America #20 he rededicated himself to the league. Red Arrow also has a prominent role in the JLA where his story focused on his graduating into Green Arrow's place on the League - not with the Titans anymore. Donna Troy became a watcher of the Monitors with Kyle Rayner and Ray Palmer at the conclusion of Countdown. Beast Boy rejoined the Doom Patrol during the One Year Later gap and even became leader.

So does all that make Titans a book being put out simply to put a book out? Looks that way to me.

So then I come to the end of this week's Teen Titans #60 and I see that a certain member of the team's adventures will be continued in Terror Titans #1! The Terror Titans are the small group of young villains who have plagued the Titans recently (not to be mistaken for the villainous Titans: East from a few arcs ago). Do they really need their own six issue mini? Does the only Titan going over have enough star power to carry the book? Seems the overwhelming Titans editor thinks so. What's his name here? Ah...a Dan DiDio. Ever heard of him?

This is getting ridiculous. I'm going to be sticking with Teen Titans, thanks. Adult Titans and villain Titans don't particularly interest me. They're missing the point here.

As If I Needed It, Another Reason to Hate Countdown

Recently I discovered an interview with Grant Morrison over at Newsarama. He discussed his plans for Final Crisis and the DCU and even addressed some of the complaints that have surfaced about Final Crisis #1 not jiving with Countdown or the Death of the New Gods mini series. You can read the whole thing for yourself but here are a few of the bits I found interesting...

"GM: Well, the way it worked out was that I started writing Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, around the same time as the 52 series was starting to come out...Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started. There wasn’t really much opportunity, or desire, to modify our content at that stage...so when Countdown was originally being discussed, it was just a case of me saying ‘Here’s issue 1 of Final Crisis and a rough breakdown of the following six issues. As long as you guys leave things off where Final Crisis begins, we‘ll be fine.’ Obviously, I would have preferred it if the New Gods hadn’t been spotlighted at all, let alone quite so intensively before I got a chance to bring them back but I don’t run DC and don’t make the decisions as to how and where the characters are deployed...J.G. and I had no idea what was going to happen in Countdown or Death Of The New Gods because neither of those books existed at that point. The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis. "

So Countdown and its ever abundant spin off mini-series and one shots were conceived and written after the die had already been cast for Final Crisis? Really? And still no one bothered to make sure everyone was on the same page? No one made sure Morrison knew about what was going on in the lead in to his series? No one made the other writers aware of what Morrison was doing? There were not just months, but years of lead in time to make sure everything went smoothly for what is unquestionably the most high profile book on DC's schedule this year and still something slips by the editorial staff? Are you kidding me?

Isn't Final Crisis supposed to be the series that solves DC's continuity mess and creates a sense of order and cohesion for the universe? Actually, isn't that what Infinite Crisis before it and Crisis on Infinite Earths before that were supposed to do? If you're writers and editors aren't on the ball to make sure everyone's working toward the same end then any sense of order and cohesion goes right out the window.

And another thing about the disconnect between Final Crisis and Countdown...

"GM: The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books. I’m sure both of these paths to enlightenment will find adherents of different temperaments."

Call me crazy, but I interpret a major part of this interview as Morrison washing his hands of Countdown, saying he doesn't care what happened in it, and giving a big middle finger to all the fans who spent well over $150 to read Countdown as a lead in to his Final Crisis. So the responsibility falls on Morrison for only caring about what happened in his seven issues, and then on Dan DiDio and the editorial staff for giving Morrison free reign and not making sure Countdown and the rest of the DCU fell in line.

This is not the way to build an orderly, cohesive universe. This is the way to make the "C" in "DC" stand for clusterfuck.

DC, What Did You Do This Time?

Well, that was quick. It seems like only yesterday that I was excited about Chuck Dixon returning to write Robin. To add to my enthusiasm, Dixon would also be writing Batman and the Outsiders. Well, here we are 4 issues and a special into his run on Robin, and 7 issues into his run on Batman and the Outsiders, and Dixon is no longer with DC. Yes, the man who has had incredibly long runs on the other Bat-books that he has written is gone after a few months.

When the comment "I am no longer employed by DC," appeared on Dixon's message board, coming from Dixon, there was a lot of speculation as to why this happened. Most of the speculation focused on Didio and Morrison. It appears that some of that speculation is correct. Follow up comments by Dixon appear to indicate that it was something involving Didio.

I have defended DC many times before, but there is not a likely scenario that is defensible. Granted, we do not, and probably will not for a while, know exactly what happened. However, that is probably because what happened stemmed from a creative difference on the direction of either of the books Dixon was writing. When it was announced that Dixon would be returning, he said that he was excited about immediately being handed a major story to be a part of. I doubt the return of Stephanie Brown, Spoiler, was that big event. What that leads me to believe is that Didio either did not tell him everything that was going to happen in Batman RIP, or Didio just flat out lied. Adding to speculation that this has something to do with Batman RIP is the lack of details emerging from either side. To say that "Chuck Dixon was not happy that Tim becomes Batman, and Damien becomes Robin," would spoil the story. (Not saying that is going to happen, but that is a popular theory.)

Regardless of the specifics, this does not look good on Didio. Batman RIP is not a storyline that just recently came up, and they decided to immediately run with. It has been in the works for quite some time. Long enough that how things would end should have been known by all involved. Once it is understood what is expected of everyone, that is how things should proceed. Whether Didio was not honest with Dixon on how Robin would be after RIP, or if he allowed things to change after everything was agreed upon shows a complete lack of editorial leadership. It is Didio's job to keep everything straight in DC, and that does include sticking with the plan. When in charge of a large universe of characters, spanning multiple books, there needs to be a clearly defined direction. If that means telling a writer that he cannot change things, and needs to stick to the original plan, then so be it.

In conclusion, this may be completely wrong and off-base. If it is, the I will apologize on here. However, I doubt I will ever need to do that.