"Is Marvel going to take over DC Comics?!"

[The NZA]

let's start here

 

A big rumor has hit the net that in the wake of AT&T

firing Dan DiDio, that Marvel and Kevin Feige may take over DC Comics.

It’s claimed that AT&T wasn’t happy at all with Dan DiDio’s latest attempt at rebooting DC Comics with the upcoming “5G” event, aka the “fifth generation” reboot of DC, which would have seen classic characters replaced with a “contemporary” take on the characters.

 It’s said that Dan DiDio butted heads with Batman writer Scott Snyder over the 5G reboot, as Snyder didn’t want his comics involved with the event, which caused problems at DC.

So Friday saw DiDio called into the AT&T/Warner Bros. offices where he was fired and let go from DC Comics, which saw DiDio exit the grounds immediately.

 It’s claimed that AT&T doesn’t want to do the 5G reboot as they have too much as stake with the classic characters involved with the movies and television shows and the various merchandise products (divisions which do make money, as DC Comics sales have been rather poor).

It’s said AT&T is considering using Hollywood movie and TV writers on the DC comics – writers who already have a proven track record – instead of comic book writers. An example would be James Gunn writing a comic (directing The Suicide Squad), Greg Berlanti returning to write for comics (Arrowverse writer, producer) or now since J.J. Abrams is with WarnerMedia, Abrams could write comics, such as how Abrams recently wrote Spider-Man with his son for Marvel that was a big success.

 So having the new 5G comic book characters (such as a black Batman) wouldn’t fit with a Robert Pattinson Batman on the big screen and all the marketing and promotion involved, toys, etc. (I’ll also add that Marvel Comics tried a similar approach with their “Marvel Now” event that saw classic characters replaced which failed miserably.)

 

AT&T considering licensing DC Comics to Marvel 

It is claimed that what AT&T is also contemplating, is getting out of the publishing side of things altogether and farming DC Comics out, possibly to Marvel (note: Ethan Van Sciver said AT&T will close down DC Comics if 5G fails). It’s said AT&T doesn’t want to sell DC Comics because they see the value in the various intellectual properties (i.e. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman).

The Lords of the Long Box YouTube channel does note that the rumor of Marvel taking over DC Comics might be just something thrown out there by AT&T and Warners in order to see the fan reaction, but at the same time notes that instead of having no DC comics published, wouldn’t it be better to have Marvel take over and publish the DC comics and characters?

The YouTubers even go so far and state that as part of the deal, it could mean that Kevin Feige (who recently became in charge of Marvel publishing) may develop some of the DC characters into movies, or even bring some of the characters into the MCU, such as through the Multiverse.

 While this all might sound like a stretch, Disney and Sony have come to a deal over using Spider-Man in the MCU, so why not AT&T licensing out their DC characters, especially if AT&T has no interest in publishing?

Interestingly enough, just this December saw Geoff Johns tease a DC and Marvel crossover in the last issue of Doomsday Clock. Perhaps Johns’ “Doomsday Clock” was also counting down to the doom of DC?

i don't know that a lot of DC fans would really miss Didio initially, but he was at least a comics guy - while the initial conflict seems like heavy editorial going up against a popular writer (nothing uncommon there), the conglomerates coming down in favor of status quo to preserve the books they don't seem to care about looking like the movies/shows that they do is both troubling and kinda inevitable - i've no doubt that certain bold ideas at marvel's current form of bullpen (whatever that looks like) get squashed early due to this kind of thing.

also, the trend of getting lit and hollywood writers to do comics has been going for years as well - but shifting over to them primarily sounds really bad, on its face.  if you did something like millar's old idea of writing "volumes" and then leaving a franchise alone until someone else had something, that'd be interesting but we've not really seen that much. 

and while i too celebrated FF & the x-men coming home to marvel, the idea that people should see further creative ownership consolidation as something positive is still mind-blowing to me.  didn't we go through this in the 90's, where DC almost folded into Marvel?  wasn't this unanimously seen as a shitty idea, where only the top 10 most popular books would've survived somehow (before even figuring out implementation)? 

nothing really good to say here, other than i hope whatever comes of this pushes comics into a better digital model or something more viable.

[Visitant]

I'm actually doing my write up on this right now for our podcast finale tonight. There's a lot of rumor and speculation flying right now and they need to dial it back a little. And to be fair, in the history of comics - DC was marvels publisher back in the timely days and sometime after. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Keth]

Oh man I really identify with that Hawkman comment. 

[Iambaytor]

Half Man, Half Hawk, Half Alien, 1/3 Archaeologist, 1/5 Ancient Egyptian Prince, 1/63 spy, 1/8 Angel for a bit in the 2000s, -1/10 zombie, mostly cop.

 

It's really quite simple.