DiDio on DC's Big Jump Forward

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on January 17, 2006 Sign up now!

by Ian Brill -- Publishers Weekly, 1/17/2006

The superheroes of the DC Universe have been through quite a bit in past few years. Superman, Batman and the rest of DC's characters have had to deal with some of the darkest moments in their lives. And in March, almost every DC book will take a leap forward in time by one year and readers will see a different DC Universe. It's all part of a plan by v-p, executive editor, Dan DiDio to inject more excitement into DC's monthly comics.

The real beginning of this new direction for the DC Universe, as the superhero line is known, came when thriller novelist Brad Meltzer developed the miniseries Identity Crisis. The book dealt with the murder of Sue Dibny, wife of superhero Ralph Dibny, aka the Elongated Man. Her superhero friends dealt with the revelation that Sue had been raped by supervillain Dr. Light by giving him a secret lobotomy. In that story, DiDio saw that DC's superheroes could go to a dark place, one that required them to question their roles as superheroes. DiDio called for a meeting with Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Judd Winick, three of DC's biggest writers, and together they developed the direction in which they wanted the DC Universe to go.

"We wanted to create a sense of 'must read on Wednesday,' to not wait for the trade," said DiDio, referring to the day when new comics arrive in comic book stores.

The DC books that then followed all tied into an overarching mega-story. A one-shot entitled Countdown to Infinite Crisis and four miniseries, Day of Vengeance, Villains United, OMAC Project and The Rann-Thanagar War, all told aspects of the story. Meanwhile, some continuing DC titles tied in to what was going on in the mini-series. There was so much going on that DC had to prepare a list of books that told readers which series tied in to which miniseries. The list contained more than 20 single comic books, not counting the original miniseries. They were all leading up to the eight part miniseries Infinite Crisis, by Johns and Phil Jimenez, which will lead DC's books into the One Year Later jump.

"The last thing I wanted after Infinite Crisis was to have all the characters talking about the same thing," said DiDio. "One of my editors suggested One Year Later so that all the characters were going on about things in their own lives."

The jump will mean that a lot of characters will have new creative teams and editors. James Robinson, who wrote the acclaimed Starman series in the '90s, will return to write Batman. Johns and Kurt Busiek (Astro City) will start writing the Superman books.

The change isn't just in the creative teams. DC's new editorial policy means that different editors have control over various books about the same hero, whereas previously one editor was in change of all the Superman books, and so on. DiDio said this will allow old characters to be seen with new eyes. "It's a challenge to keep everything fresh," he said.

Many of the books that tie in to DC's special projects don't just follow the current storylines but also base their plots on decades of comic book continuity. Infinite Crisis itself is a sequel to the 1986 maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths [see this issue's interview with writer Marv Wolfman] and Identity Crisis evokes a Justice League of America mind-switch story from 1979. DiDio is aware of the heavy use of continuity but doesn't believe it's a problem. "I believe continuity should be a tool of storytelling, but not a crutch," he says. "Great stories, regardless of how they're steeped in continuity, will read like great stories."

One of DC's biggest projects in 2006 will be a weekly series tentatively titled 52. DC president and publisher Paul Levitz came up with the idea that there should be a weekly comic to explain a lot of the storylines in the DC Universe. DiDio's background is in television and the way the book is set up is patterned after a weekly television series, with six stories running through the book, not unlike a TV soap opera. Johns, Rucka, Mark Waid and Grant Morrison will all write the book together while Keith Giffen ties it all together with breakdowns for artists to finish. J.G. Jones will do covers.

While most series are on a monthly schedule and both DC and Marvel have been known to ship books late (by a few to many weeks), DiDio says that the people behind 52 will make the book's schedule work, since they started on it seven months before the May launch. "We made a commitment to the retailers and to the fans, and that is a commitment I am not willing to break," says DiDio.

While DiDio has said there aren't any plans to follow Infinite Crisis with another big crossover event, he still wants DC's superhero books to have the same level of excitement for fans, so they'll stick with the single-issue comics before the collected editions.

Even though DiDio wants to see a concentration on the monthly single issues, DC still continues to provide trade book editions of its event stories. Identity Crisis got a major push in bookstores, with Meltzer's name in large print on the cover. Infinite Crisis will also become a hardcover edition with extra features. DC is still evaluating the best way to collect 52.

The One Year Later stories from the continuing series will feature DC's new promotional plans for collected editions. "We recently completed a plan so that we can begin to collect the DCU titles cleanly after OYL," says a DC spokesperson. "Each series title will be collected as its own trade series (as we do now) but we will be calling out "One Year Later" on both the front cover and in the back cover copy."

"The goal is to take advantage of the goals and success of the periodicals, while at the same time providing a satisfying reading experience for those collecting the trades." said the spokesperson. "Given the range and diversity of the DCU titles, and the complex nature of the stories today, it's a real juggling act to maintain the momentum of the comics and yet give them the space to have a life of their own."

Nonetheless, DC has no plan to desert traditional comic books in the future. "I think the periodical nature of comics is what makes comics great," said DiDio. "People get excited about periodicals. I want to make sure everybody feels like they're getting their full value."