http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/08/quote-of-the-day-we-publish-comics-for-45-year-olds/

Explains Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Barbara Gordon, etc...

I'll be 44 this month. Must be why I haven't liked what he's done. I'm not old enough yet.

Someone please tell him that 45 year olds are clever enough to notice half the pages are splashes of park benches and the stories move along at a Mary Worthian pace.

45 year old whats?

It appears that this conversation took place before 2010. The NuDCU after that, so I think there might have been a change in management. They are trying to find the best market demographics for their characters (which is why they are experiencing with non-superhero comics).

One of those Ds in his name surely stands for D-bag...

^Sharky FTW! Personally, I think it's the middle D... he's a d-bag to the core!

What's interesting is this explains both why 45 year olds hate their comics and why kids hate their comics too.

Another EPIC FAIL brought to you by DC Comics, home of douchebags and mouth-breathers.

Wow, I can't add anything better than this. LOL!

I'm 43, so I guess I'm part of the target audience that DC hoped to attract when they rolled out the retroboot Legion a few years back. If it wasn't for the return of the original Legion I would never have started collecting comics again after a 20 year hiatus.

I really think they should go back writing comics for teenagers again. Can anyone name a classic comics run that was written for 45 year olds?

If I were 45 I would be offended by this.

I'm not.

TDKR and Watchmen usually hit the top of lists. I don't think those were written for teenagers. (And if you were a teen when those came out, you'd be 40-ish now.)

Which aspects of the current comics are supposed to appeal to 45-year olds?

And why is DC so sure that Kamandi won't appeal to 45-year olds?

Resetting all the characters (Superman, GL, Legion, Flash, etc) to match the versions from 35 years ago?


Pope wanted to do it as an actual kids comic.

Thanks.

Because a future Earth populated by aggressive animals and with no humans in sight would make a good kids comic. Wonderful.

And as noted by many above, using the same "characters" (with the same names anyway) is just not enough to appeal to readers who remember what comics were like decades ago...

But they didn't do that. They rebooted them and trampled on their history. That doesn't appeal to anyone except the current creative team's egos.

That's how it feels to me.

The 'new' classic Hal Jordan is an egotistical ass that almost single-handed ruined the reputation of the Justice League. He's also terribly juvenile and irresponsible, which may fit with Ryan Reynold's portrayal of him, but doesn't seem *at all* like the classic Hal Jordan *I* remember.

The 'new' classic Barry Allen is so naïve and funny-incompetent that the rest of the team makes fun of him, to his face. That's not the pre-Crisis Barry Allen I remember, either.

It almost feels like DC is trying to Marvel-ize their characters, and give them the sorts of feet of clay that have made Peter Parker and Tony Stark work so well, and yet, they had all sorts of new potential Flashes and Green Lanterns banging around, that could be steered in this direction, rather than dredging up long-dead characters and mischaracterizing them according to the 'new gospel.'

Well I'm 41 years old and don't feel targeted at all by the current books. It's been some time now that I no longer get enthusiastic about action scenes, space fights or issue length chase scenes.

Funnily enough, I get hooked by characterisation, good storywriting and a decent mystery (does not have to be of Morning Glories proportions). Currently, the biggest part of my pull list is from the house of Image...

Ahhhhh! So that's the reason I don't like any of what DC puts out these days! THAT EXPLAINS IT. I'll like them again in...*checks calendar*...eleven years! Awesome. I'll just read back issues til then!

I read fewer books now than I have in 30 years. Granted, most of them are still DC, but to be honest half of them are on the chopping block. The only books that are still must reads for me are Young Avengers, Teen Titans and Earth-2. The other 7 or so books are teetering on the edge of my attention, not to mention my enjoyment.

There's no way I could keep my attention, let alone find shelf space, for more than one comics title. That's why I narrowed it down to the Legion years ago after Atari Force got cancelled in the mid 1980's. Now with the last "ever" Legion coming out in a week, I wonder if I should even attempt to give another title a try. The only title I'm would be even remotely interested in would be Nightwing. Anybody know if that's been a good read?

Well, it WAS a good read, at the beginning of the new 52, and then editorial got its fingers into Nightwing's creative pie.

The initial set-up (having Dick own Haley's Circus) provided endless opportunities for story-telling and villain creation, and the story-telling by Kyle Higgins was indeed quite good... and then the circus was blown up during the Batman/Joker cross-over and Dick shipped off to Chicago to chase after the man who shot his parents. And it hasn't been quite the same since. I am not "feeling" Chicago for Nightwing.

The art was also very good initially, by Eddy Barrows. Brett Booth followed, whom I understand some people like and some don't, and after that it went notably downhill (please never let Ryp draw Nightwing ever again).

And god only knows what they are going to do with Dick Grayson next month as Forever Evil begins... apparently Dick is up for some sort of huge change next month. The new direction is clearly editorially-driven, or at least driven in the service of DC's big Forever Evil event, so I am not hopeful.

Maybe it will be just the thing to piss off this 44-year old "Forever-DC" fan enough to leave DC altogether, right before he turns 45.

So I'm too old, then...

Oh, well. Back to saving up for the Matlock Deluxe DVD Collection I guess...

I would say other comics do "write for '45 year olds'" or an adult and cultured audience ... but IMO and FtMP DC writes for the psycho killer doll Chucky.


in other words ... very disturbed children.

Another case of a business not even understanding its target market

Okay, not new but I just noticed this. Dan Didio on why Karen Berger's Vertigo was broken:



They want to sell to the broadest section of 45-year olds possible!

Didio is SUCH a fuck-face!

The most mature thing I can think of saying is Didio deserves for someone to do to him what happened to William Wallace at the end of Braveheart.

Well, that would be consistent with both the grotesque violence that DC passes off for entertainment/storytelling these days and the torture he puts us through by killing our childhood every week!

Come on, guys. Beheading someone just because he publishes comics we don't like? Doesn't that seem a a bit, I don't know, irrational?

Going back to what I've said many times before: If you don't like DC's current output, don't read it. Find something else to become a fan of. Nothing is going to be the same as it was when you were nine or twelve or fifteen. The world has changed, and so have we. It's scary, I know. DC is not writing comics for us. Move on.

I don't. I've dropped every single DCFU title from my pull as of the final issues of Legion and Dial H.

However, I reserve my right to be embittered by once-beloved comics being beyond crappy and driving me away from them. I also reserve the right to occasionally express my exasperation with this with some spirited exaggeration!

I reserve the right to behead, castrate, disembowel and torture those whose decisions offend me! I'm an American, dammit!

Venting is a necessary and often fun part of dealing with loss.

DC brass is contributing to national healing.

http://comicsalliance.com/dc-comics-new-52-batwoman-harley-quinn-dan-didio-editorial/

From Reboot's link. Wheeler writes:



It's great, hearing him justify DC's obnoxious attitude toward marriage and seemingly unable to realize how contradictory he's being. He thinks DC could do well by aiming for the demographic of men (apparently even grown women don't read comics once they become Mommies. Yeesh.) who want to buy comics for their daughters.

So... on one hand, let's tell the female readership that their only role in comics is to provide no-strings-attached sex appeal for almost exclusively) male heroes and their (exclusively male) readers. On the other hand, let's say that this attitude is just the sort of thing that a grown (exclusively male) parent should want to pass on to his own daughter via three bucks worth of skimpy reading material heavily saturated with great big ads.

Wheeler tries to have his cake and eat it, too. I'll put this as gently as possible even though I'm fuming: It doesn't come off well. [scowl]

It's also telling to examine DC's bluntly-stated hostility to the idea of marriage or long-term male/female pairings in light of what happened to the Legion over the last couple of years.

It's easier to undo death than marriage?

Holy sweet everloving f***!

Every day I'm happier and happier I dropped everything DC publishes

Could have been worse.

He could have said they were the same thing.

Cleome nails it on why Wheeler is full of **it.

Especially good point on how non-leads are reduced to the role of providing no-strings attached sex, and then to later be killed off or reduced even further to the role of jerk / psycho / someone not deserving of the relationship.

Then there is the fact that the "meet, fall in love, start caring for one another" phase is easiest thing to write in terms of relationships. Just like the easiest thing to do in real life. Everyone has read or seen a trillion stories with this strait forward bit. Much harder is showing any real depth to a relationship when the glittery "puppy love" phase is over, when things are complex and its not as glamorous but so much more realistic. But hey, DC is dumbing things down and think their readers are immature, emotionally stunted guys that don't know squat about relationships.

I always had a cynical feeling that comic book editors who were talking about how unrelatable married folk are were reliving their own failed marriages through the medium.

Well I deserve comics to read too!

right.

I thought that was the feeling from DC for quite a number of years. Even so, the casual misogyny of DCNu raised an eyebrow.

"We don’t publish comics for kids. We publish comics for 45-year-olds."

If that's the quality of book they think their target audience should be reading, it says a great deal about what they think of their target audience.

Of the DCnNu books, there would be very few I'd give to a kid. Where they think the next generation of comic fans is coming from is a mystery.

[snip]



It's kind of sad that the average sitcom from forty years ago was better able to grapple with these issues than modern day DC brass is.

Oh, and I forgot to add yesterday that not letting Kate marry Maggie further cements their reputation as a bunch of jaggoffs. But what can you expect? They think one woman is useless, so obviously two women are even more useless. Like a double negative or something.

[snip]





It's too late, BB. We've already seen your photo and we know you're not really Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.

Next month from DC...

Follow the heartfelt story of Terry as he struggles to cope in a world his abilities have changed forever.

Join Terry for as he takes those new, first steps into adventure, humour, friendship and love...

...Only to be run over by a horde of emotionally stunted 45 year olds chasing after Big, Buxom, Ballistic Babes from Baaldur! Yes! straight from your pathetic fantasy life and into a short lived, desperate monthly!

Big Buxom Ballistic Babes only from DC. Because we're stunted too!

That was just someone I hired to make a good visual impression.

Sorry, I know that this is an old thread, but I've only just now come across it, and I've gotta say: Dan Dido, you ain't publishing any comics that this 45-year old wants to read!

THIS. Back when OMD undid Spidey and Mary Jane's marriage, I wanted to write JQ and ask him how his was going...

The thing is, you can write a broken marriage and still have the characters behave like adults who have some admirable qualities despite one high-profile failure.

But again, that would require thinking and maturity, and this is mainstream comics that we're talking about, soooo...

MB! Where've you been hiding?

[waves]

Ah, I got stuck in the Phantom-Zone for a while by a vengeful old super-villain. Fortunately, I was finally able to make her say her name backwards, H-A-R-A-S N-I-L-A-P, and finally got out. Seriously, though, I've been lurking but not posting all along, thanks for asking.

Well, in DiDio's defense, based on your screen name one might think that current DC comics are exactly the sort that would appeal to you.

Doh!--Ya got me (I'm really a Marvel Comics plant--and not a petunia, if you know what I mean).

Interview with Joshua Hale Fialkov about, amongst other things, what it was like working at Didio's DC: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05...ell-the-bunker-and-killing-john-stewart/

Well there you go. Yet another person saying exactly the same thing about the way DC is run. Exactly the same story about the number of rewrites and general mucking about. But is it affecting quality?

>checks pull list for DC books. Finds none<

I guess it is.

Yes, he really is that stupid:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/09/07/dan-didio-teases-a-new-crisis/

This is like an awful Bob Dylan cover band playing Mr. Tambourine Man 10 times in a row and then claiming it was their best hit.

1) you've never done a good one

2) you have no new ideas

3) this wasn't even your idea to begin with, you just stole something...and didn't even understand any of what made it good in the first place.

This would have been funny in 2008 but now it's like watching Irkel saying "did I do that?" for the 101st time, when it wasn't ever even funny once.

You know what they say about crazy people... they try to do the same thing over and over, and are surprised when it still. doesn't. work.

Maybe if we're lucky this new Crisis will get rid of the New 52.

Well, now that I've reached the magic age, do I get to dictate what DC publishes? I hope so. How does seven JSA-related tiltes and five Legion-related titles sound?

The wrong way round

It sounds like a good start!

What he said.

If only DC and Didiot would listen

My ideal DCU would be overseen by an editorial board of Mark Waid, Paul Levitz, Grant Morrison, Darwyn Cooke, and Alex Ross.

(ducks from angry Nu52 fans)

I like the way you think!

I'd be down with that!

Rather male centric.

Throw in Louise Simonson too then. She's generally a good writer and editor.

I'd say pretty much other than what we have.