https://comicbook.com/dc/2020/02/21/dc-comics-co-publisher-dan-didio-exits-company/

Okay so we don't know who's replacing him but HE'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE

It's the End of an Era!

A really, horrendously bad era...

He can't hurt us anymore!

I'd like to thank him for... well, I stopped reading DC when he was there. Let's look at the article. That will have nice things to say... it starts by listing his major series...

Infinite Crisis: I bought this. The big plot point of each issue was worked out. And that seemed to be about it. The planning of everything else took it off a cliff early on, and the ending of villains attacking a city, with a colour wash because they ran out of time was laughable.
52: Having not learned my lesson over years of dreadful DC events, I picked up the start of this. I think that was my last (no I stupidly picked up Final Crisis too) and I didn't get close to the end of it.
New 52 relaunch: My last roll of the DC dice. Between my RPG group we covered all the issues to begin with. I'd stopped reading them all before the end of the first 10 issues. Nearly 52 missed opportunities (a couple were OK, but not nearly good enough to keep going with) + all the later poor launches.
DC Rebirth: Long gone by then.
Before Watchmen: Another reminder, as if one was needed, about DC's appalling history regarding creator rights. Didn't touch it with a barge pole. Nor did anyone I know.
Doomsday Clock: Skimmed a page or two containing a pointless Legion reference. I've no idea about the wider story except that a lot of it didn't lead anywhere and there was a lot of navel gazing continuity "fixing" in place of story. I assume that the release of issues over aeons until our sun went nova, and there was an actual doomsday, wasn't intentional. It seemed to mess up schedules for other books too, including the Legion. Tie ins that utterly fail seems to be a recurring feature in his tenure.

"He recently stressed that there had been problems with the rollout for those comics, though he vowed to improve the publishing schedule."
If you're a publisher that can't publish, then the writing is surely on the Source Wall?

The last decade has seen a huge number of DC films and games. I imagine DC must be selling comics by the freighter load off the back of that. Except I get the feeling that they're not, which is another sign something was badly wrong.

DiDio was also responsible for one of the most poorly written comics I've had the misfortune to pay for. I thought it was a parody at first, before it dawned on me. he should never have used his position to get the assignment.

To paraphrase Paul Carrack, "Don't shed a tear for him."

When Paul Levitz stepped down there were apparently two people in line to replace him; Dan Didio and Mark Waid.

Now Mark Waid is far from perfect (the Threeboot is testament to that) but there’s no doubt in my mind that if he’d been in charge, we’d still have an actual DC Universe, instead of whatever that clusterf**k of contradicting continuities is that they call the DCU these days.

Dan Didio should never have been in charge. He was like the Wizard of Oz; one shallow spectacle after another that dazzled the masses and dismantled the foundations of the DCU but left nothing of value in its place.

Good riddance.

Very well put, Blacula.

I agree 100 percent.

Okay, I've seen people and professionals saying good things about him and apparently if it wasn't for him books like Secret Six wouldn't of gone as far as they did...

BUT

His reputation for destroying characters or rendering them unusable precedes him, and it's clear he still had a major hand or was complicit in a lot of the garbage that went on in DC's publishing and office drama. Like why Eddie Berganza had a job for so long. I won't deny whatever good he did and I'm definitely not gonna go around screaming at people who say they're gonna miss him, but I am not sorry he's out.

I wonder if the "5th Generation" concept will continue with him gone? Don't think I will be sorry if it doesn't.

I notice that pretty much everything mentioned also had a big input from Geoff Johns. Since he also has stepped down we may see a significant change in direction - or not.

Looks like some shakeups at DC ... which could be good... the weird company-wide edicts and jumps were just annoying

I definitely admire when companies take a risk on creators - in the current stuff, Wonder Twins and Dial H really stand out for me - but a lot of stuff had fallen off my radar because I just didn't like the overall directions of the line.


I'm sure he did the best he could at his job -- and hindsight is always 20/20 -- but those were some AWFUL choices in those 18 years. I'm not saying I could do a better job, but I would definitely get better feedback loops. And listen to them.

Under his watch:
The disastrous "New 52" happened.
The JSA was destroyed.
The Legion went away for years.
I stopped buying comics.

I'm good with this.