I’ve gone on and on in countless
blogs about why I believe Dan Didio should be FIRED from his position as
co-publisher at DC Comics. And this one statement from him clearly shows why he
is not qualified to work at DC Comics or anywhere in the comic book industry.
"Heroes shouldn’t have happy personal
lives. They are committed to being that person and committed to defending
others at the sacrifice of their own personal interests. That’s very important
and something we reinforced. People in the Batfamily, their personal lives basically
suck.” — Dan Didio
I have PROOF from countless
DC Comics in my 3,000 plus collection to refute this argument. Plus this fun little pic from the Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Trade I bought last year on eBay:
BATMAN'S LIFE SUCKS? DOESN'T LOOK LIKE IT HERE! |
Back in the 1970’s when Denny
O’Neill wrote Batman, Bruce Wayne had a well-balanced social life. Yes even
during the grim n’ gritty era, Batman even smiled from time to time, took time
to catch a movie, go out on a date, or just relaxed with Alfred and Dick
Grayson at Wayne Manor on a slow night.
And Dick Grayson was one of
the most social heroes out there. In between leading the Titans and going on
solo cases as Robin and Nightwing, Dick always had time for hanging out with his
friends at the Titans Tower, romancing his girl Starfire, or just kickin’ it
with Tim Drake in Gotham City.
Superman’s world is one big
ball of sunshine. It’s a happy place filled with hope. And so is Wonder
Woman’s. I mean, she lives on PARADISE Island, a virtual Utopia. And the Flash is known for being sunny
and fun, especially in the Wally West days where he like Dick Grayson was known
for having a large supporting cast of friends. All those characters have lived
happy personal lives since their initial creation.
Yes, superheroes are commited
to using their powers to protect and defend others, but they do not sacrifice
EVERYTHING to do it. They do have time for a social life. Not every waking
moment of their lives is saving the world or preparing to save the world.
There’s downtime even in crimefighting, and any good comic book writer will
write a story or two to reflect what goes on during those slow period in a
heroes’ life.
The way I see Batman is a
part of Bruce Wayne’s life. Superman is a part of Clark Kent’s life. Wonder
Woman is a part of Princess Diana’s life. Nightwing is a part of Dick Grayson’s
life and the Flash is a part of Wally West’s life.
And a small part of their
lives at that. In writing superhero adventures, there is this thing called
BALANCE. There are 24 hours in every day, and even fictional people have time
for this thing we call life. We need to see heroes alter egoes doing stuff in
between their jobs and fighting crime like going to the supermarket or getting
a haircut. Playing ball or hanging out with friends.
Every DC Comic I used to read
back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s used to showcase those awesome slice of life
moments. And I enjoyed those moments more than the superhero adventures. Why?
Because it showed me there was a person under the mask who was just like me.
Yeah even superheroes have a bad day or hard times, it’s not
an ongoing thing. There is sunshine in between the clouds and a light at the
end of a tunnel. No hero’s life is non- stop misery.
The way I always saw it
superheroes probably went on patrol maybe 2 or 3 hours a day. They worked a
case here or there in between their regular nine-to-five jobs and school. Occasionally
a case might take a week or two, but this was oftentimes a rare exception. While
the fights in most comics may have 32 pages and storylines were three or four
issues, that often worked out to be about five or ten minutes to a few hours
real-time in a comic book world.
Besides, who would want to
spend an entire day in costume brooding and obsessing about taking down bad
guys? Life is too short for anyone to spend it worrying about problems related
to a job all the time.
I’d like to think Batman,
Superman and Wonder Woman even took a day off from crimefighting the way Dick
Grayson probably does. Especially in the summertime.
In a lot of cases, those
happy personal lives Dan Didio hates superheroes to have are often what writers
like myself like to use as a setup for a story.
Here’s the deal: Superheroes
lives don’t have to suck. Being a superhero is a CHOICE people make. It’s
basically an unpaid volunteer job.
Being a superhero is not a
nine-to-five job people have to do in order to pay their bills and keep a roof
over their heads. No, people become superheroes because they want to use their
special abilities and skills to help serve the communities they live in.
And since the job of
superhero is a choice they volunteer for, they can easily hang up the tights
and LEAVE if the job is making them that miserable. When it comes to volunteer
work, people quit all the time in real life. Some people just don’t have time.
Others just don’t like the mission of the organization. A few become
disillusioned on seeing the internal operations of a nonprofit and just stop
coming in to help out.
I’d like to think Superheroes
would have the same motivations regular people do when it came to their volunteer
work. No one is forcing them to put on tights and take on the bad guys. So
what’s motivating them to stay there and take on the bad guys has to come from
inside of them.
I’d like to believe that
superheroes volunteer to help their communities because they find some sort of
satisfaction in their work. And they keep doing that job because they love it. That
personal satisfaction of making their communities a better and safer place makes
it worth taking all those beatings from the bad guys.
Yeah, some like Batman may
enjoy working alone. Others like Nightwing may enjoy working in a group. A few
like Superman, The Flash, and Wonder Woman may just enjoy helping others. But
they’re all there because they want to be there. If crimefighting was making
them miserable they would have quit a long time ago.
The way I see it Didio’s
statement about superheroes being miserable shows how little he knows about
them. It shows he doesn’t understand the story model or how to write stories in
the genre. He’s clearly the wrong man to be publishing comics.
Any good storyteller like
myself knows that characters like superheroes need to have a well-rounded life
with good times and hard times. It’s how they overcome the challenges presented
to them is what makes them relatable to the reader and allows them to identify
with their experiences. That’s what gives writers like myself the motivation to
write compelling stories for them.
There’s no real motivation
for a writer like myself to put fingers to the keyboard and write a story about
an angry miserable person month after month and year after year in a run. For
me, writing is FUN. And I like my characters to have FUN in their adventures.
Over time, stories about
miserable, brooding heroes get stale and repetitive. They become one-note. And
the characters become flat and one-dimensional. Eventually, there comes a point
where the audience just wants the character to stop having their pity party and
GET OVER IT.
Dan Didio’s view of superheroes
is not a good one for the comic book medium. And having him in a leadership
position at the #2 publisher of comic books is detrimental to the industry
long-term. Angry brooding heroes went out of style in the late 1980s with
trenchoats and heavy five o’clock shadows. The story model got TIRED after a
while because all the angst and pointless drama started to grate on people’s
neves.
What Dan Didio and most
executives at Warner Brothers don’t understand is that most people read comics
to get away from problems, not be confronted with more of them.
People don’t pay $4 to read
about someone with a life that sucks.
No, they pay $4 to read about
good guys overcoming the odds, beating the bad guys and saving the day. People
read comics to ESCAPE their problems. Some even read them to find SOLUTIONS for
them. Comics books sell HOPE to people. They inspire people to be better and do
better. They show people how to make a difference by taking constructive
action.
One of the tenets in the
entertainment business states you don’t bring the customer a PROBLEM. Dan Didio
with his statements shows he violates that business principle. And because he
violates that business principle he clearly shows why he isn’t qualified to run
a multibillion dollar publisher like DC Comics. If the executives at Warner
Brothers were smart, they’d have handed Dan Didio his pink slip a decade ago
and brought in someone far more qualified to run their DC Comics publishing
division.
You're spot on. I believe in Batman Year One, it specifically states that Batman is active from the hours of midnight to 4am. So even crazy Frank Miller knows that being Batman is a part time gig for Bruce Wayne.
ReplyDeleteMost people really consider Spider-Man the closest MArvel character to Superman in terms of morality that his life must be in the gutter. Look at him right now it's awful. He's living on Mockingbird's couch and he has been denegrated by her with no just cause.
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