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Alright, let's get on with the show. Weeding down upon the underworld to smash gangland, come a friend of the unfortunate enemy of criminal. In mysterious, all powerful characters are problems to the police, but a crusade of a law. Hey, welcome to the Els where it's exchanged some sale.
And I'm Joel. So, uh, you've probably heard by now... ...Dandadio doesn't work at DC Comics anymore. No, no.
Now, is it 100% official that this was a firing, that he didn't leave of his own recognizance, or if this was some sort of... ...uh, it feels very strange, because again, all this time later, we waited till Thursday to talk about this, and they've said nothing. No statement, no anything. Nope, no official words.
So, actually, it's even hearsay to suggest he was fired. Although, I think, uh, what's it called? Dandio doesn't refute it, and he has made his own personal statements about it in public. The statement is basically, thanks for the support.
Right, because, I mean, if it was me, and, you know, people were saying I was fired, I would be the first person to jump out, be like, No, no, no, no, they didn't fire me. I quit, even if I meant to pass a aggressive look at it. Well, exactly. The thing is, you don't want to, you want to be able to control your own narrative, and you don't want to look incompetent in a public forum, like the entertainment industry.
So, you know, to be fired so suddenly and so publicly, but with no statement from anybody, it doesn't look good. No, the longer they go on without a statement, the weirder it gets. That's right. That's right.
That's right. It's literally, we're not going to get unofficial words. It feels like we're not going to get an official word about Dandio, from DC, until they replace him. And I don't think they're going to, because the reality is, he was publisher, and he shared that duty with Jin Lee.
They were both co-publishers. I don't levels of executive management. We got editor in chief, two co-publishers. We got a president of the company, which is now actually just president of Warner Brothers Entertainment and not president of DC Comics, specifically, she's just dealing with all of it.
Sounds like a joke, doesn't it? How many publishers does it take to screw it in a light bulb? Right. Well, and it doesn't feel like they're screwing into many light bulbs, honestly.
Not these days. So, welcome to the else exchange. We're going to talk about Dandio. We'll look back in his career.
We're not going to really try and focus on the firing or the controversy surrounding the firing, or even the misinformation that has surrounded this controversy or this. New story. For the last week, instead, we're just going to look at his career and look back at it and be like, here it is. Because we do this now.
We do a profile on a creator and we just look back on their life and their contribution to the medium. Yeah, yeah. Their body of work, any themes that persist in trying to paint a picture, if you will. This is your life, Dandio.
Right. I'm sure he'll appreciate the episode. Oh, I'm sure he's got a big smile on his face wherever he is. Every photo of him does.
Yeah, you look to be a happy guy. He's a chocular fellow. Oh, yeah. By the way, the show is live.
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Normally on Tuesdays around 12, 12, 30 in the afternoon, on Eastern Standard Time. Tuesday was a bad day for me. Physically, I was just feeling like garbage. And as you can hear, you might be able to tell I'm still getting over it.
I'm back to normal, but my chest is now like, okay, let's get rid of that stuff now. That's always the worst for people in our field who have to talk for a living where it's like, hey, let's totally mess up the ear nose and throat area. Right, exactly. That's really altered the thing that you make your living on.
Man, I remember being sick as a kid and having the same woes, like being like, oh, no, I won't be able to talk anymore. Fly with Shicer helping us out with a big old thumbs up. Thank you very much. Flywheel.
And eat that horse. Was he at all related in all those harassment coverups? You're with the new video. I wasn't reading comics back then.
Here's the thing. I am not going to editorialize about that because it gets dangerously close to slander. What I will say is there have been reports within the industry at large, some of them in DC, and there has been some back scratching. Did he have skillfully avoided any controversy surrounding it?
I've noticed. He sure has, which is interesting. I wonder if that's kind of the thing where it's like, oh, yeah, give me all the shit in the world about Nightwing and Wally West. I mean to that other shit.
I just don't suggest that I like groom female creators and give them sexual harassment. So I don't know. And I don't want to talk about it only because we don't know anything. And probably won't know.
And the last thing I want to do is add to the noise by suggesting it's anything more illicit than he was a crappy copublisher, which arguably is not true. And we'll get into that in a little bit. Absolutely. There's also the other thing too that people never bring up in these situations.
And that is maybe he decided he had enough money. He was like staring down the barrel of 60. He had done this job for over a decade. Maybe he just decided, you know what, I want to paint now.
I want to do something else. There is no such person outside of Bill Waters and Fred Rogers who would look at a pile of money and say, I think I have enough. It's frustrating. I literally have this conversation with a couple people recently where I'm talking about wealth and rich people.
And there's like, there is no, they always move the goalposts. I know that when you grow up, you have a number in your head, I get this number, I'm good to go. And then once you hit that number, or if you ever hit that number, you move the goalpost. And you're like, okay, well, I have that number, but what else can I get?
So I don't think I have it. See, I don't think I have a number in my head so much as I have like a... What is that? What that too, but also like a physical goalpost where I ever become gold toilet rich, where I can afford a golden toilet, then I think I'm good.
Right. I don't know what... I'm a rocket car and a golden house. Right, exactly.
You're selling a gold house. Honestly, I don't know where my limit is. I'm living the... I'm living the high life right now and I don't make a lot.
I make enough to be... to do this, which is all I want to do. So I'm good. I mean, like, if I could literally publish my own books, like out of pocket without having to kick start them and stuff, maybe then, but like honestly, I'm good.
I don't know what that number is, but you know, we'll see. Basically to pay Ben and Ethan and Tiffany more. That's nice. The Conagnets Explange Joel just wants 50 bucks.
Yes, please. Right. Yeah. I mean, who doesn't?
Tiki James, do you think DC and Marvel should stop with the continuity for a year and focus on graphic novels and wall on off as a palate cleanser? No, I think they should just do both. And I think that's totally possible. Shared universes are...
they're hard to build, but they're easy to maintain if you have an actual hierarchy of checks and balances. Absolutely. I mean, what I think Valiant actually showed a perfect example of how you can and did do that for a long period of time. I think they really need to believe in the original graphic novel, particularly because that's where the New York Times bestseller lists come from.
That's where the bulk of your sales come from. That's how manga sales do it. Like, it's about selling in bookstores. Get those OGNs out there.
Jay Boselinsky, much love to be both. Trepitations are best about 5G. That's terrible. Let classic characters be themselves.
Stop all the events. Have confident more. Right. The funny thing is, I looked at a timeline they released recently.
It was a photo of what I think is going to be in a free comic book day issue. Right. Generation zero. And it showed you all the Gs and a logo that associated with those Gs with those generations.
Number one, all of them were Batman related. But number two, each one represented literally just like the era of the comics, like the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, the Copper Age. And I'm like, so you're basically saying it's all happened. And 5G is like the future one.
That's fine because you could literally just futures end that shit and be like, no. You could legitimately do like, because 5G does sound suspiciously like futures end. Doesn't it ever? Futures end was this alternate reality history where they're like, this is the future.
It's coming. This is really going to be the future. And no one liked it was a horrible series. And by the end of it they went nah.
In the last couple issues. Like, do we say that was happening? We meant no. Right.
And everything got supplanted because of futures end. But afterwards they went right back to where they were. 5G is like old Bruce Wayne and young black Batman. Okay.
That'll be a fun alternate reality that will help Superman fight some multiversal threat about 5 years down the line. Like literally they could just take 5G and be like, we're doing this for a year. And no one reads it and then they freaking throw it away. The biggest thing they really did is to say that, oh yeah Wonder Woman is actually canonically the first DC superhero now.
Quit trying to make something out of something like, okay fine. Like you don't need to make an event out of it. You could literally, that's the level of continuity change slash retcon that you'd find in like an issue of Green Lantern. Yeah, it's true.
And also feels very much like a movie related thing where it's like, well no she's got to be first now because those movies because Wonder Woman 84 is coming out and that one's actually tracking pretty good. Okay. I could think of bigger boneheaded decisions made by DC. So let's talk about Dandodio.
Dandodio, it's funny because like we talked about how he's had his job for 10 years but really he's been working at DC for more like 20 years. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, yeah. And before that he got his start in television I would be remiss to say that he worked for mainframe entertainment, the makers of reboot and Shadow Plan and all these other wonderful Canadian icons.
Yes, it's ironic that Dandodio was story editor for a show called Reboot. I know, right? I'm a man who loved Reboot so dearly. It's predalition for rebooting everything.
Dude worked at Reboot by the way. Not bad. I will say though, he was the story editor for season 3 of Reboot, which I didn't watch. Many people malign season 3.
That's the one with Matrix. Yeah, where it all got darker and grittier and everything and they completely blew up the status quo. Yeah, you can really, you can see a through line here how yeah, reboot was. That's kind of like fun and all ages.
Anyone can enjoy it. Kids and adults. Universe with all these like fun whimsical characters and then season 3 comes along and with Dandodio and suddenly it becomes this dark gritty adult oriented, you know, literally the little boy in the story. And he's like a grizzled war veteran like.
And that was back in 97. Yep, the Robin analog goes the right dark and gritty reboot and everything. Yeah. What the hell was that little boy's name?
Enzo. I never liked Enzo. No, I know. Enzo ages Bob.
Yeah, exactly. You should. You want to know the funniest thing about Enzo? Enzo was never even supposed to be in reboot.
That was a story note from an old Italian producer who said, Hey, you know, you need a kid in this show. You need someone a POV for the children. You know, a little Enzo to which the writers are like, so what are we going to call him? Enzo work for?
Okay, he's going to be Enzo. Right. Exactly. That's the level of creative like output from the writers room.
Whenever you told they need to do something. I just love that we need a little Enzo. That's why Enzo and his name doesn't match any of the other computer things, you know, dot mouse everything else who see Enzo. Yeah.
Why not? Why not? But yeah. So did he joins DC around like the beginning of 2002 as vice president of editorial?
Yes, he did, which many people forget that he also has a writing career. I don't think he has any like instant classics that people can point to though I find it really hilarious that he got that job at DC on the office and the same time he was writing Superboy, which is funny because here's a legacy character. Here's a young character. The sort of characters that everyone I think would say even in a meanie way.
Oh, you know, Jadio hates those characters because they age the older one. Right. Well, I mean, I think in the Superboy case, well, he did write. I think only like six issues in that series.
I think because Superboy was technically like a clone. And this was like he was made only a year ago. Right. This was near the end.
This was in the era when like Connell was living in Hawaii and knockout was there. And I think by the end, it's super. And I was like, OK, why don't you just go live in Smallville? And no, we'll say you're like my your other cousin.
Right. Right. I mean, because we've literally run out of stories that a beer, be erringed, you know, counterculture Superboy can tell. Let's just do Junior Superman now.
I like Connor and I love his like dark years when he was a leather jacket wearing like asshole. Yep. You know, it's embarrassing years. There's blunder years, if you will.
Yeah, don't we all have those? I think we all have the Connell years. Oh, totally. But yeah.
So, but the deal does have a writing credit. And he's been writing. It's not like he became like an executive. And then he like halfway through was like, I'm creative and then started writing shit.
Like he's been writing since then. Like he started with Superboy. He moved on. He not only did he write books, he also wrote a column.
Yes, he did. Which was at the end page of every book. I remember it being there and never reading any of them. No, same here again.
It's not like the Stan's soapbox is where it's like, Oh, what was your favorite DC nation? Well, yeah, because for me, I remember like Stan's soapbox. It's Stan. He's like the father of Marvel comics.
Well, one of them. And you know, when Stan is something to say and he's saying on behalf of Marvel, you kind of listen. When the new executive vice president of marketing comes in and he's like, I'm right. Who are you?
What are you saying? Like, what is this? I don't know you, man. I haven't let you into my home and into my heart the same way I let's say.
Exactly. That being said, like he did become a pretty like strong advocate for his industry and for his comics. His column did resume for a good long time. And of course, he, you know, not getting into the weekly series yet, but he also worked on other series like a metal man.
Can we talk about? Yeah, I was going to say, can we talk about that for a second? I think if we can sum up to do as a creator, I think there's two things that he really loved. And really champion.
One was the metal man. The other one was Omak because he would write those series. And every time there was a new initiative, like New 52 or what have you, oh, look, Omak got a book and oh, look, the metal man got that really who likes these to deal like them. Right.
And that for me is almost clever. And I'll tell you why. If you're going to be an executive and you have your sights set on publisher or president of this company, but you still want to kind of ingratiate yourself with the fans and get some cred. You could screw up and insert yourself and write a Batman book or secret book, especially if you are not a writer.
If you've only been a story editor and you've only been an executive, right? You could really put out a pretty big mozzable in front everybody. But instead, he's like, I'm gonna pick niche characters that the fan base for which is so niche and so vocal. They'll be happy to have a metal man book.
It's almost endearing. And like he did it so often. I'm like, no, he has to be a fan of these characters. And what a fan move when I get in power, I'm going to be sure to push the characters I like.
It would be like if I had his job, it's like, okay, what's Green Arrow doing this week? Everyone. So Green Arrow is the center of the universe, right? He's the new fourth pillar yet.
Okay, no one wants to write it. Fuck it. All right. Right.
Right. By the way, just as a side note, I can't believe after Arrow became successful that they didn't go all in on Green Arrow. Well, they did. They brought in the writers from the show to write it.
That's a fan. That's not going all in on a Green Arrow. I mean, like making Green Arrow the linchpin of your events. I mean making Anselaire Green Arrow series, making Green Arrow original graphic novels, re printing like the Longbell Hunters in an oversized graphic novel format.
Like really selling Green Arrow is like better Batman. He's more well adjusted. He's brighter colored. He's got a senior sidekick.
There's more to go on with this. Like you could really have tried and there could have been a very, very clear path for mainstreaming Green Arrow, especially when you have a major fan favorite series behind him on TV. Green Arrow's history is just a long line of dropped balls and boondoggles and everything. It doesn't even have a fucking book now.
Right, bizarre. But no, I think that his affinity for things like Metal Men and the Outsiders is Machiavellian. I think that he's like, no, they'll be glad to have a book. They'll champion me.
And because there's like, there have been a lot of issues with that. But definitely in the context of like the 2000s, not so much. The comparative, the comparison of previous runs of metal men to the current run of metal men. You really got to go back and look for those books to see the writing is in fact better or not.
So if it's modern enough and it's contemporarily like if it's voice is contemporary enough and it has a halfway decent story, people will say, hey, metal men is good. And those fans will talk about what an awesome champion of fan favorite characters you are and they'll get behind you. And you can be like, no, no, my favorite character is the metal man. You can't check me on that.
I don't have to name any of them. Like, you know what I mean? It's one thing if you say like, my favorite favorite character is Batman. And you got literally 100 people who are like, I challenge your credibility as a fan.
To explain. Yeah, please show me your cred. Whereas all you have to do is be able to name all the metal men to say you are the world's biggest metal man. It's like, fair enough.
Good, good on you, sir. I have no clap back to this. Right, because I can't. And it's not because I think they suck.
It's just I don't care. Ruski says one day YouTube will fix streaming on mobile one day. I hope so. I heard they did with the update.
So update your other YouTube on your phone. As if the end says, I can't stay for long. Just wanted to give some cash and say you too got me back into reading comics. Thank you very much, man.
I really appreciate that. I love to hear that. That means a lot. Hopefully you're catching us either live or on the repeat.
And Taylor Pester, his tenure, that is to say, Dan DeDios as both executive editor and the later publisher was definitely rocky. A lot of good and a lot of bad. He was a part of some of my favorite stories. Let's talk about the good.
What were some of the good things that Dan DeDio brought to the table at DC Comics? I mean, he was one of the architects behind the new 52, obviously, for good or for ill. But here's the thing, you like your Jeff Lemires, you like your Scots and eithers, you like that whole class of writers? You got to thank Dan DeDio because he had a major hand in hiring all these people.
In fact, they were some of the first people to, you know, what does it express their condolences for his leaving and everything. And I think, you know, you really don't think of the web that he weaves and the ripple effects in that regard. No, that's right. The guy had to have an eye for talent and find that talent curated and put it on the right books as a co-publisher.
I mean, that's really mostly out of your job. But I don't know what the hell Bob Harris does. No, neither do I. So, and the fact is, but I wouldn't credit Harris with a lot of like the effort, the boots on the ground, getting talent, curating it and fostering talent within the books.
But not only did he birth the new 52, which I hate and we'll talk about that in a minute, but he also was the architect of 52. Yes, yes he was. Although he had a very controversial take on it saying countdown was better than 52. Well, here's the thing.
Like, so that is the wake of 52. When 52 started, he and others, instrumentally executed a weekly series with top tier art and current writers and artists developing a series that literally told a linear story and multiple stories each week, culminating in kind of like the one of the best stories of Rooster Gold ever. Yeah. While also introducing new characters, Batwoman, for example, was a Batwoman she get brought into on 52?
Are you think that the question? Yeah, I think of the question. I'm sorry. No, that one showed up in two.
And so long as it's ever in 52. I think that one showed up in 52. But in any case, 52, it was a it was a feat of comic book engineering, where it's like a weekly series in continuity. And it's good.
Yeah, I know. And it was so amazing and so successful that the deal never let the number go. No, he never did. He's like, and 52 really an idea.
It's a good marketing strategy. 52 weeks in a year. Moon, that's it. That's at all.
And I guess 52 or whatever. But like, let's just start with that. That's really cool. Then I think because he wanted credit and he wanted more because like people credit a lot of other people for their success.
Certainly do. The writers and the artists and whatnot. But I think the deal wanted more out of that, which is where the proliferation of weekly series came in. And the insistence on that number and him saying that countdown was better than 52.
Yes, which I which people still give him shit about to this. He didn't even say it was better. He said that countdown was 52 done right, which I was like, Oh, oh, oh. Right.
52 was done right. Countdown was done 100% wrong. And by the way, countdown, as far as I'm concerned, it's just a precursor to final crisis. Yeah, absolutely.
It's countdown to. Yeah. It's called countdown to final crisis. It's in the friggin name.
But like it is a it is an opening act to the main event, which is final crisis. It isn't nobody gives a shit about like whatever led. Who's favorite issues of Batman are the leading up to nightfall? Yeah, really.
It's about nightfall. It's about the main event countdown. I guess like on one hand, you got to give him credit like, Hey, you executed yet another weekly series. Yeah, good on you.
No, it's not as successful. I know they never got more successful after that. No, no, no. We mentioned futures and before.
Hey, remember when they did futures and yeah, which was arguably one of the worst things ever sure was I hate it so much. But that comes after new 52. Yeah. So the deal has this bright idea along with the rest of his ilk to reboot the universe out of Flashpoint, which I've always maintained was an afterthought.
Oh, certainly. Flashpoint was the story and they went, wait, we could reboot right now. Yeah, if you read those Jeff John flash stories in the lead up to a flashpoint, he had no idea that was going to add. He's like, Oh, I'm just telling a cool flash story.
Yeah. So 52 happens. And that's yet another feathering is kept by the way. So the deal helps to originate 52 countdown 52 weeks in a year.
New 52, we're going to do the 52 thing again. So you never forget the need and it worked on this and made this happen. And like it or hate it, Nif 52 was a huge success. Definitely.
It was a commercial success. It got major eyes on the publisher again. It got increased sales. Of course, they screwed that up because we were like, let's do 52 books.
Yeah. Too many bucks, too much. Too many options. People have too much choice.
I make no choice. Look at Netflix. How much time do you spend on Netflix just clicking through shows and not actually watching anything? That's the thing.
And if I don't know anything about it, like if I'm a new entry to it, like, you know, if I if I just got introduced to Netflix today, I'd be like, Oh, no, I'm not going to do this. There's too many kind of options. But if you're like a classic Netflix user, you're like, you transition into it. You got you got used to the bathwater.
Like, so now, okay, I get it. I know what to look for and how to suss out. What doesn't work? If you're a new reader, like, you think what's supposed to be?
And then you're like, Hey, here's 52 frickin issues. Yeah. Here's the whole series you can pick out. Do I read them all?
Are they all important? This is getting expensive. And then what if I fall in love with this book? Oh, that book didn't sell very well.
So it's canceled. Sorry. Yeah. Hey, I'm surprised you didn't talk about this.
I know that you are a big Western DC fan. He worked on the weird Western tales tie in for Blackest Night. Yes, yes, he did, which is kind of fun and kind of cool and everything. And like you said, with the metal man and with O-Mac and all those other cool things, it's like, Hey, let me do this cult thing.
You'll really like it. Right. And I did feel happy and seen. But now that you're saying maybe he was being back in the belly and manipulative about him, I'm like, Hey, wait a minute.
Right. I mean, like, Hey, people, like, there is a subset of our audience that really likes Western books. It's not enough to sell a series that isn't enough to sell either a one shot. Or enough or enough of an audience to sell me as integral to this line.
You get rid of me. You'll never see another weird Western tale. You'll never see the metal men again. You'll never see all these beloved franchises that I have associated myself with.
You'll never see a great weekly series from DC again. Goodbye to number 52. Yeah. It just feels like he safeguarding his position without a doubt.
And maybe that's why he's stuck in the job as long as he did again, sitting here looking at his output. Remember the very short live New 52 Phantom Stranger he did when it's like, no, Phantom Stranger and Pandora in the question. The Trinity of Sin. It's a big deal.
It's a big store. Oh, all these books I canceled before we got to explain what the fuck. Yeah. And the question is like, did it even matter?
Like, did they, did they even have an answer? They probably didn't. Like, well, clearly it didn't matter because like Pandora got killed by document hat and like practically off panel. Yep, sure did.
The harbinger of the new 52. Oh, she's connected to everything. She's in every first issue. What is her story?
Oh, she just is Pandora. Oh, God. Yeah, she just is poof. And also, Phantom Stranger is Judas, but we don't mention that anymore.
Well, I mean, yeah, sometimes I think they've maintained that for a long time. Have they maintained that still? I thought they stopped mentioning that. Oh, they've stopped mentioning it now, but I'm just saying like, you know, that's you can do that.
That's fair. Matthew Mosley, here's a little support a little support the best channel. Thank you very much. Rosie and bots Russian bot.
Does this mean that Nightwing gets to come back? Yeah. And also, apparently, what is it? Tiny was working on that anyway.
I think the race and thing had already had its run. So they were already building back up to that. But not before you has to fight the Joker. Right.
Yeah, don't forget that. Man, I kind of want to pick up that race and Joker story because I kind of love the idea of the Joker going to mess with night. What do you mean? You think your name is Rick.
We've had a history. Remember who you are. You asked. I would love it if Joker made him remember who he was.
That'd be fucking hell. Joker shows up. It's like, don't you remember me? Nah, I'm right.
I don't remember anything. I've always maintained Joker is like a secret safeguard. He's a secret continuity buff and like loves to preserve history. I've always wanted like I wanted him to be the new cycle pirate or the new 52 where he's the only remembers everything.
That's why I cut the face off. I've always wanted like, but I would love it if Joker's like, I'm not gonna kill you. I'm just gonna I'm gonna torture you into remembering everything because it's no fun if you don't remember my history. Yeah, here's the old Haley circus.
Here's you know all these other things. Remember, damn it. Oh my God. I think you do this.
He puts him through like a gauntlet of trauma where he makes him go on the trapeze and like makes him like kills people that look like his parents. Oh, man, I hope who's writing that now. The Jurgens or Abnett who's writing Nightwing current wing. I don't know.
I don't envy them, but I'm sure they're feeling good now. Yeah, here's a pitchman. This one's free. You can use this one.
Yeah, you can call it Carnival of Memories or something like that. A Carnival of Horrors. Rizy Lee, I want Ethan as the future. I bloody love you.
You sell. Thank you. That's very kind of you and I'm glad that you dig Ethan. He's cool.
He'll be here a little bit. 94 even Gellion about to deal. How come he hated 52 with all countdown to final crisis was a success. Also, the end of the deal won't change anything.
There's Harris. What does Harris do? That's the thing. We're not exactly sure.
I know he keeps Scott Lodele employed, but beyond that and I don't like it. The thing is the deal took a lot of heat as we said before. So we're going to find out if the deal actually deserves some of that heat because if DC continues to make the same bone head decisions they've been making for the last hour long, he's worked there 10 years 20, if you really want to use his entire body work, yeah, then you know that he was just kind of doing that because he was a good soldier. Definitely.
You know, it would gale some out of all people a person who has no reason to lie in this situation briefly talked about to deal in her time at DC and she brought up something rather interesting. She said, you know, the funny thing about Dan was was that he never got credit for the things he actually did right and he happily took credit for thing or took the blame for things that other people did wrong. I'm like, really? Yeah, it's very interesting.
That is it's very telling and it means that like he was a good executive. Mm-hmm. Eat that horse when it comes to his writing to deal with someone really hard to pin down for me. I never loved anything of his.
Same. It was all very middle of the road. I agree. I can't say like, yo, this is the best Dan to deal story ever.
That's the thing and I think that if he were a terrible writer, he was intelligent enough to know, no, I got to step back. I can't do that. Like I should not be writing this book. He says, I maybe Marvel will pick him up and I can finally see him write a Spider-Man story.
I think that no one wants that. He wrote his Spider-Man story was called sideways. I never want to see to deal with Marvel. I think Marvel is smart enough not to employ him.
I think they have enough people right now. That's the thing. I think they have enough people at the executive level. I think they have it.
I think that Kevin Feige, who's chief creative officer of Marvel. Would be like, oh, I don't think that's such a good idea. I don't need another swinging dick around here. Let let IDW or boom happen and let's face that's the other thing.
The comic industry, despite what people will tell you, is actually quite small and quite incestuous and just because Dan to deal was gone from DC, do not be shocked if we hear in like a month. Oh, he got picked up by another company because hey, he's got Hollywood contacts and a whole, you know, experience and resume behind him. It's true. If he, the fact that there's been no news about his termination suggests that maybe they're doing him a favor by not saying anything at all.
Yeah. And if that's the case, then they're doing it to preserve his career. And if they are trying to preserve his career, then we will see him probably get a job. The thing is if you don't see him work for Valiant or IDW or boom or like Dark Horse.
Skybound. Skybound. I can see him go to Dark Horse very quickly. Yeah.
But if you don't see him move to one of those publishers in the next month or two, it's because like you could infer that like more news about to drop about this guy. Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's the waiting.
The waiting is the hardest part, but not knowing. Yeah. And it really could just be that, you know, he just, he was, he was, he cared too much and he, and he stuck his neck out too much. Quite possibly.
I think another saga of Dan to deal with tenure we have to talk about is the Kate Kane Batwoman Maggie Sawyer wedding that he shot down apparently very early in the new 52. And a lot of people, you know, said, Hey, this sounds like some blatant homophobia right here. Why can't these two women get married only for him to come back with probably the worst response. He couldn't was like, No, no, it has nothing to do with them being gay.
I just don't think any hero should be married and be allowed to be happy. Right. Which is it's too much inside baseball outside. The thing is if you tell your role, like, I know, Ben is the same thing actually.
Ben is talking about how I remember he responded to a critique he got where they were like, Leave Darnable alone. And he was like, What do you want me to do? Like, haven't you a sandwich? The book would be really boring.
And it's like what you don't what you have to like, you kind of have to fool yourself as a reader into thinking that this is not serialized fiction that was here before you were born and be here after you die. It's so bop, right. And the fact is there if you give your audience a natural way out of the book, believe it, and then they'll figure out that they're wasting their money on your comic book. And you don't want that you don't want that you want them to constantly keep buying the next thing.
That's why every issue no matter how important or integral or or final ends with a cliffhanger or something. Absolutely. It goes back to radio plays even that's be sure to come back next week. Yeah, exactly.
Daniel Prato season three reboot was great. Some people do definitely feel that I definitely think I was in the camp to where reboot got older and more mature as I was getting older and more mature. So there's definitely a group of people of a certain age who will say yo it got awesome. And that's the thing is that like DeDio knew his audience and barely at least he thought he did because he's like listen, dark and gritty is where it's at.
Yeah, it's 97 man. Right. Make it dark and gritty make it more mature, kill them, rape them like do whatever it takes to get the story in people's minds in the trades in write-ups. We're the mature publisher.
Marvel tell stories with superheroes that don't age and can't die and blah blah blah who cares. But like DC's where you come for the hard hitting real stuff. And it's like yeah, but if everything is like that, where's the joy? Where's the respite?
And they play that and like it feels like they play out that pattern again every five to eight years where it's like oh DC's getting really dark and agree again. Right. And I definitely think he's responsible for a big part of that. And I think it worked for him in the past.
Well, you know what's funny when I was 13 or 12 I thought that was awesome and I really I gravitated towards that kind of stuff because that's why that made me think I was more mature. And I think that season three of reboot being darker and grittier is kind of like oh my god, like how cool. But when you like go back and rewatch some of that, I think you're gonna be like, oh, you know, actually I kind of really miss when they were just going on adventures. You know, it helps too for a TV show with an actual end like it is where it's like, okay, this this was the dark season.
This was the Empire Strikes Back that that's okay because they got lighter and happier later on. And even in the seasons that were technically just movies, you got to have your cake and eat it too because it's like, okay, here's Matrix dark and gritty ends up. Oh, because it's a computer. We backed up little queue ends up.
So we have both. Yeah, by the way, Rizy Lisa's Love You Joel. That's my little brother's name. Oh, thanks, man.
I needed to hear that today. I cracked a tooth the other day and I've been a little down about it. So thank you for the kind words. Yeah, he also says to deal with a wrap job on my girl Raven.
Oh, yeah, right. But man, you know, that's basically an 18 Titans-centric character. But Raven, especially, Raven at least got too many series where they tried to restart her from scratch both times and neither time it worked. Nope.
We should talk about that at some point, just like why, like, why is it the character like Raven's a really cool character. And, you know, when you look at like the old like Wolfman era of Teen Titans, you know, Raven's very different from every other incarnation of that character. It's true. And the Titans go slash Teen Titans animated series.
Like that Raven's different from the young Justice Ray. Like all these Ravens, they're all very different. They all work very well. Or at least they work for their own universes.
Definitely. Why is it that like, you can't just take like, here's the name, here's the costume, here's the powers and doing something new. And it doesn't work. It's funny.
You know, it's like all those like Raven mini series that we got them like, man, this would be really great. This was a Tracy 13 mini series. Like, you have characters that this fit better before. In fact, hey, was this a pitch for one of those other characters and they're like, yeah, I'm making about Raven, though.
That could very well be why it didn't work and why so many of those don't work because it's like, it's a pitch for somebody even more natural. True enough. Bring it back to the bad one thing again. So, you know, I think Diio had that whole like a secretly homophobic thing hanging over his head for a very long time.
And yet, another piece of credit that you have to give him is that he was one of the driving forces behind that love his love anthology to benefit the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. And that was one of his big initiatives. And again, bring it back to Simone who said that, you know, when she was bringing in more LGBT characters and ideas for her book, she went to Diio to get it. Okay, and apparently he always championed that stuff as an editor and as a head.
And I'm like, really? That's very interesting to know. Yeah. And if you look at Diio as a fan, it's like, I get why he would do that.
If you get if you look at him as an executive, as a company man, like, did he see the potential for that kind of inclusion and go like, yeah, actually, we're trying to like, I mean, the fact is N52 and 52, like everything that Diio did seemingly was an effort to get people who don't normally be comics to read them. True for better or for ill. Yes. And inclusion is a big part of that because it requires you to reach out to audiences you otherwise either ignored, marginalized, or didn't regard.
Like, yeah, that's the deal who loved and cared about his company that he worked for. And there's the guy who also was a creator and, you know, wanted to tell his own stories too. And, you know, because I wonder if Diio truly hated the Titans and legacy characters, or if he was just like, no, they're bad for business. I can't, I can't afford to have regard for Robbins and, you know, and Nightwing's and whatnot, because I think they're bad for business.
It's got to the point too that, you know, Diio's, you know, hatred of Nightwing Dick Grayson specifically has become basically a meme within the comic book community. And you have to figure like, did we help stoke that legend? Because the word is always like every event. Diio was like, hey, why don't we kill Nightwing?
Why don't we make him lose his memory? Why don't we make him a spy this time? Diio, did you not like this guy? Or do you think just like, oh, no, we need to move him in a different direction.
He can't just be Nightwing. Even as early as like the DC Rebirth panel, he even joked about it when they put Nightwing back in the blue. He's like, hey, you didn't clear that with me. No.
I'm like, was even he aware? Was even he like, you know, leaning into it a bit? It's like, I hate Nightwing. It's funny, isn't it?
Definitely. Well, he made that announcement. That was at WonderCon. He was in a room full of fans.
Like, that was absolutely him playing to the audience and being like, no, like, listen, just because you and I, like, he as the executive, as the co-publisher, as the guy, as the idea guy, and you the fan disagree, doesn't mean we have to hate each other. Doesn't mean we're adversarial. Like, convince me that you want more Nightwing by buying more Nightwing. Yeah, and then I will give you the Nightwing you want.
Even Gillian, considering his hate for legacy characters and his love of Grimdark, why didn't he ever work for Marvel? Maybe he'll do it now. People are really like, do you want to work for Marvel? Because I sure don't.
I mean, they already have beddests and they're already probably paying him more than anyone else in the comic industry today. Yeah, I don't think Marvel needs a Deo. And I don't think that Marvel wants a Deo. Harlow's Fang, Drop in some cash before I run to work.
Good luck, have a great day. Any recommendations for Marvel or DC graphic novels, Graff Snyder's, JL and Absolute Carnage today. Yeah, like Story, pick that up. DC's just really good.
I like that too. I'm Mortal Hulk. Yeah, Mortal Hulk is a great series. So you should definitely grab some of those.
Is it Darsky's Daredevil? Yeah, Zarsky's Daredevil is excellent. I'm still going to track down an issue one because I just need that. So there you go.
Carlos Rodriguez, I'm not saying DC and Marvel are going to merge, but Francis Metapal has taken over the current Daredevil book and that would make my life better. Also, Capullo and X-Men. I don't want Capullo and X-Men. I love Capullo's work.
I think he's a really awesome artist. I think he excels when it's one character. I think he gets away from him when he has multiple characters. His work on Dark Knight's Metal is cool, but it's no better than his work on Batman.
And I think it's because there's too much going on. There's too many characters, too much keeps straight. And I don't know if I like his interpretation of everybody. He is great with brooding shadowed characters and giant capes.