“Honestly, [the amount of fill-in stories on titles] all just reinforces my opinion that delays are better than fill-ins in the long run.”
“Why? The only difference is, you get a choice of having a filler or not between delayed issues. For many fans, something is better than nothing. It doesn’t delay the issues any further, just changes the number on the issue.”
“You could argue that it makes the creative team lazier, knowing that a book will come out no matter what and feeling less guilty and motivated to finish.”
“Package customers gotta wise up and tell their stores NOT to order these fill ins. When enough people pass on them, DC will get their shit together. As long as there are OCD freaks who need to have #851 instead of a GOOD STORY by a GOOD team, DC will keep putting issues out for all the wrong reasons.”
“I suppose the fact that I read comics based more on specific creators than on characters affects my opinion, which is why I don’t really mind delays that much because I’ll eventually get the product I’m looking for, and the dudes who buy comics solely for the characters will get the product they’re looking for when they buy a fill-in. But it’s just not really something I care for. And I’ve had an instance or two where I’ve felt a bit annoyed by the fact that I marched into the magazine store to buy the comic I’m looking for, only to find that it wasn’t written (or drawn) by the guy who was doing the storyline I was enjoying and that got interrupted midstream in order to have the book out on the stands.”
(Of course, you could always just pay attention to what you’re buying, and if it’s not by the creators you want to read, not buy it, but… ah, never mind…)
“I really fail to see how it would hurt DC, to just ’sit’ on some of these projects. I mean seriously, why couldnt they wait and get 6 or so issues in the can with All-Star Superman, like what they are trying to do with All-Star Wonder Woman by Adam Hughes? And did nobody think to tell Jim Lee to rethink drawing TWO books? I know he’s the boss and a cash cow, but why did no one at Wildstorm, just ask Jim to rethink drawing WildCATS, and maybe just doing the cover for it? And why didnt they just cancel WildCATS or Authority before they shipped, before #1 shipped, especially since they KNEW that the second issues on both were running late from Lee and Morrison? I mean, Marvel is FAR from a saint at this, but DC’s schedule looks more like the old Image’s.”
“Marvel fans only bitch about Quesada because they don’t have to worry about Didio. DC is likely to fall apart on his watch.”
“DC has never before, in 30 years made me feel so alienated and betrayed as a fan as with IC and the subsequent comics. Checkmate is good. 52 is good. Little else. Superman now sucks. Busiek is good, but there are so many fill-ins. Batman with Dini is good. The rest, not so much. Wonder Woman was good, but with no ending to the story, delays, and a complete team change, I have little interest. Ion was lame. Nightwing was cool, especially since he proposed to Barbara, but post IC was so bad it will go down in comics history. Flash? Used to love Wally. Couldn’t make it to 6 issues with the relaunch. Dropped Hawkgirl. Dropped JLA. Dropped Flash. GA is ending, and I won’t be picking up the relaunch. Titans needs to end. Shazam is a sucky change across the board. I have never dropped so many titles in my life. The sad part is, I honestly enjoyed most all of them prior to IC. And with all the delays, it just makes it that much worse. I have said it before and will say it again. Didio needs to be fired. The creative path he is taking the DCU, as well as his management of talent and timeliness of books is sub-par. They need to remove him from his position and put in some fresh blood who will steer the ship in the right direction.”
April 16th, 2007 at 9:35 am
“Package customers gotta wise up and tell their stores NOT to order these fill ins. When enough people pass on them, DC will get their shit together. As long as there are OCD freaks who need to have #851 instead of a GOOD STORY by a GOOD team, DC will keep putting issues out for all the wrong reasons.”
Not to argue with someone from the Bendis Board who isn’t even here, but I’ve been LOVING DC’s fill ins.
They’ve been having McDuffie, and Busiek, and Nicieza, and Pfieffer, and Ostrander doing books.
How can someone complain about that? I’d rather see those than the Johns/Donner Superman or the Heinberg or Piccoult WW anyway.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:49 am
The fill-ins are annoying, but yeah, they’ve been getting generally good talent for them. I’d rather have that, than have to wait months for an issue.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Wah wah wah.
Pot meet Kettle
Ultimates Vol. 1
Ultimates Vol. 2
Secret War
Daredevil Father
Spider-Man & Black Cat
Bullseye: Target
Iron Man – Ellis
Civil War
Young Avengers
Astonishing X-Men
April 16th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Maybe I’ve been lucky in the titles I’ve been reading, but… I don’t remember when I’ve enjoyed DC comics so much. There are more titles coming out that I want to pick up than I can keep up with.
April 16th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I guess the reason why I dislike delays is because I already believe that there is not a single comic book out there that’s worth the money it costs to buy it in single-issue format – I’m sorry, but not even Alan Moore at his best is worth nearly $3 for a single issue of roughly 20 pages of actual content – and by delaying the issues, it feels like publishers are adding insult to injury.
The Sopranos used to be a good show, but there have been so many delays between their episodes that I long since stopped caring. And for all their flaws, each episode was still close to an hour. I can’t remember the last single issue of a comic book that took me longer than three minutes to read – not skim, but read.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
The Bendis site whining about DC.
Bendis is exclusive to Marvel, so why would anyone expect anything positive about DC to come from the Bendis site?
April 16th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Fill-ins aren’t bad so long as, well, they aren’t bad. I didn’t really enjoy the last two issues of Superman and despite how much I love his previous work, I couldn’t get into Ostrander’s fill-in on Batman. Actually, come to think of it, Batman reads like a fill-in these days even with Morrison at the helm.
Needless to say, these titles and some others have been dropped until I find them fun, interesting, and on the racks filled with quality work.
April 16th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
So even if I agree with most of the characterizations of the books and the lateness, what was the point? Why wade into that argument? Even I’ve posted recently on my own blog about both the lateness issue and Wonder Woman’s sheer suckiness. Marvel ain’t so saintly in the world of lateness either – I find Joe Q.’s responses to readers on the issue to be dripping with smug condescension and peppered with a good dose of passive aggressiveness. I like Bendis’ work, but sometimes I wonder why he says the things in public he says. Like last year by way of Gail Simone. What’s the point?
April 17th, 2007 at 10:55 am
In related news, Bill Gates has called for Steve Jobs to be fired as CEO of Apple.