Robserecaps Twenty – episode 52 the DC Dilemma part 2 the True 52
by Joe
More on the last ten years of DC Comics, Jimmy Jay is nor here so it’s unfiltered the Rob and as always, it’s worth a listen to any current comics book fan.
- the Rob starts off by saying he loves making comics so much, he’ll probably die with a pencil in his hands
- According to the Rob, DC Comics is currently surrounded by tons of “rumor and innuendo.” Bruce in Connecticut just shed a tear
- In the Rob’s 24 years (at the time) in the business, nothing compares to the two years in the “insane asylum” that was DC Comics
- Warner Brothers runs all their media like a “multi pronged octopi”
- When Paul Levitz was in charge, he wanted to keep a low profile so the publishing office would not be scrutinized
- Flying home from Baltimore in 2010, Len Wein told the Rob that Paul Levitz made sure Len got a check for his creation of Lucius Fox, who Len made more off royalties from than Swamp Thing or Wolverine, who he also created
- Dan Didio, on the other hand, decided to sell the higher up on DC Comics being much more complicated than it actually was, and that only he could run things, “mixing the secret ingredients”
- Behind the scenes, however, Dan became ‘a raving lunatic’
- When working on the January 2012 issue of Hawk & Dove (five or six), the Rob got a call from Dan and Bob Harris, offering him Grifter, Deathstroke and Hawkman, starting with issue nine
- Hawk & Dove had survived the first purge, but with DC offering the Rob three other books, he knew the writing was on the wall
- the Rob had been following Deathstroke, loved Joe Bennett’s art, but Deathstroke (masked guy) was facing some “Annihilus rip off” (masked guy named Legacy) and the Rob felt he needed more expressions in the book
- Now, the Rob has heard the rumors online that Deathstroke was an inspiration for Deadpool, and the Rob says no way! Deathstroke is more a ‘dark Captain America, Winter Solder before Winter Soldier’ he’s got a patch over his eye, wears chainmail, has buccaneer gloves and boots, none of which Deadpool has
- The Rob really wanted to draw Deathstroke, but wanted to work with Bennett so the Rob had Joe moved to Hawkman, gonna create a bunch of new villains, explore Grifter’s origins there, and the Rob got Lobo into Deathstroke
- DC was still back and forth with which of the many Hawkman origins to use, the Rob pitched for the Thanagarian (space) stuff, trying to make Nth Metal a highly sought after thing across the universe
- Mike Martz was the Rob editor on these three books, but then Eddie Berganza contacted the Rob about adding Zealot to Grifter and Cheshire into Deathstroke, so both books had female co-leads, the Rob happily agreed
- Days later, Berganza calls again asking to now move Zealot to Deathstroke and Cheshire to Grifter. This caused the Rob to wonder why so much time was being spent on B/C/D level characters by editorial
- Because the Rob would always, even back to the New Mutants days, the deadline would be cut so close, the Rob and other would joke that these books were coming in wet
- DC had an extra week built into the schedule to keep things on track, but there were issues, like the Rob working on Deathstroke for two months before Dan informed the current writer he was no longer on the book
- the Thursday before Grifter is ready to head to the printers, the Rob gets a call from Bob Harris, Berganza and Martz, stating Dan threw the Rob’s proofs across the room, blowing a gasket that Cheshire was in the book.
- This group of editors solution was the keep the look of Cheshire and just give a new name and pretend she was a new character. They gave the Rob 90 minutes to think of a new name
- July 4th weekend, yet another new editor contacts Bennett to change panels and art in Hawkman #0. On his vacation, the Rob call him (not named, but it’s Brian Smith, who the Rob bashed online years ago) to see why things approved by Dan are being changed without the Rob’s notification
- Of these books, the Rob would have wrote Hawkman forever, but the editorial interference was just too much
- The Rob is aware of 5-6 retailers in California, that all order on one account, which only carry Batman books
- the Rob calls the New Mutants at the time, Skids, Rusty, Boom Boom and Rictor, the Poopy Diaper Gang
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