You say potato, I say confidential


“The other day, I was reading through some of DC’s offerings and noticed out-of-continuity stories featuring Batman and Superman. The Superman was pretty solid, just kind of a fun, silly throwback to the retro years. The plot was a little thin, but the dialogue was sharp and it had cool art that fit the story pretty well. The Batman book, on the other hand, was just a complete disappointment. There are plenty of Batman-early-in-his-career stories out there that are really good, this just wasn’t one of them.”

Quiz time: When were the above sentences written?

Yes, I could easily be describing today’s DC, in which Superman Confidential has been a decent success with its talented creators and Batman Confidential has been total piss with its possibly talented creators. Or, I could be describing the DCU circa last year, when All Star Superman had decent success with its talented creators and ASSBAR was flown into the side of the mountain by Frank Miller.

The real question here is what the hell is DC trying to do? I’m all for having talented creators take on great characters, but the way DC has managed these efforts in the past two years seems like the editorial staff is too busy putting out fires to organize a coherent strategy. The All Star line was supposed to be a big deal to supplement all the Infinite Crisis action, and the issues did sell plenty well, but the great talent couldn’t manage to get anything done on time, while additional series (ASWW anyone?) haven’t materialized.

So, what do we get? A year later, and there’s two new series under some random header (confidential… what does that mean?) featuring the company’s two most famous characters. Granted, I really enjoy Superman Confidential. Anything that combines Tim Sale and Darwyn Cooke is A-OK in my book. But that’s one successful series (to me) out of the four non-continuity specials that have been released.

I don’t know that this is the problem, but I can’t help but think it plays a factor, is that it seems DC has been making a run at Marvel by bringing in big-gun talent, for both ongoing series and new projects. In some cases, like with Matt Wagner’s Batman stories, it’s worked out. In others, like with the excruciatingly delayed Wonder Woman relaunch, it hasn’t. What seems to be the difference between the books that work and those that don’t is story. When these writers come in, a la Wagner, and have a clear storyline in place and are dedicated to finishing it, then the series works well. When substance takes a back seat to fame, it’s the fans who lose out.