The Expanding DCU: Fawcett, Charlton, Red Circle and Milestone

[samurainoir]

DC has had success over the years buying characters from companies that are either no longer around or being used.

Shazam/Captain Marvel probably being the most lucrative for them, and the Charlton characters have definitly earned their keep if you take into account that The Watchmen derived from Alan Moore's Charlton character proposal.

What "!mpact" do you think The Red Circle and Milestone chartacters will have on the DCU? The addition of Static alone would seem to be worth it given his profile outside of comics with a popular animated series which had a sizable kids audience.

At what point do you think Wildstorm will throw in the towel in their own seperate universe and start having the The Wildcats, Authority, Gen 13 et al brought into the mainline DCU in yet another Crisis "event".

[The Toyroom]

The Red Circle and Milestone will have little or no impact IMO or as far as I'm concerned. Milestone I just don't care for and Red Circle I feel is being handled poorly (no offense to JMS but I'd have preferred the honest to goodness original characters instead of these modern day updates).

As to Wildstorm, their universe is already accessible to the DC Universe and isn't it one of the "52"?

[The Toyroom]

As to Wildstorm, their universe is already accessible to the DC Universe and isn't it one of the "52"?

Yeah it is...just checked....it's Earth-50

[johnnystorm]

Neither line will matter in anyway to the DCU...two years down the line Milestone will be relegated to occasional guest-stars if used at all, and the Red Circle characters will be going back to Archie after a year. Static is the Milestone big-name, and DC NEVER did anything with him at all during the entire period the series was on TV. No toys, no trades, nada. Oh, there was a happy meal toy at Subway I think. Whoopee.

I have to disagree on DC having success with buying characters. The Charlton characters came and petered out, it took blowing a hole in poor Ted Kord's noggin to generate interest again. I'm not expecting much from THUNDER Agents, sadly, a book I loved, but I give that a year & a half tops.

They did almost nothing with the Fawcett heroes (excepting the Marvel Family), and have NO CLUE how to handle the Marvels. Ditto the Quality heroes- the only successes there were Blackhawk & G.I.Combat, both having long runs that were basically continuations of the titles that DC bought during their peak. Blackhawk had a run in the 80s as a Cold War sex & spies feature, but nothing I'd declare great, certainly not a run DC could revive.

You could argue Plastic Man was a success, but again, DC has no idea how to handle him in a regular series (despite, what, 8 best selling Archive volumes...of course, the same could be said for Captain Marvel, again a number of successful Archives, nothing similar in regular print).

I think in some cases it's a matter of DC wanting the characters so nobody else gets them.

That being said, I pretty much liked The Hangman #1, but then I love Civil War stuff (the historical version not the Marvel crapola) so it hooked me right away.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I think part of the problem is that DC already has a zillion heroes, and adding a few more isn't gonna be that noticable.

Don C.

[AJ Collector]

I think it's the fact that they won't take a chance and go in a different direction with the zillion characters that they do have that I find it hard to care anymore..

Some of the characters in the DC arsenal are so cool yet stuck in the past (in a bad way) also some just are outright bad but could be revamped to appeal to today’s audience!

[ctc]

>I think it's the fact that they won't take a chance and go in a different direction with the zillion characters that they do have

Yeah. DC has so many different characters representing so many different genres, styles and types of story; but they insist on cutting them all from the same cloth these days.

Don C.

[thunderbolt]

Look at it this way: more cannon fodder for the next Crisis.

[bobws]

Look at it this way: more cannon fodder for the next Crisis.

That about sums up what DC does with other companies characters. This goes all the way back to when National(DC) aquired All-American comics and then owned the goldenage GL and Flash. they somehow get revamped in the late 50's to be DC characters and the JSA while used was ignored mostly for decades besides the annual team up with JLA. Once they had Charlton- a short run freedom fighters, Quality - Capt Marvel and the 2 others were the only characters they used. the qoute above applies!

[johnnystorm]

Here's Dan Didio on the Milestone characters today on Newsarama:

Do you have plans for the Milestone characters (other than Static in the Teen Titans) after the Brave and Bold stories?

DiDio: At this particular time, we have Static in the Teen Titans, and we're looking at a storyline that might be built around Static later in the run. But right now, no other plans.

Guess that ends that. Waste of freakin' time for all involved.

And THUNDER Agents?

What is the time table for the scheduled release of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?

DiDio: Right now, we're working out the development of character, the characters in regards to the team, and actually, they'll probably be introduced not in their own series, but one of our ongoing DCU books first. And they'll play a very large role in a story that will be unfolding in 2010. And then, with any luck, and with interest, we'll see them in their own series probably by the middle of next year.

Translation: we have little faith in these guys.

Oh, here's a goodie:


What is one thing that DC does extremely well that you are proud of?

DiDio: I came from TV, and what's wonderful about the nature of television, which is the same as producing comics, is that we're in a periodical business, or an episodic business. And because of that, we're on deadlines. And we always want to make sure our books hit the deadlines. And you know what? I've gone through an enormous length to tell people, although one or two of books have recently missed a week or two of shipping, we went for three and a half months without missing a single delivery, which I think is incredibly important to do because it was a reaction to the fans, and saying, you know what? We put a book out, it should be there. We have adjusted, and we've made it happen.


Wow, THREE WHOLE MONTHS...IN A ROW!!!? Danny, do you not realize that THE WHOLE FREAKIN' COMPANY put out MONTHLY books for like 50 YEARS until you came along and couldn't keep up? EVERY MONTH FOR LIKE 600 IN A ROW? Sad, the delusional editor in chief or whatever he is. Not a clue.

BTW, Happy Now, Toyroom?

Just this weekend I'm saying nice things about the guy and his Metal Men, and now I have returned to the rantings. I'm so fickle.

[thunderbolt]

^^^ Glad to hear the Milestone stuff is going by the wayside. The Red Circle junk will be forgotten within a year.

[samurainoir]

They picked up The THUNDER Agents as well? I didn't know that. Was there really a huge cult following for those guys back in the day? I remember the eighties revival had nice George Perez art, but other than that, this set of characters never really moved the needle for me.

The one acquisition that I might be interested in seeing DC going after is Elementals since Bill Willingham is one of their stable of writers, although given the fact that Willingham did finish the Elementals story he planned in the pages of Pantheon (with analogous characters), I guess he wouldn't be interested in continuing/concluding that particular set of characters.


Meanwhile over at Marvel... Marvelman!

[The Toyroom]

Here's Dan Didio on the Milestone characters today on Newsarama:

Do you have plans for the Milestone characters (other than Static in the Teen Titans) after the Brave and Bold stories?

DiDio: At this particular time, we have Static in the Teen Titans, and we're looking at a storyline that might be built around Static later in the run. But right now, no other plans.

Guess that ends that. Waste of freakin' time for all involved.

That's what I was thinking too.....obviously no one gave a crap before about these characters and no one gives a crap now....Duh!

And THUNDER Agents?

What is the time table for the scheduled release of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?

DiDio: Right now, we're working out the development of character, the characters in regards to the team, and actually, they'll probably be introduced not in their own series, but one of our ongoing DCU books first. And they'll play a very large role in a story that will be unfolding in 2010. And then, with any luck, and with interest, we'll see them in their own series probably by the middle of next year.

Translation: we have little faith in these guys.

I have little faith in DiDio.....

BTW, Happy Now, Toyroom?

Just this weekend I'm saying nice things about the guy and his Metal Men, and now I have returned to the rantings. I'm so fickle.

I knew the love fest wouldn't last

[The Toyroom]

Oh here's another good one:

Will Jim Starlin be doing any thing for dc in the near future maybe a third (non R.E.B.E.L.S.) sci-fi team up?

DiDio: Right now, Jim's wrapping up Strange Adventures with Issue #8, and I think that's the last work we have on schedule with him at this time.

Good! His stuff has sucked....his Hawkman reboot attempt was so f'ed up they had to abort the whole thing and turn the Hawks over to Geoff Johns so he could ace them and then they could become Black Lanterns....

Starlin is past his prime IMO....

[thunderbolt]

^^^ Glad to hear Starlin's gone. His stuff never ever did anything for me.