Dan DiDio had his problems, I disagree with a lot of his editorial decisions, but he's a perfect example that getting rid of the current white whale is not a guarantee that the ship will be righted.

Didio wasn't a solution for DC in the past and he isn't a solution in the present... many of the problems they have today began with under Didio.

He kept giving Keith Giffen (RIP) work and that’s cause for celebration in itself.

Dan Didio's firing was how I discovered this channel.

Dan Didio was mediocre writer turned editor who belived he was gona be the next Jim Shooter in the industry but ended up as just another Bill Jemas.

All I know is that under Didio, we kept going back to 'get rid of Wally, Dick and even the remnants of the JSA's legacy'. We kept going further grimdark, often pointlessly bleakly so. I formed my final opinion of DD when I learned that, as show-runner for Beast Machines, he told his writers not to watch ANY of Beast Wars - the show that directly spawned it. That is asinine and to my mind, indicative.

I feel like Didio at least was passionate and wore that passion on his sleeve. Even if I didn’t like everything that happened under his watch comics could use more of that passion from executives right now.

Readers: "Civil War 2 sucks." DC: "Hold my beer"

If DC had done some course-correction since Didio left, then it’d be easier to blame him, but very little has changed to improve the line.

I’ve complained about a dismissive pitch session I had with him in these threads once before, but since then I’ve learned that sometimes crusty old editors want to see how much fire you have in your belly and if you are going to “fight back” and show them you really believe in yourself. If that’s the case, I failed the test! This gentlemanly southern boy didn’t understand what was going on 😂

Didio and his endless hate boner for Nightwing as well as all of the New 52, were the worst things. Many of the worst things to come out of DC happened under his go ahead. Is he as loathsome as Quesada and his endless push to ruin Spider-Man? Hard to compare really.

I’ll say Didio always ran a fun panel at conventions. He had great energy.

I disagreed with him on a few points but generally, I think he did a good job. Compared to current executives, he did a GREAT job.

Simpler: Didio didn't do everything wrong himself, but he was the C.O. The whole thing goes on his name.

I enjoyed a lot of what Dan did at dc. It wasn't perfect but dc was in a better place. Minor characters got more focus. A few stellar runs like Johns Green.lantern to Snyders Batman.

I am largely off of social media. So I only consider the books and the comic con panels he was on. And I have more good memories than bad of him.

Mixed bag on Dan. He let Geoff Johns bring back Barry Allen & Hal Jordan along with the emotional spectrum, Wednesday Comics was interesting although it failed. 52 was an interesting concept but then became stagnant with Countdown. Let Grant Morrison go crazy with Batman, but also with Final Crisis. Hated the Marvel-like New 52 and his ridiculous "modern audience" pandering for Batwoman and current version of The Question - where sexual preference trumps story, character development etc. Rebirth was excellent although it seemed like it was more of Geoff Johns pushing for it than Didio. Yes, I think Dan gets probably more blame than he deserves but he also deserves a lot of it. He also did a lot of things right and at least was willing to try new ideas and had at least somewhat of a passion for doing so.

Not letting Wally West be our generation's Flash was the very worst thing he did

DiDio’s problem was the same as Jim Lee’s: he had never been a reader of DC Comics, nor did he have any love for the DC characters. His entire strategy was to make DC more like Marvel and less like itself. It was basically the strategy behind “New Coke” in the 1980’s: the one of making yourself an inferior knock-off of your main competitor’s product, which was itself an inferior knock-off of your own brand.

I read so much DC from 1998 - 2020. I probably read an average of 30 - 40 monthly titles during that period. In hindsight, I find it difficult to avoid the conclusion that any success during Didio's tenure was in spite of his presence rather than because of his presence. He was present for what I consider one of the best periods (with a great line-up of established and up and coming talent) which produced Identity Crisis, Green Lantern Rebirth, Infinite Crisis, "52" (not the "new 52"). But, by that time I had already read and heard several things which suggested there was "tension" between Didio and staff (particularly Johns) during that time. I also recall how much he hated "52" in spite of its obvious success. With the exception of a rather short-lived success of the "new 52", which I always thought was more about the reboot hype than substance, it seemed that every idea he had quickly failed. I also read that he did not really like DC Rebirth, but that he could not really do much about it because of Geoff Johns' position in the company at the time. But, it is pretty obvious that Didio changed the tone of the line as soon as Johns was demoted and had less authority over the line. The thing that mystifies me to this day is how a person with so many failed ideas remained so high in the food chain at DC for so long.

The problem with DiDio is that he had some good stuff during his leadership, but that doesn't make up for all the bad stuff he allowed. Stuff like the New 52, the mistreatment of characters like Nightwing and Wally West, this need to make the DC universe so dark and cynical, and simply trying to force his vision on the franchise. He wasn't the main problem, as shown recently after his firing and definitely doesn't deserve to be described the source of everything wrong at DC. But he wasn't good, either.

Ah, the shortcomings of a public persona: yeah, it was obvious that getting rid of Karen Berger and Mike Chiarelo, making Superman use Snyder’s suit, more Watchmen (aka “f4ck you, Alan Moore), etc. responded to Warner officially making DC an IP library to milk in Hollywood, BUT Didio was SO PROUD OF IT ALL.

Didio had a lot of faults but he pushed for new characters, new imprints, new formats for books, new titles, new approaches to old characters, even new talent. He couldn't handle the big problems like distribution but he tried to find ways around them like putting dollar books in Wal-Mart.

Interesting video and topic for discussion. Thanks Perch. Overall, I liked Dan's "reign" at DC. Is he perfect? Heck no. Did he make some big mistakes? Oh, yes. But I really enjoyed a lot of what he pushed for and I can't say I despise him when 2000's DC is my jam. I agree with the writer that he did try and go for new and big things. The New 52 gets a lot of hate, some of which is deserved, but it pushed the industry to try harder. The stagnation was awful at that point. Everywhere. It forced Marvel to do Marvel Now and Image and the other publishers to put more talent in their books and take bigger risks. He definitely deserved to be let go at the end. Even before Future State he was making a mess of what Snyder's plans were. They had been grooming him to replace Johns for the longest time and since Johns was foolishly trying to big a shot as WB producer Snyder had his moment. Johns being the big dog was far superior to Snyder's short stint, but I was still interested in seeing it play out. They signed Bendis and Didio started going with his ideas and abandoning what Snyder was currently doing. I liked that he was a big risk taker and stick to your guns kinda guy to a point. He certainly liked to stir up controversy but he would go too far at times. The issue of stagnation is tricky. You brought up the point of government overreach, which is what is coming up in DC's event and going on in King's Wonder Woman. Ok. That is a timeless theme. The details matter. Every story has been done to death. That is not a profound statement. I think the old quote is something like Shakespeare and the Bible covered every story possible. Again, it's the details that matter. Is Marvel doing another story where a Hulk gets so angry they start a world war? Well, that's beating an old horse. There was the Marvel-wide event World War Hulk and then some ten years later in Aaron's Avengers run he has a World War She-Hulk. And then I believe not too long ago Pak came back to do another World War Hulk story. That's the repetitive stagnation we don't like. The issue of government overreach was explored well in Marvel's Dark Reign era. Doesn't mean it can't be explored again. But if it's Osborne leading the charge while being manipulated again, well then we have a problem. Take care and peace everyone.

DiDio decided to darken the DC universe, made heroes less heroic, replaced the universe in hopes that a new timeline would get his ideas accepted, was pushed aside so some of his actions could be toned down only to reinstate as much of his take on the DC universe as possible, told fans Barry was "their Flash now", did everything he could to get rid of Nightwing and Wally, insisted heroes couldn't have families and weren't allowed to be happy...no, I think he has a lot to take the blame for. There's even precedence. When he was in charge of the Beast Machines Transformers series he told the show runners to ignore not only the original cartoon but Beast Wars, the previous show that continued the original cartoon's timeline but set way in the future. Personalities were changed, lore was changed, things got darker...all precursors to what DiDio's Darker DC would come. I'll give credit where it's due when he did something right but overall, he deserves a lot of the scorn he gets.

I've never really paid attention to, or been interested in, whoever the current head honcho is at either Marvel or DC, so I only recognise DiDio's name from the constant ribbing by Giffen in Ambush Bug Year None.

I truly hated many of the decisions made under his run. That said, those who replaced him were much worse.

Got no love for Didio. His incompetence is why DC went into a downward spiral. His terrible editorial decisions are the reason why DC is in the sad state of affairs it is in now.

compare the current stat quo DAMMIT he might been the best we seen in this entire decade

I genuinely liked New Age of Heros but they didn't put enough energy or marketing into it. I would buy a sideways book, a brimstone book or silence book

DiDio seems like a simpleton to me, but at least he had a vision and a direction. I probably wouldn't be as big a comic fan if it wasnt for the N52, and I'm sure that's the case for a lot of people.

Seems to me he has both massive good and massive bad effects as a result of both massively good ideas and massively bad ones. It's all so extreme

I’m torn on this one. I quit comics when they started the New 52 so that’s a negative. I came back when they started rebirth(actually Convergence, to be honest), so that’s a positive. When I read about his plans to change heroes timelines I was vehemently against it. But after the crap we’ve gotten(Future State, dark crisis, etc.) , I’ve gotta wonder if it might be better. Oh, I wouldn’t be buying series starring a New Superman, Batman, etc. but I’m not buying them now either, lol. There’s very few Dc(and Marvel) books I buy these days. JSA, Green Arrow, Worlds Finest, Green Lantern, Green Lantern: War Journal and the recently ended Jay Garrick and Wesley Dodds miniseries are pretty much it.

Very much the DC Stan Lee.

Thank you i know im vou to get sht on for this take😂

Didio had many flaws but he listened to his writers and more importantly the fans when he was wrong. You can’t say that with today’s editorial.

I think it will be no surprise that I think Didio is an asshole. I think he was sincere and tried to do what he thought was right, but was also a jerk.

Didn’t Dan Didio had arguments with Dwayne McDufffie. With McDufffie got fired to write JLA? 4:01 Sideways is only recurring character from New Age of DC heroes . We haven’t seen others that often. Silencer was in the Red Hood Webtoon though. Sideways and Red Canary should start their own superhero team. Not titans, not outsiders and not young justice something entirely new. 4:52 Well I got bad News. The Maker has murdered Earth’s 6160’s Black Bolt. 5:00 The Stagnation in DC comic is reason Why Wallace West the Current Kid Flash is being held back. There so much story potential you with him. Story potential to differentiate Wallace from Wally and the Other Flashes. But no, he’s being held back due to playing it safe, as always. Cause Twitter’s sensitivity. 5:50 And Tom King is not even focus in own wonder woman comic. He is too distracted. 5:05 I am sick of the Spiders and the Bats. 6:39 Dan Sloth’s End of The Spiderverse in a nutshell. I did not believe when I saw it. And I was right, cause I am common sense after all. 7:43 Hell, *DC is not doing anything with The Signal.* DC rather push Jace Fox who is a terrible Batman. Instead of pushing The Signal, Gotham’s Daytime protector, with Metahuman powers, and two of closest his friends have become his Rivals. Yeah nothing happened after Batman Secret Files the Signal. I would love To See The Signal fights Gotham Girl again. Make her a part of Duke’s Rogue Gallery. 8:54 Make a List of any that is New 52 related DC comics keeps. I confident nothing from Wonder Woman new 52 was kept in Current DC comics. 9:34 I know Tom King tries to victim blame on Dan Didio for Heroes in Crisis. Nah Tom King, is this also your doing as well. For someone claims to be a former CIA you are not a good liar. You are also a baby who refuse to take responsibility, Tom King.

His Metal Men run was 🔥🔥🔥

DC should eliminate EVERYTHING AFTER and INCLUDING “Flashpoint” (2011) … return to Post-Crisis … #NoMoreMULTIVERSE … anything that happens that is a “non-continuity” story (Dark Knight Returns, Kingdom Come, etc) should be explained as a universe that was DESTROYED in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS/INFINITE CRISIS.

As much as people don’t like him, DC was much better with him there, ever since he left they’ve gone totally downhill.

Was that the guy who consulted on the Arkham games? If so after he left rocksteady went down hill

Didio tried to change DC into Marvel. I know people who hated his guts. Didio was not a good match and he should have parted ways a long time ago.

I knew that shit would happen. I like to call it “ The George Lucas Dichotomy” People bitched for so long that didio needed to go for years! That there was somebody better than him around the corner and when it finally happened and everyone got what they wanted then they bitched some more for him to come back. Comic book fans are the most indecisive. You can never please them