Posted in: Comics, DC writers summit | Tagged: dc writers summit

Will the New Age of DC Heroes Comics Make it to Issue 12?

Published Sat, 16 Jun 2018 08:00:05 -0500

Last updated Mon, 18 Jun 2018 12:18:31 -0500

Last year, DC announced a new line of comic books, the New Age of DC Heroes. Or Dark Matter. Or Masterclass. They had a number of titles.

Spearheaded by DC Publisher Dan DiDio with fellow DC Publisher Jim Lee, the idea was strong. A bunch of new ideas. New characters. New IP. Created by artists primarily, who would gain participation payments for having created them. Created in the Marvel style of plot, art script rather than plot, script, art, giving artists more responsibility for the storytelling decisions. And crediting the artist above the writer. And creating a creator-participant deal.

It was promoted as spinning out of the Metal event, but that was a bald-faced lie — a panel was thrown into the last issue of Metal that shoved them all together.

The books were late. Each one had to be rescheduled. Some had to be rescheduled again. And the artists all dropped off their books. Sometimes so did their replacements.

The only discernible breakout book was The Terrifics, which used familiar DC characters and brought back Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse's Tom Strong family, now part of the DC Universe.

Everything else, including Jim Lee's Immortal Men, flopped — and flopped hard.

I understand that the original plan was to run crossover events at the end of the first year, after the 12th issue of each.. But delays and schedule switches seem to have put paid to that. And it is unlikely that all of the series will reach their 12th issue now.

Maybe the Summit at Burbank with DC Comics writers will come up with a brand-new plan?