Marvel’s The Avengers: Infinity War took the world by storm as it unleashed the fury of the Great Titan Thanos upon the MCU, but not everyone liked what they saw including DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio–but it’s not what you think.
We were actually discussing how great of a job the Russo brothers did with the movie in our Facebook group where I remarked the attention to detail in the movie is awesome.
So what is Dan DiDio’s problem with Infinity War? It’s too good!
“I went and explained to people why I hated Infinity War. The reason why I hated Infinity War was because they were doing comics better than comics were doing,” DiDio told Collider at Comic-Con. “They were telling character stories. They had big epic adventure. They were doing emotional arcs for the characters. It was a real sense of continuity, crossover and creativity going on in a movie that we should have been doing in comics.”
DiDio continued explaining what the problem was.
“That we were being out done by a movie. And that should never be this case,” he said. “So from my standpoint, that became a huge challenge for us a creators, as comic book publishers, because as soon as we see that territory of the continuity, and the connected tissue and the immersive universe and the epicness of our storytelling, and we give that up to any other medium, then we become irrelevant, and that’s the last thing we want to see.”
Dan DiDio brings up a great point in that movies becoming better than comic books could be a big threat. My comment regarding his statement would be: Then don’t make the comics follow the movies, let them be their own thing, the inspiration and influence for the films.
It’s no secret that when Man of Steel was released that the comics followed the movie and changed Superman’s costume. I also recall when George Perez was writing his New 52 Superman that he complained about the movies controlling the comics. This is what Perez said when he left the title:
Things are being second guessed left and right, a case of too many chiefs, not enough Indians now. Whether it will work? Who am I to say. They want it to be like Hollywood, and it’s becoming like Hollywood, in producing comics, and what you have is a corporate room deciding where things are going to go. And part of the reason for me leaving Superman is that I had certain ideas I wanted to do unfortunately, stuff that they okay one day, they would change their mind the next day, and it was becoming way too difficult, slowing us down. That was unfortunate. I hope they succeed for the industry’s sake, in the case of Superman they didn’t want a writer, they wanted a typewriter. They have to deal with people producing the movie, who also had a say in what’s going on in the comic as well. My one fear, I’m not producing a comic, I’m producing a storyboard for a movie, that’s not what I wanted to do.
Back in 2013 saw Perez sign with indie publisher Boom! Studios where he blamed the corporations for his decsion not to do work for DC or Marvel:
From what I can see, it’s not the new that either company wants now, it’s the familiar. Why gamble with an unknown property when another Batman or Avengers title might be more of a sure thing? Fewer and fewer final decisions are made at the editorial level. Warner and Disney think they can do it all better — and they’re the ones with control and money.
Recently, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada came out and said something similar to DiDio’s remarks in that the comics shouldn’t follow the movies as well, but my comments also apply to Marvel as the comics changed the Guardians of the Galaxy to match the MCU version. Likewise, when Matt Fraction was writing Thor, he said he had editorial mandates due to the MCU Thor film that interfered with his writing.
The good news is that hopefully the movies and corporate suits are letting the comic publishers do their own thing, at least that is what both DiDio and Quesada seem to be stating.
Regarding Infinity War, now I’m wondering how much of Hickman’s Infinity were his own ideas and how much placed on him by the execs so the comics would fit in with the movies?
Watch more from Dan DiDio and Jim Lee talking DC Comics and more:
