Wednesday, November 12, 2008

DiDio's new comments on the Legion and L3W

Thanks to Murray for bringing this to my attention. In his latest 20 Questions column at Newsarama, Dan DiDio says this about the Legion:

6: Going almost hand in hand with continuity – it seems that one would demand the other, a fair number of questions from readers concerned scheduling. It seems that it’s cyclical – it gets on track, falls off track, you give a broad statement about how you’re fixing it, and this time it will stick, it gets on track and then falls off again, and you give another, “This time we really mean it” statement. What’s the deal?

DD: You’re absolutely right. We do everything in our power to keep these books on track. We’re coming off a very big election year, and if I was running for office, I would tell you that every book for 2009 is on schedule, and each book has the creative team that will make it possible. The reality is, we are constantly juggling the schedule based upon the needs of the creative team, and the needs of the schedule, and we are weighting the value of each, and we wait and make choices based upon who’s involved in the process, and how important it is to maintain the schedule and maintain the consistency of the product.

Case in point - Final Crisis. As I mentioned in the last interview, it’s essential for us to have the last issue of Final Crisis come out in the month of January. Therefore, we are moving heaven and earth to make the book come out in the month of January, because so much follows.

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds has an impact on our line because of the bits that take place at the conclusion of the series, but that impact does not occur until later in the year. So we are less aggressive to holding that particular book’s schedule than we were the lead book in Final Crisis. So therefore, you’re going to see Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds with months skipping in order to complete the story, but Final Crisis will be pushed to make sure it hits as close to its schedule as possible. ...

9: Back towards the subject material of the comics themselves – you mentioned Legion of 3 Worlds, but as we’ve reported, Legion of Super-Heroes ends with issue #50. Can you give any word as to where things are headed for the Legion in 2009? Obviously, in the Legion of 3 Worlds, there is a progression of events that’s suggesting a definite status quo change for the Legion...

DD: Legion of Super-Heroes has been a key franchise to the DC Universe since the ‘60s. It’s appeared in Adventure Comics, Superboy its own series, guest starred in a number of books, they’re going ot be appearing in Smallville very shortly, and have had their own animated television series. To think that after the cancellation of the series with #50 and after the conclusion of Legion of 3 Worlds that we have no plans in place would probably be a mistake.

We’re playing it kind of quiet now because we want Legion of 3 Worlds to play out so people will be excited about the conclusion, and from that conclusion, follow that story to others where those characters may or may not appear.

The bottom line is that Legion of Super-Heroes is a key franchise of the DC Universe, and it will never sit still or quiet for long.

Speaking of the delays, L3W #3 is now scheduled for Jan. 14, 2009 and issue #4 is scheduled for Feb. 25, 2009. Issue #5 has not been solicited yet but should come out sometime before July 2009. (Thanks to Ranse for the tip.) (Update: when I said July I was making a joke. I have no knowledge of when the final issue will come out.)

A couple of key quotes from DiDio I want to repeat and put in boldface:
To think that after the cancellation of the series with #50 and after the conclusion of Legion of 3 Worlds that we have no plans in place would probably be a mistake.

and
Legion of Super-Heroes is a key franchise of the DC Universe, and it will never sit still or quiet for long.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So we won't get new issues until FC is over... And if its scheduled for before July, that could be a 5 month long wait possibly.

Anonymous said...

I still think Didio doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

Murray said...

I think Didio knows what he's doing. I do think that he has a plan that he's following... I'm just not convinced I like the plan. The DCU is still more often than not, too dark a place for my liking.

Anonymous said...

To me, the plan, DiDio's or otherwise, was hastily cobbled together. If LO3W was that critical to FC, why not either start it a couple of months later, and keep it on schedule, or make it a 7 issue series. I know there'd be enough idiots (Like me!)who would buy it. Still smacks of poor planning to me.

Anonymous said...

If they had indeed planned it right, from Jan when the last Legion came out, there would be no "up to 5 months of wait for a single Legion issue". If they started from Jan it would have gone; Feb #1 March #2 May #3 June#4 July #5. Then their "plan" would happen after July.

We'd not be withut a "Legion" storyline for very long that way.

Michael said...

By the way, when I said the last issue should come out before July, I was making what I thought was an obvious joke. Apparently it was not quite as obvious as I thought.

I don't know when it will come out. Maybe we'll see #5 in the March solicitations.

naladahc said...

Amazing how in the pre-digital hey day of comics the big two managed to produce consistent (and longer) books on schedule month and month and year after year and now technology obviously hasn't helped them one bit.

They are either truly incompetent or they just don't give a crap!

Bryan-Mitchell said...

I think Dido's plan is to ask Morrison and Johns what they want to do and then doing it.

Anonymous said...

Haha, at this stage I'd believe anything! Man, I just start getting into the Legion and this happens. I'm an unlucky fan.