DC, however, only seems to be kept afloat by their more major properties. Sure, the JUSTICE LEAGUE, JUSTICE SOCIETY, and BATMAN books all sell really well, but what else does? And moreover, now that ALL-STAR SUPERMAN is done and now that Greg Rucka has left CHECKMATE, what is on DC that's really worth your time and money?
What boggles my mind is when there are big name creators that explicitly state that they really want to work on and overhaul certain DC characters or properties, and yet, the creators never get their crack and we don't get to see the books change.
There are a whole bunch of cases of this happening, but for now, I'm going to single out just one. Superstar writer Mark Millar has stated numerous times that his life goal is to be the long-term writer of SUPERMAN or ACTION COMICS. This isn't just a recent proposition - he's been outspoken about this in interviews for pretty much as long as he's been interviewed. Why the hell has he not been put on the book?
Let's go over some facts about the guy to illustrate how absurd this situation is:
- The term "superstar", especially "superstar writer" is kind of a joke. However, in this case I deemed it appropriate for usage because if there's anybody for whom this applies, it's Mark Millar. Nearly everything this guy writes sells like hotcakes. It's extremely rare for any of the books he writes to not break the Top 10 or 20 in sales. He's had blockbusting runs on MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN, ULTIMATES, WOLVERINE, ULTIMATE X-MEN, and more recently, on the FANTASTIC FOUR.
- To boot, he's possibly the most successful creator in the industry after Alan Moore. He's really the envy of the creator-owned world, as his books Wanted and Chosen ended up rivalling big name Marvel and DC books in sales. This is incredibly rare. His newest book, KICK ASS, sold 60,000 copies of the first printing of the first issue. Most creator-owned books rarely rarely rarely sell over 25,000 copies.
- He's not only a big name in comics, but in the film industry as well. The Wanted movie grossed enormous numbers, which is pretty rare for a non-Marvel or DC comic book movie adaptation. A Kick Ass movie is already in development, and there's talk of adapting Chosen and War Heroes.
To further compound the ridiculousness, many of his changes to Marvel status quo have come around to influence the movies. It was his decision to model the Nick Fury of the Ultimate universe after Samuel L. Jackson - a man who now appears to be playing the character in all of the newer Marvel movie adaptations. Nearly all of the talk around around the upcoming Avengers movie is how much it will resemble Millar's run on THE ULTIMATES.
Translation of all of this: This guy can't write something that's not cinematic. - While some might still be reserved about the guy for his inexperience in writing for the DC Universe, he actually has already written Superman several times. Millar initially cut his teeth writing the kid friendly SUPERMAN ADVENTURES book, but more importantly, Millar was the author and brains behind the now classic Superman: Red Son book. I've heard accounts from several that they had hated Superman before reading that book and still thought the book was an absolutely incredible read.
Is it just me, or does after considering all of this make DC seem absolutely insane for not hiring this guy to write one of their Superman books? This one is such an obvious no-brainer: hiring the guy is almost guaranteed to produce big sales and critical acclaim. Anybody that refuses to hire Mark Millar for a project that he's genuinely excited to undertake must just not want to make money or make fans happy. That's honestly the only explanation I can think of.
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