The DC Farewells

As DC leaves it's long native home of New York City, everyone is going through their tearful goodbyes.  I figured, I might as well add one.

I love DC Comics. I learned to read by reading them, I learned what was cool by seeing what I wasn't allowed to read, and, I launched the real second part of my career there. Getting to work on those characters is an honor.  I got to follow in the footsteps of all the terrific people who came before, the brilliant writers and artists who made characters into icons, and, more importantly, icons into characters.

A lot of talk has been made about how moving to Burbank is a fresh start for DC, and, I really hope it is.  The characters they control are the most important piece of mainstream comics. Marvel has made up ground, but, other than Spider-Man, the Hulk, and maybe the X-Men, there was little to know widespread knowledge of those characters prior to the launch of Iron Man.  Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Green Arrow, plus the Joker, Lex Luthor, The Penguin, Catwoman, Braniac, oh and don't forget, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olson, Alfred Pennyworth, and on and on.  Those characters are known by my mom, who for the record thought I was writing "Mickey Mouse stories" for the first half decade of my career.  

The people in charge of DC hold the reigns to the most powerful gateway drug on earth.  My four year old knew Superman and Wonder Woman and Batman by the time she could talk, and not just because I work in comics.  Her friends at school love the characters.  An entire generation of kids are literally ripe for the picking to bring them into comics.  

If the New 52 launch taught us anything it's that people want to read comics.  It also taught us that if the content isn't there to back up the medium, it doesn't matter how cool people think folded paper with staples in the middle are. 

I want DC Comics to do great things, and maybe, this time, they will.