#we don't need the panels bc the art doesn't do either of them justice At All

[hood-ex]

You ever think about how Donna said, "Dick’s the best friend I’ve got," and how Dick said, "Donna, you’re the best friend I have in this world," in the same issue? Because I do.

[cynassa]

I am going to comic con tomorrow and you follow DC comics closer than I do. Jim Lee has a panel and I am only familiar with some of his art. Do you know anything about him as publisher?

Hello anon! I hope you enjoy Comic Con!! I've never been and I'm so jealous. I hope I saw this when you sent it, because Tumblr continues to be a hot mess.

Idk how helpful I can be, I'm not fond of Jim Lee in any sort of creative control position tbh. He's done some wildly interesting stuff as an artist, including Hush, some bits of Gotham Knight, and I used to follow WildC.A.T.s way back when, so it really isn't nice to have to say that he should have stayed in his lane. But. He really should have.

Short summary of his career as a publisher/creative editor because I don't know how much you know: Image Comics was formed in 1992 and Jim Lee joined them to create WildStorm. Lee then sold it to DC in 1998 but continued to exert some amount of editorial control from time to time. God knows how much or when, because he is all over the place with it. (This is a theme with him. He was supposed to collab with Grant Morrison on WildC.A.T.s in this period but that fizzled out I guess?) You might have read Warren Ellis' The Authority, which was one of my absolute favorites, and was one of the few good things to come from this.

Now, in 2010, when DiDio took charge, Jim Lee was named co-publisher with him. At the same time, Wildstorm got shelved. And after that is when shit hit the fan imo.

I've got two major issues with him, and one minor gripe which I am putting under a readmore bc no one wants that naked on their dash lmao.

Major Issue 1. The New 52. I'm not going to go on a rant here, because we all have our own opinions about the New 52, and it was what it was. The thing is, Dan DiDio keeps getting blamed for it (rightfully, the abusive, predator-shielding asshole) but Jim Lee was also there!! Because DiDio was a loudmouth who kept giving his opinions whether or not they were asked for, everyone forgets that this was Jim Lee's idea too. And when Johns was booted in 2018, he was Chief Creative Officer too. Either he was fully onboard and had no fucking clue that they at least should tell the writers what backstory their characters have, or he was just.... MIA. Too busy dealing with Batpenis, maybe.

In the last 2 years since Jim Lee got complete creative control, sales of DC stuff have tanked, continuities now make no sense, and I don't read Green Lantern but from what I've heard, they still haven't recovered entirely from the Geoff Johns/DiDio/Jim Lee era. The usual suspects blame 'wokeness' for it, but that's absolute nonsense. I will not get into what I think the real problems are, but there we go. Jim

Major Issue 2: DC killed WildStorm. I don't know if they intended to, or whether they never bothered reading a single comic before buying it up and trying to grab Alan Moore any way they could. I'm just going to quote Bleeding Cool's summary from 2010 here:

Minor Gripe: He keeps trying to shove together WildStorm and DC legacy characters. It doesn't work, they don't need to share an universe, and if this is what he wanted to do, why did he try to go for creator-owned comics in the first place. The New 52 reboot of backstories was the worst in many ways, but making WildC.A.T.s characters share the same universe as the actual Justice League was........... A Choice.

Mark Millar would grab news headlines around the world and cause Paul Levitz to personally intervene, changing dialogue and finished art because they offended his sensibilities. It would cost editor John Layman his job. Mark left for Marvel and went exclusive. He would not write for DC or Wildstorm again.

Alan Moore wrote a number of books for Wildstorm, including WildCATS and then his ABC line. DC just managed to keep Moore on board by the skin of their teeth when buying the company, and indeed he would do his first work for hire for DC in ages on the Albion book as a result. However conflict, especially over V For Vendetta and League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Paul Levitz would see him leave, taking League with him. It would cost editor Scott Dunbier his job. Moore would not write for DC or Wildstorm again.