ITP: Validation for my RAAAAAAAAGE

[fasterthanthought]

FLASHBURNING BRIDGES



In the TwoMorrows "The Flash Companion" interview with Mark Waid on his run on "Impulse," he discusses recent editorial decisions to turn the character into the Flash and then kill him off.

It does rather echo Chuck Dixon's recent comments



WELLS: Eventually, Impulse gave way to Kid Flash and Kid Flash, in turn, morphed into an adult Flash. Do you think those changes necessarily served Bart Allen well?


WAID: Nah. Listen, Geoff Johns and I made our peace about this. I love Geoff. Geoff's one of my best friends, and Geoff is an incredibly talented writer and is the only writer alive who loves these characters as much as I do. And I don't blame him for paving over the Impulse identity. The shoehorning of Impulse into Kid Flash was, as I understand it, not his idea. It was a wrongheaded edict passed down by an editor that never got the character and has made it his mission to purge DC of anything even remotely fun and lighthearted. But even as Kid Flash, he was still largely recognizable as Bart.

And then he became the Flash, and a more boneheaded move you couldn't have made with that character. Geoff and I fought against it, we fought like you wouldn't believe. Steve Wacker, who was slated to be the original editor, Geoff, me...we all fought the good fight, knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that squeezing Bart into that costume would go against absolutely everything about that character. And we lost. We lost every step of the way. Ultimately, someone else's ego outweighed my opinion about what Bart would and wouldn't do, but that's how it often goes with corporate-owned heroes and is the price you pay dealing in them. Ask Keith Giffen sometime how many lectures he's had to endure about what Lobo "would and wouldn't do." So, in their infinite wisdom, DC Editorial made Bart The Flash, and that relaunch was one of the greatest critical failures in all of DC publishing history.


WELLS: Really?


WAID: In terms of sales they had on the first issue and the sales they posted by the fifth or sixth issues, it was just a crashing, crashing disaster. It was one of the most disastrous, embarrassing launches in DC history. And we were all " I'm not trying to sound all "I told you so," because it broke our hearts because we loved that character " but we warned them. We told them, "Don't do that, it won't work." Sure enough, six issues in, they realized they had a mess of a series they couldn't make work, no matter what. At that point, Dan DiDio called me up, a courtesy call, and said, "So we're going to kill Bart. I just thought I should let you know." My honest feeling at that point was like, "Dude, you killed Bart years ago." [mutual laughter] "That's so not Bart in that suit. I don't care. Everything in comics is cyclical. Bart'll be back eventually at some point anyway so, sure, go ahead and put the bullet through his head. I don't care." I figured Bart would be better off dead than misunderstood and mishandled.










Well that's clear and complete authorial reinforcement as to why I don't have to take any characterization past his books because DC was mean to him.


In other news, Dan Didio probably called Mark Waid just to see if he could wring out some human suffering from him. That puppy kicker.

Comments

[oh-grossness.livejournal.com]

lol :(

[oh-grossness.livejournal.com]

Also does taking some tiny sick joy from the utter failure of the Bart!Flash run make me a bad person?

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

It was a mercy killing by that point. If they actually made Bart the Flash on his own terms it would be the bestest series in the history of ever and I'd buy six issues each.

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

At least this means if Mark Waid finally deposes the editorial staff, Bart will come back in a form I can love again.

[oh-grossness.livejournal.com]

DARE WE DREAM?

[poor-choices.livejournal.com]

...Oh DC.

Fuck you.

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

This is great compared to Didio's "WE WERE GOING TO KILL BART ALL ALONG. CAN'T HAVE A CRISIS WITHOUT A FLASH DEATH"

[poor-choices.livejournal.com]

How has no one TPed that man's house yet?

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

I don't know but I can make a vague Underworld Unleashed selling his soul for power joke here.

[poor-choices.livejournal.com]

Damn you, soul-selling.

Should you ever find his address, though, I will totally fly down to TP his house with you.

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

That's why you're a true pal. ♥

[poor-choices.livejournal.com]

♥

[its-the-cape.livejournal.com]

Well that's... well it doesn't quite make things better, but feeling justified is.. ...something.... orz didio......

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

Admitting is the first step or something. I don't know, at least it makes me feel better to know the guy who wrote the Impulse I loved feels the same way I do and maintains some kind of integrity.

And hoo boy has the same bitterness!

[o-shi-spoiler.livejournal.com]

There, there, Imp. Soon your writer will be fired and they can chill out, waiting for Didio to get replaced.

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

And then the fun and lighthearted characters can come back from KooeyKooeyKooey!

[o-shi-spoiler.livejournal.com]

In my headcanon, Jaime's been acting as gatekeeper to let them know when it's safe. That's why his girlfriend is a character who's been explicitly told that she's written by DC editors. She knows when it's safe to bring them back.

[sharpmaskedman.livejournal.com]

For this and other reasons do I love Mark Waid.

... also, GODDAMMIT DIDIO.

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

His name being attached to the Flash book right now is the only reason I believe Wally's kids aren't the walking dead right now.

...yeeeeah. Didio being called by his own writers as a void of happiness and joy is telling.

[sharpmaskedman.livejournal.com]

... yeah. 'Cause as much as I like this account for casting Johns in a favorable light, he's certainly not above murdering children. Uh, in a story, that is.

Having encountered Didio in person, I'm still astonished that he retains enough of a human form and aura so as to prevent me from actually stabbing him in the eye with a brick on sight. Much like Quesada, really... I wonder if that's a reason why they're still functioning in editorial capacities--their human simulacrums, while incomplete, are just enough to evoke a protective empathy response in others.

[theredeyeflight.livejournal.com]

Oh man. D:

[im-impulse.livejournal.com]

It's okay, this is why comic book fans are good at practicing canon denial.

[000013-kon.livejournal.com]

I'm so strangely unsurprised.

And somehow it is fitting I comment on my AU Kon account.

[bromantic.livejournal.com]

Oh thank god someone understands that Didio is a complete and utter ASS.

Why is he still alive. I do not get this.