Ask the Expert

alucardbarnivous wrote:

blue halo wrote:
After?! I have never cared about this character. Kinda ruining Detective. Bring Bats back!!!

You didn't like her in 52? I thought she and Renee made an interesting pair on the page.

shining knight wrote:She doesn't like your type....

MatchesMalone wrote:Hey Jerry, do you have any idea how many companies (taken over and characters added) actually make up the DCU we know today? I mean how many major stables of characters from different company sources have come together to become DC?

Is this a decent question or has DC incorporated so many other companies that they can't all be easily named?

Just curious.

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Not too many, actually. Off the top of my head you have Fawcett (Marvel Family, etc), Quality (Freedom Fighters, etc), and Charlton (Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, etc; though a number of characters were either exempt or given back to their owners like E-Man and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt) AFAIK. Other acquisitions worked on a different level.

Although, technically, DC owns Wildstorm, it's in their contract that largely the company works independently of DC, where it's more of a symbiotic relationship where DC finances their endeavours and promotes them while Wildstorm produces creative output. However, the company has been very much a saving grace for DC in that the troop of artists loyal to Wildstorm tend to do a lot of fill-in work for DC titles (and DC has given back often times by offering up their exclusive writers like Grant Morrison and Gail Simone to write stories for them). As of late, they've been bankrolled by DC to head-up visual development of the DC MMORPG that supposedly will take games like City of Heroes and World of Warcraft to a whole other level.

There are other properties, like Milestone and the Will Eisner library, which are licensed to DC, but they are not technically owned by DC. DC is free to print Milestone properties, but they must pay their creators after getting permission for use. AFAIK, DC is in agreement to largely do what they want with the Eisner catalog but ultimately the license owners have greater creative control.

DC has also become a publishing arm for many companies, such as 2000AD, Humanoids, and CMX (their fledgling manga imprint that's snagged such popular properties like Tenjho Tenge, Gon, Ragnarok (retitled "Sword of the Dark Ones"), and Megatokyo), but they only have rights of reproduction in this agreement. IIRC, the two aformentioned British comics inevitably dropped their license with DC. For a time, DC had a license to revamp Archie comics characters in an imprint called !mpact, but this has since returned completely to Archie.

Since DC Comics acquisition by AOL/Time Warner, they also now have access to the WB's catalog of cartoon characters, but use of these has to be obtained by permission. DC has only started to test the waters of this agreement via the original mini-series for Space Ghost and the upcoming Jonny Quest, they have picked up printing chores for comic adaptations of WB and Cartoon Network properties for their Johnny DC line (Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, and the myriad of CN originals like Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory in CN Action Pack and CN Block Party).

DC continues to push the envelop, though, with the addition of upcoming imprint Minx which will feature original, creator-owned graphic novels geared towards women (sort of like the female version of Milestone way back when, but perhaps with a better opportunities). The most recent develop for DC is an investment in a new imprint overseas called Flex Comix that is geared towards original Japanese manga in Japan itself. This could build a bridge between the countries as comics are more successful in Japan than any other country in the world. Placing a foothold in this market gives DC a big arm in global comic book relations that can establish it as a publisher super-power.

DC is at present the largest comic book publisher on Earth and, partially for this reason, Warner Bros is the world's biggest publisher. With DC's continued growth, beginning to eclipse many of Time Warner's other projects, opens up a door for the comic publisher by gaining more and more opportunities. Should this growth continue, I can only speculate that DC will become a lucrative and viable arm for Warner Bros which could grant DC larger access to greater WB properties. Although such an advent may not come for a decade or three, continued growth in DC almost warrants continued support from their higher-ups.

I should also add DC publishes for Paradox Press, but since I know little of this arragement, I will simply put that out there for someone else to answer.

Lastly, via a new agreement with Mattel, the toy company has access to DC's library of properties. I as of yet have no data on if the relationship is two-way, meaning if this opens up DC to Mattel's catalog of properties (which include Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Fisher-Price which has contracts with many popular children programs like Sesame Street, Barney, Dora the Explorer, and Blue's Clues).

I hope this answers your question!

MatchesMalone wrote:Alrighty then!

Great answer to my last question by the way.
Do you think that some of the these new story threads in DC will make the multiverse more relevant to readers? I've always felt that the number of different characters acquired by the company and the attempt to incorporate them using the multiverse was never received well. Certainly many of the characters are well liked, but I've always thought the multiverse itself wasn't a popular idea. Your thoughts?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Well, it's already been established that this new multiverse is not intended to separate out the Earth we've been on since the first Crisis with all the purchased properties. Although, it does appear to an extant this new Multiverse bears a strong resemblance to elements of the old one.

I believe the major complaint of the multiverse is confusion, or, more likely, convulted stories. For example, let's say Superman of New Earth is fighting Lex Luthor of Earth-12 on Earth-23 where he's married to that Earth's Lois Lane and Superman has to ask for help from Earth-49 where that planet's Lex Luthor, Jr. is a good guy and has powers like Superman. Why don't you just shoot me in the face? If you make one Superman, one Luthor, one Lois Lane, and one Earth, there's no complexity whatsoever.

Now, that's not to say I think the multiverse is a bad idea. I think it's main problem was the level of ease at which the Earth's citizens met. Also, I think much confusion came from the simularities of these Earths. However, another problem was the blending of the stories (which is a by-product of the ease for the citizens of different Earths to intermingle). Look at the second Black Canary, born to Earth-1 while being the daughter of someone on Earth-2. If I have to explain the multiverse to you just to speak on one character, I don't think it makes for a very new reader friendly environment.

IMHO, the return of a multiverse wasn't really necessary when we had Hypertime. Hypertime gives you all the alternate realities you could come up with while not leaving 3 dozen Earths floating around for heroes of different Earths to vacation on.

For the moment, I'm giving the new multiverse a chance, but I think it's only going to lead to trouble (much like that which was done to fix it before; namely, Crisis on Infinite Earths).

hrdwrkngXsoldier wrote:would DC be a better company if it wasn't owned by warner?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Hard question to answer. On one hand, one of the main reasons they're giving Marvel so much competition right now is because of the buying arm of Warner which is largely giving DC a blank check to buy the talent they need to make money. That's why the two companies have been at each other so much because when DiDio came on, DC was snagging Marvel's writers who weren't signed exclusive (there's even a rather scathing report of Quesada's attack on Grant Morrison when he heard Grant went to DC). On the other hand, DC would have more freedom to do what they want, like keeping the Boys at Wildstorm. But, with the money DC is making right now, WB has largely taken a hands-off approach to the company. So, I would say DC is a better company because of Warner.

My only real gripe is non-comic proprietary handling. Because WB is also a film studio, generally all DC properties have to go through WB, where Marvel is free to shop their properties to many studios. This is why DC puts a movie out every two or three years while Marvel puts out almost 2 a year. But, this isn't really about the comics. So, I don't weigh it in my response.

jaydee74 wrote:Why has most of DC based character movies been really bad? Examples:

Steel
Supergirl
Batman Forever
Batman and Robin
Superman 3 & 4

I'm missing some; but you get the drift. Is this has to do with Warner Brothers stepping in too much?

OH!! And CATWOMAN!!!!

Jerry Whitworth wrote:For the longest time, comics have been considered a kids' genre. DC has this label to the extreme, right up there with Disney. So if you notice, most of the films were either based on a poor premise or story (because it's a popular idea that kids are dumb) or to make a toyline (or both). For the most part, DC has no control over film properties, where Marvel has it's own sub-division specifically dedicated to this task. Another reason Marvel has been able to crank them out so fast. It's failures like the ones above that show the studio that fans don't want the aformentioned product (then again, the popularity of Marvel's latest crop can send another message to the studios).

As for Catwoman, it was made under the premise a) sex sells and b) fanboys need to get out more and would eat up the film. They appear to have been wrong on both accounts (if box office sales were any indication).

Namor wrote:What can Doctor Mid Nite actually do

Jerry Whitworth wrote:One part Daredevil to one part Batman with the world's greatest doctor mixed in for good measure (it's actually a popular idea that Daredevil was partially based on Dr. Mid-Nite with perhaps some minor nods to the 1940's Daredevil).

jaydee74 wrote:How come DC doesn't have a bit more say as to how THEIR CHARACTERS are portrayed?
If failures like the ones I have mentioned show the studio that fans don't want what they are giving us, why not change it instead of giving us something like the Catwoman they gave us? Does Warner Brothers have no faith that giving a DC created character the way she or he is portrayed in the comics won't do well?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:The simply fact of the matter is comic book fans take up an almost insignificant portion of film sales, comic book film or otherwise. It's because of this WB thinks they know better. Film studios ape ideas from comics, not feel it's in their best interest to adapt it to film. Sure, you have people like the minds behind Sin City, 300, and V for Vendetta that stick very heavily to source material, but that's because the films were put into the hands of fans. We can only hope the success of these adaptations send a message to studios, but it really wouldn't surprise me if it falls on deaf ears. But hey, that's not to say Hollywood will make just anything. I mean, that Superman script with the armor, polar bear combat, and giant spider was shot down, so there is some voice of reason out there.

jaydee74 wrote:Are they planning A Superman sequel? If so, who from Superman Returns is, um, returning?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Yes, Singer was signed shortly after the film hit box office for a sequel. No word on plot or actors, but if I was a betting man, considering Superman Returns was a connection from Superman I and II to today, expect the next film to revolve around the Superman III plot Donner conceived; namely, the presence of Brainiac in a world quickly becoming reigned over by computers. BTW, after the Zod arc, Donner has said that Action Comics will feature an adaptation of his Superman III story (provided Kubert can beat the Millennium).

The Spectre wrote:So, Jerry...what is your take on the 2nd Countdown teaser?

The Spectre wrote:^^ Regarding this last question, I will read your other thread (haven't been on in a while..sorry).

Here's another question for you: The only new Earths I can think of is New Earth (Current DCU), Earth-2 (New JSA), Earth-3 (Crime Syndicate), Earth-5 (Classic Shazam), Earth-10 (Classic Freedom Fighters), and the Kingdom Come Earth (whichever earth # that is). Is there another Earth I'm missing?

And if you had to create your own DCU Earth, how would you do it?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Mostly aped from Wiki (they're a little incomplete, so I'll fill in some blanks):

New Earth: Main Earth
Earth-1: Mentioned by Rip, not seen yet.
Earth-2: New Justice Society of America.
Earth-3: New Crime Syndicate of America.
Earth-4: Charlton heroes with a Watchmen flavor.
Earth-5: Marvel Family.
Earth-10: Freedom Fighters Earth with a Nazi Justice League.
Earth-17: Post-Apocalyptic world with the Atomic Knights as humanity's last hope.
Earth-22: Kingdom Come.
Earth-34: Home to the Forerunner race, slaves of the Monitors.
Earth-50: Wildstorm.

As yet named Earths: Batman: Blood Reign, evil JSA (maybe Earth-2, no confirmation), Dark Knight Returns (in Booster Gold), and Superman: Red Son.

Suspected Earths based on upcoming series: Captain Carrot and Extremists.

I'm pretty sure there's one or two more that have been confirmed or hinted at, but this is what I got.

As for creating another Earth, nothing in particular. I guess it depends on what story idea hits me.

Oh, almost forgot: no word on if the Anti-Matter Earth of the CSA is still around. However, I believe I heard Earth-3 is of a Year One CSA, and considering the cover to Countdown #31, I'd say it's still around.

And remembered another one. There maybe a separate Earth for the Titans from Titans Tomorrow based on Teen Titans #51.

Oh yeah, the latest Action Comics Annual also established a Bizarro-Earth. No idea if this is part of the 52 Earths or not, but I doubt it since it appears people from our Earth discover it in the piece.

Jerry Whitworth wrote:So, I guess although DC has said there's no hurry to declare each of the 52 Earths yet, they're almost halfway there. BTW, thinking about Crisis, maybe some hints were given for some other possible Earths. In Alex's machine, we had:

Breach of Earth-8
Power Girl of Earth-2
Martian Manhunter of Earth-1
Black Adam of Earth-S
Lady Quark of Earth-6
Nightshade of Earth-4
The Ray of Earth-X

Now, of these seven, five have Earths amongst the 52 (Earth-4, perhaps Earths-1 and 2, even following the Pre-Crisis numbering). So, perhaps 2 of the other new Earths could be new versions of Earth-6 and Earth-8. For example, Earth-8 is one where Breach is in for Captain Atom, Kyle Rayner is in for Hal Jordan, and Jason Rusch is in for Ronnie Raymond. Essentially, the 90's was the Silver Age of heroes on this world. And considering developments involving Kyle Rayner of late (no details, don't want to spoil anything), I think we can expect an Earth-8 (which has yet to be claimed and identified of the 52).

And since I'm this deep into it, I may as well speak on some other thoughts.

Pre-Crisis, Earth-5 is a world where Batman is the only hero. The Marvel Family has inherited this Earth amongst the 52, which I believe is because how much S (as in Earth-S, Pre-Crisis home of the Fawcett characters) and the number five resemble each other.

Earth-7 has yet to be claimed, which was home to the Donna Troy that would become the Anti-Monitor's Harbinger known as Dark Angel. GL: Sinestro Corps Special SPOILERS

Spoiler:

Earth-12 was home to the Inferior Five, who have counterparts on New Earth in the form of the Superior Five.

Earth-86, possibly the Earth that was the inspiration for Earth-17 of the 52 with it's Atomic Knights and Hercules in wake of the Great Disaster. However, I also believe Earth-K maybe blended into this new Earth-17. It should be noted, Earth-17 is believed to be the Pre-Crisis Earth to some of Kirby's Fourth World Tales, and with so much of Kirby's non-New Gods stuff tied into this new Earth-17 of the 52, I'd say the new version is the Earth to watch in the future provided this is not coincidence.

Earth-97 was home to the Tangent characters, which have cropped up in the DCU proper in Ion. I'd say expect this Earth to be modelled amongst the 52.

I'm curious if Stan Lee's Just Imagine world will be counted amongst the 52?

jaydee74 wrote:Do the All-Star lines have their own universe? So does, the All-Star Batman and Robin have it's own universe or do you think that this is maybe a prequel to the Dark Knight Returns stuff? What about All-Star Suprman?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:I doubt All Star Batman, All Star Superman, Justice, All Star Batgirl, and All Star Wonder Woman will have their own separate Earths unless DC decides to do a crossover, which I think is very unlikely. They were originally intended to be "timeless stories free of continuity and make heavy use of popular ideas for the characters' mythos" or something like that.

Jherek Carnelian wrote:I'd love it if Earth 1 was the old Silver Age pre-crisis Earth. It would make perfect sense. Any thoughts Jerry?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:My only issue would be the power levels inherent in the Silver Age Earth-1. Green Lantern's ring could do anything, Superman could blow out suns, Flash could travel through time unaided... imho, that kind of stuff is boring. Not to mention, Superboy Prime is unique in that he's a Pre-Crisis power level in a Post-Crisis world. Make a world filled with people as powerful as him and he goes from one of the most dangerous men in the Universe to a big fish in a little pond. Now, if Earth-1 was gee-golly-gee and didn't have the great power levels, then I think it can be fun as a parallel to New Earth. Batman was everyone's friend, Wonder Woman portrayed a strong woman on the outside while being a stereotype on the inside, Superman had a dozen Kryptonian cousins he'd meet from time to time... it's absolutely ridiculous, ludicrous, and downright insane. Fashioned in the right way, that can be wildly entertaining especially when paired with the New Earth counterparts. The only problem is, the New Earth villains would probably tear their counterparts limb from limb, which in itself can be funny.

Imagine: Earth-1 Joker sends a message in the form of a joke to the police to dictate his next crime. At the scene, he has an elaborate death trap set up for Batman. The caped crusader shows up, beats the tar out of the unsuspecting Earth-1 Joker, and puts him in lock-up. There, New Earth Joker meets him and they make a partnership. However, after the Jokers escape, New Earth Joker brutally murders his counterpart and makes a joke about their only being room for one Clown Prince of Crime. New Earth Joker follows Earth-1's schtick only for Batman to show up and be caught off-guard as he approachs as if he's dealing with Earth-1 Joker only to be in a dangerous way with the real Joker. Good stuff. Even better, Earth-1 Batman comes to investigate the death of his Joker and suffers a grisly demise at the hands of New Earth Joker.

Jherek Carnelian wrote:That's exactly the kind of thing I was thinking I don't actually think the power levels would be too much of a problem, they could tweak 'em a bit to fit.


In fact IIRC Silver Age Flash needed the cosmic treadmill to time travel and did so far less often than Bart or Wally does/did and Superman though ridiculously powerful hardly ever used his full capacity being far too busy with Silver Age problems like Lois trying to trick him into marrying him and Jimmy gaining wierd powers and transformations every five minutes (Hmmm. sounds familiar ). Also GL's ring wasn't too different from it's modern counterpart in fact it was weaker really with it's inabillity to affect yellow and having to be recharged with an oath every 24 hours. A crossover between the Silver Age JLA and the modern one would be a hoot!

Aussiemandias wrote:I was a huge fan in the 80s of Andy Helfer's and Kyle Baker's The Shadow. It was great fun. Two questions:

Does DC still own the rights to The Shadow?

Has the Helfer/Baker series ever been collected?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:AFAIK, Shadow is still owned by Conde Nast. Oddly enough, G4 reported DC Comics owns the rights to Doc Savage; I asked Wizard about it but no one ever got back to me on it.

I just read on a Shadow site that the only DC books traded were the Chaykin and O'Neil series'.

KingConan93 wrote:Why doesn't Superman get cold when he goes to the Fortress? I don't remember Super Internal Temperature Regulation being one of his powers.

Jerry Whitworth wrote:It's believed Superman generates a thin field of protection around himself which is why he doesn't freeze or implode when he goes into space or that his clothes burn off from friction when he moves at super-speed. I believe I even read somewhere that since his costume is supposedly made from his blankets from his spacecraft, this ability works to a higher level with this clothes since it's somehow attuned to his DNA which is why when small arms fire hits him, it doesn't tear. I draw this idea into question simply because I've seen his outfit torn up on several occassions and I just don't see him having enough blankets to keep patching it up. In the Fortress itself, it has a heating system.

Metal Misfit wrote:What are you doing?

alucardbarnivous wrote:Archiving the previous entries:

Father wrote:Mr. Whitworth ....

Who the heck is Barbara Gordon's ( Oracle ) birth mommy ?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Jim Gordon's sister IIRC.

Father wrote:You see .... Wikipedia is useless. Thanks.

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Lets see if I can get the details right: Jim had a wife and kid but I think the kid died and wife left (and I think Joker killed the wife years later). When Jim's sister died, he adopted Babs. I'll do a search to see what I got right and wrong.

Okay, after doing some searching: Gordon was married to a Barbara, his brother and sister-in-law were killed in a car crash and he adopted their daughter Barbara, Gordon broke up with his wife and he married another GCPD officer who was killed by Joker during No Man's Land. There. Woof.

rwe1138 wrote:And Jim's son (Jim Jr.? I don't remember) is still out there somewhere, right?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:You know, I thought he had a son, but I don't see anything about him anywhere except the Nolan films.

rwe1138 wrote:Joker mentions him to Jim right after surrendering for killing Sarah.

"You have a son too, don't you?"

tstrike99 wrote:Alright, I've got one for ya Jerry!

Just how powerful is Orion? I've always read him as a badass of the New Gods, but is he on par with Superman?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:He is indeed. About two people have been known to be capable of fighting Darkseid man-to-man: Superman and Orion. Orion has been capable of laying the pain on his dearest dad just as well as Big Blue. In many ways, Superman and Orion parallel each other. About the only area Superman has him beat is in speed, but even then Orion's Astro-Glider can do similar speeds to Earth's champion in flight. However, the Astro-Force Orion holds dominion over is only slightly less destructive than the Omega Effect, meaning it puts heat vision to shame. Should Superman and Orion meet on the battlefield, the first to make a mistake will be the one to lose. Quite simply, they are evenly matched physically.

Danimal wrote:What is love?

Jerry Whitworth wrote:Depends on who you ask. To scientists, it's a release of pheromones and endorphines caused by man's desire to mate and woman's desire to rear a child. Subconsciously, men and women seek out mates who will compliment their genes to make stronger children.

To philosophers, it's a connection of souls that were destined to join together.

To poets, it's the look in someone's eyes of mutual understanding, appreciation, and caring.

Personally, I think it's all of the above and more. It's when two people who are seeking a partner to travel through life with them through the harsh and wonderous times, to build a strong bond to help build this world, and to leave children who will take care of this world when the parents die. It's a thousand thousand connections made at once and build bridges for a million million. It is the great miracle everyone is capable of making.