by El Secreto

On last night's episode of HOUR 42, I reported on Gail Simone leaving Wonder Woman, and called on DC Comics to let us know sooner, rather than later, who would be replacing her after Simone's run ends in June.

Thank you, DC, for making a doubly good call: this morning came the announcement that Babylon 5 and Amazing Spider-Man writer J. Michael Straczynski would take over both Diana's adventures and Superman in July.

Now, would I have liked to see another woman get the reins on Diana's book? Yes. But, JMS is still a solid pick to handle her stories and Clark's. B5, of course, speaks for itself; his run on ASM was a major favorite of mine, because it illustrated quite elegantly that Peter Parker could mature, be married and still be fun to read about. To say nothing of the much-needed character rehab Aunt May went through under JMS' pen.More recently, Straczynski also won critical praise for his work on Thor, who's about as close of an equivalent to both Supes and WW as you can find in the Marvel U.

It's also interesting to note that JMS, besides writing the regular Superman title, is also slated to re-introduce him to the general market via that stand-alone graphic novel we talked about awhile back.

And now, because talking about JMS always gets me thinking about it, the last 5 minutes of Babylon 5. Spoiler - and tear-jerker - alert is on.

... Without going into spoilers, it's safe to say that Cry For Justice #7 is a front-runner in the race for Most Polarizing Comic of the Year. There's a lot of layers to comb through in discussing it - and rest assured, Peter Pixie & El Secreto will be talking about it on this Sunday's episode. But first, we wanted to get your thoughts on the issue, and the ... uh, issues it brings up.

And also, if you had the same reaction to the book that the boys had, you might want to play this clip (suggested by KD Bryan) to cleanse your palate a little bit.

NOTE: After getting KD's reaction - "Oh. Oh, dear. Dude, I think you're gonna need a longer clip" - ES suggested we add KD's other suggestion:

While we'd like to join the rest of the comics world in offering congratulations to DC Entertainment's new Executive Three - co-Publishers Dan DiDio & Jim Lee and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns - we can't help but feel there's some room for elucidation on their roles in the day to come. Some of our questions were answered today, but some were not. We'd like to use this space to share our thoughts, and get yours.

Q: How will the Lee/DiDio union work out in terms of their respective roles? (That's to say, do each of them have specific areas of emphasis, or will each of them tackle the same things in their respective regions?)

A: "Overall, we'll be working closely together guiding all the different imprints, working with the various editors of DC Comics as a whole," Lee said. "Day-to-day, Dan will be handling more of that workload, as he's already based in New York City. I'll be coming in for the key meetings, and obviously we'll be keeping in touch through email, video, and conferencing."

(via Newsarama)

Q: What does a Chief Creative Officer do? Does Johns report to DiDio & Lee?

A: "Under the leadership of Jim and Dan, I’ll continue writing and giving my creative input as I have been in comic books. But expanding onto that, [DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson] asked me to take our comic book world, embrace it (as I do) and use it to lead the creative charge on bringing it all to film, toys, television, video games, animation and beyond. The Justice Society appearing on Smallville was only the beginning."

(via DC's Source blog)

Q: how much influence does Johns now have on, say, the DC Animated Universe? Or non-mainstream DC properties like Vertigo and WildStorm?

Q: Will Lee retain his duties as Executive Creative Director for the DC Universe MMORPG, or does that shift to Johns?

Q: If all three have diverse viewpoints – and that's good in a creative community, don't get us wrong – who breaks a tie? Is Johns' vote weighed in equal value to Lee's or DiDio's?

Q: How does this new role affect production for Johns writing three separate titles? Or for Lee's responsbilities at WildStorm?

A: I'll still be writing a lot of comic books--it's something I love doing, it's a passion, it's part of my job, which is great. I've already been involved in editorial for quite some time. Quite honestly, I don't know how it will affect me; I'm certainly not going to be doing six or seven books a month like a lot of guys, but I'm still going to be writing "Green Lantern," "Flash," "Brightest Day," "Batman: Earth-One," all my projects I've got lined up are going full steam ahead, and there's even some new ones on the horizon.

(via Techland)

Q: What non-Trinity - meaning, not Superman,Batman or Wonder Woman - characters have been identified as qualifiers for the sort of multi-media push Johns has talked about?

We'll be keeping an eye on any further information coming out of today's news, and it's sure to be discussed on Sunday's episode of HOUR 42. In the meantime, how do you feel about DiDio & Lee and Johns moving up the ranks?