Interview With Dan Didio Reveals Why He Hated Dick Grayson and Wally West

Full article: gamesradar.com/former-dc-publisher-dan-didio-on-the-new-52-vs-rebirth-and-why-he-hated-wally-and-dick/
>Nrama: You drew a fair amount of fan heat for being the guy who theoretically hated Dick Grayson or Wally West. Is this indeed the case? Or was it just pro wrestling, drawing heel heat?
>DiDio: A lot of it was for show. It was theater. We used to do the conventions and we used to have people worked up about Dick Grayson and Wally West, so we fed into that energy. Anytime I go to a convention and we talk about character, I consider that a win. So much of the conversation nowadays is not about character or story anymore, which is a shame, because that's the only conversation that should be taking place.

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>For me, Wally West was a core concept issue. My problem with Wally was that his origin was always dependent on [his uncle and previous Flash] Barry Allen. He was never his own character. He was always going to be subservient to Barry in some way because his origin was determined by Barry. There was always a Flash in front of him and his powers were because of him. I always felt, as a true Flash, if we were trying to get to the simplest form with regards to media and things like that, we had to go back to Barry because the story starts with him.

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With [original Robin] Dick Grayson — and this is the same with Wally — people loved them because they aged with them, so they feel this affinity that these guys have grown up with them. The problem is that much like Batman and Superman, now Dick Grayson and Wally West have to stop aging, because they're going to pass their mentors. Dick Grayson's going to get older than Bruce Wayne at some point, because Bruce doesn't age and Dick Grayson's going to be the older guy if he does keep growing up. Therefore, those things constantly force the reboots that we're faced with, because it creates these log jams and these multiple interpretations of characters all sharing the same name.

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>Ultimately, in my mind, we kept on collapsing our timelines and created confusion about how long certain characters were in certain roles, and what they did in those roles. For me, with Dick Grayson, the issue wasn't about the fact that I didn't like the character. In fact, when I said we should kill Dick Grayson, it was purely story driven.
>We were in the middle of Infinite Crisis. The driving point of Infinite Crisis is the fracturing of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and their inability to work together fractures the impact of the other heroes. I needed a defining moment that would bring these three together after all the troubles, something that they can unite over.
>I felt the death of one of the characters that touched them all in a way was going to be the perfect way to do that. Dick Grayson was that character. I felt he was the character that everybody had such a great affinity and love for.
>By putting him in that role that if he died, he would bring Superman and Batman together again and unite our heroes against the great threat, I think that's a noble death, and I think that's something that had value. Same type of death happened in Crisis on Infinite Earths. You want to have that level of importance.
>Think about it: In Crisis on Infinite Earths, they kill Barry Allen, they kill Kara Zor-El, two major characters in the DC Universe. I figured we needed to do something that would be the sequel to that story and we needed a death of equal weight of that character.

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>Interview With Dan Didio Where He Rewrites History To Make Himself Look Good
Fixed the title for you, user.

The guy got out right in time for the economy to go to shit. Probably laughing his ass off as it all burns down behind him.
Anyway, I imagine things will eventually get better for Dick and Wally in 2021 if what we’ve seen so far from Metal 2 and Joker War. For whatever it’s worth.

How can you be a publisher and completely miss the point of the characters you're in charge of?

Go ahead, lie to me and say that DC has improved as his influence has diminished.

This is so fucking stupid
I call bullshit

he's right, Dick Grayson is the worst DC character and all of his fans are faggots or fat girls

This man unironically just said The Flash "starts" with Barry, and that Wally was never his own character. That alone should tell you everything, and I could see the idea of Geoff Johns constantly arguing with him.

As for the Dick thing, that's just plain bullshit he pulled out of his ass to say "oh I hate reboots and value story". No, Dan. You value YOUR stories, and won't shy away from retconning shit to hell and back to get your way. You didn't like Dick on the same level of Bruce

Thinking about, probably also the reason why Waid said he would not work at DC again for as long as DiDio was there.

>Go ahead, lie to me and say that DC has improved as his influence has diminished.
Fuck if I know. I quit DC in the last year.

And even if DC now is worse off with Didio gone... doesn't mean he isn't lying. The two aren't mutually exclusive, dumbass. You're just moving goalposts.

I wonder what Dan’s ideal dc universe would look like. I imagine it would be like new 52 where there’s no Justice Society or NTT generation, only he’d probably erase Roy, Damian and Dick too. And I imagine the YJ generation would be the only TTs. And all the JLers would be 25, sexy and clean shaven: for a guy with a goatee, he sure hated beards in the new 52, even Gordon and Oliver lost theirs.

Seethe more. Point is, both Dick and Wally are very popular characters and killing them off for shock value is both disrespectful and leaving money on the table. If you can leave Bruce at 40 years old, you can leave Dick at 25. You have these popular IPs, so do something worthwhile with them.

I actually don't give a shit about Dick either.

I'd also like to add that Dan is likely responsible for bringing Barry back in the first place, Johns just volunteered to write it to lessen the blow.

Actually come to think of it, Johns and Didio probably butted heads A LOT over the years. Johns's Aquaman was originally supposed to debut right after Brightest Day, but got delayed because of Flashpoint and the New 52 reboot. Then after Johns stepped away after Rebirth was set, Dan actively tried to undo everything he did

>The problem is that much like Batman and Superman, now Dick Grayson and Wally West have to stop aging, because they're going to pass their mentors. Dick Grayson's going to get older than Bruce Wayne at some point, because Bruce doesn't age and Dick Grayson's going to be the older guy if he does keep growing up. Therefore, those things constantly force the reboots that we're faced with, because it creates these log jams and these multiple interpretations of characters all sharing the same name.
He's absolutely right. There's no correct way to sort out the eternal status quo where characters are temporarily allowed to age but then permanently given a fixed age in a sliding timeline.

We choose to read comics where Dick Grayson isn't 80 years older than when he originally started in 1940. We should have known what we were getting into when we made that choice.

He said he wanted New52 to be like the Ultimate Marvel line take that as you will.

Didio just left right before a supposed planned reboot. Until any kind of relaunch happens, it's impossible to say.

>I'd also like to add that Dan is likely responsible for bringing Barry back in the first place, Johns just volunteered to write it to lessen the blow.

That was EVS actually

actually it was evs who championed bringing barry back and he wanted johns to write it so it would be the same artist and writer duo who brought back barry and hal

Ric is ric

Honestly this. It's a form of Batfaggotry and regular faggotry.

This. He likes his silver age characters. Wally was objectively more interesting as the Flash than Barry, BECAUSE we saw him grow into earning the mantle. Even in a genre as stagnant as capeshit, legacy characters, especially ones as old and established as Dick's gen, give you the avenue to create the illusion of growth and change.

Sliding timelines aren't a problem unless you have autism. You can forgive slowed aging and ambiguity thanks to cosmic events and time fuckery. Bruce is always going to be active, bumping Dick or Wally up a few years doesn't really harm anything

Then I stand corrected. Thank you.

Ok, but no one is asking for Dick to become older than Bruce. Dick and Bruce can have the same age difference of 15-20 years. It's just a matter of fans don't want legacy characters to literally disappear or die because Didio wants to keep Batman 30 forever.

Let's go back to 2010, when Dan Didio had to start sharing power with Jim Lee. Tell me that post-2010 DC (Jim Lee's co-control) is better than 2002-2011 DC (Dan Didio's sole control).