Dick Hyacinth of the entertaining guilty pleasure and recent addition to the Blogs of Note, Dick Hates Your Blog, has been running a series of “Hate Polls”, pitting the likes of Mark Millar, Geoff Johns, Brad Meltzer and Joe Quesada against each other for the title of Most Hated in Comics. Last week, after Quesada soundly thumped previous reigning champ, Millar, he asked who else might be a worthy challenger to the formidable DaQ and my comment was one of my favorite ever, as succinct a description of the “Big Two” as I could imagine:
Yes, Levitz is whom I’d put up against Quesada, though I think DaQ would still win in a landslide. I’ve always had the impression that he has a lot more power than Didio, with Dan Buckley more focused on the business side, while Levitz employs a firmer hand in running the show over at DC.
I think DC’s eclectic variety speaks more to Levitz’ old school roots combined with a new school awareness that’s been forced upon him, while Marvel’s more limited slate is a reflection of Quesada being a myopic fanboy who’s surrounded himself with like-minded colleagues. (His recent comment about not really being into Annihilation said a lot.) Didio, on the other hand, is kind of like the short-order cook at Cheesecake Factory.
What I’d really like to see is Quesada take the natural next step, Uwe Boll style, and challenge his detractors to a boxing match. Or, more appropriate, I think, tag team wrestling, with him, Millar and Bendis vs. all comers. THAT would be an entertaining spectacle for this year’s series of Wizard conventions and would allow them to tone down the hype on their next round of underwhelming crossovers.
Dick’s set a tricky goal for himself of blogging the comics bloggers — “I mock those who write about comics on the internet.” — crossing the line often between prison guard and inmate, but he’s got a strong voice, some interesting opinions and, in perhaps his biggest coup, got the insufferably smug Joe Rice to admit his antagonistic style does more harm than good for his writing on Comics Should Be Good. For that alone, Dick Hates Your Blog is a blog worth reading.
If I had been the one to write that zinger, I would be eager to publicize it as well. I will do all in my power to make this Didio’s permanent nickname.
I’ve changed the blog description to something more descriptive.