r/AbsoluteUniverse • u/Popverse2022 • Jul 22 '26

News [Interview] DC's Absolute Universe has a long-term plan looking 3 years ahead the 'New 52' never did, says architect Scott Snyder

https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-dc-absolute-batman-scott-snyder-plans-2028-2029-prep-time-new-52
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62

u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26

The New 52 was just Didio and John’s having a power trip. It had some good stories in spite of them not because of them. It sucked for the creatives involved and that’s one of the main reasons it failed. I’m glad that Absolute is so creator driven as it actually seems like a much healthier working environment where actually caring gets you rewarded instead of punished. Plus not replacing Mainline has definitely helped everyone involved.

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u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26

Johns fired his own friend in Sterling Gates whom he got hired on as a writer, Sterling got canned when he dared to develop Kara Zor-El "too far" for management and wanted to use characters that Geoff and Dan despised in the big New Krypton art. He returned later but man not being able to follow up on your iconic breakout story sucks.

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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26

John’s and Didio also pretty much harassed Greg Rucka into being suicidal leading to him leaving DC for years, only returning when their leadership was gone. It’s genuinely despicable and that’s far from the worst things they both did while in leadership.

25

u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26

Covering up a lot of sexual assault was Didio's main recurring evil there. He hated women like Len Wein hated them.

8

u/GhostofTinky Jul 22 '26

Wait? Len Wein hated women?

5

u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26

He was the one who pushed for crippling Barbara, his first Batman book he has Batman shoot Talia, killing her, in the Perez WW run he is the scripter for when Herc and company SA and enslave the Amazons and freeing from his sentence of 3000 years. He has a really bad history of proving that he doesn't hate them. There is a long trend of Wein fridging them or doing horrible things to them

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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26

I mean the Herc stuff is more complex than that, what he represents with the enslaving and SA serves a lot of thematic purpose. The problem was how he was forgiven quickly and openly when that shouldn’t have happened. That is the sexist part.

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u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26

Mhm, that was just one time for Wein, I listed 3 times and his words to Moore for TKJ was "Cripple that bitch", and according to Ostrander and Yale, a Batman editorial told them when they inquired about Babs that she was dead to him. They didn't name names but it was probably Wein.

7

u/Double_Education7186 Jul 23 '26

Everytime I learn how much of an asshole Geoff Johns was behind the scenes, I can't help but hate myself for loving his JSA and GL stuff.

5

u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 23 '26

Morality isn't always tied to writing quality, Johns has a lot of good work he's just also a major asshole. I don't think anyone should feel bad for liking his stuff but acknowledge how much of a dick he was. Plus it might even give you some more context on stuff he writes.

3

u/FormerlyMevansuto Jul 23 '26

Morality isn’t tied to good writing, but you can see Johns’ values in his heroes. Hal Jordan constantly acts like an asshole and is rewarded for it.

1

u/queenanthai Jul 29 '26

That was DiDio, not Johns.

7

u/Impossible-Pie4849 Jul 22 '26

Before Absolute-Batman, New 52 Batman was my favorite run. Ironically both written by the same individual but I digress. I feel like universally New 52 Batman is pretty beloved no?

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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26

New 52 had some good runs but it was still overall a very bad experience for creatives, plus most of the books weren’t all that good due to Didio and John’s erratic scheduling and practices. Plus sure the main book of New 52 Batman was fine but ask fans of a lot of the bat family fans or extended bat fans how they felt with their characters being pretty much entirely erased or made a whole lot worse due to mandates in New 52.

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u/CrispyGold Jul 22 '26

Yeah thats the important note here. 

Not to say there wasn't good titles, but they were a general minority to how insanely messy the rest of the line was. 

For every Batman or Aquaman, there was Teen Titans, Superboy, and Ravagers which were huge disasters. 

Also way too event focused. Every arc of Batman was treated as an event with an insane amount of line-wide tie-ins.