Didio Talks Titans

From Didio's 20 Answers:

10. Given the number of questions that were in the thread about it, I think that if any group of DC fans needs a little patting of the hand and calming, it’s the Titans fans. Sean McKeever has announced that he’s leaving Teen Titans, and the June books are described by some as a “holding pattern”...

DD: These are always fun questions, because I always hear from people about how they want stand-alone, done-in-one stories, and as soon as you do them, we’re putting the franchise into a “holding pattern,” and we don’t know what to do with it.

In terms of the franchise – there is a long-term plan for the Titans. We knew we were building to a major storyline with the “Deathtrap” storyline and the Jericho involvement – and there’s a definite conclusion there. Because this is crossing over into both Titans titles and into Vigilante, we thought we would take a little bit of a break afterwards and take some time for reflection on the characters – to give them a chance to breathe on their own.

Breaks like this also give us an opportunity to work with new writers who aren’t used to working with us, or haven’t worked with DC in the past, to show their wares and give them an opportunity to work with characters that they want to give a go to. It’s a win-win all around as far as I’m concerned. More importantly, we get a little bit of a break, and gives us a moment or two as the new teams get in place with the new direction for the stories – something which we feel will have long-term implications for the characters and series – it gives them some running ahead time on the books so that when we do have the work scheduled, their issues can come out on a monthly schedule. Again, it all sounds like a good thing to me – we get a sampling of new voices, we get a chance for characters to shine, we get a chance for the new teams to work on their stories to make them the best they can be, and most importantly, we get a chance to put them out on a monthly basis.

NRAMA: Speaking of the Titans changes – one of the first of these new voices coming on to the Titans book itself is Hugh Sterbakov, of Top Cow’s The Freshmen fame. Who got him to DC, and what do you see in him?

DD: We’ve been looking for ways to work with Hugh for a while now, and as I said earlier, something like this is just an excellent opportunity. He’s working on the Cyborg story – he has an interesting take on the character and an interesting exploration of the characters that we wanted to try. It’s a great single-issue story, and if there are other opportunities down the road, we’ll explore them.

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As usual, Didio dodges the question. Not that I'd expect anything less at this point. He cites "long term plans for Titans," well those must have started ... When exactly? Both TEEN TITANS and TITANS have been in flux for a year now. Both creative teams have been shuffled. And whatever plans Winick and McKeever brought have undoubtedly changed.

Didio notes, " I always hear from people about how they want stand-alone, done-in-one stories, and as soon as you do them, we’re putting the franchise into a “holding pattern,”" Now, Dan, we believe the Titans franchise is in a "holding pattern" because there's been no communication about what direction the franchise is headed. And now, both series are getting "fill in" stories from random writers. If we were told that Hugh Sterbakov was going to be doing 4 stand alone "Day In The Life" issues, that would be fine. But nothing is being communicated. At all. Which leads fans to believe that there are no "long term plans." If there were, why not share them , in the most basic of spoiler-free terms?

I also love how he praises Hugh's Cyborg story, after Hugh announced two days ago he was no longer writing that story (after it was solicited, mind you).

Yeah, sounds like Didio has got that Titans franchise in good shape.... TITANS and TEEN TITANS are currently the only DC book I am buying. But if they continue to treat the franchise as they have, I may be going cold turkey on DC across the board.

What's that phrase?

"All sound and fury signifying nothing."

Yeah, that's the phrase.