The upcoming release of DC KO and the promotional video have me worried for the state of the company and the stories coming forward. I've been disappointed with the publications since 2021. Death Metal was an indication that things might not be going in a direction I was interested in. Now we have an event that is described as the entire DC Universe going into some kind of Mortal Kombat tournament to beat Darkseid in a fistfight? What?

Dan DiDio and Paul Levitz, these guys knew how to run a tight ship. Regardless of what you think of them. As of right now it seems that the starting line is made up of a legion of fanboys with Mark Waid at the helm. Everybody is trying to emulate Geoff Johns, but they lack his ability for lightning-in-a-bottle blockbuster pitches that carried his career.

Now what? Williamson's fast-food fanboy comics? Snyder's infantile absurdity? Tom Taylor's crash-course thrills? Jeremy Adams and his soap-writing? Ram V, Simon Spurrier and Dan Watters are much better suited to their creator-owned passion projects. Their prose holds a cosmetic quality but fails to convey any true innovation. They fail in their pursuit of replicating Alan Moore, taking all the wrong lessons from him and the rest of the British Invasion. They forget (or ignore) Moore's perfect talent for pacing and narrative symmetry in favor of slow burn bloated rambling. Tom King does the same thing, but his failure is in his affinity for constant cynicism. Waid would be much better suited in the editorial office than with the pen.

I feel as though the company has been in decline since the departure of Grant Morrison. I'll always have those comics to return to and reread, gaining something new each time, like all the best literary fiction, music, and film. This is something I do not feel with the current era's trend towards rapid-fire flip reads with predictable dialogue and action figure smash-em-ups. It's all consumerism, not art.