Jim Lee Promoted As DC Comics Rots Away 

IT’s corporate mentality. Do what is asked. Don’t take chances……..at all; bank a check. Jim has definitely figured out what to do and not do to continue to thrive at DC.

feels like Jim Lee is still in power because no one else wants the job or isn't willing or able to commit to trying it and dealing with people on a regular basis. Waiting for a full on woke hire to replace Jim Lee at some point.

IMO, Peter J. Tomassi is the most qualified for any of Jim's positions. Over a quarter of a century of experience as both a writer and editor, who knows the greater DCU, it's history and lore, as well as anyone alive today. But Peter's a middle-aged, SWM, so the odds that he's even been considered are probably slim-to-none.

This just furthers my old theory that Jim Lee cannot be removed from DC because of the sale/deal of his intellectual property via the Wildstorm acquisition all those many years ago. They can’t get rid of him, regardless of who the corporate owners are, and so it’s true that he can only move (or fail) upwards.

I will forever be grateful for Jim Lee's work on Batman: Hush, and his Superman arch. That being said, he is not the best business man. DC Comics sales tanked under his watch. It's not entirely his fault, but he was ultimately responsible for the quality of he books they put out.

This is shocking! Jim Lee, a decent artist but a terrible manager, president of DC?

The whole time DC has been slowly destroying it's comics universe, I've been thinking, "Jim must be in a spot where he really has no control over this!" Can't use that excuse anymore.

Jim Lee became one of my top ten favorite comic book artists when I first discovered him on Punisher War Journal. He's a good artist, less so a good writer and definitely not a good businessman. He should have stuck to drawing and never been put into any position of management. I could understand him being thrust into managing DC and becoming overwhelmed but the fact that he has performed poorly and hasn't had the courage to bow out is disappointing. Having dropped DC years ago, it doesn't really matter to me anymore, but it is saddening to watch a company I invested over three decades worth of time and money into burn to the ground.

I really miss someone like Paul Levitz, it’s just depressing. But mark waid’s Shazam was the highlight of this week at least.

It's amazing how these companies hate making money.

This is unbelievable. How did this happen?

I saw this news this morning and was like "What the hell??" How did Jim Lee get promoted? He's tanked DC on his watch alone! Does Discovery not care at all? Clearly Lee doesn't give a damn. Talk about killing the golden goose. Execs and creatives driven away by him. What will be act two of Jim Lee's tenure? I just don't understand. I'd rather have had his salary used to pay and hire good talent. I'm not hopeful for Gunn to turn everything around. Totally agree with you on this Wes. Many thanks and hope you have an excellent day.

Jim Lee is like Michael Jordan: Amazing artist, not the best business man.

I work in government, so that comment about working in government hit hard. 😂 People joke about government employees being incompetent, but they have no idea how bad it really is. I'm convinced that DC and Marvel are both being run as tax write-offs.

Why should anyone be excited about Jim Lee becoming President ?

I'm embarrassed that I devoted so much time and energy in a hobby/industry that is hell-bent on destroying itself.

It's not just Comics. There's corporate incompetence everywhere

Bring back Paul Levitz! I believe he has a business degree (from many years ago), he knows comics at least as well as Jim Lee, and he certainly knows DC comics better than Jim Lee. And he's got the experience. He's 66 now, so maybe you give him a 4 year contract. But I'm betting he could at least stop the bleeding.

I just hope with his promotion that Dc universe Infinite keeps going for a long time. Its the best thing they have right now for digital reading. Plus with the ultra tier you can read books only a month after they come out instead of 6 months.

I don't buy recent DC comics anymore, I can just go back to my bookshelves and read the good stuff. All-Star Superman, The Dark Knight Returns, The Golden Age of Wonder Woman, a shelf full of amazing stories.👍

I have been a Batman fanboy since I was 5 years old. I have two rooms of Batman statues, books, DVDs, and other memorabilia. I collected 60 years worth of Detective and Batman comics . I now read less new Batman related titles and watch less Batman sort of related tv shows under Jim Lee’s watch than I ever have. I may even start selling some of my comics because the history of comic book characters doesn’t matter anymore, like my entire run of Chuck Dixon Robin comics is undone by a horrible Tim Drake Robin comic. The only thing keeping me in the DC game are books like Batman and the Joker Deadly Duo and World’s Finest . Independents are getting far more of my money now.

Strange. This makes me wonder what Jim lee is bringing to the table for him to be keeping his job and get promoted. There’s got to be a logical reason why he is still with the company after some of the failures the company underwent that we’re just not seeing. 🤔

Oh, I don't the sound of that. Jim Lee can't fix what's already broken. DC is already on the same path of destruction along with Marvel and every other comic book brand that is suffering along with them. And we've been saying this for half (if not more) a decade now.

I always asked how can people fail upwards. It is mind blowing and the amount of characters destroyed under Jim Lee’s watch is ridiculous and problematic. Jim Lee isn’t a leader and he is like that Staff NCO who checked out but keeps moving up in rank.

We need someone who loves Comics. Someone who knows Superman and the others. And someone who makes never stupid experiments. Goodbye, Mr. Lee.😒

kind of like Carmine Infantino in his time. He was a disaster as a publisher, and he still stayed on for years.

Jim Lee was and probably still is my favourite artist. I remember meeting him in 1995 and 1996, way back when they were doing their European Tours. Heck, this was the time when J. Scott Campbell and Adam Hughes had barely started out and were still quite unknown (Campbell was actually drawing full monthly comics back then, can you imagine that?). This was also a time Lee and those guys would do detailed *free* sketches for guests... the comic industry sure has changed. The thing is, Jim Lee may be an excellent artist (especially with a little help from longtime inker/partner Scott Williams), but running a company sure is something completely different. And what about Image then? Yeah well, he didn't do that alone and those were the times even a mediocre comic book would sell 200.000 copies a month... times sure have changed. I remember when he sold Wildstorm to DC and sure had my doubts (remember McFarlane being quite critical about that?). But initially it didn't seem like such a bad move. We got Batman: Hush out of it, which was excellent (let's not talk too much about his Superman run, even though I attribute the bad story more to Azzarello than to Lee). And then we got New 52, which even though it was a mixed bag and far from perfect, actually made me pay attention to DC again. I think that was the first time in years I picked up a handful of DC comics again. And it even got better with DC Rebirth which fixed a lot of New 52's mistakes... it actually seemed like they were listening to fans and readers. Thing seemed great! But then... it went all downhill. We got DC Future State which completely alienated me and basically threw away all the good things I had come to like about New 52 and Rebirth. It was like DC's own version of Marvel Now!, but even worse, which I actually didn't think was possible. The result I've already stated before, 0 ongoing DC titles on my monthly pull list these days. And Jim Lee? Well, my guess is he doesn't even care anymore. It's as if he doesn't even want to put up a fight anymore, like the passion is gone and he's already in semi-retirement and just wants to cash in as much as possible before going into full retirement. And if that means going full in with the woke & equity flow, so be it. I doubt he's even a strong supporter of that ideology. But it's probably the easiest way, shut up, repeat the lines, get promoted and cash in all the way into retirement. And screw sales and fans/readers. Disappointing!

You people have a short memory. Jim Lee's failure should not surprise anyone. It is not like Wildstorm Studios was a huge success. If DC hadn't bought them out, it probably would have gone bankrupt.

It's remarkable. I think there are only two industries in the world where incompetence gets rewarded instead of fired. Politics and comics.

It shows how much I turn to Thinking Critical. All day yesterday I was wondering about your take, Wes. Not mad, just expecting it. All the best with the kiddos. That is one thing I like about summer, my kids can avoid that awful petri dish of diseases called school.

I think it's nice when Superman opened a portal by mistake that DC took responsibility and gave the people from that dimension a job. It's a shame that those people ware from the Bizarro world and do the opposite from what fans wanted.

Such a shame. 😮 I met Jim Lee at a con years ago. Such a nice guy. (🙂) That was BEFORE he became a (the) head honcho at DC... 😢 😞

Jim Lee is there to take up space. They'll never go back to the glory days of the 80s and 90s. That one movie producer was right: DC peaked in 1986 and they keep trying to go back and fail. The culture hasn't produced the talent necessary to make DC great again.

No one else most likely wanted the job like it's like signup to be the captain of the titanic with the full knowledge of what's gonba happen...

It’s… interesting that Jim Lee has been promoted. Let’s hope he’ll try and do his best to improve DC and make a continuity and timeline that make sense for the main DC universe. Also, make sure that the WildStorm universe is separate from the main DC universe so that the DC and WildStorm readers can be happy.

Failing upwards seems to be the new superpower...

You fail up in comics, if you’re incompetent you’ll get promoted as editors or hired more for writing roles. But if you’re a good writer we’ll never see you again. Marvel & DC, the place ideas go to die.

He's becoming the captain of the Titanic, after it hit the iceberg. Nice promotion.

So he gets another promotion? I guess he is going to further screw up the brand. Now I’m an old person and I remember when Wildstorm first came to DC. At the same time Milestone also got folded back into DC. He has let the main thing rot while Milestone goes unused. Milestone has all the “inclusion” that DC could ever want and he just won’t use them.

That's what happens when you promote comic book artists instead of comic book writers.

I don't know about comic book publishing business, but out here in the real world sometimes people are moved up as a pretext to moving them out.

What is the actual ceiling of a top selling book in mainstream comics? Not a gimmick laden first issue but issue #3 or #4 when all the collectors and speculators have been shed away from the sales and now it’s just the people that are reading the book. What is that ceiling in 2023? 100,000 copies? The prevailing theory about why D.C. keeps Jim Lee around is so Marvel doesn’t snatch him up. So let’s say he goes to Marvel and they put him on X-Men. What does that book actually sell in the long-term? Probably 80,000 or less. Numbers similar or maybe slightly more than Silvestri is doing right now on Batman. Is D.C. really worried about that? I think the reason Jim Lee keeps getting these opportunities is because in the beginning he was riding the momentum from the 90’s. More recently though I just think he’s the convenient choice. But when you look at his career after the speculator bubble crashed what has he done? Look at the numbers, he’s snake oil.

President of a ship that's on fire in the middle of the ocean...

I remember back in the late 90s and early 2000s when comicbook shops here in the Philippines were always busy. Me and my brother would always drop by Folbar's, which was the biggest comicbook chain here, and we would have to choose which comics to buy because there were so many good stuff to choose from. That included Jim Lee's run with the X-men and the early days of Image comics (I absolutely loved WildCATS). Now, Filbar's is a shell of its former self, and they mainly just sell Funkopops. And guess what? Interest on those are dying as well. If DC and Marvel doesn't get their shit together and focus on comics the industry will die. The movies will die as well because there won't be any good stories to back them up.

LOL🤣 Jim Lee is no Stan Lee

Can anyone confirm that this is due to Warner Bros/DC 's new ownership/leadership? Did the new owners just default to Lee b/c of his celebrity status and pass successes (X-Men, Hush)? or Did Lee negotiate for the position?

I think there are definitely some great DC books currently, but most of them are under black label. Deadly Duo was amazing. Just got issue #7 through the door today as well. The artwork in this books especially is the best I've seen from DC or Marvel in a while.

Jim Lee should be fired simply for allowing Megan Fitzmartin to completely wreck Tim Drake.

Talk about history repeating itself. Sounds like the same thing that happened at DC in the 1970s under Carmine Infantino. Infantino -- a great artist promoted to a business-side job that he was not trained or qualified for.

Forest fires often stimulate new growth. Jim Lee placed as president should help DC destroy itself quicker. It's a good thing. The mediocre two's rot of bad decisions over the past 15 years has hurt American comics. The quicker these two take themselves out of comics, the quicker American comics can rebuild itself to a healthier & possibly, a worthwhile hobby again.

This will make history, Jim Lee will be the end of DC. It was OK will it lasted, right?

For a CEO of any type, Jim Lee is a great artist

Happy Star Wars day

I wish he would draw again

I'd like to know more about the comics of the Philippines. Could you do a show featuring some?

Talk about failing upwards, good grief.

How are they are focusing on international markets when even their subscription app is not available in the eu?

Silver Age kid here. When I was a kid, I loved Batman. I adored Superman. Maybe the stories weren't the most sophisticated, but they were solid, good and you didn't have to worry about your kids reading them. I'd love to have them back.

I think we need more facts as far as what Jim Lee's real duties are before He's blamed for Print problems. What decisions does He make exactly? Does He have final say?

Didn't Heather Antos get a promotion too? Kinda seems like the powers that be at these comic book companies actually hate comic books.

it's no longer DC, it's BC.

Any suggestions on who should replace him?

This move makes less sense than anything Marvel or DC (in the past) has done.What is Zaslav thinking? Premier artist or not, Lee is apparently not qualified.

Jim Lee is still one of my most favorite artists, but everyone should remember he's a MARVEL guy and way back when he was a young guy he said in a interview-"If I could infiltrate DC from the inside I would destroy DC and have MARVEL finally once and for all be king". So, with that said he's making his dream come true. But, I still like his art work and I always was a fan of both MARVEL and DC.

He needs to retire. Should've put Geoff Johns in charge.

The rot from the Superboy-Prime days has finally set in

R.I.P DC.😂😂😂😂

Jim needs to be just relegated to drawing AND not drawing a Batman sketch for the umpteenth time. It’s at ad nausea how many times he’s post a blasted Batman sketch online. To be honest him remaining in place has to be for appearances. If you fire him it’s a sign that either the ship is sinking or someone grew a pair to make some changes. Which isn’t part of their strategy.

Have you thought about reviewing the Philippines comic books? Could be interesting.

Jim Lee were my favorite 90's comic book artist,but like a editor-in-chief of DC is a utter disater.And now he's in leadership of DC.This gonna ends badly. DC sells is a shame in nowadays and when Batman comics stop to sell this will be the end of line for DC.

Just read A Little Cabin on the Lake, and I thought it was excellent. I was surprised I’d never heard you mention it.

Really? You're surprised? No one wants to Captain this sinking ship. Jim Lee is the last man standing.

I like Jim so my reaction shouldn't be "Yikes", but here we are...

3:50 Gotham Knights looks terrible, who are these people supposed to be? I don't know what characters they supposed to look like. They could of had them in costumes, but no.

Guardians 3 was a terrific popcorn movie with a positive subtext about recovery - the opposite of Tom King. As far as Jim Lee as prez is concerned, at this point I literally don’t think things could get worse for DC. So I’ll just keep writing my own stuff and see where that goes.

He Must Rub People The Right Way

I was so waiting for this video. I'm gonna change my strategy to create crap characters with crappy art, maybe then I'll actually get a job in comics. F, quality

This article's author couldn't remove their lips from Jim Lee's butt with a crowbar.

I miss Arrowverse. It was not perfect but very better than the Titans and the Gotham Knights. DC deserves better shows.🙄

I'm sure I'm not the 1st person saying this, failing upwards.

I’m going to turn 54 and was in high school in the 1980’s - I remember when the talk was DC’s multiverse was too complex to understand and a turn off to new fans (Read: Marvel fans.) I can disagree more - the multiverse concept (which was used in a more quiet way by Marvel) was no more odd or off putting of a concept than science fiction or super heroes . The current era or better yet , the past 35 years , with its constant rebooting and revamping ….. you need more than a score card to understand . With constant rebooting , abandonment of old continuity , mixing and matching different concepts, and constant turnover in staff (management and creative) , I’ve long since lost any idea of how DC’s universe works and quite honestly don’t even care . I’ve pretty much sworn off new comics from “the Big 2” and mainly stick to reprints(hardcover and softcover) , and some proprietary oriented comics (Star Wars High Republic , Stranger Things, and some other occasional independent work.) The poor quality stories , lack of continuity and effort by the current creative teams , pandering to corporate executives and movie crowd has proven that Marvel and DC don’t care about the fans who kept them alive for nearly 90 decades . The comic book scene is in a very precarious place , but it’s not all to blame on just current office politics - it’s been going in this direction due to many decisions made across the past 30-35 years .

Jim Lee has reached the age where he has gone from being a rebel to being THE MAN.

You know what would fix their problems? Making Batman gay.

Well if u remember James gunn did say he wants to contact the movies with the comics. So they means James would have to meet with the writers and give them a story to follow which could bost DC sales

To be fair, DC is better reading overall than Marvel. They have better artists that’s for sure.

The American comic book industry is the complete opposite of the manga industry. If mangakas made the same ridiculous decisions that the American comic book industry does, they'd probably cease to exist. If one of these people had a manga in Japan that had the most abysmal sales imaginable, it wouldn't get up to a 10th chapter or even a 2nd one

Jim Lee seems like a great guy, and he's a fantastic artist, but he definitely isn't a leader. Painful to say, but true

LOVE Jim Lee! Mega-huge fan of his art! But Jim Lee IS NOT going to stop all of the woke stuff in comics that's chasing away the core audience of comic book fans. JIM LEE IS NOT GOING TO BRING DC COMICS BACK FROM THIS SLUMP! He's not a great businessman, he's an artist.

This habit of promoting objective failure upwards has truly done a number on entertainment in all forms. It used to be that if you sucked at your job you would be fired, that is no longer the case.

As bad as leadership at DC and Marvel is, Dark Horse thinks its a good idea to push out a Whoopi Goldberg book where she has menopausal super-powers.

It must be a diversity contract, they must be afraid to terminate him because how can any company justify this, Wes?

Funny thing is, if you say his name & title to anyone other than comic fans, people would assume he's Stan's son.

It’s alright Wes don’t worry sometimes everyone needs a day off heck I was sick on Tuesday

It really sucks that Jim Lee is the President of DC Comics Because he was the inspiration for most of today's artist who are in their 40s and 30s drawing comics and we can't even get decent comics out of DC . I was honestly hoping that he went back to image and just started drawing either Wildcats or a new IP.

GREAT THINKING CRITICAL ❤❤❤😉👍💚💚💚

To play devil's advocate, Poland did get the most complete collection of the Batman Knightfall crossover event. Even more complete than the 25th anniversary TPBs which it was based on. So that's one thing I know of they're doing for international markets.

I wonder what your views are on Philippine comics like 'Trese' by Budjette Tan and 'Blood of the Shinobi' by Pol Medina, Jr.

It’s frustrating because you know his position is more “ceremonial” than anything. As the last of the “superstar artists” from the 80s/90s, it’s completely obvious they keep him under contract, solely to prevent him from returning to Marvel. Which in itself, as a competitive strategy, is fine, but if you’re going to keep him as an “ambassador/ president emeritus”, at least surround the guy with a competent staff to actually run the business. Like other commenters mentioned, a Levitz, Tomasi, Mike Carlin type or types, that understand the DCU better, and the overall comic editorial/publishing positions.

So James Gunn has no say in the DC comics ?

Welcome to my world, where this is absolutely rife.