These are old but interesting from an graphic point of view. As a designer, it’s our job to relay a message visually and I think these do it well:

http://2photo.ru/en/post/24699

Is DC in business to do something other than make money?
Yes there are. They have corporate responsibilities to uphold… transparency, values, ethics and promises they’ve made whether written or implied.

I don’t think anyone wants to discourage DC from making money but it’s a question of how they go about doing it… and if what they are doing is truly in their best interest. So the issue is one of taste and leadership.

Unfortunately, the law does not make the distinction between the “letter” and the “spirit” of a contract…

Historically, prequels and sequels are rarely as good as the original (the only exceptions that come to mind are Aliens and T2). Still, it’s not to say that it’s not possible… so politics aside, I’m looking forward to this and I’ll judge these books on their own merit.

Speaking of the “big red panic button”…
I can tell you that many companies do turn to rebranding as a last resort… their current efforts do feel somewhat desperate so I was thinking the same thing. No doubt DC has a lot of pressure to make the numbers from Time Warner but hopefully they do have a viable plan beyond a shiny new logo.

The thing that really irks me is Straczynski’s comments about working on Watchmen 2 and comparing it to if someone were to do a Babylon 5 prequel.

““So now – apples to apples – let’s make the B5 comparison,” he continued. “Let’s say Warner Bros. came to me and said, ‘we want to do more Babylon 5, and we want you to run the whole thing. We’ll pay you anything you want, give you a proper budget, and you will have complete creative freedom.’ [...] So let’s say that Warners makes that offer, and I said, ‘No, I don’t want it, take your accursed money, your big budget and your complete creative freedom and begone, get thee behind me Satan!’ Let’s say they came back and said ‘Okay, then how about we pay you vast sums of money just to consult? How about that?’ [...] ‘What if we sweeten the deal? What if we offer to give you full ownership of Babylon 5, legally and contractually, so you own it? How about that?’”

The point is that Moore doesn’t trust DC/Warners at this point. He’s been burned by them quite a few times. Moore is a difficult person in general and he’s obviously a flawed man, but there was an initial agreement that the rights would revert back to him, David Brothers at 4thletter.net puts it best

“Moore and Gibbons were supposed to gain ownership, or something similar, once the book had been out of print for a year. From what I’ve heard, it was a good contract, totally reasonable… but the book they made was so good that it generated so much demand that taking it out of print would be throwing away dollars. The future came out of nowhere and screwed up the plans.

Once DC Comics realized that, though, I think they should have renegotiated with the creative team to keep it in print, give them some share of the rights, and then get together to take money baths down at the bank. Instead, they went for the short-term gain, and now the trail of destruction that sits between DC and Alan Moore is unforgivable. They had a chance to make good, to not pull all of the tricks the comics industry is known for pulling, and didn’t. Their short-term business sense said that taking the money and running was a good idea. Long-term thinking would’ve told them that giving Moore and Gibbons what they agreed on, and then nurturing that relationship over the next 25 years, would have let them make a ton of money. It’s a complicated situation and I’m (obviously) not an entertainment lawyer, but I genuinely believe that it should have gone down differently. There’s a moral aspect that should not have been ignored.”

So, yeah – basically what Scotty said: vote with your wallet. This is something that’s going to make a lot of money, and has with the exception of Straczynski alot of visionary and creative voices attached to it.. but for me, it just seems wrong.