I think Didio is worse though, because he claims diveristy, even as there is a lack of diversity in his universe (where the heck is Empress?)

I remember the fallout from Identity Crisis bleeding into the Titans, too. I’d argue World War III and Amazons Attack do count for minor crossovers, since they did affect a number of titles and characters. If you wanted to get any sort of idea what the Titans went through during the missing year, you had to read 52. Not to mention 52 brought back the multiverse. Amazons Attack is crossing over into Titans and Supergirl. 52 and Countdown kinda exist in some nebulous area, I guess. It features the characters, it affects them (Duela Dent and the Titans and whoever else is left to kill next).

Young Avengers was derailed by Heinberg’s infamous work habits, but apparently it’s still in the works with a co-writer taking most of the load. So I don’t think Hulking and Wiccan are going to be forgotten, there was the Civil War crossover with Runaways.

But, yeah, I understand where you’re coming from, though I’m coming at it from the other side – my disgust was with Infinite Crisis.

And DC isn’t?

DC and Marvel both haven’t taken a break from the cataclysmic events. Just as Avengers:Disassembled kicked off Marvel’s events, so did Identity Crisis. 52 lead right into another big weekly event comic. Teen Titans has been shook up and run through so many times it’s a mystery why no one’s shut down the team. And I don’t know about DC having more self-contained, single-issue stories. There’s Amazon Attack and Countdown tie-ins, and the only single-issue format I’ve heard of is Dini’s Batman.

Actually, I’m going to dispute that. Identity Crisis, 52, and Countdown aren’t crossover books. Event books, sure. And there are books that tie into them, or spin out of them, but they aren’t crossovers like Infinite Crisis or Civil War, where the vast majority of the universe is affected by the events in the series week after week. You could make the case that Amazons Attack isn’t really a crossover either, though it’s certainly closer to one than any of the others I listed above. Countdown is primarily responding to events that happen in other titles, as well as telling its own story, 52 was more or less off in its own little corner of the universe, and Identity Crisis had ideas picked up in JLA and Flash, but stayed relatively confined to its 7-issue title.

Marvel, on the other hand, has been interspersing large universe-wide crossovers (Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, World War Hulk) with smaller character-wide crossovers (Decimation, The Other, Planet Hulk, Back in Black, Annihilation) without stopping.

As far as done-in-one stories go, there’s Detective Comics (as you mentioned), Jonah Hex (though I understand it’s had some multiple-issue stories lately), Brave and the Bold (there’s an overarching story, but each issue is complete), and (accidentally) most recent issues of Action Comics and Superman. I haven’t been keeping up with Aquaman, but I hear that Williams might be doing similar things there too.

Obsidian and Batwoman certainly haven’t gotten enough exposure, but the promise of Todd’s return in Manhunter (when the title’s off hiatus) suggests that we’ll be seeing more of him than “JSA doorman.” Batwoman hasn’t appeared much outside of 52, but 52 only ended a little over a month ago, and until then there was a moratorium on using her. If the LitG rumors from months ago are true, we’ll be seeing solicits for her solo title soon.

I love Karolina and Xavin, don’t get me wrong, and besides exploring gender issues all around, there’s also the alien angle (and the inevitable test of trust when news of the Skrull invasion breaks). I was under the impression that Young Avengers had been canceled or was on extended hiatus, leaving Hulkling and Wiccan somewhat in limbo. If they’re still around and active, then they ought to be added to the list.

I’m not necessarily saying in any of these situations that DC is doing better than Marvel, I’m countering your points that there hasn’t been a successful diversity drive at DC, or that Marvel is doing significantly better than their competition in some of these areas. Overall, I think both companies have good and bad areas, and in the case of things like diversity and crossover fatigue, both companies have many of the same problems. I think DC’s doing better at addressing the problems than Marvel, but then again, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Civil War and all that nonsense.

It’s my unscientific feeling that Marvel really tries more to take advantage of and develop their lesser known characters. If anything, GLI and the Dead Girl mini is proof of that.

And 52 isn’t? DC’s done quite a lot for lesser-known characters in the last several years. 52 was full of them, as is Countdown. Two years ago, ongoing titles for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle would be absurd. A weekly series starring the Question, Steel, and the Elongated Man would be ridiculous. And then there are minis, poorly-conceived or not, featuring Captain Comet and the Weird, Dr. Thirteen, Son of Vulcan, etc.

I understand that you’re trying to point out all the good that has come under Quesada, I just think it undermines your position when a good half, if not more, of the things you mention were immediately undone, also under Quesada. It seems as silly as if I were to praise Dan DiDio for making Ted Kord an interesting character and making Max Lord an intriguing villain. Does it really count if it was undone several pages later?

As far as “dead is dead,” I may be mistaken in remembering it as a mantra, but I seem to recall hearing it after Hawkeye’s death in particular. His first one, recently.

I’m not sure how much I would consider “outright lying” to be “marketing.” People were buying Frontline before Speedball was revealed to be alive; did saying he was dead really spike sales on the book? People actively dislike Quesada’s stance on the Mary Jane issue, and I somehow doubt that it’s just marketing when he says he’d prefer Peter to be single so he can be involved in love triangles again, because marriage is boring. I’m not sure who he’s trying to market to with remarks like that. Unless he’s of the “as long as you piss people off, they’re going to keep buying” school of marketing, it seems inane to balk at marriage when I’d bet that a large portion of the folks buying Spider-Man are married. It’s possible that he’s trying to market-through-controversy, but when he’s trying to stir up controversy over every title every week, I think it’d tend to lessen the impact.