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Guess what big comic book company made news last week? It’s like the big-two are taking turns, seriously.

If you’re a big reader of DC Comics, you probably know that Warner Bros. (WB) has been DC’s parent company. If you knew that a big media conglomerate was behind DC you would probably ask yourself how come the WB never used it size to help DC Comics? I mean, wouldn’t they have the power to make DC more popular? Well, guess what occurred last week? There was a big announcement from WB about the creation of DC Entertainment. This is a new way for WB to integrate and capitalize on the DC characters and stories. Once again I have to ask if this is a good thing for DC?

DC Entertainment is the name of the new division/ company under WB whose purpose is to utilize the recognition, popularity, and value of DC comics, characters, and stories across all media. The person in charge of DC Entertainment is someone new to comics but not new to working across all types of media. Her name is Diane Nelson, and she comes from the section of WB that manages the media aspect of the Harry Potter franchise. So, she’s not stranger to taking care of something important to a fan-base. Along with this creation there is a change in the hierarchy of DC Comics, Diane will now directly report to the President of WB’s Pictures Group instead of the WB president. This really doesn’t make sense to me but then again I’m not exactly clear on the structure of WB to see how that affects anything.

This change caused a lot of shake-ups in DC, most notably the resigning of current DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz. He has agreed to stay on as a consultant to help Diane, but he is going back to writing comics for DC. This sounds like a bad thing, but Paul believes that DC’s future is in good hands.

To me this change-up sounds like something that DC fans have always wanted: the support of a big company. But that’s not all that has happened. Fans wanted the support from a big company so it could help to popularize comics. What’s happened is that WB is trying to find a way to use the characters and stories from the comics, and not sell more comics. In my eyes, selling comics will be secondary or a minor priority for DC Entertainment, and not its main purpose. This echoes Marvel Entertainment, which is being purchased by Disney as we speak. If DC Entertainment is similar to Marvel Entertainment then it’s possible that it really will be a benefit for DC Comics.

Once again it’s only been a week since the big announcement and the true test of strength for this new change will be time. Just like everyone else I’m hoping that this becomes something great benefiting comics like it should. I would find it really regrettable if DC Entertainment cheapened comics into a fad or forced editorial control on DC stories. But under this new scheme its possible but I still doubt it. Either way, only time will tell.