DC Entertainment’s blog TheSource is all atwitter with big news! Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment named DCE’s new executive management team, including new co-publishers of DC Comics and a Chief Creative Officer, as well as heads of Sales/Marketing/Business Development and Finance/Administration. The new senior executive “dream team” reports directly to Nelson.

Jim Lee (former Editorial Director/Overseer of WildStorm Studios and fan favorite artist) and Dan DiDio (former Senior Vice President and Executive Editor) have been named Co-Publishers of DC Comics (replacing outgoing Publisher Paul Levitz).

In this statement from the new Co-Publishers, they said…

Our mission is to reinvent DC Comics to prepare it for the challenges and opportunities in this quickly changing world. With the Co-Publisher structure, it’s going to allow us to be in many places at once, both literally and metaphorically; to better position DC as one of the great creative engines which fuels and defines so much of our world’s Pop Culture while making sure we continue to address and redefine what makes DC’s characters so great.

I’m most familiar with Jim Lee from his work on the X-Men back in the 90s (I was a BIG fan at the time) and his Hush storyline from Batman (which I picked up for his name). He lost me on his All Star Batman and Robin (didn’t like the modernizing of their meeting). I hadn’t realized he was responsible for the Wildstorm Universe, so if he was behind the cataclysmic events there then I’m not sure about doing a big happy dance over this.

As to the choice of DiDio, I’m not really all that pleased. He was at the helm during the current upswing in unnecessarily violent deaths, tortures and maimings designed to drive sales. Killing off or forever changing characters that readers have loved for years.

I’m most excited by the news that superstar writer Geoff Johns, will serve as Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment. Johns is responsible for many of DC’s biggest wins – including the current event Blackest Night, the successful relaunches of JSA, Green Lantern and Teen Titans (which rocked until he left it) as well as 3 of the best Smallville episodes in its long history.

When describing Johns, Nelson said…

Geoff Johns has an unparalleled creative mind and a huge heart. He brings a level of enthusiasm, passion and optimism to every discussion I have with him that is so motivating. He will be instrumental in establishing the tone and culture of creative risk and business growth that we intend for DC Entertainment. And he will ensure the integrity of how we bring these characters and stories to fans across every entertainment platform.

With Geoff Johns’ proven skill at taking a character or characters with a rich and beloved history and managing to enrich it by interweaving exciting new elements into a complicated mythos without disturbing what has been written in the past, Johns is a wonderful choice for this position. I’m positively thrilled! As long as he keeps writing too. But that shouldn’t be a problem according to this statement from Johns himself…

Under the leadership of Jim and Dan, I’ll continue writing and giving my creative input as I have been in comic books. But expanding onto that, Diane’s asked me to take our comic book world, embrace it (as I do) and use it to lead the creative charge on bringing it all to film, toys, television, video games, animation and beyond. The Justice Society appearing on Smallville was only the beginning.

Additionally, John Rood has been named Executive Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Business Development, and Patrick Caldon will serve as Executive Vice President, Finance and Administration.

via TheSource