History ExecutiveMeddling / TheDCU

* ''ComicBook/Titans1999'': Infamously, as Andrew Helfer's editorial meddling derailed Jay Faerber's strong writing until Faerber left the series. Helfer wanted the series to focus on a brand new group of kid heroes, which led to the [=DEOrphans=] getting shoehorned into the series and Faerber having to restructure all his plans to work around them. Faerber later went on record and stated that Helfer came onto the series as editor with absolutely no prior knowledge or familiarity with the Titans at all, and was basically shoving his ideas onto a pre-existing team he never cared for in the past.

* ''ComicBook/{{Titans}}'': Infamously, as Andrew Helfer's editorial meddling derailed Jay Faerber's strong writing until Faerber left the series. Helfer wanted the series to focus on a brand new group of kid heroes, which led to the [=DEOrphans=] getting shoehorned into the series and Faerber having to restructure all his plans to work around them. Faerber later went on record and stated that Helfer came onto the series as editor with absolutely no prior knowledge or familiarity with the Titans at all, and was basically shoving his ideas onto a pre-existing team he never cared for in the past.

* ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'': ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} was very almost killed off because Editor-in-Chief Creator/DanDiDio wanted a big character death, similar to ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', to send shockwaves for the DCU in the aftermath. This led to a WriterRevolt as most of the staff, Geoff Johns included, refused to do so.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The ''ComicBook/EmeraldTwilight'' story came about because Creator/DCComics executives decided they needed a newer, hipper Green Lantern, so they gave the writer of his series three issues to get rid of the old guy and all related characters. The storyline itself was also changed from its original idea of "Hal Jordan going rogue after the Zamarons took over the Corps" because the editors said no one knew who the Zamarons were. The writer quit, they hired a new writer and reused the story title for the storyline.
* ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'':
** ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} was very almost killed off because Editor-in-Chief Creator/DanDiDio wanted a big character death, similar to ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', to send shockwaves for the DCU in the aftermath. This led to a WriterRevolt as most of the staff, Geoff Johns included, refused to do so.
** [=DiDio=] and the editorial staff had complete control over the storyline for ''Countdown to Final Crisis'' because [=DiDio=] hated how ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'''s story got off-track from its original intent to explain the changes that had happened to the DC universe.
** And ''Countdown'' was part of the meddling in Creator/GrantMorrison[='=]s plans for ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' - they wanted the ComicBook/NewGods to be completely absent from the DC Universe, so that their return in the book they were supposed to die in would be more impactful. DC's response? Put them ''everywhere'', not only in the aforementioned ''Countdown'', but even creating an entirely separate ''Death of the New Gods'' series, to the point that when Morrison did start writing ''Final Crisis'', they ultimately opted to just ignore everything that happened in both of those books.

** In some very early issues of ''Detective Comics'', Batman would shoot criminals to death on a regular basis. One day, DC editorial director Whit Ellsworth asked the writers to tone it down and [[LighterAndSofter make it kid-friendly]], leading to Batman's ThouShaltNotKill attitude that he holds to this day.

* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1987}}'': Around the early 2000's, editorial mandated that Artemis Goddess of the Hunt couldn't appear in the book after ComicBook/{{Artemis}} of Bana-Mighdall became a supporting character. They thought readers would be too confused by two (very different characters) with the same name. Creator/GregRucka was prepared to lampshade this by doing a whole storyline where ''Demeter'' assumed the Hunt portfolio, but this was cut short by ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''.

* The critically-panned event ''Comicbook/HeroesInCrisis'', written by Creator/TomKing, was the result of this with the original idea being more about the hero community reacting and coping with a tragedy with emphasis put on the characters going to therapy. However, while the editors liked the idea, they also wanted a murder mystery and get rid of some CListFodder characters while also push some characters like Comicbook/HarleyQuinn who was getting a lot popularity and attention due to her introduction in the ''DCEU'' movies. The hasty rewrite of the story including a very notable change in direction mid-story ended up with a lot of {{Aborted Arc}}s, inconsistent characterization and the [[TookALevelInJerkass character assassination]] of Wally West ''a.k.a.'' The Flash III (a character that editor [=Dan DiDio=] has always hated) who is revealed as responsible for the tragedy that killed multiple C-list heroes (including Red Arrow) and framed Booster Gold and Harley Quinn for inconsistent reasons just to have Justice League hunt them. This event ended up screwing with the plans of some writers who tried to do as much damage control as possible and spent most of the ''Rebirth Era'' of ''DC Comics'' trying to redeem Wally West. While writer Tom King would constantly claim that he had the story planned during and shortly after the event ended, he would later admit that the editors wanted the murder mystery, were heavily pushing for Harley Quinn in a main role and that he was encouraged (not forced) to use Wally West as the main antagonists of the story.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes:'' Despite being set in the 30th century, the Legion during the Silver Age featured many aliens but no black characters, be they humans or HumanAliens. Both Creator/JimShooter and Creator/MikeGrell tried many times to introduce black characters, but were always shot down by then-editor Murray Boltinoff, who planned to explain this in a future storyline. That explanation came in ''Superboy #216'', which revealed that all black people on earth had rejected living alongside whites and moved to the isolationist colony of Marzal; their leader, Tyroc, especially despised the Legion and encouraged his people to hate them, but when the Legion proved themselves, he saw how wrong he was and joined up with them. Shooter and Grell absolutely despised the idea, describing the storyline as the most racist concept they'd ever heard. Grell especially hated Tyroc's portrayal as a stereotypical AngryBlackMan with "the world's stupidest super-power", so deliberately put him in the most ridiculous costume he could think of as a small bit of revenge.

* Creator/MarkMillar and DC butted heads during his run on ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' as DC kept insisting and editing or changing things to tone down what he wanted to do, reaching its nadir during the "Brave New World" arc, which was sidetracked with the "Transfer of Power" -- and when Millar got the book back, it was after 9/11, so DC now had grounds to force these changes. That said, a lot of the problems are the result of Millar himself as he wasn't easy to work with and a lot of the stuff he wanted to do were arguably tasteless including the Colonel, an analogue of the late Jenny Sparks, engaging in necrophilia with her corpse and the brainwashed and turned into a SexSlave Swift having her mouth used as an ashtray and lick plates clean in a sexual manner.[[note]]There's also the fact he wanted to clearly show UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush as part of the coalition to take out the Authority, but this definitely would've been tasteless post 9/11; while Millar had Magneto humiliate Bush in a degrading manner in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'', that was also ''before'' 9/11 happened[[/note]]

** Superboy-Prime, one of the main antagonists of Infinite Crisis and the later ''Sinestro Corps War'' arc of the Green Lantern books, was a Clark Kent from a parallel world, but was affected as well. During the Green Lantern event, he was explicitly referred to as Super'''man'''-Prime and did not wear the traditional blue and red uniform he had previously. Following this, he became an antagonist during the '''heavily''' executively mandated yearly comic, ''Countdown to Final Crisis'', where he was aged up to adulthood to match his mandated adult name. During this time, DC ruled to legally own Superboy, so during ''Final Crisis: ComicBook/LegionOfThreeWorlds'', Superman-Prime was again de-aged and referred to as Super'''boy'''-Prime, and came into blows with a resurrected Conner Kent, who was also referred to as Superboy.

** ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} was very almost killed off because Editor-in-Chief Creator/DanDiDio wanted a big character death [[Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths similar to Supergirl and the Flash]] to send shockwaves for the DCU in the aftermath. This led to a WriterRevolt as most of the staff, Geoff Johns included, refused to do so.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}'':
** Despite still selling reasonably well 70 issues in, editorial cancelled [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]]'s book with the justification of "we're launching a new Hawkgirl title and we don't want too many female-led books" and ordered the writers to make her pull a FaceHeelTurn. The turn was eventually reverted due to fan backlash.
** Creator/GailSimone confirmed that her "Death of Oracle" storyline in ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' was supposed to lead to Cassandra adopting a new identity and joining the team (partly to offset complaints about the MonochromeCasting in the series). She claims she even began writing Cass' debut issue before being told that Cassandra's return would instead be handled in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''[[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman Inc.]]'' title.
** Writer Creator/ScottSnyder mentioned that Cassandra was present in his script for the first issue of the ''Comicbook/{{New 52}}'' ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' title, but at the last minute his editors forced him to write her out since canonically, she was still supposed to be living in UsefulNotes/HongKong. He was also barred from using Cassandra and [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl2009}} Stephanie Brown]] in his ''Night of Owls'' BatFamilyCrossover, making them very notable absentees in an event that involved every Bat-book being published at the time except Batwoman. Eventually, editorial decided that ''neither'' Stephanie '''or''' Cassandra existed in universe at all despite the Bat-History being one of the relatively untouched parts of DC at the time, however they'd later be introduced in ''Comicbook/BatmanEternal'' and ''Comicbook/BatmanAndRobinEternal'' respectively years later.
** In [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl2009}} Bryan Q. Miller's]] Series/{{Smallville}} Season 11, previews indicated that Stephanie Brown would show up as Batman's partner Nightwing. Miller also gave an interview to ''TV Guide'' talking about Stephanie's appearance in the comic. Editorial intervened and had it changed to Barbara Gordon.

* ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'': The story was created to fill in a time gap. Clark and Lois got engaged in 1991 so 1992's big event was to be their marriage but by that point, but ''Series/LoisAndClark'' was in development and they wanted the couple to get married at the same time in the TV show and the comics. Now struggling to fill the gap in their storyline, one of the writers, as was often the case during story speculation, joked, "Why don't we just kill him?" -- he was taken seriously, and the rest is history.

* ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'': Creator/PeterDavid was restricted with what he would do with Tim Drake (who was ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}} at the time) during the mid-'90s to early 2000s because the [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bat-family comics]] editors had the final say on how ''Batman''-related characters were used. One of the restrictions put on him was that Robin couldn't be seen in public, as the Bat-family was supposed to be considered an urban legend InUniverse. He [[BitingTheHandHumor mostly parodied the whole idea]], with Robin hiding in the shadows even in broad daylight and characters saying things like "we know it's you, Tim."

* Gail Simone was fired from ''Comicbook/Batgirl2011'' on two separate occasions. The first time, it was because refused to write the crossover issues for ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'', with DC eventually bringing her back after massive fan backlash. The second time, it was because a new editor was tired of the TrueArtIsAngsty angle going on. Which ''wasn't even her idea'', but the result of ''previous'' executive meddling; she's gone on record that the new creative team's LighterAndSofter approach is the book she ''wanted'' to write.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'': During the 2000's lawsuit between DC and the Shuster Family over rights to Superman, a legal tactic used by the opposition brought up the possibility that DC did not own the right to the concept of Superboy they way they did with Super'''man'''. Realizing this, DC had a mandatory edict that the Superboy concept, or even name, could not be used to avoid further legal issues. This meant that:
** After Infinite Crisis, despite the fact that many of Superman's Silver Age aspects were made canon again, they could not reference any Superboy related adventures. After several years, this became relaxed, and Geoff Johns was allowed to reintroduce the original Legion (that Superboy had adventures with), and even subtly declare Superboy canon with ''Superman: Secret Origin".

* At a convention in 2019, legendary creator George Perez admitted that he was extremely unhappy during his brief stint on the Comicbook/{{New 52}} ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' series, as his scripts were often rewritten without consulting him. He went so far as to say that the incident was the first time in his long career that he simply stopped caring about his assignment.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes:'' Despite being set in the 30th century, the Legion during the Silver Age featured many aliens but no black characters, be they humans or HumanAliens. Both Creator/JimShooter and Creator/MikeGrell tried many times to introduce black characters, but were always shot down by then-editor Murray Boltinoff, who planned to explain this in a future storyline. That explanation came in ''Superboy #216'', which revealed that all black people on earth had rejected living alongside whites and moved to the isolationist colony of Marzal; their leader, Tyroc, especially despised the Legion and encouraged his people to hate them, but when the Legion proved themselves, he saw how wrong he was and joined up with them. Shooter and Grell absolutely despised the idea, describing the storyline as the most racist concept they'd ever heard. Grell especially hated Tyroc's portrayal as a stereotypical AngryBlackMan with "the world's stupidest super-power", so deliberately put him in the most ridiculous costume he could think of as a small bit of revenge.

** According to Tom King, his ''ComicBook/BatmanRebirth'' storyline was meddled in by Creator/DanDiDio, who heavily pushed for other, more darker events. For instance, Nightwing was shot in the head by the K.G.Beast and was meant to have been healed instantly by Zatanna. Instead, [=DiDio=] demanded that Dick be altered by it, thus kicking off two years of the much maligned "Ric Grayson" storyline. As well, [[spoiler:Alfred's death]] was supposed to have been a Scarecrow Fear Gas attack, but was forced to be changed to be real.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes:'' Despite being set in the 30th century, the Legion during the Silver Age featured many aliens but no black characters, be they humans or HumanAliens. Both Creator/JimShooter and Creator/MikeGrell tried many times to introduce black characters, but were always shot down by then-editor Murray Boltinoff, who planned to explain this in a future storyline. That explanation came in ''Superboy #216'', which revealed that all black people on earth had rejected living alongside whites and moved to the isolationist colony of Marzal; their leader, Tyroc, especially despised the Legion and encouraged his people to hate them, but when the Legion proved themselves, he saw how wrong he was and joined up with them. Shooter and Grell absolutely despised the idea, describing the storyline as the most racist concept they'd ever heard. Grell especially hated Tyroc's portrayal as a stereotypical AngryBlackMan with "the world's stupidest super-power," so deliberately put him in the most ridiculous costume he could think of as a small bit of revenge.

** Superboy-Prime, one of the main antagonists of Infinite Crisis and the later ''Sinestro Corps War'' arc of the Green Lantern books, was a Clark Kent from a parallel world, but was affected as well. During the Green Lantern event, he was explicitly referred to as Super'''man'''-Prime and did not wear the traditional blue and red uniform he had previously. Following this, he became an antagonist during the '''heavily''' executively mandated yearly comic, ''Countdown to Final Crisis'', where he was aged up to adulthood to match his mandated adult name. During this time, DC ruled to legally own Superboy, so during ''Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds'', Superman-Prime was again de-aged and referred to as Super'''boy'''-Prime, and came into blows with a resurrected Conner Kent, who was also referred to as Superboy.

** In [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl2009}} Bryan Q. Miller's]] Series/{{Smallville}} Season 11, previews indicated that Stephanie Brown would show up as Batman's partner Nightwing. Miller even gave an interview to ''TV Guide'' talking about Stephanie's appearance in the comic. Editorial intervened and had it changed to Barbara Gordon.

* The critically-panned event ''Comicbook/HeroesInCrisis'', written by Creator/TomKing, was the result of this with the original idea being more about the hero community reacting and coping with a tragedy with emphasis put on the characters going to therapy. However, while the editors liked the idea, they also wanted a murder mystery and get rid of some CListFodder characters while also push some characters like Comicbook/HarleyQuinn who was getting a lot popularity and attention due to her introduction in the ''DCEU'' movies. The hasty rewrite of the story including a very notable change in direction mid-story ended up with a lot of {{Aborted Arc}}s, inconsistent characterization and the [[TookALevelInJerkass character assassination]] of [[spoiler:Wally West ''a.k.a'' The Flash II]] (a character that editor [=Dan DiDio=] has always hated) who is revealed as responsible for the tragedy that killed multiple C-list heroes (including Red Arrow) and framed Booster Gold and Harley Quinn for inconsistent reasons just to have Justice League hunt them. This event ended up screwing with the plans of some writers who tried to do as much damage control as possible and spent most of the ''Rebirth Era'' of ''DC Comics'' trying to redeem [[spoiler:Wally West]]. While writer Tom King would constantly claim that he had the story planned during and shortly after the event ended, he would later admit that the editors wanted the murder mystery, were heavily pushing for Harley Quinn in a main role and that he was encouraged (not forced) to use [[spoiler:Wally West]] as the main antagonists of the story.

** And ''Countdown'' was part of the meddling in Creator/GrantMorrison[='=]s plans for ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' - they wanted the ComicBook/NewGods to be completely absent from the DC Universe, so that their return in the book they were supposed to die in would be more impactful. DC's response? Put them ''everywhere'', not only in the aforementioned ''Countdown'', but even creating an entirely separate ''Death of the New Gods'' series, to the point that when Morrison did start writing ''Final Crisis'', he ultimately opted to just ignore everything that happened in both of those books.

** From 1995-98, writer Doug Moench and artist Kelley Jones, who were in charge of the main Batman title, were allowed to pretty much ignore the rest of the Bat books and tell their own stories for their first three years of their run. However, on their fourth and last year on the book, editorial demanded that they tied the book with the other bat-titles. Jones [[http://www.gothamwdeszczu.com.pl/en/2013/05/17/interview-kellley-jones/ revealed]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLd6NHwF7N4&t=6159s interviews]] that this caused several cases of AbortedArc, including one they had been building up to for the last three years about a puppeter holding a Batman puppet appearing in the background during multiple issues being introduced as someone who knew Bruce's identity, was capable of manipulating both him and Batman and has been prepearing to confront Bats on his own terms.

* Gail Simone was fired from ''Comicbook/Batgirl2011'' on two separate occasions. The first time, it was because refused to write the crossover issues for ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'', with DC eventually bringing her back after massive fanback backlash. The second time, it was because a new editor was tired of the TrueArtIsAngsty angle going on. Which ''wasn't even her idea'', but the result of ''previous'' executive meddling; she's gone on record that the new creative team's LighterAndSofter approach is the book she ''wanted'' to write.

** Superboy-Prime, one of the main antagonists of Infinite Crisis and the later ''Sinestro Corps War'' arc of the Green Lantern books, was a Clark Kent from a parallel world, but was affected as well. During the Green Lantern event, he was explicitly referred to as Super'''man'''-Prime and did not wear the traditional blue and red uniform he had previously. Following this, he became an antagonist during the '''heavily''' executively mandated yearly comic, ''Countdown to Final Crisis'', where he was aged up to adulthood to match his mandated adult name. During this time, DC ruled to legally own Superboy, so during ''Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds'', Superman-Prime was again deaged and referred to as Super'''boy'''-Prime, and came into blows with a resurrected Conner Kent, who was also referred to as Superboy.