Diane Nelson is not faster than a speeding bullet. She’s not more powerful than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. She is not a bird, or a plane or Superman. She’s better. She is his boss.

Nelson, who graduated from Syracuse University in 1989, was recently named the president of DC Entertainment, a re-done version of the popular comic book company, DC Comics, which publishes iconic superheroes like Superman, Batman and the Flash.

‘She now has now got to have one of the coolest business cards,’ said Robert Thompson, SU professor and Director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. ‘That is one cool job.’

DC Comics, as well as DC Entertainment, is under the ownership of Warner Bros. Entertainment, and this is the first step toward building a creative bridge between the two companies. Nelson’s job will be taking the comic book properties and finding new ways to market and distribute film, television or DVDs across the globe.

Nelson was handed the torch by former DC Comics president and publisher, Paul Levitz, who has been with the company since the 1970s. Levitz will step down to become a contributing editor for DC Comics and a consultant for DC Entertainment.

Now with the keys to DC’s kingdom, Nelson has an entire universe of comic book characters to play with. While Nelson said she can’t reveal which characters DC Entertainment plans on working with first, she did say that they are looking at the entire DC library, from world-renowned characters, such as Superman, to properties that have remained on the outskirts of American popular culture.

Therein lies a challenge for Nelson’s new job at DC. While Hollywood has recently caught on to the fact that popular comic book heroes like Batman and Superman lead to lucrative blockbuster franchises, there are many lesser-known characters within the realms of DC Comics that might have a harder time receiving pop culture’s embrace.

‘It all boils down to if the TV shows and the movies will be good,’ Thompson said. ‘Culturally, there’s an appetite for these types of characters. They’re valuable cultural properties.’

This won’t be the first time Nelson works to craft a cult following into world-famous entertainment. Nelson had previously worked on the Harry Potter franchise at Warner Bros. ‘I’m the biggest cheerleader for the studio,’ Nelson said.

In a school that is popularized for alumni within broadcast journalism, Nelson, a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, breaks the trend.

‘Is it typical? Probably not,’ Nelson said. ‘Don’t rule anything out, don’t make long-term plans and find the most interesting job.’

For SU students who wish to achieve a career that is unconventional, yet undeniably sought after, all it takes is hard work and determination.

‘Anyone with a college degree and works really hard has the potential to do a job like that,’ said Kirsten Egerstrom, a philosophy graduate student.

Nelson herself was able to provide some insight. ‘I never imagined this job. When you find the most interesting job, give it 150 percent. Open doors not just up, but also sideways.’

While comic books have usually been within the shadows of popular culture, Nelson’s new job will soon be changing that. With a greater light shed on the population of characters who occupy the DC Universe, it might appear that comic books will continue their upswing into the collective conscious of American society

‘In general, comics are huge now,’ said Stephen Fox, a junior public relations major,

‘There’s a lot of movies based on comic books, and I think that’s why people are getting into them.’

ansteinbe@syr.edu

Published on September 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm